Spiritual Gifts part 105. We need to be trained on the Potter's wheel to obey the good conscience

Pastor-Teacher

John Farley

Wednesday,

April 6, 2011

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.

You “keep”  a good conscience by (1) feeding the proper information to your soul –Bible doctrine, and then by (2) obeying the conscience with your lifestyle – what you think, say, and do.

 

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.

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.
Everyone has some kind of system of norms and standards.

The conscience is that soul faculty by which one distinguishes between right and wrong, and urges the individual to do what he recognizes to be right and to restrain him from doing that which he recognizes to be wrong.

It is no coincidence that we have a lot of commands in the New Testament epistles that start off  with “Do NOT…”

Rom 12:2  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Eph 5:18 And  do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

1Th 5:19-20 Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances.

The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life and requires a supernatural means of execution.

Gal 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.