Christian Fellowship Community Group
A safe place for Christians who Love Jesus Christ to meet and ask for prayer and share scriptures from the bible. We value the posting of Christian music, poems, stories and also personal testimonies. Please let us know your needs, concerns and have some fun getting to know each other. We treat each other with respect.
The wisdom of the fathers
THE PERSON AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Christ is the foundation of our sanctification, but the working out of the same occurs through the Holy Spirit.
In the beginning, the soul has a hard time to grasp, that the adamic creation - no matter whether evil or seemingly good - has been eliminated; but the Holy Spirit bears the responsibility of teaching us what God expects from us.
In general the conversion is followed by a period of great joy, when we feel deeply the presence of God and consider ourselves strong and able to do the will of God.
This wrong notion has to be taken away; we go astray and stumble and don't know what to do; no-one told us that God, the Holy Spirit, is in us. We wait for the baptism of the Spirit, we plead and wait for the Spirit, while after all, God is fully aware that our young life could not draw one breath without the Spirit. He has long since sent Him into our heart to raise us to become mature sons. By our shortcomings we recognise that we need the help of the Spirit and we give Him room; and he carries out His work in us and shows us the difference between darkness and light, until we learn to view things in God's light.
All three persons of the Godhead have taken on certain tasks; the Holy Spirit is the executor of the divine purpose, so to speak, in the soul of the believer; this task is overlooked by most Christians, and only a few trust Him as we ought to. It is not enough to believe in His presence in our heart in general, but we must in a conscious way commune with Him and bring all our troubles and confusions to Him. Only He can rid us - by the power of the death of Jesus - of things we are still attached to, but belong to the first creation. He can free us from every stirring of the old life, as soon as we entrust them into His hands. Because we don't do this, we still find so much of the old nature among the people of God.
Even among people who want to live a surrendered life, we still find much of the "first creation" and the self-life. But what will happen with those who haven't even recognised the necessity of complete submission to the Lord yet? Who will give them light of it and the willingness to carry it out if not the Holy Spirit? I have met people who believed to have deep knowledge of the complete salvation and yet were still attached to thousands of vanities and worldly things.
It is the task and office of the Holy Spirit to deliver us from the old, so that it can become a visible reality: "The old has gone, all things have become new ."But only to the extent we personally trust in the Spirit and surrender our concerns to Him, is He able to help us.
The task of the Spirit in this age is to bring the overcomers to maturity. As soon a soul is converted, He makes it clear that every believer is called and able to become an overcomer. It is also the commission of the Spirit to take us safely to our heavenly home. It is all His doing, no matter whether He deals with our Pentecostal experience or the quiet, daily work of offering His grace or the increasing separation from the old life. It is He who makes the life of Jesus visible in us, but only a few know of a walk in intimate union with the Spirit, a walk in obedience and trust - which alone will let us reach our goal.
Why do we beg and struggle clumsily, when we have such a skilled master at work? We grieve the Spirit by putting Him aside and ignoring Him and by trying - despite our inadequacy - to do the work ourselves. But He can only help if we entrust the work completely into His hands, because He doesn't mix His endeavour with our own efforts. (by Margarethe von Brasch)
THE PERSON AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Christ is the foundation of our sanctification, but the working out of the same occurs through the Holy Spirit.
In the beginning, the soul has a hard time to grasp, that the adamic creation - no matter whether evil or seemingly good - has been eliminated; but the Holy Spirit bears the responsibility of teaching us what God expects from us.
In general the conversion is followed by a period of great joy, when we feel deeply the presence of God and consider ourselves strong and able to do the will of God.
This wrong notion has to be taken away; we go astray and stumble and don't know what to do; no-one told us that God, the Holy Spirit, is in us. We wait for the baptism of the Spirit, we plead and wait for the Spirit, while after all, God is fully aware that our young life could not draw one breath without the Spirit. He has long since sent Him into our heart to raise us to become mature sons. By our shortcomings we recognise that we need the help of the Spirit and we give Him room; and he carries out His work in us and shows us the difference between darkness and light, until we learn to view things in God's light.
All three persons of the Godhead have taken on certain tasks; the Holy Spirit is the executor of the divine purpose, so to speak, in the soul of the believer; this task is overlooked by most Christians, and only a few trust Him as we ought to. It is not enough to believe in His presence in our heart in general, but we must in a conscious way commune with Him and bring all our troubles and confusions to Him. Only He can rid us - by the power of the death of Jesus - of things we are still attached to, but belong to the first creation. He can free us from every stirring of the old life, as soon as we entrust them into His hands. Because we don't do this, we still find so much of the old nature among the people of God.
Even among people who want to live a surrendered life, we still find much of the "first creation" and the self-life. But what will happen with those who haven't even recognised the necessity of complete submission to the Lord yet? Who will give them light of it and the willingness to carry it out if not the Holy Spirit? I have met people who believed to have deep knowledge of the complete salvation and yet were still attached to thousands of vanities and worldly things.
It is the task and office of the Holy Spirit to deliver us from the old, so that it can become a visible reality: "The old has gone, all things have become new ."But only to the extent we personally trust in the Spirit and surrender our concerns to Him, is He able to help us.
The task of the Spirit in this age is to bring the overcomers to maturity. As soon a soul is converted, He makes it clear that every believer is called and able to become an overcomer. It is also the commission of the Spirit to take us safely to our heavenly home. It is all His doing, no matter whether He deals with our Pentecostal experience or the quiet, daily work of offering His grace or the increasing separation from the old life. It is He who makes the life of Jesus visible in us, but only a few know of a walk in intimate union with the Spirit, a walk in obedience and trust - which alone will let us reach our goal.
Why do we beg and struggle clumsily, when we have such a skilled master at work? We grieve the Spirit by putting Him aside and ignoring Him and by trying - despite our inadequacy - to do the work ourselves. But He can only help if we entrust the work completely into His hands, because He doesn't mix His endeavour with our own efforts. (by Margarethe von Brasch)
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