The Spirit of the Lord

A Broadcast with Sinclair Ferguson The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal power or force. He is a person. Today, Sinclair Ferguson helps clear up confusion about the Holy Spirit’s identity.

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The Fruit of the Spirit

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Rethinking the Fruit of the Spirit

~ Viola

As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, the ekklesia flows out of the inward parts of God. It is a divine organism. It’s not a tradition or a custom. She (and the New Testament describers her as a “she”) is a civilization born out of the unction of the Holy Spirit. Certainly, her members are human and fallen, but she’s divine as well.

This brings us to the subject of fruit. Primarily, “the fruit of the Spirit” as mentioned in Galatians 5.

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

For decades, preachers have been trying to persuade you and me to bear this kind of fruit. But the presupposition behind that persuasion is that we bear the fruit of the Spirit by effort. If you aren’t being patient, kind, gentle, self controlled, etc. you’re just not trying hard enough (so the thinking goes).

But this isn’t the way that a tree bears fruit. Every tree on the planet is a study in survival. A tree bears fruit out of the over abundance of life. Every cell and fiber is saturated with life, and it must find a way get rid of it or else it will drown in its own life. Thus it produces pods on its tips and on the ends of its branches. Fruit is dropped to the earth due to the excess of life that’s contained in the tree.

The fruit of the Spirit, then, is the result and the expression of divine life. I’ve never seen a tree bear fruit by grunting, straining, or striving. The fruit emerges naturally out of life.

In the same way, when you learn how to touch, encounter, and draw on the life of Christ – which indwells every genuine believer – on a regular basis, the natural result is fruit.

And if you have the privilege of gathering with other believers who are learning to draw from that same life, the excess is the fruit of God’s nature. In fact, the fruit of the Spirit is just another way of saying the nature of divine life – which is what the New Testament calls “love.”

Compare 1 Corinthians 13 with the description of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, and you’ll see the striking parallels. Notice also that it’s the fruit (singular) of the Spirit, not fruits (plural).

The fruit is love, which is the nature of divine life. And when you are walking in love, you are gentle, you are kind, you have self-control, you are patient, etc. These attributes are all manifestations of love – i.e., the nature of God’s life.

This is why learning to live by the Lord’s indwelling life is the central thing you and I should be focused on in this life. And whenever a body of believers is touching that life together, the results are incredible. Christ is seen and experienced through His body.

At the same time, if that same body of believers stops having fellowship with that life, then it will begin to chase other things (even good and spiritual things), but things others than Christ Himself. And it will fall apart.

The key is to stay focused on the life, which produces the fruit.

Comment at: https://frankviola.org/2018/03/22/fruit/

4 Things You Need to Know About the Holy Spirit to Live a Spirit-Filled Life

For Spring break one year, I took my family to the beach. Unfortunately, it was a beach in Washington. We arrived at our rented cottage in time to enjoy rain that made me wonder if God had revoked his promise to Noah to never flood the earth again.

Finally, there was a very brief sun break. We got dressed in our wool hats, winter coats, and boots to enjoy an arctic walk on the beach. There was no sand on the beach—because it was all in my mouth and eyes.

What was most impressive was the gale-force wind. At one point, I literally held on to our youngest child in fear that he would be blown over. Before long, we scurried back to our cottage to thaw out, play board games, and bemoan the fact that we did not live in Southern California. Since this was the first day of what was supposed to be an entire week’s vacation, things seemed hopeless.

Looking out the window some hours later, I came up with an idea that I thought might salvage our spring break: kites. I went to find a kite shop so we could try to use the weather to our advantage.

Thankfully, there was an epic kite store not far away. I bought some big, nice, serious kites—the kind that could handle a flight attendant on board. Eventually the rain stopped, so we went out for the maiden voyage of our kites.

Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdriscoll/2018/09/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-holy-spirit-to-live-a-spirit-filled-life/

Jesus Commands: Receive the Spirit

 

Jesus clearly promises that he will send the Holy Spirit and commanded us to receive Him. Yet this clear instruction is left off many lists of Jesus commands. Perhaps it is ommitted because we cannot fill ourselves Holy Spirit. Yet if we have been paying attention throughout this series so far we will have seen that  by ourselves we cannot obey most of the commands of Jesus.

In the verses below we see that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son, but must be received by us. Think of him as a house guest that is sent to us. Will we receive him warmly? Will we welcome him into the very centre of our lives? Or will we grudgingly allow him to camp outside near our house? Will we speak with him? Will we enjoy his company? Will we become friends with him?

Jesus Commands us to Receive the Holy Spirit

The rest: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/adrianwarnock/2018/07/jesus-commands-receive-the-spirit/

Podcast – “Ministry Fire: The Role that the Holy Spirit Plays in Ministry” (Acts 19:1-22)

https://bellatorchristi.com/2018/07/05/podcast-7-5-18-message-ministry-fire-the-role-that-the-holy-spirit-plays-in-ministry-acts-191-22/

How to Grieve the Holy Spirit

https://churchleaders.com/pastors/videos-for-pastors/261017-grieve-holy-spirit.html