You've said the power to live godly is found in his Presence, which then you describe as those certain times when you and groups have felt "overwhelmed" if you will, with God's Spirit.
Do you believe that you can only live faithfully in those times?
Well, this is going all the way back to the statement that you made of, "people get focused on their performance, and lose their joy in their salvation. And likewise find they lack the power to live godly, because they are trying to reform their flesh, not following a walk in faith and rest."
The key word here is the
power to lead a godly life, and whenever you speak of power you generally need to distinguish between the power of the flesh and the power of the Spirit. And ultimately the power of God is found in His Presence. But there are certainly differing degrees. On Pentecost, His Spirit fell so strongly that tongues of fire were seen visibly upon the apostles. To a far lesser degree I experience His Presence when He is revealing something to me from His word, and though not to be compared to the experience described in Acts Chapter 2, such times nevertheless do empower me to live a godly life. I also experience His Presence during worship, and sometimes during prayer, and when I reach places where I am experiencing His Presence through none of these things, this is where the empowerment to live a godly life starts to wain significantly.
So yes, in effect, the Presence of God does need to be there in at least some form, or the empowerment will begin to wain away to nothing.
I'm not just talking about knowing by faith that God is here. Yes, it is by faith that we know God is here, but through that faith we find the Way to fullness of joy, fullness of power, the fullness of love, because He actually IS here. He actually IS speaking to me, guiding my life, empowering me to be strong in my infirmities.
There are the wonderful feelings of God's presence when He gives us a fresh filling of His Spirit.
To walk daily in that Spirit is equally wonderful, and no less supernatural! Transcendant.
I'm largely in agreement with you here, only I have reached a place in life where I'm desiring more than just the power to walk daily in the Spirit. I'm now to the point of desiring to walk in the powers of the age to come and in greater supernatural gifts. I guess that's more of what I was referring to by referencing "the godly life," so maybe I was redefining the expression beyond the way it is normally taken. My fault for confusing things, so I apologize for that. I had to go back and find where this particular interaction started, cuz I quite honestly got a little lost, LoL.
I can't help but remember . . . in years past, being conscious of sins, and watching as these are addressed, only to become conscious of other sins, sins that weren't on my radar before. So I wonder . . . what's not on my radar now, that God isn't addressing at the moment, but that He will in the time to come, when I will realize, that too was sin?
Yes. See, I have come to the place of quite honestly feeling that anything is sin that is not fully manifesting Christ in all His power. That is NOT the way I view others, mind you. It is how I view myself. Anything short of manifesting Christ in all His power and glory is imperfection, and since the NT teaching is to abide in Him, to whatever extent that I do not, to this extent I view myself as the worthless individual that I am. I am nothing in myself, and this is brought back to me every moment of every day. But through the promises of God, I can enter increasingly into the One who has been given all power and authority both in Heaven and on earth. But it is a high calling for all of us, and all of us are on different places on the path to fulfilling this. Some are still in the place of not really believing it possible, but this I believe is simply a matter of not yet having powerfully tasted of His Presence in any substantive way yet.
I would say that living at peace with God is obedience. Simply being forgiven, that's just the beginning. Reconciled and reborn. An entirely new and clean life spent growing in grace and truth and love, that is obedience.
I agree : )
I think that when we see obedience in our lives we can feel encouraged because we see results, but that result was never in question to God. But our reconcilation to God was never based on our behavior, has only been based on the work of Christ.
For so many years I was putting the cart before the horse. Much better this way!
I think God trusts us to walk in obedience, yes. That is what is meant by how our faith is accounted unto us as righteousness. He trusts that because we believe Him we will begin doing what He says. So we are reconciled from the start through faith, and it is entirely His work as you say.
I honestly never put the cart before the horse as you had. I always understood I belonged to Him by grace. I suppose coming to Him out of satanist heavy metal will do that to a person, LoL. But I have now come to the place (after 30 years) where I want a lot more horses in front of the cart, if you will. I want far more of Christ, and far less of me. This comes off as a works-based message to some, but for me it is simply the next thing I am being called to in my walk with God, and not doing so is to begin walking in disobedience. There is a saying, "To whom much is given, much is expected," and this is why Paul said "Woe be unto me if I do not preach the gospel." He had been entrusted with the gospel, with great power, and also with great responsibility. And I believe we are all on that road. The longer we walk with Him, the more we grow, and the more is entrusted to us. And the more that is entrusted to us, the more we bear a responsibility to God to walk in obedience.
