Grace is God’s meeting you where you are in order to bring you to where He is. God does not meet us where we are to leave us where we are or to pat us on the back for what WE are doing. God meets us where we are—in our sin, in our weakness, in our immaturity—to help and enable us to transform to His standards and His way of doing things.
One of the problems we face in the world today is that everywhere the Spirit shows up, manifesting Himself through signs and wonders, His presence is repeatedly misunderstood. We use His presence to justify our immature earthly values and even known sin. We think His presence is God’s confirmation that we are on the right track, that we are working according to God’s will.
When God sees that our level of sin and immaturity no longer holds any expectation for bringing us back into conformity to His plan, He will withdraw and cease imparting Himself to us. While He is patient, the Lord will not pour Himself out in us only to be misused to reinforce our earthly desires.
Jesus made a very costly investment of His blood in us. He expects a return on his investment. If that return is not met, there will be consequences.
Jesus’ parables about planting and harvest shows us clearly that God expects a return for his great investment in our lives. This can also be seen in the parable of the ‘talents’ and also in Christ’s ministry.
We see him withdrawing from various communities. He came bringing healing and deliverance and yet he could see that it wasn’t having an impact on the their souls, so He withdrew from them.
Firstly, we are to believe in Christ for what He has done for us on the cross to pay the penalty and to forgive us of our sins.
Jn. 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name.
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house
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Secondly, we are to surrender our lives as dedicated followers of His Spirit to lead us into all truth and to do the will of God. This is not a one time event but should be a continual surrendering.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Thirdly, we must obey His will, through the teaching of the Holy Spirit - at all costs.
Act 5:29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
Act 5:32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Heb. 5:9 And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him.
By obeying the leading of the Spirit, we are moved past the "knowledge of the truth" to the actual "Knowing of the Father" and His will for our lives.
This is the ultimate return God wants on his investment.
Our obedience must start with repentance. Repentance is the submitting of a receiving heart to the lordship of Christ. We demonstrate this by our actions of obedience to the commands of the Spirit. Those actions are the "fruit" and the "work" of the Spirit in our lives and demonstrate that our faith is active, evident and living. When we repent and submit, the Holy Spirit sets his seal of possession on our lives. This is separate from the gifts and powers he may impart to a believer.
One may be forgiven of sins, washed by the blood, and even receive limited access to the Holy Spirit’s powers. Yet without repentance, he may still fall away, reversing the effects of salvation, drawing back to perdition and to eternal damnation. Assurance of our eternal salvation is tied to the demonstration of our fruit of obedience. We can only get that assurance if we know we have fully and totally surrendered our all to the Spirit of Lord Jesus. Our minds, our spirits, our souls, our bodies, all that we posses. Any other assurance is false.
We tend to think that because God pours out his spirit on a man or their ministry, that they are ‘right’ with God or doing things right. We think it is his seal of approval.
So what happens when God’s spirit is poured on human flesh.
Man is made of the dust of the ground. As flesh, he is but dirt.
The Spirit is likened to rain and to fire. If the Spirit is received by the flesh without submitting one’s will to God’s will, in total surrender, you get the same result as when you pour water on dirt.
You get MUD.
You get something to get stuck in!
But if the Spirit is received, not only as water, but also as a cleansing fire to help us to be totally submitted and obedient, it will bring us to the truth and separate us for the Lord’s purpose.
Instead of becoming muddied, we become transformed into a vessel able to truly hold and display God's will, power and mind.
If we are not totally conformed to submit to the Spirit, then we (flesh) can corrupt the Spirit that is poured on us and can change the truth of God into a lie.
Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Rom 1:23 And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things.
Rom 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Rom 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Rom 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections:
Mat 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Luke 11:34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
So there is a condition to receiving the Spirit that determines whether we get the mind of God. The fact that the Spirit is received is not a guarantee of the accuracy or completeness of His mind (His Will) in us.
For this reason, a judgment seat awaits all believers, not just unbelievers.
At the judgment seat, we will give account for how well we allowed the Lord to perfect His investment in our souls.
It is very important that we know this - the salvation of every believer's soul is to be proven by fire. There will be great loss on the part of many believers at that time, as their fleshly deeds will be burned away.
All who try to escape God’s divine process in order to preserve their own way of thinking and living now, will lose it then.
By not submitting to the leading of God’s spirit - towards His Higher Calling for your life, you will be affected in ways you can’t even imagine.
What are you doing with the investment God has placed in your life?
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