Spiritual Gifts part 77. The importance of balance in our spiritual life.

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Sunday,
January 23, 2011

Spiritual Gifts Part 76: The importance of balance in our spiritual life.

The Doctrine of Adoption

The restoration of nature itself hinges on the fact that you and other believers have been adopted by God and have been placed as His adult sons and daughters.

GEN 3:17
Cursed is the ground because of you;

The groaning in this verse is not so much the groaning of pain, but rather more the groaning of anticipation!

God the Father has provided a down payment as proof of the certainty of our future inheritance, and that proof comes in the form of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The future glory of creation is keyed to the consummation of our adoption as adult sons and daughters.

The believer in time lives in this tension between the “already” and the “not yet”; 1JO 3:2-3.

We are already truly adopted into God’s family, with all the benefits and privileges that come with it, and yet not yet recipients of the inheritance.

The Holy Spirit, who is the first fruits of the glory that awaits us, is the one who brings together the whole design of adoption.

The Spirit joins the two sides of the “already-not yet” tension. He provides the poise and stability that we need.

This means that we have to have a healthy balance in our spiritual life.

Mankind’s great enemy is a thought called arrogance.
Arrogance can inflate or deflate man’s opinion of himself. He thinks he is better or worse than he actually is.

GAL 6:3
For if anyone thinks he is something [arrogance] when he is nothing, he deceives himself .

ROM 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

The only way to keep our balance is to submit to the leadership of God the Holy Spirit and the authority of the Word of God.

The pattern of right thinking is the humanity of Jesus Christ, who constantly lived and functioned inside the PPOG for His life, PHI 2:5.

Our Lord’s mental attitude of humility was manifested by His total conformity and obedience to the plan of God the Father.

Humility, which is obedience to divine authority and orientation to God’s grace, should be the attitude of every member of the royal family of God.