Way of the Spirit vs Way of the Written Code

The past two years, the Lord has taken me on a journey to discover more of who the Holy Spirit is and the role that He plays in my life.  I'm sure I will be diving into more of the revelation that He has shown me in later blog posts, but one of the questions I had at the beginning of my journey was "What does it mean to be led by the Spirit?"  I have learned that is a loaded question and I am daily learning what that means but I hope to share with you one of the revelations the Holy Spirit has recently taught me through books, messages, and time spent with Him.  

We live in a war zone and every day we face many battles.  There is conflict in our homes, our jobs, relationships, etc .  James says that the source of it all is our passions that are at war within us (James 4:1).

So how do we overcome this sinful flesh? Paul exhorts us in Galatians to "walk by the Spirit and you WILL NOT gratify the desires of the flesh (5:16)."  In Romans 7:6, Paul describes two different approaches to walking before God, in "the new way of the SPIRIT..." or the "old way of the WRITTEN CODE."  That is still our choice today.  Either we will walk by the Spirit, or live by the written code.  We cannot do both.  The Spirit only works where there is no law, so he will not tolerate even a hint of mixture.   

The deepest longing of God is to have intimacy with you.   You were created for his own pleasure.  This is His passion and His desire from the beginning of time.  What does it mean to be "one" with God?  How do we enjoy relationship with Him?  I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to consume every part of us.

In Acts 10, we read about the conversion of the first gentile household.  Peter was sent to preach the gospel to them and while he was preaching, the Lord chose to move in power.  "While Peter was still saying things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word (10:44)."  The greek word for "fell" in this verse is "epipito."  The Strongs Concordance says it means "to take possession of."  This language is very similar to the language that we associate with demonic possession.  In the book of Acts, this word is used three times to describe the Spirits baptism.  

Paul uses similar language in the New Testament.  We are called to pray in the Spirit (Eph 6:18), to be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), intercede in the Spirit (Romans 8:26), and to walk by the Spirit (Gal 5:16).  

Apart from the Spirit, we are truly incapable of drawing near to him.  He has graciously given us the opportunity to freely submit our hearts and minds to him.  Unlike demonic possession, we have the free will to choose.  When we do this, the Holy Spirit gently takes control.  "the mind CONTROLLED by the Spirit is life and peace" Romans 8:6.

Another example of this truth is in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewal of your mind."  The greek word for "transformed" in this verse is the same word used to describe Jesus glorification on the Mount of Transfiguration.  So another way to put it is to be "transfigured by the renewal of your mind."

This is what it means to walk in intimacy with our Creator.  To allow His Spirit to control or possess every aspect of our being. 

This is a challenging concept because we want to maintain control of our lives.  We are uncomfortable with giving God everything.  We limit our interaction with the Lord to prayer, worship and bible study.  We want to be able to close our bible's after our quiet times and live our lives how we want.  We like to keep God at a controllable distance.  

Yet Jesus taught us that "God is spirit" and "those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24).  This means we must relate to God as a spirit being.  

As we yield to the spirit, He will inhabit our soul.  Our hearts begin to take on the very character of God himself.  Paul tells us that these traits are "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal 5:22).

This is how we are to grow in godliness.  God has no desire for me to ask him to make me more patient.  What he wanted was for me to live out HIS OWN patience.  The Lord wants us to willingly become channel's through which the very fruit of his nature can be put on display.  "From me comes your fruit." (Hosea 14:6).  Does this make sense?? God wants to live His life THROUGH US.  

He wants to empower us by possessing us with His Spirit so that we might live and minister as we were called.  He has given us supernatural levels of love, joy, patience, self-control and peace.  

A.W. Tozer puts it this way, "The Holy Spirit also wants to possess us Christians.  This Spirit is like Jesus.  Do you want to be possessed by a Spirit that is like Jesus? A Spirit pure, gentle, sane, wise, and loving; for that is exactly what He is like.  The Holy Spirit is pure, for He is the Holy Spirit.  He is wise, for He is the Spirit of Wisdom.  He is true, for He is the Spirit of Truth.  He is like Jesus, for He is the Spirit of Christ.  He is like the Father, for He is the Spirit of the Father.  This Spirit wants to be Lord of your life, and He wants to possess you so that you no longer are in command of the little vessel in which you sail.  You are a passenger on board or one of the crew, but you are definitely not in charge.  Somebody is in charge of the vessel."

So why don't we live this way? For me, I had chosen the Letter over the Spirit.  It's easy to tell ourselves that if we just manage to keep the rules a little better, our walk will be more acceptable to God.  This is the deceptive nature of the Letter.  It has an appearance of godliness but denies the power that brings about real change.  We settle with the excuses like, "I really want to obey God, look how hard I am trying."  Yet we are living like Pharisees.  We have a genuine zeal and passion for God yet we lack the power to break free from the desires of our flesh.  

"If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do not submit to regulations- "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" (referring to things that all perish as they are used)- according to human precepts and teaching? These have indeed an APPEARANCE OF WISDOM in promoting self made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they have NO VALUE in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." Colossians 2:21-23.

The law has NO POWER in stopping the flesh.  We need something more.  We need His Spirit.  "I will put my Spirit within you and CAUSE you to walk in my statutes." Ezek 36:27.  

So lets get radical and believe this.  Lets stop believing that it is up to us to change.  That it's up to our commitment to the spiritual disciplines, or our ability to "just say no".    

Lets die to the law and live to the Spirit (Gal 2:19).  Lets give the Spirit total control in our lives.  Lets choose to walk by the Spirit and not by the old way of the written code.  The Holy Spirit wants to be your best friend.  He wants to manifest His presence in your life.  I have found nothing greater in this life than walking in intimacy and communion with the Holy Spirit. 

"Every believer is as full of the Spirit as we actually want to be." A.W. Tozer

   

Law is valuable

So if sanctification is by grace through faith, then what about all the commands in the new testament?

What is the purpose of the law? Does the law work the same way for a christian as it does for a non christian?

"Through the law comes knowledge of sin." Romans 3:20

"The law was our guardian until Christ came." Galatians 3:24

The law is a sign to lead us to Christ, to lead us to the cross.  I believe that the law works in tandem with the gospel.  The law prepares you for the gospel.  Is the law just the 10 commandments? I think that is what I believed for much of my christian life.  I had also believed that the purpose of the law was only for non christians to lead them to Christ for the first time.  I have been asking the Holy Spirit to teach me and He is showing me that the law is any command.  There is law in both the old testament and the new testament.  There is gospel in the old testament and the new testament.

People in the Old Testament were saved in the same way as they were in the New Testament.  Law did the same thing as it does for us.  They understood that through the blood sacrifice system that sin is not washed away by mans performance but by shedding of blood.

So what does that mean? When I read a command in the New Testament, what is my response?  Typically, my response when I saw problems was to jack myself up, to try to get it together and try harder.  Then I realize that my good works are like filthy rags to him.  He is not impressed when I try harder because I do it in my own strength instead of use that law to lead me to the gospel.

When I read in the law that I should not covet and I am coveting, then I know that I need help.  I know that I need the APPLICATION OF THE GOSPEL, not the application of grit, determination and will power.  I need an experience with God's supernatural mercy to make me what the law could never make me.

Do we really believe that apart from Him we can do nothing? Apart from His Spirit living in us and His power working through us, we can't accomplish anything.  A few weeks ago, I was involved in an outreach to the homeless of Minneapolis.  Typically, when I see a homeless person, I do not have this overwhelming sense of love for them that I believe Jesus would have.  Sure, I can serve them, be nice to them and try to love them, but I do it in my own strength.  The week leading up to this event, my prayer was "Jesus, I can't love these people like you love them.  You tell us to love one another. What we do for the least of these, we do for you.  I acknowledge that in my own strength, I can be nice to them but it is not your love pouring through me.  I need an impartation of your supernatural love.  Let me be an empty vessel that can be used to love these people.  Love them through me."  When we acknowledge that apart from Him, we can do nothing, that is when His power can work mightily through us.  As the day came, and the people walked up, I immediately started crying with tears of compassion and love for these people that I had never met.  I wanted to know everything about them, I would do anything for them.  I can assure you, THAT WAS NOT ME!!  It was the Holy Spirits supernatural love being poured out on these people that He desperately loved and wanted them to come into relationship with Him.
Any command in the New Testament (law), should lead us to the cross as we acknowledge that we need a Savior.  We can't love without Him. We can't serve people without Him. We can't encourage people without Him. We can't pray for people without Him.  Let us truly be lives surrendered down, trusting that the Holy Spirit wants to do the work for us. Yield into Him. Allow Him to work through you.  We need the gospel DAILY!!!
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives His life through me." Galatians 2:20

      

Lord, TEACH ME YOUR GOSPEL!!

The Holy Spirit has recently been showing me that I don’t understand the gospel.  I have lived the majority of my Christian life under the influence of a religious spirit (legalism).  The gospel that I have been preaching and living is a partial gospel, it’s partial good news.  Either God has recently been revealing this to a majority of His global bride, or He is bringing me into contact with people with this exact revelation.  I ran into a preacher who recently deleted over 60 of his messages on His podcast.  It’s not that everything He has preached was wrong, it’s just that he had come to realize that His emphasis was off.

Old emphasis: After we get saved we must work hard and strive to become sanctified so we can experience God.

New emphasis: What God has begun within us by grace, He will complete within us by grace so that we may experience the free gift of union with Him.

MAJOR DIFFERENCE. 

There is absolutely nothing that we can do to earn salvation.  It is by grace alone through faith that we are saved.  I get that.

So now what? Do we have to do anything to become intimate with Christ? Do we have to do anything in our sanctification? Is it by our effort that we become more Christ like? To become spiritually mature? To break free from the power of sin?

“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now BEING PERFECTED BY THE FLESH?” Galatians 3:3

Guilty.  The majority of my Christian life, I have had a works mindset.  I have believed that now that I am a Christian, I have to do something for my spiritual maturity.  I have to read my bible, I have to pray, I have to be in fellowship, I have to renew my mind.  I have come back under the law.

Just like you don’t have to do anything to earn your salvation, you don’t have to do anything for your sanctification (becoming more like Christ).  It is by grace through faith.  You simply need to believe.  

Believe that our righteousness comes from Christ.

It is so easy to believe that we are free from the law but still need our "christian principles" or "christian rules" that are man-made and they set a standard.  The reason we want a standard is so we can measure ourselves and see if we're okay.  That's called righteousness.  We don't get it through measuring ourselves through standards or performing.  It has to come through Christ alone.  

The Holy Spirit is way more committed to your spiritual growth than you are.  Trust that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.  “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and PERFECTOR of your faith.”

“This is the work of God, that you BELIEVE in him whom he has sent.” John 6:29

So this probably raises a lot of questions.  I challenge you to go to the Word.  Go to the letters of Paul, especially Galatians and Romans 5-8.  Read them for yourself, not with everything you’ve heard in mind, just read it.  Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you.     

I will be posting more on this topic the next several days. 

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1  

Now my eyes see you

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would give me a spirit of WISDOM and REVELATION in the knowledge of him, having the EYES OF MY HEART enlightened, that I MAY KNOW what is the HOPE to which he has called me, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards me who believes, according to the working of His great might.

 The past 5 months, I have prayed Ephesians 1:17-19 over my life and over my church hundreds of times. ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE!! Seriously guys.  The Holy Spirit is blowing me away!!!  He is completely reshaping everything that I have ever believed.  I LOVE DIVINE REVELATION!! I love how Job puts it in Job 42:5, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but NOW MY EYE SEES YOU." 

This morning, Brent Knox was talking about how badly we need the Holy Spirit.  We need Him to be our teacher.  We need Him to illuminate truth.  I could not agree more.  I have heard that the "greatest distance is 12 inches, the distance from our head to our heart".  It is easy to understand truth intellectually but how do we get it into our hearts so that it radically changes our lives??  I believe that its by allowing the Holy Spirit to be our teacher.  

So the next few blog posts, I am going to try to communicate what the Holy Spirit has been teaching me the past months.  It has been BLOWING MY MIND!  It has also produced so my JOY in my life.  He's been teaching me that my theology will get messed up if I walk closely to the Holy Spirit.  God will never do anything to violate His book, but He will violate your understanding of His book. 

Gospel

Here is an exert from the book "When God Weeps" by Steven Este. Don't let the gospel ever become familiar. We need to constantly be changed by this story..

"The face of Moses has begged to see- was forbidden to see- was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth's rebellion now twisted around his own brow...

'On your back with you!' One raises a malled to sink in the spike. But the soldier's heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner's wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier's life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do 'all things hold together' (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the soldiers live on- he grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.

As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm- the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless- the nerves perform exquisitely. 'Up you god!' They lift the corss. God is on disply in his underwear and can scarcely breathe.

But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl up on his spotless being- the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father's eye turns brown with rot.

His Father! He must face his Father like this!

From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen teh Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.

'Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped- murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten- fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk- you, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig electrons, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list ever end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp= buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves- relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?'

Of course the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable now takes place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.

The Father watches as his heart's treasure, the mirror-image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah's stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.

'Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!'

But heave stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.

The Trinity has planned it. The Son endured it. The SPirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished."

Grace and Truth

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
1 John 1:14,16-17

We often hear the phrase "full of grace and truth," but rarely stop and realize its implications for our struggles here on earth. Often times, we as humans lean towards one or another as we relate to ourselves or people in our lives. I have had a few conversations with girls about this, trying to figure out its implications for our lives. I have been reading this great book by Dr. Henry Cloud called "Changes that Heal", and I am going to share a few thoughts..

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they had both grace and truth united in one God. When they sinned, they drove a wedge between themselves and God; they lost their grace-filled and truthful relationship with God. Without grace, Adam and Eve felt shame. God saw that Adam and Eve were in a lost state, so he decided to give them direction; he gave them truth in the form of law. The law is a blueprint, or a structure, for people to live by. If offers them guidance, and it sets limits for them. There was a problem, at that time, God gave them truth without grace. Adam and Eve soon realized that they could never measure up. No matter how hard they tried to perform, they would always come up short. Truth without grace is judgment.
Law brings wrath (Romans 4:15)
The law was added so that the trespass might increase (Romans 5:20)
We are held prisoners by the law (Galatians 3:23)
You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:4)
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10)

When we look at what the Bible says about the law, about truth without grace, we see that the law silences us, brings anger, increases sin, arouses sinful passions, brings death, puts us under a curse, holds us prisoner, alienates us from Christ, and judges us harshly. The law without grace destroys us. No one ever grows when they are under the law, for the law puts us into a strictly legal relationship with God: 'I'll love you only if you do what is true or right.' Getting truth before grace, or truth before relationship, brings guilt, anxiety, anger, and a host of other painful emotions.

So what about grace without truth? In the same was that truth (without grace) can be called judgment, grace (without truth) can be named license. The bible writes..
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. (Galatians 5:13)
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness." (Romans 6:15-16)
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do- living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, carousing, and detestable idolatry. (1 Peter 4:3)
He who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame, but whoever heeds correction is honored. (Proverbs 13:18)

Thankfully we have a God who is a God of both grace and truth. The passage in John 1 shows both how people fail and how they are redeemed. Failure comes through the law, and redemption through Jesus. It is only through him that we can realize two ingredients of growth: grace and truth. Grace and truth together reverse the effects of the fall, which were separation from God and others. Grace and truth together invite us out of isolation and into relationship. Grace, when it is combined with truth, invites the true self, the "me" as I really am, warts and all, into relationship. It is one thing to have safety in relationship; it is quite another to be truly known and accepted in relationship.
With grace alone, we are safe from condemnation, but we cannot experience true intimacy. When the one who offers grace also offers truth (truth about who we are, truth about who he or she is, and truth about the world around us), and we respond with our true self, then real intimacy is possible. Real intimacy always come in the company of truth.

A really great example of this is Jesus and the adulterous woman in John 8:3-11. If you don't know the story, you should take a quick look :). Short summary, the Pharisees catch this woman in the act of adultery and drag her out to Jesus in front of a group of people. They think that Jesus would tell them to stone her because that is what the law of Moses commands them to do to such woman. Jesus tells them "If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone." When they heard his answer, they began to slink away, one by one. Soon, Jesus was left alone with the woman and asked her, "Woman, where are they? has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she replied. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
In this one encounter, Jesus shows what it means to know grace and truth in him. He offered this woman grace in the form of forgiveness and acceptance. He said, in effect, that she did not have to die for her sin. She was accepted and did not have to be separated from him. He also showed the power of grace as an agent to end separation from her fellow human begins as well. The Pharisees were no different from her: she was a sinner, and they were sinners. Jesus even invited the Pharisees to commune with her as a member of the human race, an invitation they declined. Grace has the power to bring us together with God and with others, if others will accept it.
But Jesus did not stop with just acceptance. He accepted her with full realization of who she was: an adulteress. He accepted her true self, a woman with sinful desires and actions. He then gives her direction for the future: "Go now and leave your life of sin." These two ingredients together- acceptance and direction- serve to bring the real self into relationship, the only way that healing ever takes place.

So what does this look like in the church, in relationships? In the book, Dr. Cloud told a story about his friend who was a recovering alcoholic. He put it this way..

"When I was in church or with my Christian friends, they would just tell me that drinking was wrong and that I should repent. They didn't know how many times I had tried quitting, how many times I had tried to be a good Christian. When I got into Alcoholics Anonymous, I found that I could be honest about my failures, but more important, I could be honest about my helplessness. When I found out that God and others accepted me in both my drinking and my helplessness to control it, I began to have hope. I could come forth with who I really was and find help. As much as the church preached grace, I never really found acceptance there for my real state. They always expected me to change. In my AA group, not only did they not expect me to change, they told me that, by myself, I could not change! They told me that all I could do was confess who I truly was, an alcoholic, and that God could change me along with their daily support. Finally, I could be honest, and I could find friends. That was totally different, and it changed my life."

This guy found that when he could be himself in relationship with God and others, healing was possible. Problems occur when the real self, the one God created, is hiding from God and others. It also challenges me to pray that God would give me a balance of grace and truth in my life. Grace and truth as the Holy Spirit continues to make me more and more Christlike. Grace and truth as I relate to others and Christ uses me to impact people.

God so loved the world that he gave..

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion- to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified." Isaiah 61:1-3

I got a new job that I'm pretty stoked about!! Freedom for Youth recently hired as the new "house mom" for the girls transitional housing. I will get the opportunity to live with the young women, be a vessel that Christ can use to love and teach them through me.

If you think about it, I ask that you pray for this ministry. Pray in advance that God softens these girls hearts, that they have a willingness to change their lives. The girls will be from 18-22 years old. They will come from a variety of different ways.. whether they are homeless, recommended by a school counsel or youth pastor, from prison, aged out of the foster care program but not ready to live on their own.. ect. I'm sure these girls have been beaten up by the world, they will have experienced things that I haven't even dreamed about, been lied to their entire lives. Pray that God would radically change their lives. Pray that they will understand the truth and that the truth will set them free!

Pray also that my heart and my emotions will be in sync with what Gods heart is like. To break my heart for what break His heart. The heart of God is for sinners, for the broken-hearted, for the outcasts of society. I pray that God would give me his heart for his people. To open my eyes to things that I don't see. To be a vessel that He can mold and shape to be used for his glory. Here I am, Lord, send me!

"For God so loved the world that he gave..." John 3:16

As we continue to grow in our love for Christ, that should be our response to His love. That his love would compel us to give. To give ourselves completely. To who? To the world.

If you want, you can read up on what God is doing through Freedom for Youth.