Christian Living
Understanding You
I’m grateful to be back to continue sharing God’s Word with you. I was really experiencing some troubling times at work, at home, in my finances and with distant relatives. I believe when God uses us more the devil and his evil army are out to make our lives difficult, but I thank God that He delivers us from evil. As a result of the trials I went thru I’ve accumulated more testimonies for the glory of God and I can share them with you as the Holy Spirit leads me, amen.
The Direction We’re Going
I want to pick up where we left-off with the Topic of (The Holy Spirit Teaches Us All Things). I would like to say that it may seem that I’m focusing on helping Ministers only and not-- excuse the term (average Christians). Well, let me say that Christians are not average. We are to be Christ-like or live as Jesus lived on the earth. We have to mature to that level and the only way we can is by believing and understanding the Topic of the Holy Spirit; How He operates in our lives and Understanding who we are.
So I was given instructions by the Holy Spirit to teach in-depth about who we are--- and connect it to how the Holy Spirit operates in us.
Paul’s Description about Us
Paul was the most amazing teacher that ever clarified the operation or function of a human-being. I attended College and took mandatory classes on Philosophy 101 and Psychology 101 as part of the curriculum for Construction Management. I guess they wanted to teach us how to deal with people on the construction site. Anyway;
1. Philosophy- is a speculative inquiry concerning the source and nature of human knowledge. And the system of ideas based on such thinking.
2. Psychology- is the science that deals with mental processing and behavior. Focusing on the emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual or group.
One thing I learned is that if we are not well trained in scripture we will accept the position of certain Philosophers and Psychologist because they seem to have a strong opinion about the human-being. However, I thank God that I studied scripture for years before I went back to College because I was able to screen out all the pros and cons about both subjects. Without boring you I’m going to make this simple. Paul gave us all we need to understand who we are and how we function or operate as human-beings; He also high-lighted how we should be open and sensitive to the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us as believers.
Paul’s Self-Examination
Paul was teaching about Spiritual Gifts and Ministry Gifts to the church at Corinth in (1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13, & 14). In his explanation of the definition of the God-kind-of-Love we must exercise above the passion and ambition of being used mightily with Spiritual Gifts. Paul made a personal comment about his spiritual growth.
Paul said, when I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me (1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV).
Paul began to realize how he operates as a human-being and shared it with the believers at the city of Corinth. We see by this statement how we actually live-out the human-process of functioning each and every day.
This of course is a backward explanation of the process. (What do you mean Manuel?) Well, let me break it down to you in an updated manner.
1. First- we think about what we encountered. Or whatever we are thinking about.
2. Second- we reason it out, rationalize what we are thinking about--this is where the imagination processing kicks in.
3. Third-we speak about what we are thinking about, making our plans of how-to-do what were rationalizing.
4. Fourth- we begin to do what we spoke about—this is the practical part the action or reaction to what we planned.
Connecting the Dots
What does this information has to do with what Paul is saying? Paul tried his best to explain that Love is key to the Christians walk of faith. It’s not about how much faith we have or the unknown tongues we speak, or the miracles we do. In other words, miracles, signs, and wonders don’t mean anything if we don’t operate in Love first. Or allow Love to be our motivation to help people by exercising our spiritual gifts.
Paul then acknowledges his own spiritual growth when he thought that these miracles, signs and wonders and the ministry he was entrusted with were of greater importance than Love. Paul said, when he was a child (spiritually immature), he talked, thought, and reasoned like a child (immature believer), but when he became a man (spiritually mature man), he put childish behavior behind him (1 Corinthians 13:11 The Manuel Paraphrase).
What are we made of?
We were created by God. We were not born of a monkey (Evolution Theory). We were not BOOM BANG and came into being (Big Bang Theory). We were not a fly, a bee or a flower and came into this life as a boy or girl Human-being (Reincarnation Theory) nor can we wish to be either in the next life. Whatever they fed you in College that is not Biblical Please ignore it!
God Made Man
God created the Body from the dust of the good earth (Before the earth was cursed), and then blew His Divine breath (The Holy Spirit) along with the human spirit of Adam into the created body and then man became a living Soul. So we were created with the Holy Spirit’s power and we are built with;
1. A Human spirit- we are a spiritual being.
2. A Soul- we have a soulish part that is the (emotional and mental capacities).
3. A Body- we have a physical body. (See Genesis 2:7)
I purposely amplified the verse in Genesis 2:7, because we would need to look at a lot of different scripture to confirm and affirm that these are the faculties that we possess as human-beings. When we read scripture we are instructed to worship God with all our heart (Spirit), soul (Mind), and body (Mark 12:29-30/ Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Paul said, now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23). There are many more scriptures that speak about our spirit, soul, and body.
3 Part Being- 4 Part Living
We UNDERSTAND this much about US so far;
1. We are a Spiritual-being (have a human spirit)
2. We have a Soul (mental and emotional capabilities)
3. We live in a physical Body (the Touch, Taste, See, Hear and Smell capabilities)
We UNDERSTAND that we will encounter things in life and we will operate like Paul said;
1. We will think
2. We will reason it out- Rationalize it.
3. We will speak about it.
4. We will act or react on it.
Now, that we learned the basics of who we are and we can now UNDERSTAND how we operate. It will be much easier to listen to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, the Holy Spirit is;
1. He is our Helper (John 14:16)
2. He will be with us forever (Constant Companion)(John 14:16)
3. He is the Spirit of Truth (He will reveal to us the truth of God’s Word when we read it and Meditate on it)(John 14:17)
4. He dwells with us and in us (John 14:17)
5. He will TEACH US ALL THINGS (John 14:26)(ALL THINGS MEANS ALL THINGS)
6. And bring us to remember ALL THINGS that Jesus told us (John 14:26) (WE WILL BE REMINDED OF ALL THINGS JESUS SAID).
The Practicality
The simplicity of applying God’s word is as practical as;
1. We pick up the Bible pray for God to grant us understanding of what we are about to read.
2. Then we read it, meditate on it, ask questions regarding it, and then we place it down.
3. When we go about our day and when we are challenged or we encounter something if we became spiritually mature we will be reminded instantly by the Holy Spirit to act in Love toward that difficult person. When our immature mind-set wants to rip the persons head-off.
4. Then we speak maturely in response to the difficult person while our immature mind-set wants to continue to think and rationalize that if we weren’t a Christian we would have gave that difficult person a piece of our immature mind. (Curse them or cuss them out!)
The practicality is ongoing we cannot stop applying scripture. When we read and understand a passage of scripture about the topic of love or forgiveness for example, we will evidently encounter a situation where we will have to apply the word of God or act out immaturely. As time goes on, if we did not learn to apply the word of God in a particular area--we will experience the trouble and challenge over and over until we apply the Love or forgiveness or compassion or whatever godly attribute we must apply in that area. We ultimately must grow up and put our childish ways behind us.
The Holy Spirit in Us
The Holy Spirit is in us to remind us what the word says about our actions and reactions of living a Christian lifestyle. If we encounter trouble and if we’ve developed our human-spirit to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit we will be captivated or gripped immediately when someone treats us wrong. And we will be angry but we will respond maturely. All this happens in seconds, it takes longer to explain it.
I remember reading Matthew Chapters 5, 6, and 7, over and over for months in 1992. I memorized it by reading it so much that I was able to quote it word-for-word. One day I saw this pretty girl, I was single so I was checking her out (Men call it sizing her up) the very moment I thought about the size of her breast I heard the Holy Spirit quote Jesus saying, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28).
Then a deep conviction would fill my conscious for checking out this hot looking chick. I prayed right there God forgive me for lusting after her hot body in Jesus’ name. And walked away without any problem of me going over-board and trying to rap or speak to her with ungodly motives.
We must UNDERSTAND who we are and how the Holy Spirit operates in us.
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