Kidron
Member
"Walking in the Spirit"...
So what it is?
1000 Preachers will each give you a different version.
-
Let me show you this, so that you can see it.
And when you see it, you'll understand it with clarity.
Remember that Jesus said that He is the True Vine and you are the Branches?
Then, He said that the Father wanted you to bear much fruit. = (Do good deeds out of a heart of love that help others).
Then Jesus said that if you do not abide in Him, you can do nothing.
This "nothing" is best explained by the fact that a person can be doing a good work for God because they are afraid to lose their salvation....so, they are doing it out of legalism...and in this case, you can do nothing that counts in God's eyes.
The next person, is eternally secure, and is doing the same deeds because they want more then anything to return the love back to God that He has put in their heart, so, they are doing the same deeds as the legalist, but for an entirely different MOTIVE.... and their deeds count and are blessed.
They are "laying up treasure in heaven", and the legalist is wasting time doing good deeds on earth.
Do you see?
Do you understand?
That is how it Works.
So, to walk in the Spirit, is to abide in Him. (Jesus).
Not so difficult to understand, is it?
Now, how do you "walk in the spirit", which is exactly the same thing as "Abiding in Him, abiding in Christ", as THAT is the main thing. = "Abiding".......abiding in Christ. ??????????
Importantly and first.... lets look at a distinction...
Once you are "in Christ", you are always ( in the born again sense <> in the eternally redeemed sense), going to abide in Him.
This is because God has placed you "in Christ" by HIS authority and by HIS Atonement and Adoption.
So, that is not your part.....and that is why you cant lose that part....as God is the one who takes care of your eternity and your irrevocable family membership., as that is "Salvation", that is "Eternal Life"
That's God part., and it is eternal and it is once and for all accomplished IF you are born again.
If not, then that is a different end result if you die as Jesus said....."in your sins".
Your part of what follows the Salvation that God gave your for FREE....= is the "discipleship" part.
Your part is to live your life in a way that represents and respects your position as a "Son" of God.
YOU are to "abide", as a disciple, by walking in the Spirit, which is to say...."abiding in Christ".
And how you do that?
Well....... = Its a mind thing.
Not your emotions, not your feelings, not your gifts, and not your church membership.
Its a MIND thing.
See, you gave your Heart to God when you received His Son, but following that you have to present your MIND as the proof you are sincere.
THis is why you are told to "put on the mind of Christ", and in fact you are told that you "have the mind of Christ"., as this is a part of being "in Christ".
And the abiding in this,.....= means to execute and daily fulfill your discipleship so that you "bear much fruit", = which is the result of abiding in Christ..
To abide, is the bible's way of explaining to you the theological definition and concept of " Mental Focus".
And that is why you are told to "renew your mind", as what you give your mind to, is what you are giving your life to, also.
See it?
So, How do you do that?...How do you focus......what is that?
First, you learn to center your thinking process as much as you can, as often as you can, on God in a way that recognizes the awesomeness of God.
"Stand in awe, and know that I AM GOD, and there is no other."""
Thats a mental FOCUS.........when you do that.
Most people have a prayer time and a church time, and maybe a bible time, and other then those times, they are running to the cable TV, the Internet, Amazon.com, or whatever else it is they do with the other 23hrs a day they spend their time doing.
If you told the Lord......."Lord, from now on.... im going to spend as much time with you, praying, bible reading, and in meditation, as i spend in front of the TV, or Cell, or Internet"..........
What would that be like, if you could even think that God could possibly be important enough for you to even think to sacrifice such things for Him
.
See?
See that Mirror?
THAT is how you take inventory and make changes...
You are abiding in, exactly what you do, most of the time.
Understand?
So, You begin to REALIZE your time and what you are doing with it, and then you remodel your lifestyle so that things that are taking all God's time away from you, begin to find themselves impugned and redirected.
Listen, you're human.....you are going to find things to do... that have nothing to do with discipleship.
Thats not the problem.....the problem, is having almost no time for God, left.
See, the mastery of discipleship is to recognize that your FOCUS... what you focus your mind on, is ither going to draw you closer to God, (abide, walk in the Spirit) or its going to return you back to the secular.
"Abiding in Christ".....is to "walk in the Spirit", and to walk in the Spirit is to focus your thoughts on the God stuff., and keep them there.
This is how you "renew your mind".
You renew your mind by CLEANING IT with fellowship, and prayer, and by Bible reading and study.
(Christian stuff)
You wash your mind free of secular fleshy debris, which are understood as wrong attitudes, lust, ....carnal thinking in general.
This is why the word of God is referred to as water, as you are "wasted by the water of the word",
And when you are born again, you are literally cleaned and redeemed from your sin by the process of blood bought redemption.
Following this, you are to remain clean....and THAT, is "walking in the Spirit", and "Abiding in Christ".
And THAT is accomplished by your focus.........Its a MIND thing.
When You Focus on God and Christ and the things of God, you become more like them, as your mind is what you are., in reality.
When you develop the habit of focusing on the Lord and on God, and you do the things in your life that keep you focused there, then you will walk in the Spirit and you will bear Godly Fruit.
Walking in the Spirit....is all about focus.......its a Mind thing.
And how do you discover what you are focused on in life?
Just evaluate your time.....notice what you are doing with your time, as your TIME and how you spend this Gift of God, defines your focus.
If you spend it looking at porn, then you are a pornographer.
If you spend your time building clocks, then you are a clockmaker.
If you spend your time on God, then you are a wonderful disciple.
So, take a look at how you spend your time, and you will see yourself much more accurately regarding how God actually sees you and your time.
Now, here are a few verses from Peter regarding what we are discussing, and i used a newer translation.
2nd Peter 1:
3 We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God’s own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness (Salvation). 4 God made great and marvelous and eternal promises, so that His nature would become part of us (born again) ("In Christ". Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world. = FOCUS.= Renewing your mind.
5 Do your best to improve your faith walk. You can do this by adding goodness, understanding, 6 self-control, patience, devotion to God, 7 concern for others, and love. 8 If you keep growing in this way, it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful. = Discipleship.
So what it is?
1000 Preachers will each give you a different version.
-
Let me show you this, so that you can see it.
And when you see it, you'll understand it with clarity.
Remember that Jesus said that He is the True Vine and you are the Branches?
Then, He said that the Father wanted you to bear much fruit. = (Do good deeds out of a heart of love that help others).
Then Jesus said that if you do not abide in Him, you can do nothing.
This "nothing" is best explained by the fact that a person can be doing a good work for God because they are afraid to lose their salvation....so, they are doing it out of legalism...and in this case, you can do nothing that counts in God's eyes.
The next person, is eternally secure, and is doing the same deeds because they want more then anything to return the love back to God that He has put in their heart, so, they are doing the same deeds as the legalist, but for an entirely different MOTIVE.... and their deeds count and are blessed.
They are "laying up treasure in heaven", and the legalist is wasting time doing good deeds on earth.
Do you see?
Do you understand?
That is how it Works.
So, to walk in the Spirit, is to abide in Him. (Jesus).
Not so difficult to understand, is it?
Now, how do you "walk in the spirit", which is exactly the same thing as "Abiding in Him, abiding in Christ", as THAT is the main thing. = "Abiding".......abiding in Christ. ??????????
Importantly and first.... lets look at a distinction...
Once you are "in Christ", you are always ( in the born again sense <> in the eternally redeemed sense), going to abide in Him.
This is because God has placed you "in Christ" by HIS authority and by HIS Atonement and Adoption.
So, that is not your part.....and that is why you cant lose that part....as God is the one who takes care of your eternity and your irrevocable family membership., as that is "Salvation", that is "Eternal Life"
That's God part., and it is eternal and it is once and for all accomplished IF you are born again.
If not, then that is a different end result if you die as Jesus said....."in your sins".
Your part of what follows the Salvation that God gave your for FREE....= is the "discipleship" part.
Your part is to live your life in a way that represents and respects your position as a "Son" of God.
YOU are to "abide", as a disciple, by walking in the Spirit, which is to say...."abiding in Christ".
And how you do that?
Well....... = Its a mind thing.
Not your emotions, not your feelings, not your gifts, and not your church membership.
Its a MIND thing.
See, you gave your Heart to God when you received His Son, but following that you have to present your MIND as the proof you are sincere.
THis is why you are told to "put on the mind of Christ", and in fact you are told that you "have the mind of Christ"., as this is a part of being "in Christ".
And the abiding in this,.....= means to execute and daily fulfill your discipleship so that you "bear much fruit", = which is the result of abiding in Christ..
To abide, is the bible's way of explaining to you the theological definition and concept of " Mental Focus".
And that is why you are told to "renew your mind", as what you give your mind to, is what you are giving your life to, also.
See it?
So, How do you do that?...How do you focus......what is that?
First, you learn to center your thinking process as much as you can, as often as you can, on God in a way that recognizes the awesomeness of God.
"Stand in awe, and know that I AM GOD, and there is no other."""
Thats a mental FOCUS.........when you do that.
Most people have a prayer time and a church time, and maybe a bible time, and other then those times, they are running to the cable TV, the Internet, Amazon.com, or whatever else it is they do with the other 23hrs a day they spend their time doing.
If you told the Lord......."Lord, from now on.... im going to spend as much time with you, praying, bible reading, and in meditation, as i spend in front of the TV, or Cell, or Internet"..........
What would that be like, if you could even think that God could possibly be important enough for you to even think to sacrifice such things for Him
.See?
See that Mirror?
THAT is how you take inventory and make changes...
You are abiding in, exactly what you do, most of the time.
Understand?
So, You begin to REALIZE your time and what you are doing with it, and then you remodel your lifestyle so that things that are taking all God's time away from you, begin to find themselves impugned and redirected.
Listen, you're human.....you are going to find things to do... that have nothing to do with discipleship.
Thats not the problem.....the problem, is having almost no time for God, left.
See, the mastery of discipleship is to recognize that your FOCUS... what you focus your mind on, is ither going to draw you closer to God, (abide, walk in the Spirit) or its going to return you back to the secular.
"Abiding in Christ".....is to "walk in the Spirit", and to walk in the Spirit is to focus your thoughts on the God stuff., and keep them there.
This is how you "renew your mind".
You renew your mind by CLEANING IT with fellowship, and prayer, and by Bible reading and study.
(Christian stuff)
You wash your mind free of secular fleshy debris, which are understood as wrong attitudes, lust, ....carnal thinking in general.
This is why the word of God is referred to as water, as you are "wasted by the water of the word",
And when you are born again, you are literally cleaned and redeemed from your sin by the process of blood bought redemption.
Following this, you are to remain clean....and THAT, is "walking in the Spirit", and "Abiding in Christ".
And THAT is accomplished by your focus.........Its a MIND thing.
When You Focus on God and Christ and the things of God, you become more like them, as your mind is what you are., in reality.
When you develop the habit of focusing on the Lord and on God, and you do the things in your life that keep you focused there, then you will walk in the Spirit and you will bear Godly Fruit.
Walking in the Spirit....is all about focus.......its a Mind thing.
And how do you discover what you are focused on in life?
Just evaluate your time.....notice what you are doing with your time, as your TIME and how you spend this Gift of God, defines your focus.
If you spend it looking at porn, then you are a pornographer.
If you spend your time building clocks, then you are a clockmaker.
If you spend your time on God, then you are a wonderful disciple.
So, take a look at how you spend your time, and you will see yourself much more accurately regarding how God actually sees you and your time.
Now, here are a few verses from Peter regarding what we are discussing, and i used a newer translation.
2nd Peter 1:
3 We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God’s own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness (Salvation). 4 God made great and marvelous and eternal promises, so that His nature would become part of us (born again) ("In Christ". Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world. = FOCUS.= Renewing your mind.
5 Do your best to improve your faith walk. You can do this by adding goodness, understanding, 6 self-control, patience, devotion to God, 7 concern for others, and love. 8 If you keep growing in this way, it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful. = Discipleship.
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