1Pe 3:16; Gal 5:17; Rom 6:12-23; Psa 51:6-10; Luk 22:19; Jud 7:19-22.
Class Outline:
Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Sunday,
April 10, 2011
Spiritual Gifts Part 107: God desires to break our confidence in the flesh so the life of Jesus may pour through our earthly bodies.
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.
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.
5. Conscience. This is the evaluator of the soul. It contains our 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.
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.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances.
The conscience of a believer that is formed by doctrine, especially the mystery doctrine of the New Testament epistles, is a supercharged conscience!
We must be brought to the point where we are convinced that in our flesh, in our human power, we cannot do it!
The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life and requires a supernatural means of execution.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
It takes the power of God the Holy Spirit (with our positive volition) to convert the do nots (conscience) to will nots (walking =lifestyle=the pattern of our volitional decisions).
When the believer consistently takes in the word of God, and consistently operates according to the leadership and power of God the Holy Spirit rather than the flesh, the Holy Spirit makes changes to that believer’s soul.
for it is God [the Holy Spirit] who is at work in you, both to will [give you motivation] and to work [He gives you the ability to execute] above and beyond His good pleasure.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
No servant can serve two masters.
What power am I operating under? What nature am I living in?
Failure to use the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, divine power, means accepting the cheap substitute of human power.
A perfect plan can only function on perfect power.
The Christian way of life not only demands supernatural power. It also requires a supernatural creation: the new spiritual species.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
The word of God provides the standards for the Christian conscience, and the Holy Spirit provides the supernatural ability to live according to those standards.
We have to be broken of our habit of relying on the flesh, relying on our power and our talents and our strategies and defense mechanisms.
Our confidence in our flesh - our talents, our solutions, our money, our connections, our personality, our family, our cleverness - needs to be broken and ended.
