Thursday, June 7, 2012

A - THE EMPOWERED CHRISTIAN - 1


A – THE EMPOWERED CHRISTIAN – 1

The most important decision in life is to accept Christ as our Savior in becoming a Christian.  But what is an empowered Christian.  Empower means to give power or to make able.  As we became a Christian we were given forgiveness and salvation.  However, the Holy Spirit was given to us as a precious gift to empower our Christian life.  Acts 2:38   This gift follows our baptism.

Life doesn’t just go on in the same way as it always has.  We become completely new in Christ.  Rom.6:4   We keep the same bone structure.  We have the same physical organs.  But we have a new heart (mind).  Ezek.23:36   Just as God and sin cannot dwell in the same place (Isa.59:2), neither can sin and the Holy Spirit dwell together.  Ezek.18:30-32 

Perhaps we have had habits that are so difficult to break.  A Christian is to be Christ-like.  How can we ever have the power to change!  Not in your wildest imagination could you envision Jesus puffing on a cigarette or walking among the sick with a can of beer in His hand.  Yet this happens when the power given us through the Holy Spirit is not used to empower us to make these changes.  Rom.12:1   What kind of body do we want to present to our Lord?  Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We need to keep that body so that the Holy Spirit may continue to dwell within us.  1 Cor.6:19

The above are habits that are visible on the outside.  How about the habits of the heart?  Out attitudes play a big role in our relationship to our fellow man.  These need to change  as well as our goals and purposes in life.  We are turned inside out for Jesus as we have the empowerment to change through the Holy Spirit.  Rom.8:13

We argue with ourselves and others that this is too difficult.  We can never do it.  We are right.  WE can’t do it – not alone.  We forget that powerful gift allotted to us.  It is like a gift we have been given and we tuck it away and forget all about it.  We are told to be strong but not in our own might but in His might.  Eph.6:10   Thus we can be empowered by His Spirit.

As we receive this gift of the Holy Spirit after our baptism, we have not finished the course.  We have only just begun.  If we continue to hold on to our old life, then we have failed.  As Peter answered the high priest that they must obey God rather than men, he  mentions the witness of the Holy Spirit that God has given to those that obey Him.  Acts 5:32   This is a “forever” gift as we obey Him “forever”.  Rev.2:10

The example is given of clothes.  Hopefully, we don’t take a bath and then put on dirty clothes.  After we are baptized we are clothed in new clothes.  We are clothed in Christ to be like Him.  Gal.3:27   We have shed those old clothes that were not like Christ and now we have put on those new clothes of a Christian life.  Old habits are gone.  Old attitudes are gone.  They have been put off.

Our old clothes were clothes of darkness or sin.  Now they are cast off.  Rom.13:12   As we cast them off we are told to put them to death. (mortify)  Col.3:5   Then some of these deeds of the flesh (old life) are listed.

Fornication:  Co-habitation has become prevalent today.  This is sexual relationship outside of marriage.  Marriage in all ages and cultures has had a specific point when the bond of marriage took place.  It has involved a third party.  With Adam and Eve the third part was God.  In many instances the third party has been the father as the one from whom permission was granted.  At times marriage was arranged by the parents. 

The Samaritan woman at the well had had five husbands but the man with whom she was now living was not her husband.  Jhn.4:17   There was a difference.  Just dwelling with a man was not marriage so it was fornication.  A man and a woman don’t decide to go to bed together and that’s fine.  Outside of marriage it is not fine—it is SIN!

The next three involve evil desire and passion  with which we cannot let into our mind.  It is like some foods—one taste requires more.  A Christian must have self-control over these things and not even think about partaking in them.  Help comes from the Holy Spirit as we mortify or kill these desires and passions that are so distasteful to our Lord.  We must have the attitude of Rom.16:19 and be innocent of them.

Idolatry was such an evil in the O.T.  Greed or covetousness is the type of idolatry we have today although some cultures still have idols.  We might say that anything that takes the place of God in our lives is idolatry.  That’s what an idol does.  Covetousness is also mentioned as idolatry in Eph.5:5.  When we covet we become greedy for we desire some thing or attribute that someone else has—not because we need it but because we want what they have and maybe more.  It is listed with these impure, base sins.  This sin enters into the realm of our purpose and desire of life—to work to the best of our ability for our Lord and to His glory and not for men.  Col.3:23   We can further our education, advance in our profession, develop godly attributes, strengthen our abilities and talents but it is never to glorify us but only to be able to better serve the Lord and serve to His glory.  Col.3:17

As we put on the new clothes of our new self in Christ (always with the help of the Holy Spirit), our tongue becomes an important part of this new garment.  We have a great need of the Holy Spirit every day to help us with these old habits of our tongue.  What comes out of our mouth as a Christian will either be a testimony or a rejection of our life in Christ. 

These old practices of the tongue are listed in Col.3:8,9.  These sins begin in our heart.  Prov.23:7   Anger, malice (wrongful intention), slander (injurious speech of someone), abusive speech or filthy speech (using mean, evil words), lies—all of these would not be words of a new life in Christ.  The Holy Spirit can help us control our thoughts and consequently, our speech.  Prov.29:22; Eph.4:31   The new life in Christ must be the kind of life that God desires.  The Holy Spirit gives us the power to accomplish. Jam.1:20

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