Posted: 12/16/2009 at 3:37pm
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Piercing Our Hearts with Love
By Ron McGatlin
God is love. The primary characteristic of the Spirit of God is love. The sharp two-edged sword of the word of God in the hand of the Spirit of love is piercing the hardened shell around the hearts of people. Hearts have been hardened by religion and painful life experiences.
Souls hardened by religion may strongly resist the Holy Spirit and not readily receive the fullness of the flow of love, power, and wisdom from God.
Life, without God’s kind of love, can be filled with stress.
Planet Earth with all its forms of life and natural systems of existence are under stress awaiting redemption by the power of the Spirit of God - the same God who created the heavens and the earth – the same Spirit who hovered over the face of the formless and void earth in darkness – the same Spirit God who spoke, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Creation groans awaiting the fulfillment of the redemptive work of Spirit God through Christ Jesus abiding in adult sons of God.
Power to overcome the issues of life and make a difference in the world flows from the Spirit into and through our love-soaked and softened hearts. The Spirit connects us to heaven’s supply through Christ Jesus.
The first-fruits of the Holy Spirit came to abide within and flowed through the first century disciples beginning at Pentecost.
Rom 8:22-23: For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body.
Christ Jesus came from heaven to earth as the Son of God and Son of man to restore mankind as sons of God that adult sons might become fit vessels to carry the Spirit of God to restore the love, power, and wisdom of God on Planet Earth.
Rom 8:14-19: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
The Promise of the Father
Jesus, after His resurrection and just before ascending back to heaven, instructed His disciples.
Acts 1:4-9: And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, which, He said, "you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
Breaking Through to Receive Love, Power, and Wisdom to Redeem and Restore
It is extremely unfortunate for the church and the whole world that much religious teaching and practice has discredited the baptism with the Spirit of God in the minds of people. The ultimate power of God to bring forth the new redeemed earth and restore the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven has been restrained for many centuries. Only in the past century has there been significant progress in seeking to restore the attributes of God flowing in and through God’s people by the Holy Spirit of God. The powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit have been denied by many and merchandised by others.
The struggle continues today to tear down the erroneous teachings of the past and restore the truth of the indwelling Christ in His people by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. Even many who have broken away from religious church systems to gather in house churches and other venues have failed to overcome the false teachings of the religious systems that downplay the Spirit of God and the reality of God indwelling His people releasing love, power, and wisdom from heaven to redeem the world and restore the kingdom of God.
Religion has hardened many hearts against the gifts and work of the Holy Spirit. Religious teachings have created blind spots and hardened hearts to the Biblical teaching and direct words of Jesus regarding baptism with the Holy Spirit and receiving power to become carriers of Christ Jesus to redeem the world.
Supernatural power, love, and wisdom by the Spirit are for all God’s people. However, the powerful provisions of God are only appropriated in those who will believe and receive the full saturation (baptism) with the Spirit of God.
The promise or sealing of the Spirit as a planted seed or earnest is received when we receive Christ Jesus as Savior (Eph 1:13). This promise of the Spirit is to be fulfilled in the baptism with the Holy Spirit usually after a season of sanctification and maturation. Total filling or saturation by submersion in the Spirit fills our being with the spiritual substance of God’s love. Like warm oil the liquid fire of love flows in transforming every part of our spirit, soul, and body with His love. Our perspective on all of life changes as we begin to see things with the mind of Christ.
We are moved through the veil of the natural mind into the reality of the spiritual realm. We hear and see in the spiritual realm and commune with Spirit God - spirit to Spirit - comparing spiritual things to spiritual things (1 Cor 2:6). In the natural world we see in spiritual depth to the source or what is behind the natural reality. As we hear and obey God, spiritual gifts begin to flow effortlessly. Spiritual discernment is without effort; it just happens. Knowledge of things we do not know in the natural can flow to us in the spiritual. With practice walking in the Spirit, the wisdom from heaven becomes clear to us, and the power of belief or faith becomes boldness in the Spirit to know what we see, and belief in the Spirit is possible in the natural beyond any human ability to perform. (1 Cor 2:6-16)
Unbelief, doubts, and fears of the natural mind are a non-issue as we walk in the fullness of the Spirit. The fallacious beliefs we previously held that were derived from intellectually interpreting the Bible become transparent to us, and the error is clearly seen in the Spirit. However, if we begin again to look to our natural mind, we will begin to experience doubts, fears, and confusion regarding the things of the Spirit. Our natural mind’s intellectualism can be inflamed of the enemy to do battle with the Spirit (Gal 5:17). If we are under attack through our natural thinking, our spiritual life may begin to wane.
God has provided a very powerful tool for us to use to subdue our natural mind and release the Spirit. This gift serves as a trigger to activate the Spirit and quiet the natural mind. Also, other spiritual gifts begin to flow as this tool is employed. The gift of praying in the Spirit with unknown language is primary for releasing other spiritual gifts that flow in parallel with the gift of praying in the Spirit in an unknown tongue (language). Religion has hardened many to fear and greatly stand against this key tool and other spiritual gifts provided through Christ Jesus. Even those who do not firmly stand against gifts of the Spirit may be totally passive about reaching out to receive the baptism or saturation of Holy Spirit.
The work of the Holy Spirit is appropriated by faith. One must believe and receive. God will not force salvation of Jesus upon anyone. Likewise, He will not force the Holy Spirit upon anyone. He will not chase anyone down to fill him or her with His Spirit. He rewards those who diligently seek Him. Entering the kingdom of God lifestyle involves a strong pressing in against natural-man thinking affected by religious spirits from the enemy (Mat 11:12).
Please do not allow debate from previous religious teachings to rise up within you with arguments against spiritual gifts and praying in tongues. Ask God to guide you and saturate you with His Spirit. At the spiritual altar of God, lay down your religious past teachings regarding baptism with the Spirit and spiritual gifts. Go back to the Bible asking the Spirit to guide you and reconsider all the passages that speak of the work of the Holy Spirit including praying in the Spirit or praying in tongues.
It is not possible to share in this article all the biblical teachings and understanding of the variety of works of the Spirit and the valuable gift of praying in a spiritual prayer language. To help with specific questions and gain true biblical understanding of the work of the Spirit, I heartily recommend the plain-spoken simple but profoundly spiritual Bible teachings of Andrew Wommack on this subject. Here is a link to a series of video online teaching that are very good and well worth the time. http://www.awmi.net/tv/2006/week19
Keep on pursuing love. It never fails and His kingdom never ends.,
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com basileia@earthlink.net
Edited by Ron McGatlin on 12/17/2009 at 12:49pm
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