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These fruit are in us always through the Holy Spirit and we are to so yield to Jesus in us, that we are seen to live in these character traits. Gal 5:22-23 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! We also through the Holy Spirit have gifts which we are to display to the world as needed because being children of God we want to give the world a good report of him. The gifts we have and can be given more of by the Holy Spirit as required are - Prophesy, Service, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leadership, Mercy, Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miracles, Distinguishing of spirits, Tongues. Interpretation of tongues, Apostleship, Helps, Administrations, Evangelism and Pastoral. Now this is referring to special dispensations of these gifts for ministry in the church. This does not, for instance, negate the fact that Jesus told us that every believer would be naturally (super-naturally?) ordained to preach the gospel (Evangelism), speak in tongues (Tongues) and heal the sick (Healing) as they go about their normal lives. Gal 5:22-23 Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received! Mark 16:17-18 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. Every believer has the ability to do these through the Holy Spirit; but what they do is up to them! Every believer will walk in the gifts of the Spirit to the extent needed to win souls and influence people for the gospel in their own sphere of activity. But, some will be called to 'country-wide' or 'world-wide' ministies and will need special gifting in some of the twenty areas mentioned above. This is the role of the Holy Spirit with reference to the external, but there is also a vital role that He plays for us inwardly. We can see this explained by Jesus in the book by John, Chapter 16, verses 8-11. John 16:8-11 And He (Holy Spirit), when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. If we take the first point regarding sin we see that the Holy Spirit does not reprove us of sins but only of one sin; the sin of 'not believing in Jesus'. He reminds us that we fall short when we don't put our faith in Jesus to will and to do his work through us, and we'll walk in righteousness if we will only get back to putting faith in Him! Some do not read what Jesus said for themselves and so can be led to think that Holy Spirit reproves of sinning, rather than the reality that He reproves us of sin (singular). It's actually Satan who is always accusing the brethren of sinning, in an attempt to make us 'sin conscious', and some help him to do this by claiming that Holy Spirit also does the same thing! But we should not be sin conscious. ALL our sins have been removed - Past, Present and Future. When we accepted Jesus' sacrifice on Calvary on our behalf we were changed. We are no longer what we were before the exchange took place. First we are cleansed of our sins, so we are no longer sinners. Col 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So through Jesus Christ we have been forgiven of all our sins and have been put into the kingdom of the Son of God. Since this is the case we should have no consciousness of sin, but Satan accuses the brethren to bring condemnation into their minds and limit their ability to commune freely with God. We should not ascribe these actions to the Holy Spirit and blame Him for them. Holy Spirit does not do the things that Satan does. If Satan is doing something; His aim is to destroy you, and it's not from God. It's Satan who is the accuser of the brethren. Remember; God - GOOD! Satan - BAD! Jesus told us that we should not malign the Holy Spirit by claiming that He and Satan do the same works. We can read this in the book of Mark, Chapter 3, verse 28-29. Mar 3:28-29 I tell you with certainty, people will be forgiven their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never be forgiven, but is guilty of eternal sin. So, do not confuse the Holy Spirit's role with what Satan tries to do against you. Satan accuses the brethren in order to discourage them regarding their walk with Christ. Holy Spirit encourages the brethren by reminding us where our strength lies - In Jesus Christ. He reminds us that Jesus is our Faith. He is our Joy. He is our Love. He is our Hope. He is our Salvation. He is our Life. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit into the world to be our helper, guide, teacher, comforter, and encourager. You probably know that Barnabas was called the 'Son of encouragement'. Well Holy Spirit is the 'Daddy'! He's always encouraging you to put more faith in Jesus Christ so that you will have ALL success in this world and eternal life with God in the world to come. Bottom line; To put away sin - Believe in (Put Faith) in Jesus.
The second thing that Holy Spirit reproves us of is 'Righeousness'. Notice that He does not reprove us of 'un-righteousnss'. Instead He is constantly reminding us of RIGHTEOUSNESS; that we are clothed in Jesus' righteousness. If we think in terms of human relationships, having right standing with someone depends on their accessment of your character. If they consider you truthful, honest, loyal, trustworthy, caring, loving, and fulfilling other traits that are important to them, then you would have right standing with them. On the other hand when God looks at how we, of ourselves, exhibit these virtues, from the standpoint of the perfection that he is looking for, we do not come out very well. We come out very badly in fact. Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. We come nowhere near the standard that God has and expects in us. The righteousness that we can achieve in this life, of and by our own efforts, is so far below the standard that God expects in those who come to Him that He says it's like filthy (blood soaked) rags. The righteousness that God is looking for is that which was exhibited by Jesus Christ only, when he was here on earth, modelling the lifestyle of a perfect follower of God. It's the righteousness of God, which we cannot achieve by ourselves. So, if having right standing with God was dependent on our performance we would have no hope. But there is good news! While we cannot be righteous to God's standards of ourselves, He has made a way for us by allowing us to have Jesus' righteousness imputed to us. This is what the gospel (good news) is all about. Paul puts it like this in the book of Romans... Rom 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." And this is what Holy Spirit keeps reminding/reproving us about. We MUST put faith in Jesus Christ who IS our righteousness. When we were baptised and received Holy Spirit, Jesus cloaked us in His righteousness and the Holy Spirit sealed our new perfect spirits so that they cannot be corrupted. This is the only way that we can have the righteousness necessary to boldly approach God's throne as sons and daughters. We have had Jesus' righteousness imputed to us by our accepting of his sacrifice for our sinful lives. He has taken our sins and exchanges that for his righteousness. We are given His righteousness on accepting Him as our Lord and saviour. 2Co 5:21 Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Notice that we are not righteous because of what WE have done. If we have accepted Jesus as saviour HE has given us His fullness. We have ALL received this, which includes Jesus' righteousness so when God sees us he sees a people who have right standing with Him. Not because of our righteousnesses, but because of Jesus's righteousness having been imputed to us. Joh 1:16 For of his fulness we all received, and grace for grace. Then we are given a new spirit which is perfect and in perfect communication with God. In right standing with God,in other words. In our spirit we ARE the righteousnes of God in Jesus. Eph 4:24 The new man is created in righteousness and true holiness. Next that spirit is sealed by the Holy Spirit so that our spirits will stay sin-free. It's just not our nature in our spirits. Eph 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, And then we are cloaked with Jesus - clothed in Righteousness. So looking on the inside or looking on the outside God sees righteousness when He looks at His children. And Holy Spirt, if you will listen to Him, will remind/reprove you of this righteousness! Gal 3:27 Indeed, all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. You are completely different, inside and out; in the spirit. Now you still have to renew your mind and bring your body into submission to the new spirit life that you have through Jesus - that's certainly true. You have to put this new Spirit/Life into a new body/mind by renewing your mind. You have to put the new life into a new lifestyle. But it can be done when you put faith in Jesus. Rom 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. In your spirit you have been made the righteousness of Christ, and Holy Spirit will remind you of this and encourage you to put faith in Jesus so that you can live up to your position in Christ. Bottom Line - To live right put faith in Jesus who is our righteousness. The third thing that Holy Spirit will reprove us of is 'Judgement', but not our judgement; he will remind us that Satan has been judged! Hebrews 2:14 says, "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." In his death Jesus defeated Satan and we when we were baptised were baptised into Jesus' death. So in a sense, in the Spirit, we were there. And when Jesus rose we rose with him. The devil and his power over us was defeated at the time of the death and resurection of Jesus. That's what the word tells us. Jesus (who is in us by the Holy Spirit) has total power and authority over Satan and everything else. Satan was displayed in a parade naked and toothless to show us that he has no power over us any more. If when you rose up with Jesus you didn't see the parade you can always catch the video in Col 2:15. Col 2:15 And having disarmed principalities and powers, He mocked them in public, triumphing over them in it. This is referring to the manner in which the Romans dragged defeated kings and generals through the streets chained to a chariot to show the people that they were no longer a threat! Jesus has all power and all authority in heaven and in the earth, and he imbued his disciples with that same power and authority as we see in the book of Mark, Chapter 17, verses 17-18 and other places. So it's Satan that has been judged. We on the other hand have been given power over that enemy and anything he might try to bring against us.And this power operates throught us by the Holy Spirit in us and Faith in Jesus who is above all things. We are seated with Him in the heavenlies far above all things - that is the devil and all principalities and powers. Satan has been defeated and if you resist him when he tries to attack you, mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually, he will flee from you. The first thing to realise is that we don't resist in our own power although WE are the ones who have to do the resisting. The scriptures don't tell us to plead with God to resist the devil for us. They say, 'Resist the devil and he will flee'. YOU resist the devil and he will flee from you. But what Holy Spirit reminds us of always, is that it's through belief on and faith in Jesus that we will win!We resist in the power of Jesus Christ of course. We have IN US all the power that IS in Jesus Christ and He has ALL power and authority in heaven and earth. In Matthew 28:18, Jesus said, "All authority has been given me in heaven and in earth..." And Jesus has delegated that power to US, those who believe on him. Mar 16:17-18 "And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." So we CAN resist the devil successfully because Jesus has defeated Satan and removed his power. All this power and authority is ours as we accept Holy Spirit's reproof that we should not forget that it's Satan who has been judged and we are to put faith in Jesus who has saved us.
This is the role of the Holy Spirit in us - to give us victory in life. John 16:8-11 And He (Holy Spirit), when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
Attlee.
God' blessings. Click
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