The Activity of the Spirit in the Church, Part 51

The Activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Church Age believers, part 51.

How does the Spirit work in our lives to manifest these rivers of living water in our lives?

Think of how one seed in the ground becomes a vine, and how that vine produces hundreds of blossoms such that the branches are overloaded with fruit.

That same idea is God’s idea for the church, the fullness He is after in the spiritual realm.

This comes at a great price to the original seed.

He is contrasting our worldly life to the eternal life we as believers in Christ have been given.

The death is momentary and then comes the great harvest - a rebirth , a germination, a life that is indestructible.

Consider what the New Testament has to say about the role of death and life in producing the great harvest.

The life He receives, the life He gives through His death, is greater in scope than the life He gave up.

One seed produces a rich harvest of souls.

Paul wanted to be conformed to Christ’s death so he could live in Christ’s resurrection life, PHI 3:10-11.

Paul laid down an inferior life (Law) to gain a superior life (to God) in GAL 2:19.

Galatians 2:20 is a very very PRACTICAL verse. This is a verse that is desperately needed in today’s American church.

When it comes right down to brass tacks, “I” am the whole problem in this Christian spiritual life.

John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, …

JOH 15:5
…for apart from Me you can do nothing.

1. I have to come to terms with the fact that I am not what I ought to be.

2. When I set out to do those things, I discover that I cannot.

The cross of Jesus Christ gets rid of all that is us in our fallen nature, to leave the field completely to Christ and what is of Christ.

The activity of the Spirit in our lives is simply to get rid of us as to the old creation, and to bring us in full measure into the new creation, which is Christ!

The practical outworking of this fullness of Christ will always be purely and solely on the basis of FAITH.

We cannot provide one thing from ourselves that will contribute to God’s end.

In the new creation, all things are in Christ, and nothing is in ourselves.

The practical upshot of all this is that the life we live now we live by faith in the Son of God.

The wonderful GOOD NEWS is while we have nothing in ourselves, we have everything IN CHRIST!

We shall find that the main obstacle to living in greater fullness in Christ will always be ourselves in some way.