God told us to redeem the time
Next Part To maintain a life full of the Holy Spirit
Paul said that if we want to live a life full of the Holy Spirit, we must redeem the time. In Ephesians 5:16-17 it says, “Redeem the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” If we want to live a life full of the Holy Spirit, we must redeem the time and not be unwise. We should understand what the will of the Lord is and do it. We must decide which is more worthwhile: the life faithful to our flesh or that devoted to God.
After we are born again, the Holy Spirit dwells within us. If we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it means our Master is the Lord and He is our King. Only He is our Saviour and we must admit Him absolutely to be our God. He is our only Master. He is the Master who made me, forgave all my sins and blessed me. And He is the King that has dominion over my life and death, blessings or curses. We must admit that the Lord is the Master Himself and God so we should obey Him throughout our lives.
Let’s see what it says from Philippians 2:5-11 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the Cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Paul said, “Let this mind be in you.” He said this was the heart of Jesus Christ. What Paul said was that “this mind” is of Jesus, who was God the Creator and came into this world to save His people from their sins according to the will of His Father. The Lord came to this world and took away all the sins of the world through His baptism by John. And when He died on the Cross, the sins of the world were extirpated with Him. He was then resurrected after three days and became our Saviour.
The reason why Jesus Christ, the Creator, came to this world was to save us. He showed His love for us through His baptism and blood on the Cross. All creation must kneel before Him and appreciate His love that gave us forgiveness of sin by lowering Himself as a creature even though He is the Creator. That is why all the creatures should confess that He is their true Saviour. He made us confess that He is not only the Lord of all creation but also the Lord of the utmost righteousness to us.
We, who believe in God and have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, must believe that ‘God is the only real Master to me’ and have the love of Jesus Christ in our heart. We must have faith that our master is not ourselves but Jesus Christ, who created and saved us from all our sins. And we must also have faith that He is the Master who makes us live a blessed new life and prepares everything for us and works for us.
There are many people who do not want to exchange masters after being born again. There are many who have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit but insist that they are the masters of themselves. The life full of the Holy Spirit is the life of following God. This kind of life cannot be gained in one day but is possible only when we believe that Jesus is the Master of our lives and the One that created us and all other creations in the universe. We need to have faith in order to serve Jesus our Lord, Master and God, who has saved us from our sins and gave us everlasting life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
We need to bear the truth in our minds. Many people live their lives as masters of themselves. They protect and maintain dominion over their own lives. But now is the time to change masters. We’ve now become the ones who know God, and so our essential Master is the Lord.
All of us have sin in our hearts and should be condemned to hell for our wrongdoing. But we found God through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God loves us so much that He came into this world, took away all our sins by being baptized by John and dying on the Cross to become our real Savior. And through our faith in God, we were delivered from all our sins. In other words, we received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Romans 8:9). When we received His redemption, that is, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we became the children of God. The Holy Spirit is God to us and we must walk in the righteousness of God under the instruction of the Holy Spirit. To live so, we must give up mastery over ourselves. After we met Jesus and are delivered by Him, we must make Him our one and only Master.
We must hand the thrones in our hearts to Jesus
We cannot follow the Lord if we consider ourselves masters of our own lives. When God orders us to serve Him, we will say “Yes” without delay if we are not our own masters. Otherwise, we might say “Why should I do it for you?” The person who is his own master will refuse to do what God wants him to do, thinking, “He should ask me as a favor to do what He wants.” To such a person, God’s instructions are nothing but idle and bothersome words.
However to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we must obey His order. We cannot be cows that are dragged to the slaughter, but rather we must volunteer to follow God. We must follow God, our Saviour, who leads us along the righteous path. God is the Lord, who blessed us with salvation. If we serve Him as our Master and keep His rules, we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you and the members of your family hand your kingship to Jesus and place Him above all else, you will have grace and blessings in your lives.
You may have seen pictures like the one in which a man who is sailing against a strong windstorm and Jesus is standing right behind him. When it seems that we are managing the challenges in our lives and doing the work of the Lord, it is actually our Lord Jesus Christ who is leading us and holding our hands. It is Almighty God who oversees our lives. He saved us. He protects us from Satan, leads us and has dominion over our lives.
Since He became our Master, He is able to supervise and bless us. But if we do not acknowledge Him as our Master, He cannot perform the role. As He is the God of personality, He does not force us to obey His will. Even though He is Almighty God, He does not do anything for us unless we volunteer to serve Him as our Master and ask for help.
Cast all things on Him
Cast all things on to Him so that He can fulfil His mastery over us. Serve Him and admit that He is our Master. Since we are far from perfect, we must cast all things on Him and pass all responsibility on to Him. Once we cast our families, daily lives and everything else on Him, we will receive the wisdom from God and become able to live as He wants, managing all the problems with the faith and power that God has given us.
Our problems then become those of our Master, which means that if we just follow Jesus the Almighty God, He will take responsibility for us. We will be able to live a life full of the Holy Spirit and enjoy the peace that resides in Him. As faithful Christians, we must kneel down before God, admit and serve Him as our Master.
Let’s see what it says in Philippians 3:3 about what kind of faith we must have to live a life full of the Holy Spirit. “We are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” What it means by ‘the circumcision’ here is the ones who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
To live as the circumcision means to cut off all the sin in our hearts and pass it on to Jesus Christ, who was baptized by John. Those who are led by the Spirit owe their lives to the Spirit. They serve God and rejoice in Christ Jesus saying, “Jesus has led me to live this glorious life. He made me righteous and blessed me. He gave me all the grace I needed to serve Him.” We need to live like this. This is the life full of the Holy Spirit. Paul said, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
In Philippians 3:13-14 it says, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” God told us to forget those things that are behind us in the past, and reach forward to those things that are ahead. We must press toward our goal. Regardless of our righteous deeds or wrongdoings, we must forget those things that are behind us and try to reach forward to those things that are ahead and press toward our goal. This goal is to serve His will holding on to Jesus Christ by believing in Him.
We are far from perfect, so we are apt to fall down when we feel the lure of the flesh. However by looking up to God and having faith, we can dispose of all our weaknesses and iniquities. When Jesus Christ was baptized by John and died on the Cross, all our sins were transferred to Him. When He became our Savior through the resurrection, we were given new lives thanks to our belief in Him. Therefore, we must dispose of all those things that are behind us, reach forward to those things that are ahead and press toward our goal.