LIFE IN THE SPIRIT - Why Christianity Is Not A Mere Religion

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE
It has been said that the thing which makes Christianity unique in comparison with other faiths is that it is a relationship rather than a religion. This is at least true. It is indeed a relationship between the redeemed and the Redeemer. But its beauty goes still deeper. This depth is wrought by the Holy Spirit in, on, through and around the redeemed. His redeeming work of captivating, convicting, converting, transforming, and commissioning the ransomed-redeemed of the Lord begins before it is too late. The Holy Spirit Himself, who (along with the Father and Son) uniquely possesses omnipresence, is mysteriously able to draw alongside an individual rebel and patiently woo their rebellious heart away from religion toward a relationship with the Jesus – and then take them deeper into the beauty of Christ. 

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
John 14:26

When this wooing was felt by C.S. Lewis in the Trinity Semester of 1931, he described himself as, “The most dejected, reluctant convert in all England!” However, not everyone experiences such a spiritual conquering. F.W. Boreham for example, was raised in a church-going family, but had not experienced the Holy Spirit’s redeeming transformation until around 1890. Like Lewis, he came to the realisation that his religious efforts were grossly inadequate to qualify his soul for acceptance by God. He turned to the Saviour, was baptised, then received the laying-on-of-hands with the prayerful injunction to receive the Holy Spirit. F.W. Boreham suddenly experienced an infilling with the Holy Spirit which he said resulted in his inability to feel the ground beneath his feet for the next week or two! It appears that he was baptised with the Holy Spirit subsequent to his conversion to Christ. He, of course, is not the only one who has experienced the promised baptism with the Holy Spirit subsequent to their conversion from rebellion to redemption. Millions of the Christ-redeemed have then also experienced an overwhelming of spiritual awareness and presence which has opened them up to a realm of supernatural gifts, phenomena, and intimacy with Christ. This has then introduced these followers of Christ to a deeper, richer, closer, sweeter walk with their Lord. Have you experienced this in your relationship with Jesus?

¶ “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
John 15:26

NEW LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

The Spirit’s work of conversion in the rebel begins with conviction of sin (John 16:8). A lingering sense of guilt and shame is a sure sign that the Holy Spirit is active in a soul. By His persistent grace He woos and drives the rebel to accept God’s gracious offer of forgiveness, soul-cleansing, and adoption. Upon acceptance of God’s love and grace, the Holy Spirit converts the rebel into a born-again follower of Christ.

Conversion.

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
John 3:5

Too many people have been lulled – nay, duped – by certain socialising pressures (perhaps family upbringing and church tradition) into thinking that Christianity is merely about behaving like a Christian – attending church, owning a Bible, giving to charity. But unless a person has experienced the inner work of conversion by the Holy Spirit, they are not yet a Christian. It is at this point that the converted rebel realises that Christ substituted Himself for them and bore their penalty of their divine rebellion. Have you been born-again by the Holy Spirit?

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:11

TRANSFORMED BY THE SPIRIT

‘Sanctification’ means to make holy, separate from the ordinary. The work of the Holy Spirit does not cease upon the conversion of the rebel into the redeemed. Although, in the eyes of God, the redeemed rebel is perfectly sanctified upon their conversion, there is still an earthly process of sanctification. This process puts to death those rebel-qualities of self-centredness and brings to life those Christlike traits of service to others. 

Sanctification.

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Romans 6:19, 22

The external fruit of sanctification is seen in how we speak, use our time, money and talent, relate to others, and is rooted in the innerwork of the Holy Spirit transforming the rebel into the redeemed. How has the Holy Spirit sanctified you since your conversion?

EMPOWERED IN THE SPIRIT

After Christ had atoned for sin, He breathed on His disciples and commanded them to receive the Holy Spirit (Jn. 20:22) and then told them to wait for this Promised infilling with the Spirit (Acts 1:4). When the Promised baptism with the Holy Spirit began on the Day of Pentecost, the believers began to prophesy and/or speak in tongues (Acts 2:6). The Apostle Paul would later write that speaking and praying in tongues served different purposes. Speaking in tongues, with associated gift of interpretation, was equivalent to prophecy (1Cor. 14:3), whereas praying in tongues required no interpretation because it was speaking to God (not people) (1Cor. 14:2). The Apostle also revealed that tongues (unlearned languages) could be a language of men or a language of angels (1Cor. 13:1). When speaking to God in tongues, this form of praying is able to edify the believer (1Cor. 14:4) and build them up. One of the nine mentioned gifts of the Holy Spirit is also a type of tongues. It appears that this type of tongue is the aforementioned equivalent to prophesying. 

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke 11:13

The Baptism With The Holy Spirit.

Jesus said that He would send the Holy Spirit to comfort, counsel, guide, strengthen, and empower. He said that when His followers would be baptised with the Holy Spirit, they would be empowered to witness about and proclaim Christ and His Gospel. We see on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), that the previously timid, awkward, inarticulate, Apostle Peter was transformed into a bold, courageous, passionate, persuasive and articulate herald of the Gospel of Christ’s Kingdom (Acts 2:14). 

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:4

In closing his ‘second’ epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul sketches the believer’s interaction with each member of the Godhead, and he shines a warm light on the role that the redeemed can enjoy with the Holy Spirit-

¶ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Second Corinthians 13:14

Our fellowship with the Holy Spirit distinguishes Christianity from mere religion. The redeemed’ fellowship with the Holy Spirit is what makes Christianity a living, vibrant, relationship with Christ. It involves the illumination of God’s Word, the reception of God’s voice in the hearts of the redeemed, the leading of the Spirit into wise choices, supernatural empowering to speak and bear witness to Christ’s Lordship, and a continual sense of God’s loving overshadowing presence. 

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

Don’t treat your Christianity as a mere religion. Instead, let us realise what it actually is – the Spirit-filled life! Let us grow in our life in the Holy Spirit, and continue to go deeper and sweeter with Christ in our knowledge, character and choices.

Ps. Andrew Corbett

Led By The Spirit

I remember shortly after I was converted to Christianity that I was amazed to read the teaching of Christ in the Gospel of John about the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke of the Spirit leading, guiding, filling and teaching His followers. My amazement grew as I read the account of the Church's birth and growth in The Acts of The Apostles (which some scholars refer to as The Acts of the Holy Spirit). Jesus made the staggering claim that His followers would be better off without His physical presence because they could then experience the gift of the Holy Spirit. Wow!

After I discovered this, I began praying and seeking what Jesus offered. I had had a born-again experience, but what I read Jesus teaching seemed to be supplementary to this. It wasn't long before I did indeed experience a new dimension of the Holy Spirit's presence in my life. I knew that when I committed my life to Christ and received God's gift of saving faith that this was made available to me by the Holy Spirit. Salvation is only possible when the Holy Spirit enters a person's heart. But there is a life in the Spirit that is punctuated by a spiritual upgrade where we begin by humbly openning ourselves up to a fresh experience with God's Spirit. I believe this is revealed in the Feasts of Israel mentioned in Leviticus 23. 

After the Feast of Passover (which foreshadowed our salvation due to the death of Christ) came the Feast of Pentecost (which was the namesake of the history making event recorded in Acts 2). You'll notice that each of the Feasts ("festivals") dramatically forecasted the progression from the Old Covenant to the fullness of the New Covenant in sequential order.

After my experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, I found that the Bible came alive. As a teenager I would read between 10 and 20 chapters of the Bible a day. My hunger for God's Word increased dramatically. I began to devouring teaching tapes from the world's best preachers. I read books and books and books. And I found a growing desire to pray - to talk with God. I began praying spontaneously. I prayed for seemingly trivial things. I read the biography of Dawson Trotman (the founder of the Navigators, a disciple-making organisation set up to help Billy Graham to follow-up new Christians). There was one comment in this book that changed my life. The book described the short life of Dawson up until his conversion to Christ and through to the period of him setting up Navigators and ending abruptly when he died 'prematurely' saving a drowning person. The book contained a record of Dawson Trotman's deepest regret just before he died. "I didn't pray for enough! I didn't pray for enough!" he lamented.

Dawson Trotman had prayed for many things. Many of these outlandish prayers were either witnessed or journaled. He would get a large map and lay his hands over nations and pray for them. He would pray for God to change that nation and then made himself available for God to use him in answer to these prayers. Before he died, Dawson had experienced amazing answers to his 20 year old prayers. So amazing were these answers that he began to realise that if he had only asked for more in prayer, God probably would have answered those prayers as well! Just before he died he marvelled that prayers he had been praying for 20 to 30 years had eventually been divinely granted. Thus, his deep regret that he hadn't prayer for enough.

After I read this, I began to pray for more. I discovered that there are some prayers that God will always answer-

Dear God, change my life however You want...
Lord Jesus, have Your way in my life...
Oh God, help me to live for You...
Lord, speak to me and help me to yield to You...
Holy God, bring people into my life who will help me to grow into Christ's image...
Oh God, speak through me and don't even let me know You're doing it...

After I learned to pray in this fashion, I began to sense more clearly the Spirit's leading. I continue to learn what it means to be led by the Spirit. In recent times I have experienced answers to these prayers that has increased my realisation of being led by the Spirit. The other week I was in Los Angeles and was driving to meet some seriously smart Christian scholars at Reasons To Believe. On the way there I was praying for God's guidance. I began to feel that I needed to film an interview with these guys. Then I felt that I needed to do this creatively. Then I weird idea popped into my head. I got there and shared the idea with these guys and they ran with it. After I had completed the filming, one of the admin staff made the comment that this was amazing timing because the one I had particularly honoured was not usually the focus of their ministry and that it was his birthday next week. When I completed the project I sent it to him as a birthday present. He was rapt!

Just this week I felt to ring my brother just before we left for our holidays. I spoke with him at length and encouraged him that God was working in his life. The next day, after we had started our vacation, he sent me a text saying that he had just been sacked. I was able to remind him again that God was working in his life. That same day I felt to pray urgently for someone in our church about 5AM. I did so. Then about an hour after that I received a text from this person asking for prayer.

The more I read God's Word, the more I want to fuel being led by His Spirit and to discover more about what it means to be led by Spirit. Are you reading His Word every day? Are you being led by His Spirit? Do you take all your concerns to Him in prayer- even the trivial ones?

People led by the Holy Spirit... 1. Learn the language of the Spirit through reading the Bible 2. Pray for God to have His way in their lives 3. Are prepared to act on godly promptings. 4. Bring to God even their trivial requests, heart-aches, or thanksgivings. 5. Regard guilt not as condemnation but as the gift of conviction and a message from the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

When I read First Corinthians 12 and 14, I read of an early Church that was led by the Spirit. When I read the Book of Acts, I read of apostolic leaders who were led by the Spirit. I want our church to be led by the Spirit. I hope that we each deepen our knowledge of the Scriptures and thus learn the language of the Spirit. I hope that we increasingly open ourselves to the Spirit and exercise the gifts of the Spirit- but most importantly, that we will bear the fruit of the Spirit as we are led by the Spirit. This will be test of the claim that we are genuinely Spirit-led.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Father, help us to be led by Your Spirit. Prompt us to pray. Cause people to come into lives who will stretch us, challenge us, correct us and encourage us. Increase our hunger for Your Word. Help us to hear You and please You. In Jesus' Name,

Amen