Five Operations of the Holy Spirit Part 31
We are perplexed but the life of Christ keeps us from being in despair. We are cast down but never destroyed because the Spirit of life from God raises us up and we keep on pressing forward in Christ.
Dying and living, dying and living, dying and living, day after day, week after week, year after year. We are coming to know the fellowship of His sufferings, and He is well aware of every twinge as we enter the rejection, loneliness, and humility that is His (and our) portion.
Christ knows. In our humiliation, justice is denied us. He knows. He can have fellowship with this. We are coming to know also the unconquerable power of His resurrection. Resurrection life is the energy that brings us through death.
What has died and been raised again by the Spirit of God can never die again. It is alive eternally in the Presence of God Almighty. Therefore, every part of us that has been brought down to the death of the cross and has been raised again by the Spirit of God has been resurrected already. It is ours forever.
In summary, then, we see that in order to have the righteous nature of Christ created in us we must receive of the fullness of the grace of God. The grace of God includes the general and specific Word of God to us, the body and blood of Christ that keep on feeding our new nature, and the resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead.
Added to these three elements of grace is the continually atoning blood that, as we have seen, keeps on cleansing us as we walk in the light. God's true grace is given us without price, but we must give ourselves to the Holy Spirit without distraction if we are to be able to lay hold on the gift of God's love.
It may be noted that in the Ark of the Covenant were placed three items: the two tables of stone, the jar of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. These three speak of the grace of God that is placed in the heart of each believer in Christ.
The two tables of stone on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments represent the Word of God that creates God's way of holiness and righteousness in us. The memorial jar of manna represents the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the virtue of God, that comes down to us from Heaven each day of our sojourn in the wilderness of the world. Aaron's rod that budded represents the resurrection life that abides on the priests whom God has chosen and that raises them up from the power of sin and death.
Just as Aaron entered the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement, sprinkling the blood on the Mercy Seat, so it is true that each day of our lives the blood of Jesus must be sprinkled on all that we are and do. There you have the picture of the Christian. The Word of God, the body and blood of Christ, and the Holy Spirit are working in him. The blood of Jesus is making atonement for him continually.
We have discussed the assigning, directing, and empowering of gifts and ministries; the abolishing of the guilt, tendencies, and effects of sin; and the creating of the Nature of Christ in us.
The fourth operation of our sanctification, as conducted by the Holy Spirit, is the giving of comfort, guidance, and strength to us in every detail of our discipleship.
The Holy Spirit comforts and guides us.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (John 14:16)
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:26)
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: (John 15:26)
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)
The Holy Spirit teaches, guides, and strengthens us as we journey through the Christian experience. He abides with us. He instructs us, bringing the words of Christ to us. He guide us into all truth and shows us things to come. The Christian discipleship would be impossible if it were not for the assistance rendered to us continually by the Holy Spirit of God.
Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. (Acts 9:31)
The Holy Spirit was so active in the early Church, as recorded in Acts, that the book well could be entitled, The Acts of the Holy Spirit. The stage is set in Acts 1:8:
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Then the Holy Spirit assumed sovereignty over the Church of Christ.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:2)