In Acts 10, Peter spoke these words: “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).
God’s Plan provided Christ our Savior with Power from on High — the power of the Holy Spirit! The Lord walked His pre-designed path in life through Grace-fields, and completed the Father’s Plan for the salvation of mankind. Thank you, Father.
Each believer is called (chosen) to follow in the footsteps of Christ (John 15:19). Each believer has his own trails and trials, but God has a Plan for each that leads through fields of Grace. Our spiritual walk with the Holy Spirit is personal and can be powerful. God has a Plan for your life and for mine, just as He had a Plan for Christ which provided our salvation. We must learn to execute God’s plan as Christ did, by the power of the Holy Spirit IN US.
THE POWERHOUSE OF GOD
Two invisible spiritual systems are at work at any given moment: THE KINGDOM OF GOD and THE DEVIL’S WORLD.
A conflict between two “spiritual systems” is a good way to describe the reality of the devil’s world in which we human beings live. Therefore, to be successful in the execution of God’s Plan in the devil’s world, the believer must be aware of this conflict and especially the invisible power systems that influence our thinking and resulting actions.
Behind the dramatic contrast of the dramas of life are spiritual battles between good and evil, virtue and arrogance, love and hate, truth and deception. These systems are invisible systems of spiritual power that influence man’s thinking for good or for evil.
Since all humanity is inherently weak, we receive our strength, for good or for evil, from one source or the other, or both depending on the power system in which we choose to reside. In the Power System designed by God, we find an inexhaustible supply of spiritual strength, weapons for spiritual battle that offer wisdom and blessing for every detail of life.
But inside the devil’s world (John 12:31), our weaknesses as human beings are exploited by Satan and our wrong decisions entangle us in a web of sin, misery, and satanic deceit.
‘OCCUPATION WITH CHRIST’ IS LITERALLY WALKING WITH CHRIST THROUGH GRACE-FIELDS.
When we as believers walk in fellowship with the Lord (sins acknowledged) we are said to be occupied with Christ (walking intimately), guided by the Holy Spirit, and residing in God’s spiritual power system. But, there is even more dynamics to this concept:
1). God’s system is analogous to an altar in our soul for intimate fellowship and intimate prayer, referred to by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19. It is a sanctuary for renewal. It is the place in our soul where we kneel in spirit before God and seek guidance.
In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul makes an amazing declaration: “Do you not know that you are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.” And again, “Or do you not know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
Here in the “Temple” of our soul, God has given us our own private worship place, and this is where we belong.
2). The believer’s natural inclination given by the Holy Spirit at salvation is to want to be influenced by God the Holy Spirit; by Bible Study — an unquenchable thirst for knowledge about God our Savior; a desire to be occupied with Christ; a desire to be “filled” to capacity with the Holy Spirit; a deep desire for Godly knowledge (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
3). This sanctuary in our soul is especially for meditation … listening to the quiet voice of the holy Spirit.
4). It is a sanctuary for continuous prayer as a constant matter of thought — “prayer without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It is God’s pre-designed altar for thinking with God — meditation.
5). It is the “Grace Place” where we hang out with our Lord in our very own soul … how’s that for intimacy and privacy? Let’s hang out with God, rather than the world.
Intimate fellowship is our private, personal time with God. This is what Christianity is all about — intimacy with the Father through Jesus Christ under the guidance, leadership, and exhortation of the Holy Spirit. Then apply the principles of God’s words to the details of everyday life.
The Word of God (Bible doctrine) in our soul increases our understanding, our maturity, our discipline and humility. Intimacy with God the Holy Spirit and intimacy in the written Word are sweetness to the soul … a joy and inner peace that cannot be explained or denied.
Witnessing as our natural selves. Our thoughts are manifested in our actions. What do people see from you — your outward expressions, your vocabulary, your actions, your attitude?
INTIMACY
The Holy Spirit can makes us effective witnesses. Intimacy is when we enter the altar to be alone with our Savior. This is where we kneel and listen. So, let us walk as children of light (Luke 16:8). Christ is the Light of Life. Let us walk in the Light as He is in the Light — “SOUL LIGHT.”
THE TEMPLE OF GOD
During the Age of Israel, the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory dwelled in the Tabernacle or Temple (Exodus 25:21-22; Leviticus 26:11-12; Psalms 91:1; Hebrews 9:5). The Shekinah Glory appeared as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, as well as a bright light over the ark of the covenant. The presence of the Shekinah Glory guaranteed God’s promise of temporal and eternal blessings to Israel.
In the present Church Age, the Holy Spirit indwells in the Temple in the soul of the believer. This indwelling is the guarantee (seal) of God’s blessings to the believer both in time and for all eternity (John 14: 19-20; 16:7; 17:22-23; Romans 8:10; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18).
The purpose of this study is to help you see and truly understand your personal walk with Christ. It is in your soul — in the divine sanctuary of your own soul. Your daily walk with the Lord through your own personal fields of Grace is made possible by the Cross-Sacrifice of Christ. However your life unfolds, as a believer you can never get out or be put out of God’s Plan.
Since the Resurrection, ascension and session (seating) of Christ at the right hand of the Father, God gives to each believer the “power resources” necessary for executing the Christian life. These resources are the Indwelling and Filling of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Bible, Prayer, and the shepherd-pastors where the believer attends church — the local assembly.
In Acts 2:1-21 the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. However, there is so much more that we need to understand about why the Holy Spirit was given and what that means to every believer. For example, Christ came to glorify God the Father. The Holy Spirit was sent to glorify Christ and the Father.
The Holy Spirit indwells the body of every believer to make a Temple for Christ to dwell in (1 Corinthians 6:19). Think about that … since Christ went back to Heaven, believer’s represent the Lord to the lost and this ambassadorship glorifies the Lord, when executed in the “filling of the spirit.”
Please turn to and read John chapter 17, which is our Lord’s prayer to the Father just before He was crucified. His prayer expresses His love for us just before He died for us. His Cross death demonstrated that great love wherewith Christ loved us … while we were sinners (Romans 5:8).
Now that you have paused and read John 17, please turn to and consider 2 Corinthians 5:20. Then, think for a moment about what it means to be an official ambassador for the Lord.
We literally represent God on Earth while Christ is seated on the Right of the Father — a place of authority, a place of honor and dignity and respect. Christ, right now seated upon the Throne of Glory, has all power in heaven and Earth. Christ in His humanity, now has everything He didn’t have while He walked the Earth in His humanity.
Now, because Christ sent the Holy Spirit, we the believer have the same Earthly Power Source that Christ had during His incarnation. The Holy Spirit empowered Christ as Christ submitted to the Father’s Will. Christ came to do the Father’s Will. As believers we are left here on earth after we are saved to do the Father’s Will, through our Savior, Jesus Christ, by the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Do you even realize the importance, the significance, of what this means? What a tremendous responsibility we have as God’s Children to represent the only True and Awesome God. God makes His appeal to mankind through the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Bible and through believers.
GOD’S WILL
To do God’s Will, we must know God’s Will. This is why Bible Doctrine is so important.
Please turn to Ephesians 3:16, 19: “and that they may be filled with the fullness of God.” Paul is speaking about the control of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. More exactly he is referring to the fullness of Bible Doctrine in the believer’s soul. Filled with the Spirit and armed with the fullness (Word of God — Armor of God) we are equipped to walk our course through Fields of Grace (harvest).
In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul makes an amazing declaration: “do you not know that you are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.” And again “Or do you not know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Here in the “Temple” of our soul God has given us our own private worship place.
We are the Temple of God and every Temple has an “Altar.” The believers altar is the Cross of the sacrificial lamb of God (John 1:29; Revelation 5:12; 12:11) for the redemption of mankind. Christ reconciled us to God (2 Corinthians 5:20; Ephesians 2:13-22; Colossians 1:20).
Jesus Christ is our High Priest (Hebrew 6:17-20). Since every believer is a member of the Royal family of God, in union with Christ, we all share His Priesthood.
“The office of our royal priesthood is not hereditary as under the Levitical Priesthood; not based on physical birth, but on spiritual regeneration and therefore it is perpetual.”
Every believer in the Church Age is a priest and therefore we have direct access to the Throne Room of God (Hebrews 7:1-3; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6). We just kneel in our soul at the altar anytime we want to talk with God. We could be walking down the road, or at work, or driving along the highway.
We have the privilege of meditation; we have the honor of prayer.
The Church Age believer, after salvation, remains on earth to represent Christ (until Christ returns) to a lost world, even though our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20). We are here as Ambassadors for Christ in the devil’s world (2 Corinthians 5:20). We are to carry the message of reconciliation. God is reconciling the world to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 18,19). God is reconciling the world through His children — you and me.
Point Of Doctrine: Our Ambassadorship and our Priesthood are the two highest offices any believer can hold in this life.
Add to this the armor of God — the Sword of the Spirit which is God’s Word in us and His Holy Spirit around us as a shield of Divine protection and you can now see how God has equipped and commissioned each believer with the “power resources” necessary to win spiritual battles in our daily walk (the details of life) during the Angelic Conflict, and living here on earth in the devil’s world.
Please turn to Ephesians chapter six and consider versus 10-17.
The battles, even the sufferings we face in life give us opportunities to serve, worship and glorify God. Praise the Lord for His Awesome Plan through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Please turn to Ephesians 3:14-21: “For this reason I bow my knees (physical knees and soul knees) before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name, that He would grant you according to the riches of His Glory, to be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.” Amen.
According to the power that works in us refers to all these power resources, but especially the Holy Spirit in control using Bible Truths to guide our lives.
The more intimate we become with the Lord, the more spiritually sensitive we become.
The more spiritually sensitive we become, the more compassionate we become toward our Savior and our fellow man.
The more of God’s Word we inhale the more perceptive we become and the more we can exhale toward our co-workers, our friends and neighbors, and the unbelievers all around us.
So, we have fellowship, intimacy, sensitivity, compassion, perception and application. This is God’s Plan for each believer: “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Fullness of Christ.
Paul is emphasizing the dynamics of the Christian life powered by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. Notice the power phrases that Paul uses: “comprehend the riches of God’s Glory,” and “the power in the inner man,” “surpassing knowledge,” “breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love,” “unity,” “faith,” “maturity,” and “filled to all fullness of God.”
These things describe God working in the Temple of our soul to transform us to His Image. Therefore, study and learning IS to be our priority in worship! Application of the Word is obedience and faith in action.
Point Of Teaching: God does all the work of salvation and God does all the work of living the Christian life — THIS IS GRACE.
God’s Word also surrounds us on the outside with a protective shield — the actual armor of God (the Bible). Bible Truths in our soul creates in us Divine Viewpoint.
When you are inculcated with Bible Truths, your norms and standards reflect the Character of Christ. As a mature christian, you learn to be humble, quiet and confident no matter what the circumstances in life.
Armed with Truths, the believer can have confidence in God’s promises, make good decisions, exhibit virtue, and resolve the dilemmas that come up in life. See Romans 12:2-3.
Here are several more points of doctrine:
The more you know God through Bible teaching, the more you respect God!
The more difficult the circumstances in our lives the more we learn faith (to lean on and appreciate God).
The more we trust God and watch God deliver us, the more humble and confident we become.
The more we are genuine in our praise and worship, the more genuine we are in our relationships with our fellow man.
Bible Truths circulating in the believer’s soul is the lifeblood for victory in the Christian life.
Give God the Glory!
The Unfathomable Riches of Christ. The indwelling Holy Spirit develops in every believer the character of Christ (“the unfathomable riches of Christ”), see (Ephesians 3:8). The unfathomable riches of Christ is Bible Truths, the “Mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). The goal of every Christian should be to reach the high ground of maturity.
The Christian life is all about trials, hardships, suffering and pain. It is also, all about the fruits of the spirit.
The Christian life is all about knowing God and watching God move to resolve every good and bad situation.
The Christian life is learning all about our wonderful Lord and Savior.
The better we know our Savior the more we love and appreciate Him.
The Holy Spirit transforms our thinking from human viewpoint to Divine Viewpoint by the continuous inhale of Bible Truths with the result that we are slowly conformed to the Image of Christ (Romans 8:29; 12:2).
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints“ (Ephesians 6:18).
In Luke 11:10 Christ said: “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened.” Our state of mind is to be always thinking about the Savior, always meditating, always giving thanks. “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Think about this: when we are continuously God-conscious, we will be more obedient; we will remain in fellowship longer and we will be at peace in stressful situations such as rush hour traffic, suffering or even facing death.
Finally, each believer must learn how to live an honest life before the Lord and before mankind. You can become what God wants you to be, but you must accept who you are with objectivity. Then, turn yourself over to God.
You cannot hide any thought or action from God. God knows our every thought. God sees right through your facade of hypocrisy. Own up, and face up to your failures, your weaknesses and addictions. Come out of your closet and be truthful with God and yourself. “Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find Grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2).
We owe God everything:
Christ died for us!
Christ intercedes for us!
Christ loves us!
Christ indwells us!
Christ represents us as our defense attorney in Heaven!
What an awesome Savior! What an awesome God!
Christ perfectly describes the Christian life in this prayer … “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that (here is the reason) the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that (here is the reason) they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me that (here is the reason) they may be perfected (matured) in unity, so that (here is the reason) the world may know that (with this result) You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me“ (John 17:21-23). (Bracketed comments are for your attention and clarification).
God loves the believer like He Loves His own Son. There is no greater love. So how secure is every believer? Our eternal security is absolute because of Christ our Blessed Savior!
Drop to your soul knees and thank God for His Mighty Plan of life in the embrace of His Unfailing Love.
The Holy Spirit in us is our daily power source to live for Christ.
The Holy Spirit produces the fruits of the spirit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
A final thought: Your faithfulness and obedience to God defines your human character and integrity; God’s Plan and Faithfulness to you defines God’s Divine Character and Integrity.
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Thank you Father for your incomparable plan of Grace. Help each of us to understand the altar of our royal priesthood. Help us Father to understand and perform your will as your Ambassador’s for Christ to a lost and dying world. Thank you Father that in spite of our many failures you never leave us nor forsake us. Help us to understand that you walk with us through fields of Grace.
Amen.
Meditate on this: Just as salvation is open to all humanity; spirituality is open to all believers.
Happy Studying!