Again, I would respond that this statement is not Scriptural.
Walking in the Spirit yields the fruit of the Spirit.
We can walk in the Spirit TODAY, and the Spirit can be fruitful in us TODAY.
Much love!
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Walking in the Spirit yields the fruit of the Spirit.
We can walk in the Spirit TODAY, and the Spirit can be fruitful in us TODAY.
Much love!
To me this statement contradicts itself. We are learning to walk in our holyfied state, and this is becoming more holyfied?
Much of what you wrote in #158 is how I would describe our life in Christ.
Much love!
The thing of it is, as I believe that God has created me brand new, born from Him, sharing His nature, forever separated from my sins, no longer "the sinner", already holy - santified - by virtue of a new creation, complete in Christ,
As I believe that God has ALREADY given me all things for life and godliness, that by the same faith through which I was saved, by that same faith, I stand in His grace,
As I believe I'm not waiting for "more holiness",
This is the power of holy living.
So no, the one's who believe this ARE NOT the ones using grace as an excuse to live sinfully.
That's slanderous, maligning, and I wish you could see this for what it is, so you might stop speaking that way.
What would prevent me from saying in reply, "You believe that you aren't holy enough yet to live a holy life all the way, but that's just your excuse to not have to try". I'm not saying that, I don't think that, but it makes the same sense.
Agree!
When we allow Jesus to live through us, by trusting in His finished work on the cross, we live holy lives.
Much love!
One day, when you come face to face with a Holy God you will truly understand how unworthy you are and how much you are lacking. You would be well serve to have the attitude of the Publican vs. the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. (James 4:7-10)
2 Peter 1:3-4 KJV
3) According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Is this true or not true?
It's the question you need to answer for yourself.
You can assume I'm prideful, Pharisiacal, assume whatever you want to justify your assertions to yourself. You make it obvious at every turn you prefer your version of me, to me. You make it obvious you don't give credance to word I say.
That's not important.
Will you believe God?
3) According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Much love!
And of course . . . the question for all times in life.
Are you able to live sanctified NOW, by trusting Jesus to make it so NOW?
I do. I believe this, and I practice this. He is faithful. This is how you overcome.
Much love!
Are you able to live sanctified NOW, by trusting Jesus to make it so NOW?
I do. I believe this, and I practice this. He is faithful. This is how you overcome.
Much love!
Look at what he is waying here.
Don't be "double minded", thinking you serve both minds of the flesh and mind of Christ. Stop thinking you are mixture of old man and new man, you are a new creation, it's true!
You are patterned after God in righteousness, and you have been given liberty from sin, and if you believe that's true you can live that way. But when you believe you are a mixture of light and darkness, good and evil, spirit and flesh, you remain double minded, unstable.
Much love!
Eternally Grateful
Well-Known Member
For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified
for I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will complete it till the day of Christ..
why is it people do not have faith God will do these two things?
for I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will complete it till the day of Christ..
why is it people do not have faith God will do these two things?
I have theory.
I've come to see the strong push of the flesh against faith, and against living holy lives. The flesh can deceive us to think that we are incapable of living holy lives because we haven't received some "second benefit" or "second work of grace", or a future "baptism of the Holy Spirit". That our sanctification must be "progressive". That we cannot live sanctified today.
We may see in our lives those sins which we haven't overcome, haven't gained mastery over, and we're left with how to understand why this is so.
Two possible answers can be that either, "I lack what I need to overcome sin", such as is the argument on this thread, or, "I'm not using what I have in my fight against sin.
That second can be further broken down to answer why we may not be using what we already have, that being Either I don't realize my freedom from sin, or I'm not willing to choose to become free from sin.
And I find the battle to be right there at that last point. Why does the Christian still commit sins? They don't choose to not, either from disbelief, or discouragment, or some other reason.
The fact is . . . we are free from sin, sin's power over us is gone, we are able to live holy by trusting Jesus.
If you try to do it another way, that's religion, as you try to make yourself acceptible to God.
We have to just walk away from sinning, and throw ourselves helplessly into God's arms, trusting wholy in Him. But where's the glamor in that?
Much love!
Please continue reading the passage from 2 Peter 1:5-10. By His Grace, we are given all things but it is up to us to deploy those things.
You can give an army all the weapons they need but they must deploy them properly for them to work. There is a spiritual war going on, and ones side does not want you to take up all your armor and properly deploy those weapons we are granted.... In Fact, because they do not see this spiritual war going on, they don't even see the need for warfare.
2 Peter 1:3-4 KJV
3) According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Let's stay here just a moment.
God in His divine power has given to us everything we need for life and godliness. This comes to us through the knowledge of Him Who called us, that is, through the knowledge of our God and Savior. He has called us to glory and virtue, here in the KJV. LITV and YLT show the more literal "through".
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises,
God has given us all we need. It's through knowing Him. He called us to, through, glory and virtue (leaving that translation question alone for the moment), again, "dia" here, whereby are given unto us, that is, He's called us to glory and virtue, and through glory and virtue His gives His exceeding great and precious promises. It's through His promises that we partake of the divine nature, presupposing that we "having escaped the corruption that is in the world throught lust."
His Promises.
A promise is to commit yourself. God has promised us, this means, God has committed Himself, to us, to do certain things. And God is not a man that He should lie. There is no shadow of turning in Thee!
God has committed Himself to . . . Never leave you nor forsake you . . . one of my personal favorites, as I find the very best day is one spent with the conscious knowledge of His presence with me and His love for me. Through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross I can know true intimacy with God at all times in which I am expressing that faith.
You could call it choosing to pre-suppose Scripture is true, whether or not I "see" it come to pass in my life. What I find is that when I believe Scripture is true, that I am free from sin, and free from my flesh, and that I can overcome the world, that's when and why it's true in my life.
The Bible tells me I'm free from sin, that I stand in His grace. The Bible tells me faith overcomes everything. OK, I believe! I find having a consistent faith is the core of all spiritual warfare.
I find consistenly trusting in God to fulfill His Word is at the heart of every struggle we face, whether it be with the flesh and temptations and testings, or with the world in it's adversities and entanglements, or evil powers which attack our faith.
Luke 1:72-75 KJV
72) To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
73) The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
74) That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
75) In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
Much love!
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