We will continue our lessons on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit for the next three sessions. Our lesson for Sunday, January 26th, will include Lesson 3: "Why so Few Christians Are Filled With the Holy Spirit" beginning on page 136 and Lesson 4: "How You Can Be Filled With the Holy Spirit" beginning on page 140. I want you to work on these two lessons in the same week so we can have the discussion on Sunday without a break between.
Our lesson for Sunday, February 2, will include: Lesson 5: "How You Can Know When You Are Filled with the Holy Spirit", beginning on page 143 and Lesson 6: "How You Can Continue to Be Filled With the Holy Spirit", beginning on page 146.
Our lesson for Sunday, February 9, will include the Recap for Step 3: "The Christian and the Holy Spirit". This will be a session, where we can look back and review the main points of this study on the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. So if you have missed some of the sessions, this is a great time to add to your notes.
I have re-read a book entitled "Holy Spirit" by Billy Graham. This book was published in 1978. It has been apart of my library for many years. So as we started this study, I decided to re-read this book and it has many good insights from Billy Graham regarding the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. I will share with you some of the information from this book. Chapter 9 of this book is entitled, "How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit", pages 109-122.
Dr. Graham writes: "I believe the New Testament's teaching on how to be filled with the Holy Spirit can be summarized in three terms: Understanding, Submission, and Walking by Faith." I will summarize for you the main points that Dr. Graham writes in this chapter.
1. Understanding: The first truth that a believer must understand is that God has given us the Holy Spirit and that He dwells within us. We discussed these truths in our lesson on Sunday. We established that at the time of salvation the believer receives, regeneration, spiritual baptism, the Spirit dwells within, seals, and fills. We also need to understand that God commands us to be filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5:18. The next point is that the presence of sin blocks the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. Dr. Graham writes: "Confession should be as broad as sin. " Then he lists some of the sins that could be a problem for believers: "There may be backbiting, impatience, unkindness, or an uncontrolled temper-any one of which can make life miserable for those around us. Unclean thoughts may need to be faced. Or the Holy Spirit may speak to us about our use of time, our use of money, our life style, or our use (or abuse) of some gift He has given us. In other words, every sin that we can identify we should bring to God for confession. As a believer, we must understand the necessary process of confession which Dr. Bill Bright calls "spiritual breathing". We will discuss this process in our lesson on Sunday.
2. Submission: The second step in being filled with the Holy Spirit is submission. In this context, the word submission means that we renounce our own way and seek above all else to submit to Christ as Lord and be ruled by Him in every area of our lives. This step involves confession and repentance. One of the great promises of the Bible is found in I John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Another great scripture passage that speaks of submission is Romans 6. Paul explains in this chapter that sin no longer has control over us because we have changed our master. We now belong to God. Paul writes: "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead". Romans 6:13
3. Faith: The last step that Dr. Graham includes in the chapter he calls "Walking in Faith". Now we are to act on this truth and "walk or live with full assurance that God has already filled us and we are under His control."
Dr. Graham concludes with these words: "This brings me to the last truth about the filling of the Holy Spirit: the filling of the Holy Spirit should not be a once-for-all event, but a continuous reality every day of our lives. It is a process. We must surrender ourselves to Him daily, and every day we must choose to remain surrendered. In every situation involving conflict between self and God's will, we must make our decisions on the basis of our constant submission to Christ."
My prayer is that you are gaining some vital insights into how you can have power to defeat sin. By faith, you can have a daily filling of the Holy Spirit. I like the words from Romans 12:2 "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold you from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity." J. B. Phillips translation
No comments:
Post a Comment