Spiritual Gifts part 103. God seeks to install His concepts in your conscience
Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Thursday,
March 31, 2011
We will celebrate the Lord’s supper this Sunday, April 3, 2011
Spiritual Gifts Part 103: God seeks to install His concepts in your conscience.
The Doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
C. The Baptism of the Spirit is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in placing every new believer into permanent union with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Body the Church.
Point 4. Definition and description of the Baptism of the Spirit.
10. The baptism of the Spirit could not occur until there was the strategic victory of Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict.
Now there was the need for a universal priesthood, since every believer was now a target of satan, 1Pe 3:21.
Peter points to the baptism of the Spirit as the thing that protects our conscience against the attacks from the
kingdom of darkness in the form of persecution and accusations.
This letter of first Peter is about how to handle suffering as a Christian, particularly with respect to living in your ambassadorship and the persecution which follows.
The conscience here relates to the soul condition of the believer after salvation when undergoing unjust treatment.
συνείδησις suneidesis coperception, i.e. moral consciousness: This word literally means a “seeing together” or “knowing with”.
Awareness of information about something, hence consciousness. The inward faculty of distinguishing right and wrong. [BDAG]
That process of thought which distinguishes what it considers morally good or bad, commending the good, condemning the bad, and so prompting to do the former and avoid the latter. [Vine]
A co-knowledge (with oneself), the witness borne to one’s conduct by conscience, that faculty by which we apprehend the will of God, as that which is designed to govern our lives. [Vine]
The real person is located in the soul.
Gen 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;”
As God’s essence is made up of invisible and immaterial reality, so too your real being is immaterial and invisible.
For believers, the battle is between the old sin nature and the Holy Spirit, each seeking to dominate the soul, Rom 8:6, Gal 5:17.
The soul must be distinguished from the human spirit, 1Th 5:23.
1 Thess 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Only the soul, not the body, is redeemed at the moment of regeneration, 1Pe 1:9.
1. Self-consciousness: this means you are aware of your own existence.
2. Mentality: This is the thinking part of man and is composed of two parts:
a. The mind or the “left lobe” of the soul. The Greek word is nous.
b. The heart or the “right lobe” of the soul. This is called kardia in the Greek.
Pro 23:7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, "Eat and drink!" But his heart is not with you.
1Sa 16:7b “for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
3. Volition: the decision-maker of the soul. This is also known as the free will.
4. Emotion: this is the appreciator of the soul. Emotion responds or reacts to whatever thoughts are in the soul.
5. Conscience. This is the evaluator of the soul. It contains our norms and standards.
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