The Spirit of God - Part 2

This message is a continuation of “The Spirit of God – Part 1” message. If you haven’t read part #1 of this message, please go back and read part #1 before continuing on with this part #2 message on the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God is spiritual, but we are placed in a physical body with a spiritual heart and soul. To understand God, we need to get out of the physical box of understanding when it comes to spiritual things and rely on believing and understanding with our heart and spirit – because God is Spirit. Let us go back and look a little closer at the hierarchy structure of the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God

The Father – The head of God’s Spirit
* Pure agape love, pure righteousness, pure faithfulness, and pure grace and mercy.

The Son – A perfect replica of the Father. The perfect seed of the Father

The Life = Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ that brings spiritual life into our spiritual deadened heart and souls. Life in Christ is when we receive the Holy Spirit and He seals us for an eternity with Him in heaven

The Truth = The Spirit of Grace – A subset of the Spirit of God
* A subset of the Spirit of God released to believers to enable them to know the truth, have faith in the truth, understand the truth, and be empowered by the truth. Having belief in the truth of God and His Son is what brings us to a full relationship with God and His Son.
* A Revelation of God’s Love

The Way = The Spirit of Righteousness – A subset of the Spirit of God
* A subset of the Spirit of God released to people to enable people to honor God and live a righteous life. (The power to complete this righteousness comes from the Spirit of Grace)

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In John 14:6, Jesus says - John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.

In the above verse and the simplified “Spirit of God” hierarchy table above we can start to see the reason why Jesus ordered His words the way He did in John 14:6. “The Way” is first requirement, “The Truth” is second, and “The Life” is third.

We must first turn from our sinful ways and turn toward God to live the way of righteousness that God requires of us. The “Way” to the Father and the Son is living a life of righteousness. Abraham was credited with righteousness because he believed in God, and Abraham’s walk in life reflected the way of God. This was by the Sprit of righteousness that was available during the Old Testament times.

Gen 15:6 - Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness

So we see that most of the Spirit of righteousness was available in the Old Testament, but the Spirit of Grace that brings forth the truth into a believer’s heart was not yet released.

“The Truth” is the second requirement that we must receive from God to come to the Father. “The Truth” is brought about into a believer’s heart and soul by the Spirit of Grace. The Spirit of Grace was the missing puzzle piece needed for anyone to be able to live a life of righteousness that was acceptable in the sight of God. This is why the Israelites could see that God’s laws were good, but they did not possess the power within themselves to perform the laws of God. They could see that the laws of God were good, because they had the Spirit of righteousness available to them, but they could not do the laws of God, because the Spirit of Grace was not yet made available to them. The Spirit of Grace is the power behind the sanctification of our souls. It is the Spirit of Grace that enables us to see the truth of God and then the same Spirit of Grace that also gives us the power to turn from our sins and live righteously before our God. How is this power of Grace worked out in our lives? It is by the Spirit of Grace changing and remolding our heart’s desires. When we are truly sorrowful of our sins and we repent of our sins, it is the Spirit of Grace that changes our desires to not want to do that sin any longer. It is this change of the heart that God does through His grace that transforms us into a person more like Him as the process of sanctification continues on. What also happens at the same time in our sanctification process is the transformation from loving our own self to loving God. As we grow in love with God more and more, we end up wanting to please God more and more. This part of God’s Spirit (the Spirit of Grace – The Truth) was missing in the Old Testament people (except for a few chosen people) and this is why the Jews could not live righteously even though they knew they should live righteously. The desires of the heart and the love for their own selves were not replaced or transformed into Godly desires and a true love for God and others – so they were blind to the real truth (which is pure love) and tried to live by rules instead of love.

“The Life” is the third requirement that is needed to come to the Father. Just like Grace, “The Life”=receiving the Holy Spirit - is a gift of God, Even though “The Life” is a gift of God, it is only given to souls that have met the requirements of the first two – which is living a righteous life by being empowered by God’s Grace which is received by faith. You might ask why such a restriction. It is because, when you receive the Holy Spirit (The Life), you then have full access to the Son and the Father and His kingdom. It is also because we must be cleansed of all unrighteousness before we acquire this privileged access. Only totally cleansed and pure things and souls are allowed to enter the Father’s kingdom, so our hearts and souls must be made pure through and through in order to enter the Father’s kingdom. The gift of the Holy Spirit comes to a believer when God sees that a person loves Him with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. This love for God will be shown by their righteous living that they acquired through Grace by faith in God. When the Holy Spirit comes into a person as a gift, they are totally washed of any selfish sinful nature and given a heart only filled with God’s desires. After they have this new selfless heart, they have only the desires to please and serve God. God then empowers those born again believers for His service with certain gifts that will promote His kingdom and glorify Himself through those believers. These gifts that God gives are not for the benefit of the one that received them; they are for the benefit of others and to glorify God. I am one of those souls in the kingdom of God and loving every minute of it. My mind can hardly think of anything else but pleasing, glorifying, worshiping, and serving Him. For any that have not experienced God in this way, you can search for the Son of God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength – and then you will find Him.

Let us stop believing and acting like the people in the Old Testament and realize we have God’s grace to empower us to reach and serve the Father before we die. Let us humble ourselves before our God, which will enable God to raise us up in His grace to make us a holy and righteous people where we are found worthy to receive His Son (the Holy Spirit). God is a gracious and loving God and wants all to be blessed. God has done everything possible to make these blessings happen. The only things getting in the way of making these blessings a reality - is our own human reasoning, unbelief, pride, and selfishness. God is no longer limiting his grace like He did in the Old Testament. Let us stop limiting what God wants to do and have total faith in His Word.

God’s servant and yours,
Michael Reid