MAN AND WOMAN OF THE SPIRIT...;MATERIAL BY "THE LEADERSHIP TRAINING INSTITUTE" CCRN
MAN AND WOMAN OF THE SPIRIT...;MATERIAL BY "THE LEADERSHIP TRAINING INSTITUTE" CCRN
MAN
AND WOMEN OF THE SPIRIT
INTRODUCTION
As
Christians, our basic, fundamental and primary calling is to holiness. In other
words, God has called each one of us in Jesus Christ, that we should be holy
and blameless before him. (Eph 1;4). To fulfil our calling, we need the spirit
of God who himself is the spirit of holiness. This course deals with men and
women, saints who through the history of the church have lived holy live
through the Holy Spirit. It also addresses the Christian’s growth in holiness.
The important question
is how did the name believers become saints, modals of holiness? They were more
open to the holy spirit. He did not just reside in them, he presided over their
lives. how?
# They did not, “slack
in zeal” they were fervent in spirit and served the lord uncompromisingly (Rom.
13;9-11). In other words, they lived and were guided by the spirit (Gal.
5;16-25)
# Under the rulership
of the holy spirit, the divine being turns out the individual as another
Christ, who is the holy one of Israel the plenitude and source of holiness. In
Gal. 5;22, we see in them the fruits of the spirit.
# Without holy spirit,
one on can become a saint. The saints of God were not committed to ordinary
morality, barest Christianity, minimum devotion to Christ. Their morality was
dynamic.
# Their lives were
charming such that many people want to follow their way of life. I saw God in a
man. Someone once said of a saint.
All of us are
candidates for sainthood; called to holiness, because holiness is the destiny
of the Christian. We have been called to becomes gods by the holy spirit,
sharing in the divine nature of our God (2 Pet. 2;4) this journey begins with
conversion.
Very often, our journey
of conversion starts with a crisis. Something happen that drives us to seeking
God’s face. It does not necessarily have to be a problem, but a particular
situation stimulates a hunger for God and for his word in our hearts.
God can speak to us
through the regular medium of preaching or scripture, but oftentimes,
especially when we have not paid attention to that, he could pinch us with a
crisis so as to get our attention. The crisis is important because it wakes us
up and helps us to understand that life is not just based on money. Suffering
does a lot for us in life. especially as regards our relationship with God,
both at the beginning and as we grow up.
This crisis leads us to
an awakening. When Saul met Jesus on the way to Damascus, it was awakening each
of us had a situation crisis in life that woke us up, and we started taking God
seriously. So many of us received God’s life as children at baptism, but
because we don’t live that life, we need an experience of personal conversion.
God calls everyday to friendship with him, but when we refuse to listen and
listening here means, paying attention with our soul, and responding to God’s
invitation as often happens, God uses crisis situation to awaken us and draw us
to himself.
At awakening, we realize
our helplessness, our sins and failings. And we run to God for help. we discover
that life is empty with out God and we open our hearts to the outpouring of his
grace and love. Even the acts of devotion that we used to approach casually
became more meaningful and we take them seriously.
Then the awakening
leads to purification. At awakening we realize our need to reconcile with God.
This leads to repentance, confession and a determination to forsake sin, this
is purification. That is when you begin to reconcile and forgive people who
wrong you, and at the same time beg for forgiveness from the people you wrong.
Purification enables you to be awakened to the things of God, and you become
attracted to prayer, devotion, and seeking the presence of God.
When you are purified,
you are changed person. You hear the voice of God more clearly and loudly. Your
spirit is being purified. Purification is both for the body and the soul. The
soul controls our intellect and memory. Our reasoning is purified and we begin
to reason and talk like God. Your intellect begins to change; your mentalities
about certain things change of mind. You begin to reason no longer like anybody
else, but like a child of God.
This is the work of the
holy spirit in you. Your will is change at purification. You begin to say no to
yourself. Purification is not easy. All our live we are being purified. God
purifies the body, the soul and the spirit. Now the holy spirit will be leading
us and longer our spirit. We experience personality change, and our entire
personality must become Christ (Rom. 12;2). We are to become Jesus Christ. The
image of God. He is a perfect man. He is the one that we are imitating.
The holy spirit
reproduces Jesus in us. When you allow the holy spirit to reproduce Jesus in
you, you will be very happy and fulfilled. Then the father can say about us;
behold my son in whom I am well pleased, this is because he sees and loves in
you what he sees and loves in his Son Jesus Christ. Awakening also leads to
reading and understanding the word of God. By doing this you purify yourself
because the word of God purifies.
As purification is
taking place, we enter another level called Illumination. This is the process
of being enlightened. The holy spirit enlightens and gives true light. When we
are enlightened, we begin to understand God Illumination exposes the futility
of life and we see the beauty of heaven. We are enlightened we begin to
understand why suffering. For example, can be valuable and produce positive
results. Illumination makes us see God in every occasion, in things, in event.
And a time comes when we will begin to see things in God. This is because we
are illumined as the holy spirit enlighten us.