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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Evidence of holy spirit in a Christian? | 2 Tim 1:14 | Aixen7z4 | 104506 | ||
O, Makarios, my dear brother, I’m just not sure. I’m just not sure. It might be the issue of practical vs. positional sanctification again. When a person is saved, does his behavior change, automatically? He is changed. He is a new creature. But those new behaviors have to be learned, I think. The issues in Ephesians in Ephesians 4 are commands, exhortations, encouragements. “Let him that stole steal no more”. Paul is not saying, “Look at yourselves and notice that you are not stealing anymore”. He is saying, “You are saved now, so make sure there is no more stealing”. My point is that I think these new behaviors do not appear automatically. They have to be taught. The teaching requires awareness, explanation, modeling, practice, and reinforcement. I do not think we can say that these behaviors appear automatically. It is only if they did appear without the volition of the believer that we could point to them as evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. When a person is saved, he finds himself with joy of salvation, the peace of God may flood his heart. But it seems to me that other attributes such as patience and longsuffering have to be developed. “Tribulation worketh patience”, etc. It seems to me that a desire for patience is an evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit, not the patience itself. Again, the things Paul is mentioning are things the believer has to do, not just things to look for. He might have said, as Peter said, “Giving all diligence, add to your faith …”. If the question is what evidences exist, I think they would have to be things we simply look and see, like joy and peace, not things we have to give diligence to put on or put off. What do you think? |
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2 | Evidence of holy spirit in a Christian? | 2 Tim 1:14 | Ray | 104574 | ||
Hi Aixen7z4, I would agree with you that things do not necessarily automatically change when we become Christians. Ephesians 2:13-22 says that we are "growing into a holy temple in the Lord", verse 21. God is making us into a new man, reconciling us in one body to God through the cross. We once were without hope and without God but that changed with the blood of the cross. Now we have access in one Spirit to the Father. We have confident access through faith in Him. Ephesians 2:18 and Eph 3:12. But I also see in Ephesians 3:16 that we are "strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;..." Verse 20, "Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,..." In this verse I see the power of Him, in other words I see the Power; and I also the power that works within us, even the spirit of love which surpasses knowledge. I see the Spirit and also the spirit. We should be filled with this spirit [sic] which surpasses knowledge and be filled up to to all the fulness of God. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father. To Him be glory in the church. Now, by Ephesians 4 we are to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. Now we are taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, and are renewed in the spirit of our mind, verse 23. Then we put on the "new man", having grown up in all aspects into Him, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ. From the heart, Ray |
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