Gospel of John [Joh 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 29. 1Co 2:9-3:4; Gal 5:17; 1Pe 2:2.

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Title: Gospel of John [JOH 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 29. 1CO 2:9-3:4; GAL 5:17; 1PE 2:2.

 

The nature of the filling of the Holy Spirit.

 

The filling of the Spirit is not an experience but His ministry of filling is the source of all vital spiritual experiences in the life of the Christian. We normally distinguish the filling of the HS from the word of God as the two power options. But in reality, the Spirit would not fill a believer who did not have a mind set on the word of God, whether he understands a little or a lot. The Spirit will not lead, empower, or teach what is not of His Sovereign will. And so, at times we do distinguish between the teaching ministry of the Spirit and the scripture that He teaches, but in essence, He would teach nothing else.

 

I have used several sources to complete this doctrine, all centering on the vital passages that speak of the Spirit's ministry after salvation, and I have incorporated them in the outline of Dr. Walvoord's book, The Holy Spirit, starting in chapter 21.

 

The daily lives of Christians show a wide variety of spiritual experience. Spiritual believers all face different circumstances and adjust to them according to the power of God through the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit. The carnal Christian also faces a wide variety of circumstances and consistently fails to experience victory over them, no matter what he may tell himself.

 

The scriptures draw a clear line between the saved and the lost, but it also draws a line between the spiritual and carnal Christian.

 

1CO 2:9 but just as it is written,

"Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him."

 

1CO 2:10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

 

1CO 2:11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

 

1CO 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God,

 

1CO 2:13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

 

1CO 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

 

1CO 2:15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.

 

1CO 2:16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

 

1CO 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ.

 

1CO 3:2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,

 

1CO 3:3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

 

1CO 3:4 For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men?

 

The distinction amongst Christians can be traced to their relationships with the Holy Spirit.

 

GAL 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

 

GAL 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

 

The believer's experience is dependent on his growth in grace. There is a distinction between maturity and spirituality.

 

Growth is gradual and is completely in the hands of God. In the OT we have a teenager showing more maturity than all of Israel defeating a giant and we have an old man finally succumbing to the will of God in his final years in Egypt. David and Jacob are great contrasts as to their chronological age in victory, but both of them came to the conclusions that only the mature can make.

 

Every believer is promised ultimate perfection in heaven with Christ in resurrection body, yet in time, every believer has the opportunity to grow in grace or to succumb to the world, the flesh, or the devil. Spiritual maturity is dependent on daily decisions to be spiritual and being spiritual is a function of the grace of God through the finished work of Christ. It is not an experience but it will lead to the experiences of spiritual maturity.

 

In the world, as it has always been, so it is today, that the wheat and the tares grow together until the wheat is mature and ready for harvest.

 

MAT 13:30

'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn."'

 

God has gifted men to the Church in order to assist in the maturing of the saints.

 

EPH 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

 

EPH 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

 

EPH 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.

 

 

EPH 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

 

EPH 4:15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,

 

 

EPH 4:16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

 

 

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