ACHIEVING OUR SPIRITUAL POTENTIAL
There are great benefits in believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It is all part of the wonder and majesty of the Christian life. The Word says that our blessings are above and beyond all that we could ask or think. This is a super abundant life and Christ wants us to reap it to overflowing.
The Christian
life consists of two states: positional and experiental
sanctification. In general, I like to refer to positional
sanctification as God's hold upon the believer, and experiential
sanctification as our hold or focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
POSITIONAL SANCTIFICATION
But now to specifics. First, positional sanctification is like a coin with two sides: the realities and the potentials. It is extremely important we understand these and that their is a difference between the two. If we go wrong here, we will forever be off course.
The Realities
The realities of Positional Sanctification include the following:
have no knowledge [of God's mystery doctrines, IC], who carry about their wooden idol [their edited version of God's Word], and pray to a god [of their own creation and mind] who cannot save, Isaiah 45:20.
Belief in Christ guarantees our eternal life, but not the quality (wood, hay, stubble or gold, silver and precious stones), if you will, of our spiritual and eternal state. The believer in Christ may or may not be filled with the Spirit depending on whether or not he has unconfessed sin in his heart. He is spiritual from the point of his last acknowledgement of sin or sins followed by no subsequent sin. The eternal state is that which I often refer to as our rank, rule, and riches that will result from our individual level of spiritual achievement. Such achievement is determined by our decisions to grow in grace and the love and knowledge of God. These decisions will determine if we come to actualize our potential as God has designed for you and I.
God is waiting to bless us
God awaits the moment He might lavish upon you and I the Glory blessings. Hear what He says:
the Lord longs [waits] to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long [desire to glorify] for Him. Isaiah 30:18In fact, R.B. Thieme, interprets the above verse as God in heaven tapping His foot-waiting for us to reach spiritual maturity, so that He might heap upon us all that He has prepared for us.
But when will God bless us, you ask? God clearly tells us. When we reach spiritual maturity. And that, my friend, depends on the amount of time, energy, and effort you put into your spiritual life.
I WILL COME TO YOU AND BLESS YOU
When seventy years [the appointed time] have been completed
[matured, developed] for Babylon, I will visit
you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place [the
promised land-a state of mental serenity, satisfaction, and
fulfillment].
Let us press on to know the Lord...and He will come to us
like the rain [blessings]...Hosea 6:3
Seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness [the Glory
Blessings] on you, Hosea 10:12.
If we consistently place no other gods
before us, including SELF, then God says, I will come to you and
bless you [with the Glory Blessings], Exodus 20:24.
The Potentials
Below are just some of the potentials I have mentioned. These potentials have an ascendent order-they build one upon the other: first one, then another, and so on. I have found these potentials are often taken as realities by those taught by the Word of Faith crowd. They are taught they are God's kids and they have a right to them. Whatever they can conceive, believe, and speak, it is theirs. And when this is believed by the ignorant but not experienced, they come under the devil's heavy hand. Much suffering has been caused by those who do not understand that these rich blessings come only to those in the Spiritual life. These are not for the arrogant, proud, vain, self-boasting, ambitious, vengeful, jealous, crusader, or the greedy, who lives outside of grace. Striving in the flesh will only produce a facsimile, a fantasy, an illusion, but never the reality of these powerful and tremendous blessings. I will state them here.
or the Path of Righteousness.
But unlike the realities, which are irrevocable, the filling of the Spirit is a conditional state. It is totally dependant upon the believer being focused and occupied with Christ. If the believer becomes distracted and takes a detour from the Path of Righteousness (i.e., commits a sin), he immediately loses the filling of the Spirit, and he is cut off from grace. (At this point, he has no chance to reach his potential.) But once recognizing he is on the wrong path and drifting off course, and desiring to get back on path to reach his destination, he needs simply to get out his map, reorient himself to the road signs, and put his foot to the pedal and get back underway.
TRANSLATION: The Christian who sins and loses his residency from the Sphere of Faith needs to get out his bible, go to the promise of 1 Jn. 1:9, and DO IT.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This is a powerful tool for the Christian to employ. It is the only means by which we may be reinstated into the Spiritual Life. All the crying and wailing that we are sorrry and will never do it again won't cut the mustard with a righteous and holy God. God is not interested in your petty attempts to placate Him. Your sins were dealt with on the cross. It was Christ Jesus who was the propitiation for our sins. So end your whining, stand up like a man, admit your unrighteousness, and get on with your spiritual life.
ABOUT FACE!
How does this square with repentance? Repentance can be liken to the military command, about face! The soldier, upon hearing the command, will immediately turn 180 degrees. When we sin and are headed in the opposite direction that God would have us go, we will hear that small, still voice. It is the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit. If we don't harden our heart and show the same obedience as the soldier, we will respond. We will change our mind. We will turn from our wrong doing and head back to Christ. It is a readjustment of our focus and attention. This is repentance-a change of thinking.
Building Capacity
The more
time the believer remains filled with the Spirit and remains on the Path
of Righteousness, the greater (and quicker) chance he has to grow up, to
mature and bring Glory to God. This growing up produces character and capacity,
or the ability to hold God's blessings. Capacity of soul is an important
point. Let's look at it this way. Compare a small container to a large container.
Which has the ability to hold more? The large container, of course. To empty
the contents from a large source to a smaller source would overburden the
smaller. It would also be wasteful. And in some cases, harmful to the smaller
container. It could collapse it.
THE GLORY BLESSINGS
Since eternity
past, God has had for you and I treasure untold-blessings beyond our wildest
dreams. But unless we as believers build up our spiritual character and
capacity, God cannot and will not lavish upon us the Glory Blessings. To
do so would distract and destroy the believer's spiritual life by turning
his focus away from Christ. He would grow fat and forget his great need
for God. Therefore, God will not bless us with the Glory Blessings until
we have the capacity to handle them.
Life is filled with individuals who rose to stardom based on their exceptionals talents, skills, and abilities, but came crashing down as a spacecraft within the earth's gravitational pull. We read about actors, sports' hero's, musicians, preachers and politicians, who simply did not have the capacity to handle the fame, fortune, and power they acquired. These stories are always tragic. But those without character and values will always succumb to the siren call of the beautiful life.
Now that we realize the importance of character and capacity, let's see how we develop this mentality. We start with the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the initializer of the Spiritual life. Always remember that.
Now too many get sidetracked. They are asked, "Have you received the baptism?" This is always asked in terms of an experience. "Have you experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What did you feel? Did you speak in tongues? And having not experienced these, they are led to believe there is something more. Hence, they get set up for a fall into emotionalism, mental hysteria, and spiritual shanagins.
Yet all the above questions are inappropriate regardless of what others have experienced. Personal experiences do not make for sound doctrine. Subjectivity must be left out of the scriptural interpretion formula. If you have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ you have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Your belief in Him has forever and always submersed you into the Kingdom of God. And here you will remain.
Those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit at the moment of their rebirth are also filled with the Spirit. The filling is for power to live the Christian life. However, like any new born, who stumbles and falls many times before he gets "his legs," we, too, will sin many times in our spiritual childhood state. Sin causes us to lose the filling of the Spirit. But if we keep getting up (1 Jn. 1:9), we will learn to keep our focus on Christ more and more. We will get stronger and stronger. And as long as we are focused and filled, we are in the faith and we can move forward.
KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
Experiential Sanctification (ES) is the key to our spiritual development. In the Spirit, we have the power to prevent hell from corrupting our thoughts and to allow heaven to transform them. If we look to the Rock of our salvation, the cool and refreshing water of God's Intimate Counsel (IC) will flow like a river. Though we will be tested, tempted, and tried by hell, we need not fall if we remain focused on Christ.
Spiritual development is a daily process whereby the daily intake of God's Wisdom, or intimate counsel (IC) builds us up. IC transforms our thinking little by little. And as our souls are transformed, our actions will follow on a consistent basis. Consistently is key. It was the consistency of the unfaithful steward that Christ praised in contrast to the inconsistency of His followers. His followers talked a good talk, but could not walk the talk. Luke 16:8
It is only as we grow in the love of God, that we will eventually come to convert the potentials into realities. This conversion is solely dependent upon the conversion/transformation of our thought life. The further along we come in our mental transformation the closer we come to receiving the potentials. How long, you ask? That depends on the amount of time, energy, and effort you give unto God each day. Unfortunately, most believers will not reach their potential because their focus is wrong and their eye is not clear. But this does not mean you and I will not! We must keep our lamps alight.
Soul Prosperity
Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. 3 Jn. 2
This is a favorite of the Crazimatics. Yet, their focus is on the good health and prosperity. Soul prosperity is merely a footnote to them. Yet, it is primary. John is saying that as your soul prospers (i.e., develops, transforms, converts to the mind of Christ), that good health and prosperity will follow. This is God's way. First the seed, then the head, then the full corn. The corn does not come first, people. Let us get rid of our something for nothing attitude. Let's not be marks for spiritual con men anymore.
Therefore, what have we learned? We have learned that the Christian life is based on positional and experiential sanctification. Sanctification refers to being set apart. Positional sanctification sets us apart from Satan's kingdom. It means the acquistion of eternal life, which includes realites and potentials. Experiential sanctification sets us apart from a carnal mentality. This refers to the Spiritual life. It is the Spiritual Life which has as it's goal, the glorification of God. And the ramifications of this accomplishment is turning the potentials of our salvation into realities. These realities will transfer into heaven, and there they will remain forever.
...make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys.Lk 12:33b
