Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 81 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; He fills those who are rightly adjusted to God, .

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 81 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; He fills those who are rightly adjusted to God, .

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

 

Two people cannot fellowship with one another unless they are agreed. God cannot agree with sin.

 

The child who changes his mind, who acknowledges a sin committed and changes his mind from sinning to godliness agrees with the Father. By this we turn from sin unto God and we do so without guilt or condemnation.

 

1TH 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit

 

We saw the context of this passage last time, which speaks of divine thinking in the child of God that is obviously supernatural.

 

The  context is the divine thinking of God. We cannot think this way and conduct ourselves this way without the supernatural ministry of the filling of the Holy Spirit.

 

God is not unreasonable in demanding that we think and act this way since He has given us the power and the wisdom to do it. We are sons of God and citizens of heaven and we have the indwelling of the Spirit of God in order to empower us in this heavenly endeavor.

 

GAL 6:8

For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.

 

The believer is in possession of eternal life, so think about what it means to "reap" eternal life. Reap means to harvest, therefore it would refer to the fruits of eternal life. Eternal life is the life of God, but God is more than just existing outside of time. His eternity is a part of His person and essence. God is righteousness but this righteousness was not given to Him or created in Him, so then He is the only true righteousness. His eternity applies to all of His essence in the same way. We are now given eternal life. We are not the originators of it, but we are entered into God's life as we have been into His glory. Since we are in this life, what sort of reaping or fruit would come from it? Yet the Bible is abundantly clear that this fruit only comes by means of the power of the Spirit, so then we must walk by means of the Spirit and we will reap eternal life.

 

ROM 15:13

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

EPH 3:16

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;

 

Quenching the Spirit is having any unyieldedness to the will of God and is thus saying no to God. We might say that grieving the Spirit is by what one does and quenching is by what one does not do.

 

The word quench doesn't imply that the Spirit is extinguished, but that the believer has canceled His power in his life. The Spirit never removes His presence and He never stops convicting the believer who has chosen independence from Him.

 

Yielding our will to the Spirit in faith makes for a life of production. An idle life is one of the most terrible things a person can do to himself. Faith becomes hope and hope becomes love, and faith gets stronger and stronger through that whole process of growth. In the plan of God the believer has a life of no regrets.

 

There is a life of no regrets and that is the life that has done the will of God.

 

Php 1:21

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

 

2TI 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;

 

2TI 4:8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

 

In his book, Spiritual Leadership, which I have used extensively for our study on leadership, Oswald Chambers states in the chapter titled, The Leader and Time:

 

Leisure is a glorious opportunity and a subtle danger. Each moment of the day is a gift from God that deserves care, for by any measure, our time is short and the work great. [Oswald Sanders]

 

PSA 90:12

So teach us to number our days,

That we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom.

 

Our problem is not too little time, but making better use of the time we have. Each of us has as much time as anyone else. In the parable of the minas in Luk 19 each slave was given one, and in the same way we have each been given the same amount of time. But few of us use it so widely as to produce a tenfold return. The servant who was too scared or too lazy to invest his mina, or as the master said, just put it in the bank, reaped nothing but discipline and loss. It's not a fear tactic from our Lord but a call to live the eternal life that we've been given in great joy and by means of the Holy Spirit.

 

EPH 5:15-16

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

 

Time cannot be hoarded, only spent well.

 

You can't bank away the unused hours from yesterday. We can't go back in time.  

 

Sanders brings up an eye opening and simple fact. There are 168 hours in a week. If we allot eight hours a day for sleep, three hours for meals and conversation, ten hours for work and travel on five days, we still have 41 hours per week to fill.

 

To be yielded to Him is to allow Him to design and execute the position and effectiveness of our life. He alone can do this. Of all the numberless paths in which we might walk, He alone knows the divine one or the one predestined for you by the Father.

 

He alone has the power to place our feet upon it and He alone loves us to the extent that He will do all things, outside of violating our free-will, to make it a reality in our lives.

 

Nothing could be more misdirected than a self-directed life. And yet, most of the world does just that.

 

For the purpose of helping us to make the decision to seek a God-directed life, God purposely omitted any ability to self-direct in us. God did not give any of us a proper steering mechanism.

 

JER 10:21 For the shepherds have become stupid

And have not sought the Lord;

Therefore they have not prospered,

And all their flock is scattered.

 

JER 10:22 The sound of a report!

Behold, it comes —

A great commotion out of the land of the north-

To make the cities of Judah

A desolation, a haunt of jackals.

 

JER 10:23 I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in himself;

Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.

 

God's plan is only designed for Him to supply all guidance.

 

JOH 16:13

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth

 

It is the most obvious and simplest of conclusions that a directionless, fallen creature should only look for guidance in His perfect Creator who has promised that He has graciously and abundantly provided it. Yet it is a testimony to our great fall that we all struggle to yield ourselves to Him. Among Christians it seems to be the rarest and most admirable thing for a believer to truly say of His life, "Your will Father, not mine be done." This should not be so rare.

 

An idle directionless life is no life at all. The brain the body will rot and the spiritual life for a believer who is so accustomed will lie dormant and out of shape.

 

ROM 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service [logikos = reasonable or rational] of worship.