H
Serving in the Spirit because the Spirit is what reveals the deep things of God
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son... Romans 1:9a
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:10-12
The cross, the cross and nothing but the cross
If anyone belongs to Christ it's because the Father had drawn them (John 6:44) and they are regenerated and born again in the spirit (John 3). We live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for us, so we can carry our cross daily crucifying our filthy flesh! When we walk and live in the spirit of God in according to His Word which is spirit and life it's no longer us who lives but Christ in us. (Galatians 2:20) There is no room for boasting but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Galatians 6:14) This is also why the cross must always be emphasized over and over. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, I want to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified! (1 Corinthians 2:2) Paul knew that if it didnt include the cross (the death and resurrection of Christ) the words or what they had to offer in works apart from faith will then be pure flesh and paul wanted nothing to do with the flesh of man and the work it produces but he desired that which is of the spirit of God!
Every time we obey God it's an act of the spirit (Romans 12) and the righteousness is of God through Christ not of us (Jeremiah 23)! If we in our flesh try to justify ourselves apart from faith in Christ we fail because we cannot obey God's command in the flesh (Romans 3:23; 8:7-9 James 2:10). When we walk in the spirit (crucifying our flesh in prayer, renewing our minds in the spirit of God's Word, fasting etc) it is not us who lives but Christ! The fulfillment of the law was made possible in Christ and the literal makeup/veil (that is the letter) of God's law are now removed revealing the spirit of the Word. This is what Jesus spoke in Matthew 5 saying He did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it! Fulfill meaning accomplishing every single one in the literal (that is to say in the letter something we can't do in our flesh) and then revealing the deep things of the law through his death and resurrection which made possible for the spirit of God our teacher to be deposited in our hearts! (Jeremiah 31 remember the law IS the Word of God and the Word is spirit and gives life Psalm 119:160 John 6:63)
The spirit behind the law is what matters
Now the Law is revealed as being spiritual all along (Romans 7) but prior to that "Thou shalt not commit adultery," was interpret as adultery that has taken place against the letter/law but Jesus came to show that the spirit in this Word/Law was showing that people commit adultery in their heart even by looking at someone. The same goes for murder and so forth... Every single Word of God can be seen through our now God given spiritual eyes! Thus the reason why Jesus states in John 3:3 Except you be born again you cannot SEE the kingdom of God. The pharisees and sadducees were religious and did not have faith in God's promise (promise made to Abraham which was Christ himself Galatians 3:16) The religious groups had plenty of head knowledge of the law and the prophets but were stuck in unbelief not fully entering in God's rest and did not have the love of God in them. (Hebrews 4 Romans 10 John 5) Every Word of God/Law can now be seen in the spirit and the intent behind it BUT there's a need to cry out for wisdom and understanding! (Proverbs 2) Examples are Nicodemus, the disciples that left Jesus when he stated if you don't eat my body or drink my blood...
If you examine the 10 commandments you can now see through the spirit of the Word that gives life the intent behind the Law/Word. One by one you will see a deeper meaning that was hidden underneath the literal or letter! For instance the sabbath is an eternal sign between God and Israel but was God saying that the rest is physically and will be observed physically forever? Flesh and blood does not inherit the kingdom of God we are going to receive glorious bodies (1 Corinthians 15 philippians 3:21) He meant the eternal rest in Him and how He finished ALL his work (Genesis 2) the glorious rest of our Saviour (Isaiah 11:10) This is why the Israelites did not enter into His rest because although they rested on the physical sabbath they refused to enter the spiritual rest in God's promise. (Hebrews 4) Our reasoning and logic darkened by sin (Ephesians 4:18 Job 38) often tries to mix literal things with spiritual things when the Word states the spiritual man compares spiritual things with spiritual things! 1 Corinthians 2:6-16) We are now free in the spirit but exercising freedom from our sins and walking in the spirit of God and in His rest is not what God only wants... He wants us to walk in love and know when to consider for the sake of other brethern to bear with the spiritual infants and have patience not making them stumble or judging them to the point of no hope. Paul corrected the Corinthians church when they were in the wrong but then stated that they should forgive and comfort those who were wrong (2 Corinthians chapters 2, 5 & 7) Walking in love is the maturity and perfection of our walk but this is not easy when they are alot of people with yeast puffing there intellect and not edifying the body of Christ! Humility is key. 1 Corinthians 8:1b-3 Micah 6:8.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love Galatians 5:6. We can no longer live in our sins because if we willfully sin there are no more sacrifices for redemption Hebrews 10... OBEDIENCE IS NEEDED which means the death to our pride, logic, reasoning, idleness, etc When we obey God ITS AN ACT OF THE SPIRIT! The law gives perfect liberty and converts the souls its our schoolmaster taking us to Christ who is our righteousness!
The law is spiritual, now written in our hearts, every single commandment is observed spiritually in Christ including our rest. The law being fulfilled in love through Christ is now seen in their true intention which is spiritual because the Word which is God's Law is Spirit and gives life. Prior to being fulfilled, its true intentions were covered (or as Hebrews and 2 Corinthians says... they were veiled) until Christ's resurrection and those who place their trust in Him were regenerated and quickened in the Spirit to SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD! (John 3) The rest of God is to be enjoyed by all and daily, always understanding that God has saved us, He is our comfort, our provider, our healer, our righteousness, an ever present help in times of trouble, our secret place and I can go on and on. However, knowing or studying the Scriptures that give life (i.e., John 5, knowing those verses that were mentioned above that talk about who God is to us and what He has done) does not mean you automatically enter into that rest of GOD WHICH IS HIS HOLY SABBATH!
One can only enter and enjoy the rest which consists of everything God is and His provisions are in the spirit and not the letter or literal. God has already done it all and this is why He rested or ceased from His work as mentioned in Genesis! The type of faith that allows us to enter into His rest is the faith that continues to acknowledge that God is truly sovereign and in control and that HE HAS ALREADY SEATED US IN HIGH PLACES WITH CHRIST JESUS! THIS IS WHY HIS SABBATH IS FOREVER! That faith is tied unto obedience, if we believe we will strive to finish the race (although in God's perspective the race is done but in our perspective the one who doesn't run the race doesn't finish). The rest of God overflows in the Spirit we preach and live the Gospel so that others may enter into God's rest as well, His Salvation. In fact, every time we see a brother or sister in Christ in need (remember love fulfills the law) and we sacrifice our time to pray, support and encourage someone in the faith who is going through a trial we are helping that brother or sister to enter back into that rest of God.
Bearing each other's burdens and entering and re-entering His Rest
Ultimately, as believers, we need to constantly re-enter into the rest of God because we battle daily with our flesh but if we mortify the flesh we can enter back in because after the death of the flesh our regenerated spirit rises yet once again entering into the presence of God! ALL THANKS TO THE SACRIFICE JESUS DID ON THE CROSS 2,000 YEARS AGO THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE! This is what Paul understood by the grace of God THE LAW OF GOD WAS NEVER DONE AWAY WITH BUT FULFILLED!!! This is why Paul said in Corinthians that he was determined to nothing amongst them except Jesus Christ and him crucified! And why? Well because it starts with the cross of Christ! When we carry our cross daily we are dying to our flesh and thus admitting that we fail at fulfilling God's perfect law. However, when we die we are living in the spirit and the law is written in our hearts! This is why also Paul stated that in the spirit there is no law but he wasn't stating that the law of God was done away but that the law of sin and death cannot exist while being in the presence of God or in the spirit. In other words, who sins while in the spirit of God? NO ONE! When we are in the spirit we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self control. When we are going through a trial and we want to put our own hands in it and try to fix it (something we do a lot) we don't enter into God's rest but find ourselves trying to fulfill God's promise ourselves! (sounds familiar right? See Genesis Abraham, Sarah & Hagar!) BUT IF we die to our understanding, our reasoning, our logic, the fact that we don't know how God is going to do something (remember He already has done it but our filthy flesh tries to convince us otherwise) we can then enter into God's rest which is HIS TRUE REST AND WHICH IS DAILY AND IN FACT WE STEP OUT SO MANY TIMES A DAY BUT LET US STEP BACK IN THAT SECRET PLACE PSALM 91 AND PRAISE GOD HALLELUYAH!
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son... Romans 1:9a
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:10-12
The cross, the cross and nothing but the cross
If anyone belongs to Christ it's because the Father had drawn them (John 6:44) and they are regenerated and born again in the spirit (John 3). We live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for us, so we can carry our cross daily crucifying our filthy flesh! When we walk and live in the spirit of God in according to His Word which is spirit and life it's no longer us who lives but Christ in us. (Galatians 2:20) There is no room for boasting but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Galatians 6:14) This is also why the cross must always be emphasized over and over. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, I want to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified! (1 Corinthians 2:2) Paul knew that if it didnt include the cross (the death and resurrection of Christ) the words or what they had to offer in works apart from faith will then be pure flesh and paul wanted nothing to do with the flesh of man and the work it produces but he desired that which is of the spirit of God!
Every time we obey God it's an act of the spirit (Romans 12) and the righteousness is of God through Christ not of us (Jeremiah 23)! If we in our flesh try to justify ourselves apart from faith in Christ we fail because we cannot obey God's command in the flesh (Romans 3:23; 8:7-9 James 2:10). When we walk in the spirit (crucifying our flesh in prayer, renewing our minds in the spirit of God's Word, fasting etc) it is not us who lives but Christ! The fulfillment of the law was made possible in Christ and the literal makeup/veil (that is the letter) of God's law are now removed revealing the spirit of the Word. This is what Jesus spoke in Matthew 5 saying He did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it! Fulfill meaning accomplishing every single one in the literal (that is to say in the letter something we can't do in our flesh) and then revealing the deep things of the law through his death and resurrection which made possible for the spirit of God our teacher to be deposited in our hearts! (Jeremiah 31 remember the law IS the Word of God and the Word is spirit and gives life Psalm 119:160 John 6:63)
The spirit behind the law is what matters
Now the Law is revealed as being spiritual all along (Romans 7) but prior to that "Thou shalt not commit adultery," was interpret as adultery that has taken place against the letter/law but Jesus came to show that the spirit in this Word/Law was showing that people commit adultery in their heart even by looking at someone. The same goes for murder and so forth... Every single Word of God can be seen through our now God given spiritual eyes! Thus the reason why Jesus states in John 3:3 Except you be born again you cannot SEE the kingdom of God. The pharisees and sadducees were religious and did not have faith in God's promise (promise made to Abraham which was Christ himself Galatians 3:16) The religious groups had plenty of head knowledge of the law and the prophets but were stuck in unbelief not fully entering in God's rest and did not have the love of God in them. (Hebrews 4 Romans 10 John 5) Every Word of God/Law can now be seen in the spirit and the intent behind it BUT there's a need to cry out for wisdom and understanding! (Proverbs 2) Examples are Nicodemus, the disciples that left Jesus when he stated if you don't eat my body or drink my blood...
If you examine the 10 commandments you can now see through the spirit of the Word that gives life the intent behind the Law/Word. One by one you will see a deeper meaning that was hidden underneath the literal or letter! For instance the sabbath is an eternal sign between God and Israel but was God saying that the rest is physically and will be observed physically forever? Flesh and blood does not inherit the kingdom of God we are going to receive glorious bodies (1 Corinthians 15 philippians 3:21) He meant the eternal rest in Him and how He finished ALL his work (Genesis 2) the glorious rest of our Saviour (Isaiah 11:10) This is why the Israelites did not enter into His rest because although they rested on the physical sabbath they refused to enter the spiritual rest in God's promise. (Hebrews 4) Our reasoning and logic darkened by sin (Ephesians 4:18 Job 38) often tries to mix literal things with spiritual things when the Word states the spiritual man compares spiritual things with spiritual things! 1 Corinthians 2:6-16) We are now free in the spirit but exercising freedom from our sins and walking in the spirit of God and in His rest is not what God only wants... He wants us to walk in love and know when to consider for the sake of other brethern to bear with the spiritual infants and have patience not making them stumble or judging them to the point of no hope. Paul corrected the Corinthians church when they were in the wrong but then stated that they should forgive and comfort those who were wrong (2 Corinthians chapters 2, 5 & 7) Walking in love is the maturity and perfection of our walk but this is not easy when they are alot of people with yeast puffing there intellect and not edifying the body of Christ! Humility is key. 1 Corinthians 8:1b-3 Micah 6:8.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love Galatians 5:6. We can no longer live in our sins because if we willfully sin there are no more sacrifices for redemption Hebrews 10... OBEDIENCE IS NEEDED which means the death to our pride, logic, reasoning, idleness, etc When we obey God ITS AN ACT OF THE SPIRIT! The law gives perfect liberty and converts the souls its our schoolmaster taking us to Christ who is our righteousness!
The law is spiritual, now written in our hearts, every single commandment is observed spiritually in Christ including our rest. The law being fulfilled in love through Christ is now seen in their true intention which is spiritual because the Word which is God's Law is Spirit and gives life. Prior to being fulfilled, its true intentions were covered (or as Hebrews and 2 Corinthians says... they were veiled) until Christ's resurrection and those who place their trust in Him were regenerated and quickened in the Spirit to SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD! (John 3) The rest of God is to be enjoyed by all and daily, always understanding that God has saved us, He is our comfort, our provider, our healer, our righteousness, an ever present help in times of trouble, our secret place and I can go on and on. However, knowing or studying the Scriptures that give life (i.e., John 5, knowing those verses that were mentioned above that talk about who God is to us and what He has done) does not mean you automatically enter into that rest of GOD WHICH IS HIS HOLY SABBATH!
One can only enter and enjoy the rest which consists of everything God is and His provisions are in the spirit and not the letter or literal. God has already done it all and this is why He rested or ceased from His work as mentioned in Genesis! The type of faith that allows us to enter into His rest is the faith that continues to acknowledge that God is truly sovereign and in control and that HE HAS ALREADY SEATED US IN HIGH PLACES WITH CHRIST JESUS! THIS IS WHY HIS SABBATH IS FOREVER! That faith is tied unto obedience, if we believe we will strive to finish the race (although in God's perspective the race is done but in our perspective the one who doesn't run the race doesn't finish). The rest of God overflows in the Spirit we preach and live the Gospel so that others may enter into God's rest as well, His Salvation. In fact, every time we see a brother or sister in Christ in need (remember love fulfills the law) and we sacrifice our time to pray, support and encourage someone in the faith who is going through a trial we are helping that brother or sister to enter back into that rest of God.
Bearing each other's burdens and entering and re-entering His Rest
Ultimately, as believers, we need to constantly re-enter into the rest of God because we battle daily with our flesh but if we mortify the flesh we can enter back in because after the death of the flesh our regenerated spirit rises yet once again entering into the presence of God! ALL THANKS TO THE SACRIFICE JESUS DID ON THE CROSS 2,000 YEARS AGO THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE! This is what Paul understood by the grace of God THE LAW OF GOD WAS NEVER DONE AWAY WITH BUT FULFILLED!!! This is why Paul said in Corinthians that he was determined to nothing amongst them except Jesus Christ and him crucified! And why? Well because it starts with the cross of Christ! When we carry our cross daily we are dying to our flesh and thus admitting that we fail at fulfilling God's perfect law. However, when we die we are living in the spirit and the law is written in our hearts! This is why also Paul stated that in the spirit there is no law but he wasn't stating that the law of God was done away but that the law of sin and death cannot exist while being in the presence of God or in the spirit. In other words, who sins while in the spirit of God? NO ONE! When we are in the spirit we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self control. When we are going through a trial and we want to put our own hands in it and try to fix it (something we do a lot) we don't enter into God's rest but find ourselves trying to fulfill God's promise ourselves! (sounds familiar right? See Genesis Abraham, Sarah & Hagar!) BUT IF we die to our understanding, our reasoning, our logic, the fact that we don't know how God is going to do something (remember He already has done it but our filthy flesh tries to convince us otherwise) we can then enter into God's rest which is HIS TRUE REST AND WHICH IS DAILY AND IN FACT WE STEP OUT SO MANY TIMES A DAY BUT LET US STEP BACK IN THAT SECRET PLACE PSALM 91 AND PRAISE GOD HALLELUYAH!
Last edited by a moderator: