CHAPTER 9

What Is Happening To Me?

(Some Results Of God's PRESENCE and God's LIFE in the Believer)

 

In studying the make-up of a PERSON, it is good to keep in mind and to ask ourselves the following:

  1. A person (made up of a body plus a soul plus a spirit) who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ enters into a LIFE-giving relationship to the LIVING GOD because of the Person and work of God the Son and the Person and work of God the Holy Spirit. Apart from GOD there could be no living relationship (John 17:3).
     
  2. A person's human spirit (see chapter 4) makes for a special relationship to God upon a person's personal  (A) acceptance of WHO GOD IS ("he that cometh to God must believe that ____    ____" -- Hebrews 11:6) and  (B) a personal trust in which a person is fully confident in the Lord, and  (C) a complete dependence upon God for salvation, (the saving of their soul and spirit), for support, for security, for one's supply of their needs, etc. The following diagram illustrates these last 3 points:
  3. Can you explain the work of God the Son FOR you?


     
  4. Can you explain the work of God the Holy Spirit IN you?


     
  5. Do your answers to the above two questions help you to see a need to know?   A need to grow?  Do your answers help you to see a Resource and a Victory for day by day living? How? Why?


     
  6. A New Creature!


     

The NEW LIFE-GIVING relationship to God (through and because of the Lord Jesus Christ) which makes the believer's spirit ALIVE results in:

1) An uncomfortable and new awareness of self, sin, the Saviour, one's society (the people among whom we live). Is this me? Can this be?

Seeing and sensing me apart from Christ (as God saw/sees me); new conflicts (Romans 7:18,24); the sinfulness of sin; the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ; the lostness of those around me.

Seeing and sensing me in Christ (the place of victory and growth--Romans 6:11,17 and Romans 7:25; 8:31,32, etc.); new confusions, convictions, conquests or victories (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Seeing and sensing my needs and my wants as a child of God (Consider a baby with its diet, diapers, dumpings, discomfort, etc.).

2) An awakened sense of choice (right choices made and the results; wrong choices made and the results).

  1. (ACTING ON) My WILL choosing to learn--to hear and obey.
     

  2. (ABSORBING) My MIND absorbing truth, God's Word.
     

  3. (ACTING ON) My WILL choosing to relate God's Word and His Working to me, my moments in time, finding His Presence, Person, Power, Provision, etc.
     

  4. (ABSORBING) My EMOTIONS (not leading and thus misleading me) being brought into subjection to my mind and my will. Also my emotions are being led by God and His Word, resulting in a new experience and emotional expression: "The fruit of the Spirit is L____________, J_______, P______________ (Galatians 5:22-23). John 15:11-- J_______. John 14:27; Isaiah 26:3--P________________________,
     

  5. (ACTING ON) My WILL encouraged and eager to choose to continue onward and forward, to learn, to grow, to go from milk only to meat, to enjoy and partake of all the food that God provides for me, to make me full of His presence (where God is) and fat from His essence (who God  is). See Psalm 139:23,24,1,14 and the verses tha follow; Philippians 1:20-24; Psalm 119:5 and the verses that follow; Philippians 3:10-15; etc.
     

  6. (ABSORBING) My WHOLE BEING and WHOLE PERSON being brought into the place where I am more and more willing to will (desire and want more than anything else) God's will.    See John 4:34; Matthew 26:39; John 5:19; Hebrews 10:9-10; etc.

3) An alertness (one who is warned, watching and ready) to conflicts (see chapter 8). See Galatians 5:17; Matthew 26:41; Romans 6:19, 8:3; Romans 7:15-25 (mind); Ephesians 4:23.

Consider Romans 7:6--"so that we should serve in _____________ (looking back because of my new position in Christ) of spirit . . ."  The believer is enabled to serve in the NEWNESS of a right relation to God the Holy Spirit, having died in Christ. The believer is FREE to see the LAW and its authority from a NEW position--FROM A RIGHT RELATIONSHIP TO THE AUTHOR OF THE LAW.

As a believer, I am either under the influence and control of my OLD nature (my relationship to myself apart from God) or my NEW nature (my relationship to God in Christ Jesus).

Which controls me NOW? Which controls me the most often? How do I know which nature (relationship) is controlling me (Galatians 5:19-23)?

Don't FIGHT God but FOLLOW Him and His Word. TRUST God but don't TRY (TEST) Him in the wrong way. What would be the wrong way? What would be the right way?


4) An astonished (implies a surprising so great as to appear unbelievable) sense of changing. Notice the Apostle Paul's evaluation of himself in the different stages of his Christian life:

1 Corinthians 15:9 (Approx. 55 A.D.) _________________________________________________

Ephesians 3:8 (Approx. 61-62 A.D.) __________________________________________________

1 Timothy 1:15 (Approx. 64 A.D.) ___________________________________________________
 

Consider Romans 7:18,24,25

From "no good thing" to
the goodness of God to
the Good God

5) An assuring state of comfort, concern, corrections and clarity.

  1. COMFORT--The God of all comfort discovered and delighted in (2 Corinthians 1:3 and the verses following; Psalm 37:4-5).
     
  2. CONCERN--See 1 John 3:14; 5:1-3; John 13:34--"a _______ (looking back) commandment"; John 13:35; Romans 9:1-3; 1 Corinthians 10:33; etc.
     
  3. CORRECTIONS--See 1 John 1:7-10; 2:1-2; Proverbs 28:13--NO BANDAGES, BURYING, BLINDNESS but HEALINGS, HEALTH, RIGHTNESS. No cover-ups; no concealing. Complete honesty and openness before God.
     
  4. CLARITY--An ever increasing understanding, discerning, knowing and making differences--as books of the Bible, chapters of the Bible, truths, principles, law-grace, the different judgments, the different baptisms, etc. See Colossians 1:9 and the verses following; Hebrews 6:1-3; Romans 12:2; 2 Timothy 2:15; etc.

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?) through what number God only knows, but may these brief notes stir your hearts to know that your whole being--body, soul and spirit--will be changed for God's glory until God brings His work of salvation to completion (Hebrews 2:10--"bring many ________ unto ______________"; 1 John 3:1-3; Romans 8:29; Philippians 1:6).

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