Mentoring Men for the Master

THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE – THE SPIRIT CONTROLLED LIFE

What is the NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE?  It is the Spirit-controlled life.  Anything less than the Spirit-controlled life is a life lived in our own strength and efforts (our flesh).  Such a life is a defeated life, expressing itself in frustration, restlessness, resentment, anger, bitterness, and stress.

What are the ingredients of the Spirit-controlled life?  In order to understand this glorious truth, we need to look at every aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit in a genuine born again person:

  1.  The INDWELLING of the Holy Spirit – Our bodies become His Temple – 1 Cor. 6:19 – Results:
    1. Presence of the Person of the Holy Spirit – Romans 8:9b
    2. Communion with the Person of the Holy Spirit – 2 Cor. 13:14; John 14:17 – healing of body and mind
    3. Access to the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit – Romans 8:13
  2. The INCOMING of the Holy Spirit – Spiritual re-birth – Results:
    1. Recreation – Ephesians 4:24 – an absolutely new life
    2. Engrafting into the Body of Christ – 1 Cor. 12:13 (baptism of Spirit)
    3. Enablement of Every believer – 1 Cor. 12:7; 1 Peter 4:10 (gifts of the Spirit ) gift of ministry
  3. The INFILLING of the Holy Spirit – Control – Ephesians 5:18 – obey, say yes to Jesus. Results:

The enrichment of the Spirit – fruit – Gal. 5:22-23.

The empowerment of the Spirit – gifts in operation – 1 Cor. 12:4 – to exercise the gift.

  •  The OVERFLOWING of the Holy Spirit – out of the Spirit-controlled life flows streams of help to others. When the Spirit of God fills, He flows forth; if there is no flowing forth, there has been no filling.  Charles Finney used to say, “We need the kind of religion that fills up our cups and runs over – what I call “saucer religion.”  Jesus emphatically promises this overflowing life to those who surrender to Him.  Read John 7:37-39 – flow rivers of living water.
  • The OVERCOMING life of the Holy Spirit. The normal Christian life is not one of defeat but of overcoming power.  Jesus promised such a life (John 16;33).  Paul testified to such a life (Phil. 4:13).  The early Christians experienced such a life as described in the Book of Acts (4:31).  The overcoming life is practically experienced in three dimensions:
  1. Constant fellowship with the living Christ – Phil. 3:10
  2. Constant victory over all known sin – Gal. 5:16
  3. Constant power for witnessing – Acts 1:8; 4:33.

Conclusion:  One Sunday morning Charles Spurgeon looked at his congregation in London and asked this all-important question, “Would you live your life in the defeat of your own flesh, or would you live it in the victory of the Holy Spirit?”

For years D. L. Moody, though saved, operated in the power of his flesh, until one day He surrendered his life totally to the Holy Spirit on the streets of New York City.  Then he said, “you can see without eyes, you can hear without ears, you can speak without a tongue as quickly as you can live the Christian life without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.”

Billy Graham: “The tragedy of the average church and child of God is that he has gone to Calvary for pardon but has not gone on to Pentecost for power.”

Carl Bates, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention, said to me, “Bill, if the Holy Spirit withdrew suddenly from all our churches, 90% of them would not know it and go on operating as usual.”

Thank God, because of Pentecost, we can experience the Incoming, the Indwelling, the Infilling, the Overflowing, and the Overcoming life of the Holy Spirit.  This is our new birth rights.  This is the NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE.  Are you enjoying it?