Welcome
back to my blog. Thank you for visiting today.
Teleios
recently surveyed the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives in 475 young
participants in visitors to the Instagram account, InstaPray. All the findings,
as well as other exciting Teleios research, are on our website (www.teleiosresearch.com).
The Holy
Spirit is a very important yet controversial topic. However, there is often a
general lack of knowledge of what scripture
teaches about the Spirit. We are covering these pertinent topics.
I
generally breakdown the Bible’s handling of the Spirit for the New Testament church
into three basic realms:
· The Spirit’s work in salvation
· The Spirit's role in
our Christian walk
· The Christian’s duties
to the Spirit
This
week let us cover the last point, our duties to the Spirit. What our survey
participants thought is in the below table.
Our
actions towards the Spirit are nicely divided into two subcategories, what to
do and what not to do. According to scripture, the Spirit dwells in us
permanently from the time we believe unto the day of our redemption (Ephesians1:13-14) and we have full use of the Spirit’s power available to us throughout
our lives.
Ø What not to do!
· Grieve the Spirit (Ephesians4:30)
· Suppress the Spirit (1Thessalonians 5:19)
These verses do not explain
how not to grieve or suppress the Spirit, but we might assume it's related to sin
that would make the Spirit sad, or suppress His actions in our lives, because
we are seeking our own desires.
Ø What to do! – These amazing
verses are mostly related to our seeking God and being obedient. Again, scripture
does not tell us the specifics, giving us great freedom to live our lives in
faith.
· Walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16,25) -
The word ‘walk’ (peripateoo, περιπατεω) indicates our manner
of life, especially in the moral realm.
· Be mature in the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) -
The illustration in this great verse is not to be drunk. Alcohol literally can
control brain cells by its chemical effect. In contrast, for mature Christians,
their old actions are no longer possible as they have been changed by the Spirit.
· Put to death the deeds
of the flesh
(Romans 8:13) - Last week we learned the Spirit helps us defeat sin but this verse
also indicates that it is by our initiation towards obedience that we facilitate
the Spirit’s gracious help.
Note:
Do not commit the unforgivable sin by blaspheming the Spirit (Matthew12:31-32) – Importantly, this verse often is taken out of context. In this
passage Christ is directing His wrath towards the Jewish Pharisees. At Christ’s baptism, at the initiation of his
ministry, the Pharisees had rejected the witness given by the Holy Spirit when He
came down from heaven on our Savior.
Therefore,
to blaspheme the physical manifestation of Christ on earth is forgivable but to
reject God's approval (signified by the Spirit) of his spiritual mission to
bring salvation to man is unforgivable, otherwise by rejecting the salvation
message.
Importantly,
Christians are not in view in this passage as we to have the Spirit’s sealing
until the day of our redemption, having accepted Christ as Savior (Ephesians1:13,14 and 4:30).
Thank
you for joining me today. Please join me again next week as we continue to
explore fascinating results from Teleios’ research.
WC
Stewart
Response policy
- The purpose of the comment section is to promote discussion that is
encouraging, propels the further search of Scripture and raises interesting and
thought provoking Biblically related questions. You may feel free to disagree
with me in a constructive manner using appropriate language. I reserve the
right to remove your comments if they are profane, pornographic, libelous or I
do not consider them constructive or consistent with the policy stated above.
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Teleios, Inc. All rights reserved.
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