Forgotten God

 

Psalm 51:10-12 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”

 

Tomorrow, our small Bible Study group starts a seven session video series on the Holy Spirit from the best-selling book by Pastor Frances Chan. We previously completed the video series titled “Crazy Love” and found ourselves examining our commitment to Christ and discovering challenging area of our faith to grow and mature in. The holy Trinity is made up of the eternal Father, Son and Holy Spirit (aka Holy Ghost), and this series focuses on the person and work of this largely forgotten member of the Divine Godhead, His transformational effect in our life and our response as born-again Christian to our indwelling Helper. 

 

John 14:23-26 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

 

The Word of God tells us that (as a transformed Christian) life with the indwelling Holy Spirit should be radically different then life without the Holy Spirit. But, when Christians are out in culture, do you think anyone can tell the difference between Christians who have the Holy Spirit in them and non-Christians who do not? The secular world of the natural man, fallen in sin,  tempts the Christ-follower to be self-focused consumers of fleshly desires rather than self-sacrificing servants of the Lord attuned to the Holy Spirit speaking meaningfully and insightfulness into the culture. Where is our fellowship?  

 

Romans 8:9-11 “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

 

The Holy Spirit is the power in regeneration living inside every Believer. But, who does our life say that the Lord is? Do we live in the flesh or in the Spirit? We’ll see in Galatians 5 that there is a battle going on there for our soul. Do we live for the creation or the Creator? We have seven weeks to learn and see, as we once again examine ourselves, our faith and our commitment, showing that the Holy Spirit is not the “Forgotten God”. 

 

Ephesians 3:14-16 “ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.”

 

In Christ, Brian