WHERE YOU RESIDE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD SPIRITUALLY
Where do you reside . . . How many residences do you claim . . . Where do you live geographically? Where do you live psychologically? A lady asked me this week to recommend a vitamin that can work wonders. I suggested the multi-vitamin-mineral-fruit and veggie pill ALIVE; in the course of our conversation, my age was referenced; she expressed disbelief, then asked me, “Are you still in your right mind?” ---- to which I responded, “Well, that’s debatable, but yes, I am ‘at home’ mentally.”
Be that as it may, the all-important question for me, and for you, at our age and stage in life, is this: Where do you reside spiritually, and, are you “at home”?
Yes, there is a spiritual realm that far too many professing Christians either deny or defer to folks of the Pentecostal persuasion. Yet,
As born-again children of God, we need to be aware of our new residence “in Christ” . . . “in the spiritual realm” . . . “in the arena of the Holy Spirit of God!”
In a very real sense, we reside in the “Spirit World” of the Trinity – God in three persons! No one has “seen” God, nor do we “see” Jesus as “He walks with me and talks with me”; and, the Holy Spirit of God is likened to the wind - which we do not “see” – but are aware of! Be aware of the Holy Spirit in your life! Now,
We did not begin the Christian life until we accepted Jesus Christ - for what He is and for who He is; but we have not accepted Him fully until we have become aware of and feel “at home” in the spiritual realm in which we reside -- “in Christ” . . . until we have accepted all that residing in the spiritual realm entails . . .
We are at a disadvantage in our day because we are so far removed from the literal coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. That world of early Christians experienced a surge of the life of the Spirit; they had not been professionalized, nor had they been organized; no, they were conscious of living in a spirit-filled world – to the extent that everything was gauged accordingly . . . !
The problem then as now was: There existed evil spirits as well as the Holy Spirit. People were easily persuaded by spirits of evil; people got swept away by false teachings; people deluded themselves into falling for the rhetoric - of the kind that seems to accompany false prophets wherever they pop up.
Thus, toward the end of the 1st century of the Pentecostal coming of the Spirit of Truth, genuine concerns began to arise about false teachings that were taking hold of “border-line” disciples; and, who better than the beloved apostle John to address the issue --- I John 3:24b-4:3 . . .
Like it or not, diverse “spirits” abound in and around your world – whether real or make-believe. (Some folks seem to live in a world of their own making for the sake of their sanity – a world in which they “feel” comfortable.) In the real world where most of us live and move and have our being, we have become aware of diverse voices that compete for our attention and our devotion.
So, when John talks about “spirits”, it makes more sense to me to think in terms of “voices” that invade our personal space, our range of hearing --- TV . . . gathering places . . . outside influences . . . inner intuitions . . . recollections from our upbringing. How often I remember advice mama gave me!
Aside from this diversity of “spirits, voices, messengers” we let influence or motivate us, there is a clear distinction made by John about Who we as children of God have access to, that makes all the difference in the world with regard to our spiritual well-being – the Spirit of God. And you know what?
Upon our shoulders, dear children of God, rests responsibility for testing the “voices” we hear to determine whether the voices are genuinely “of God”!
THE test of authenticity is whether the voices we listen to are willing to, and do in fact, “confess” that Jesus Christ is God incarnate.
To be “of God”, anyone who professes to speak “for God” will unswervingly, unapologetically, unashamedly “agree with” the Word of God that Jesus is Christ, the Messiah, Son of God, and that He came to earth in the flesh. If the spirit of one who claims to be a “speaker for God” communicates a message as to who Jesus was other than the incarnation of the LORD God, and thereby “confesses” the divine-human nature of the Son of God, said message is to be disbarred from taking root in one’s mind, disbelieved, disowned as false.
Furthermore, if any messenger claims to have access to secret information or inside knowledge about matters pertaining to God’s timing and judgment, the message is to be disbarred, disbelieved, disowned inasmuch as Christ himself will make God’s eschatological activity known - at a time only the Father knows.
Before the day even arrived, the spirit within me convinced me that, unless the Body of Christ as a whole had been informed by the Lord himself, the end of the world would not occur on Saturday, September 23rd, as declared by a prophet in whom no one of reputable interpretation of the Word had placed their trust!
Three evident truths were communicated to us by John to encourage us to continue to resist false teachers – John 4:4-6 . . .
Children of God need not fear prophets of doom and gloom, nor should we cower in seclusion at their forecasts of destruction. Why? As children of God, our victory over evil has been guaranteed. “Christ in us” is greater than “he” that is in the world!
In Christ, we shall overcome because Christ has overcome. Indeed, children of God reside in a constant state of overcoming because the Spirit “abides” in us!
However, the problem remains that false teachers will neither listen to, nor accept, the truth to which children of God have access, and by which we live; it’s just a fact of the human condition; and it could cause us to say, “Oh, well, what’s the use of continuing to witness and trying to persuade uninterested people?”
Yet, we have learned that there is no limit to the grace of God, and there is such a Person as the Holy Spirit of God! So, it is a lesson of life that we either have learned or better learn, and that is: The Spirit of God makes known the love of God which breaks down barriers!
“It is true that a person can resist even to the end. But what is also true is that Christ is always knocking at the door of every heart, and it is possible for all people to hear the voice of Christ, even above the many voices of the world.” (William Barclay, p. 114, The Letters of John)
Victory over evil is assured to those who are “in Christ” - for three reasons:
(1) You have been born of God and therefore have His nature; thus, your divine birth into God’s family grants you the privilege, and courage, to hear, and to follow, the Voice of the LORD, not the voices of “strangers” (John 10:5).
(2) When you surrendered your life to Christ, He came into your heart and He empowered you to overcome worldly distractions – so that we ought to be of good cheer (always keeping on the sunny side of life) come what may.
We have nothing to lose by trusting Jesus! “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
(3) As if God the Father’s regeneration of you, and the Son’s redemption of you were not enough, imparted unto you by Christ is the indwelling presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit of God – whose role is to guide you into truth, steering you away from diverse voices that do not meet the tests of authenticity. Folks:
Put ‘em to the test! Believe only those who hold fast to the truth of Jesus Christ: God was in Christ in the flesh reconciling the world unto Himself! Amen.
