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God is The compelling motivator of loving actions. However actions separated from His Presence are not the evidence that we love God. It is difficult to separate what we feel from and for God and the actions which will follow, yet we must guard against doing the actions alone.
"Being" in the Holy Spirit is the fullness of spiritual life as compared to "doing" for God which becomes a role to play through one's life. Faith must embrace His perfect love as the basis to cast out fear, pride and lust from the heart. The will must exert itself to release one's self of emotional attachments to the material world. Notice I did not say to people. I am not suggesting a life of solitary asceticism. Owning property does not have to be loving and living for the property. See Colossians chapter 2.
An act of the will to turn from the material realm and embrace the Holy Spirit is a more holy decision than tithing 90% or pew sitting every time the bell rings or spending time with another human, while not actually engaged in loving him or her, just to have "given" something of one's self.
The result is a spiritual reality of finding ourselves within His Presence and knowing where He leads in finding daily our significance as a priest to God.
I have a sincere trust in the view that the voice of many brings into focus the fullest possible meaning of the Scripture and a greater understanding of God than the solitary view will support.
Please feel free to engage in a conversation and express your view.
5 comments:
Walking in the Spirit will result in the "Fruit of the Spirit"--character qualities that change the way we live. But most people get excited about doing things, focusing on the "spiritual gifts" and especially on the gifts that put them up in front of the church. The trouble is, the gifts can be counterfeited. Satan can even do healings, especially if he caused the disease in the first place. (Christ indicated that as a cause at least once.) But he cannot counterfeit the fruit of the Spirit, because they are foreign to his nature. More than 30 years ago I started teaching that the fruit of the Spirit is more important in an individual's life than the gifts. But most people, and most church leaders, tend to focus on externals, rather than taking the time to get to know a person and evaluate the fruit.
Too true, and an evidence that either simply maturity is lacking or in some cases there is no reality of the Holy Spirit in the person's life.
Thank you for this. Useful and certainly refreshing. I am sure to visit from time to time.
Apple James
Thanks for stopping by, Apple James.
I'm glad you did!
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