SPIRIT LED

SPIRIT LED 

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." (RV) Rom. 8:9
"It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." 1 Cor. 15:44 "It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power." 1 Cor. 15:43
 The state of a man who has been saved from a condition where the spirit is said to be dead, inactive, motionless, and in hiding towards God, Eph. 2:5
Prior leadership came from the desires of the flesh. Eph 2:3. Eph. 3:10. At salvation the flesh relenquishes control in order to serve the spirit and its leadership from the Holy Spirit Who now indwells the person forever.John 14:16.
 The dead spirit is quickened by the Holy Spirit  Eph. 2:1; Rom. 4:17. The Spirit begins His threefold work of cleansing that we call sanctification. His method is accomplished through the instrumentality of the word using it to reveal, cleanse, as well as transform. Revealing first our sinful condition James 1:23-24; Heb. 4:12-13. It then cleanses us from those sinful ways Eph. 5:26; John 15:3. And then it transforms us into the very image of Christ 2 Cor. 3:18. Virtues grow in the places of vices. Now we are able to live our life like Christ John 5:26; 1 Pet 3:18. We are now made up of the body, soul, quickened spirit as well as the Holy Spirit; a very complex organism at this point.
 At salvation, the spirit now made alive has a limited palette to work with having just been made conscious by the Holy Spirit of sin, righteousness, and judgment John 16:8. Since the spirit was dead this took a supernatural act of God. Immediately, the new convert is instructed to be baptized and that in a certain way Matt 28:19. This brings more information to the palette concerning God and the triune involvement of the whole Godhead in the salvation. Along with baptism the convert is to renew his mind and enrich his spirit by being taught to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded Matt 28:20. This will involve all in the church in order to accomplish this task. No one man separate from Christ can perform this task. Even Christ has chosen to use gifted men of the Spirit to accomplish this 1 Cor. 12. Each Church has been gifted with a variety of gifts as the Spirit wills 1 Cor. 12:11. With the Spirit gifting men all the possible situations that might arise in the local body can be handled not by a board or council but by those that shall judge angels 1 Cor. 6:2-3 as well as the world. The kingdom of men differs greatly from the Kingdom of God especially in the idea concerning leadership Luke 22:24.
 Christ demands worship to be in the spirit and truth. John 4:23-24. Now that is possible and since the convert is a spiritual, pneumatical individual, he becomes a priest of a special order and that forever. 1 Cor. 15:44; Heb. 5:6; 1 Pet. 2:4-10.
 To walk this new way takes a conscious decision to co-operate this way Rom. 6:11-13. Jesus was the example of living His life in the Spirit side. He was anointed for ministry by the Spirit of God. He went down into the wilderness to temptation, driven by the Spirit of God. He came out of the wilderness and went back again to ministry in the power of the Spirit of God. He wrought miracles, as the record declares, by this self same power of the Spirit. He came to the sublime mystery of His death, and we hear the word again, “through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without blemish unto God.” He came to the morning of resurrection, and by the power of that Spirit He took life again, and came back into human consciousness and being. He tarried for forty days among His disciples, and, as Luke, the accurate Greek, the cultured scholar, tells us, He instructed His disciples by the Holy Ghost long before the Spirit was poured upon them. I open the Gospel of John, and read: “In Him was life” essential life ”and the life was the light of men.” What is the life of Jesus? Spiritual life, not spiritual life as we too often use the phrase, as though it were something distinct from human life; but spiritual life in the simplest, and broadest, and profoundest sense of the truth that all life is life by the Spirit of God.
The life of Jesus is life in the Spirit from beginning to end, and when I read that “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men,” I understand the evangelist to mean that if I want to know what life really is, I must look at Him physically, mentally, and spiritually, and see this truth, that all life is by the Spirit of God. Man’s being, in all its complex wonders, is the creation of the Spirit of God, and the proper use of all the powers of the being is possible only in submission to the Spirit of life.
 So that when we speak of regeneration, or of the filling of the Spirit, or of the anointing of the Spirit, or of spiritual life in the deepest and profoundest sense of the term, we are not asking men to enter a range or realm of life for which they were not made. We are calling them back to normality, to naturalness, to the fulfillment of the deepest and profoundest meaning of their own first creation. A man does not by his new birth become something other than himself. He becomes himself, as he never has been until by that new birth; he finds himself.
 The new man walks Eph. 4:1; Col. 2:6 now as Christ walked. Adam walked each day with God in the cool of the day. Gen. 3:8 as well as Enoch who walked with Him Gen. 5:22. Conversation with the Leader Matt 23:10 as well as reading from His book brings enlightenment, direction, and purpose to the spirit each and every day Luke 24:27; John 14:26. Said Jesus, “I am the Light of the world." (John 8:12).  He was born of the Spirit (Mat 1:20), baptized of the Spirit (Luke 3:22), led of the Spirit into the wilderness (Luke 4:1); He went in the power of the Spirit to proclaim the Kingdom of God (Luke 4:14); He wrought miracles through the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:18); He came to the mystery of His death and offered Himself without blemish through the eternal Spirit unto God (Heb 9:14); He came to resurrection morning and by the power of the Spirit He came back into human consciousness (1 Peter 3:18); for forty days He then instructed His disciples concerning the Kingdom of God by the Spirit (Acts 1:2-4). Of Him, the meek and lowly, the Galilean peasant according to human measurement, the great central truth may be spoken: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith Jehovah.”
And the new man said He to His own disciples, and through them to the whole Church to the end of the age, “Ye are the light of the world.” They are born of the Spirit (Gal 3:3), baptized by the Spirit (1 Cor 12:13), sealed by the Spirit (Eph 1:13), anointed by the Spirit (1 John 2:20), filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18). They speak with tongues as the Spirit gives them utterance (Acts 2:4). They receive gifts which equip them for service in the Spirit (1 Cor 12:11). They are a spiritual company, and the power which makes them able to shine as lights in the world is the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”
 We are light bearers John 8:12 and that is reflected light made bright by the ministry of His Spirit of all the things He has commanded. Matt 28:19. Christ is our lampstand amongst all the churches Rev. 1:12-13 casting light into the darkness. In the end there is no more darkness Rev. 22:5.
 We no longer are able to suffer separation Rev. 1:18; Rom 6:9. At resurrection the spirit is endowed with a new and indissoluable relation to the material body.1 Cor. 15:42 It is raised an imperishable body and now capable of lasting for eternity.
 The possibility for the perfection of your life is guaranteed by the word of God in several places Jude 24 through the labor of the Godhead who works tirelessly Phil. 1:6; John 5:17 as well as supplying all needful blessings to accomplish this supposed impossible feat 2 Pet. 1:3; 2 Tim. 3:16. There are no excuses for failure. Great expectations awaited Paul after his physical death 2 Tim. 4:6-8. Christ had the same expectations Heb. 12:2. And as Paul had expressed in other ways in Rom. 8:18, Phil. 1:21 and which Peter also expected 1 Pet. 1:3-9; James also James 5:7; and which John also spoke of 1 John 3:2; Jude, Jesus brother spoke of this hope in Jude 24. Jesus spoke of in John 11:26. Paul again in 1 Tim. 1:10.