The Invitation/ Prepared/ Holy Spirit as Personal Guide

Our Lives Ought To Be Centered in Christ

1 Jn 2:6 October 11, 2015

In the preceding articles in the series on: Walking in the Spirit the EOE has presented the reader with the essential building blocks which are necessary ingredients in the immersion process for the perfecting of the individual believer’s relationship with the Holy Ghost. Beginning with believing, and followed closely by yielding, obeying, trusting and standing in the Spirit, a relationship is built which situates the believer to receive all the higher spiritual qualities for which the Holy Ghost has designs for giving rise to in the potential disciple. The Holy Ghost wants to be rich toward us and provide us with all spiritual gifts so that we can stand tall in Christ. The high designs which the Spirit has for the believer are those which turn a Christian into a true disciple of Christ, namely: living and walking in the Spirit. It is His intent that we should live, breath and have a real, textured spiritual existence wrapped in a perpetual life in the Spirit.

This higher, living and walking relationship in the Holy Spirit is the end-all, the penultimate and ultimate relationships, needed to facilitate entry into Christ’s life. It is only at this degree of one’s relationship with the Holy Ghost, fully resurrected from the sarcophagi of one’s own provincial little world, that the believer has now entered into a mature relationship with the Spirit of God. The process delineated in the articles on this page amounts to an approximation, but the rudimentary sum of the conglomerate experiences which is scripturally termed the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The process belonging to the baptism of the Holy Spirit has been generally outlined as beginning with believing in the Spirit of God and then experiencing the necessity of yieldedness and obedience, then the reality of trusting and standing firm in His power, and not the power of self. Only then can one’s existence be centered daily in the life of Christ, which comes by and through the closeness of a relationship which is in unquestioning submission to the Holy Spirit. This includes all the requisites of the Spirit’s Will and hopes concerning this immediate life, as well as the one that is to come, and can be lived not just daily, but as finitely and minutely as on a moment by moment basis. The Holy Ghost can be that close to us.

The above preliminary experiences of our immersion can only be brought about as a result of giving ourselves over to the care and direction of the Holy Spirit by faith. They are necessary precursors if the last two ‘bottom-line’ fruits of immersion, i.e. living and walking in the Spirit, are to be realized in all actuality so that the believer becomes a living, walking determined, focused, faithful, disciplined follower of Jesus Christ. Until then the Christian can only be talked to and dealt with by God in the way in which Paul talked to the Galatians who walked in the letter of the Law and in the carnality of the flesh. “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and WALK AS MEN?” 1 Co 3:1-3 It is only when one finally stands in the Spirit, able to have all threats and lures staved off and defeated, being dressed in the armor of God (see Galatians 6), that one can then, live in and walk with, the Spirit of God in a mature and immovable fashion, confidently going before the throne of grace, in full assurance of faith to make known those petitions for others before God. “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”, schools the Book of James 5:16. However, living in Christ’s life and not one’s puny world can never be brought about by one’s own willpower or one’s steely discipline. The operation of God which works on us to dissolve faith and confidence in our own carnal power (even when one may be trying to be faithful and prudent with the best intentions and trying to follow God) can only be accomplished by the Spirit of God Himself who sets things up in the course of our life to ‘nullify’ our ego and dismantle our confidence in self-power. Only the Spirit can dismiss the ego and fill the void with the invigoration of Himself. We must concede to the sacrifice of ego; permit the entrance of a new and better way. We must sacrifice our ego in exchange for the sacrifice the Holy Ghost is willing to make for us by committing to live with us. (See: Yielding to the Holy Ghost: a Lesson Learned From the Law of the Leper) We are taught by Jesus Himself that “without Him we can do nothing” John 15:5. It is the Spirit who convinces us of all righteousness and steers us gently and in timely fashion away from all unrighteousness. The Holy Ghost convinces us, not only that we should be like Jesus, but that we can walk even as he walked. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, EVEN AS HE WALKED.” 1 John 2:6 The Spirit, when we exist in true state of believing in Him, when we are yielded, obedient, trusting and standing solidly in faith and unmovable, will make it, engineer things, so that we can have our life dissolve into perfect association with Christ’s – we truly and actually are living in Him. We must hear His voice and be obedient to it. If we say we cannot hear His voice we are calling Him a liar. He has told us that we need to live by every word that proceeds out of His mouth. He also says He will supply our every need. Speaking to us is the prime way God provides for our every need according to His riches in glory. This is His promise to us. It is the Spirit Himself who cuts the path, clears the way and makes God’s voice clear and distinct in our heart. This is the Holy Ghost’s job to guide us into all Truth, this, His passion, to deliver THE WORD to us. We can stride along in the steps of the Spirit who shadows always Jesus. But… We must be wise and attentive. The Spirit is a tutor who teaches the individual the way in which to enter into Christ’s life; how to cross over that stolid chasm of a dreary and dead carnal life by way of a spiritual bridge which joins life with and into Christ’s own life. This is what is meant by this fabulously wonderful scripture: “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and EVEN AS IT HATH TAUGHT YOU, YE SHALL ABIDE IN HIM”. 1 John 2:27 This is a scriptural testimony of the Holy Ghost which teaches us that we must be immersed in His guidance that leads to living, or abiding, in Christ’s life. This ‘living in Christ’ means that one is devoted to the extent of being obsessed, or in other words, affectionate to Christ’s hopes and not one’s own, enthusiastic about Christ’s plans and not in one’s own exclusive universe, loyal to the kingdom of God and to Christ’s promises of salvation and His absolute enthrallment with the Father’s Will, . Conformity to this is living fully in Christ. Only full reverence and respect for the Holy Ghost can produce this metamorphosized path to a perfect relationship so that living in Christ becomes second nature and unthinkingly real in the born-again saint.

We can say that this supernatural chain of supernatural spiritual experiences is ‘natural’ because it naturally and logically follows that we should live in Christ’s life in all reality. We are His, bought and paid for by the priceless value of the blood of God. It is only ‘natural’ that we should by the supernatural power and unerring guidance of the Holy Spirit live Christ’s life and forsake all personal construction of our own. The Bible drives the point home in these passages: “For ye are the temple of the LIVING God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 2 Cor 6:16 And we know that this temple talked of by Paul is the temple of the Holy Ghost and as God is to live in us, we are also to live in Him and exist in His life, which is Christ’s life. “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”. 1 Cor 6:18-20. He also said elsewhere: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Co 3:16.

Today, as never before, God has rolled out the red carpet leading into His throne room and is issuing an open invitation for all born-again Christians to come before Him where they may experience the joy and awesome power of being in the presence of His Royal Majesty and Awesome benevolent nature.

All too often we saints think in terms of God looking down upon us from above. Those who understand that God inhabits the praise of His people often think in terms of God descending to the place of worship and inhabiting a place, a church, a home, or a heart, through the praises of the saints. This is a truism, but… in this hour, instead of coaxing God down to us, God is telling us to come to Him. This is an added factor in worshipping God in spirit and in truth. Come up to His temple, come through the real gates by the Spirit, enter into the courts, the real courtyard of the real temple of which Moses’ tabernacle was merely an earthly replica; and come into the temple, past where the veil once hung, and into the Holy of Holies sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb, the innocent blood shed for us which is the only ointment that renders us a clean conscience toward God. The Lord God Almighty, the one and only Potentate of the universe, is calling to all those who have “put on” Christ by being washed in the blood of His dear Son, saying to them that they are welcome, come, if you are washed in the blood and worship in all reality at my throne in the hub of the universe.

Born-again Christians have always had the privilege of boldly entering God’s throne room of grace, but how many Christians have understood the reality of this privilege? How many take regular advantage of this great heritage which was won for them by the victory Jesus won on the cross at Calvary’? It is now time for the Church, as a potent body, to take advantage of God’s sweeping invitation to come to Him.

We ask: How many would refuse to go to the President of the United States if issued an invitation to the White House? How many would not focus, and with excitement, be consumed by the importance of the invite? Especially, if they were encouraged to ask the President anything that they felt was advantageous to the kingdom? What citizen would not be ecstatic and mightily proud to be received by the leader of the people and be honored to be heard at the seat of their country’s government by its leader?

But our invitation into God’s presence is greater by far. Think of it, dear saints, we are not being invited to see the mere leader of a country, or to the seat of some earthly power; we are being summoned to the hub of the universe, to the heartbeat of all creation, to the very spot from which all life emanates and every atom and molecule of Creation consists and is held together. We are able to live in life. It is time to live in the Holy Ghost. There can be no greater place to be received, no sweeter place to spend our time, anywhere in all the universe, than the Holy of Holies, the throne room of His Royal Majesty, the God above all gods. As never before, in these last hours, God the omnipotent, the Creator of heaven and earth has called His people to a continual assembly in the actual, true, and only real Holy of Holies, the one in heaven where Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father waiting for the trumpet call which will signal the gathering of his bride in a twinkling of an eye, the glorious church prepared without spot or wrinkle, whom Jesus adorns in holiness and righteousness. Come into the Holy of Holies, calls the Holy Ghost to our souls and minds, to our spirit. “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Heb 12:22-23

As David instituted a 24-hour tabernacle of praise, so God is instituting a 24-hour open-door policy as never before, inviting any and all to come, to feel welcome and free in His throne room. He only desires that we come in the right spirit and frame of heart and mind; in the Spirit and in the arms of His Son, Jesus, all under the auspices of the Trinity. God is calling his people to set their affection on things above and not on things of the earth. Check your Will and your ego at the door, mount the cross, be crucified and enter into God’s Will by the Spirit under the forgiveness of the shed blood of Christ. You must be born-again to have this kind of ‘security clearance, this sort of privilege before the master of all things. Then you may enjoy his presence, have communion with God in its deepest reality and fatherly affection. Christ is calling His Church to gather into the nucleus of things, the hub of the universe, His Father’s throne room which is in the heavenlies.

Ephesians 2:18 tells us, “For through Him (Jesus) we have access by one Spirit to the Father.” By the Spirit, through the blood of the Lamb, to the Father, we come. It is: BY THROUGH and TO: to God’s throne in heaven itself. (See: How the Trinity Works)This is a reality, albeit a spiritual reality, just as sure and real as any earthly tangible thing, including that body which is that “temple” of your soul and spirit.

And so the Trinity beckons us, Jesus greets us, ushers us in, permits us – embraces us; that we can and should come into the Father’s presence with joy and assurance. “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience …” Heb 10:22 Dear saints, this is the method of our might in the last hours, this is the residence of strength the citadel of the soul, the might of our spirit. This, dear brothers and sisters, will be the power of the Church in the coming hours and days! Let us focus on every aspect of entering into this great dwelling place of the Universe, the Holy of Holies and being before his throne of grace, in his actual presence, where we can receive instruction from the Father on his Will for us in our everyday lives, resting in the arms of Jesus, living in the Spirit so that we may walk with Him.