EXCITING INSIGHTS AND DISCOVERIES
My own, personal, anecdotal episode took place over 45 years ago on a beautiful, late winter night in the mountains of Colorado. Since that time, I have had the privilege of sharing the experience with literally thousands of friends as I have traveled in over 150 countries of this world. Many of those friends have opened up and shared with me the accounts of their own spiritual journeys. Allow me to share some of the insights and discoveries:
* It is an absolutely remarkable ascertainment to see how the Holy Spirit is so desirous to have the individual believer be rid of that divided allegiance of the double-mindedness. He desires to remove all inner hindrances so that there is perfect conformity with his nature and his will. He is prepared to put an end to that destructive inner civil war by making available his two-fold plan to take care of the two-fold problem of sin.
* Another observation that I find so astounding, is the Holy Spirit’s creativity that is displayed in dealing with the uniqueness of each individual. Each person’s set of spiritual circumstances is different. Each person has allowed his or her very own desires, lusts, fears, ambitions, expectations, and egos to shape and create the individual “god” they worship and serve. That “god” is the very entity that is in direct opposition to the one-and-only Holy God of the universe . . . Jehovah!
It is that individual’s very own “god” that has to be eradicated and surrendered before that individual believer can experience the Spirit-filled Life. God is not going to enter in and take up permanent residence in a sinful dwelling. Once again, God demands that the individual believer must become aware of the need, aware of the promised cure, and then activate the sovereign free moral power to choose to acknowledge, confess, commit, and believe.
When that happens, the mighty work of the Holy Spirit cleanses the innermost heart from that old sin nature, and fills that heart with the very nature of God’s Holy Spirit, and empowers the individual to become everything God had in mind when that person was created.
The Holy Spirit of God knew well that I had devised my own “god” and had become addicted to personal wealth and accumulation. I was worshiping that “god.” But other people have told me that their “god” had been an illicit habit that they had no intention of giving up. Others have admitted to pursuing an all-consuming life dream or ideal that they had grown to worship. It totally controlled them. And others have told me that they had been totally controlled by a hatred toward a previous partner or family member.
The Holy Spirit’s work rarely comes to two individuals in the exact, same way. He designs tailor-made provisions for tailor-made individuals who need miraculous work of the divine Spirit of God in their lives.
* It was interesting to find during my many conversations with my friends, that the working of the Holy Spirit through the Divine Initiative process, was always subsequent to the Born-Again experience. There were some occasions where people had experienced the Spirit-Filled event shortly following the Born-Again experience, but mostly there was a longer interval that existed where the Holy Spirit was raising the awareness level of the believer for the need to deal with the original sin problem.
Some discussions centered around the possibility of both the Born-Again experience and the Spirit-Filled experience happening simultaneously. Quite conclusively, the answers followed the logic that simultaneous is understood to be two or more events happening at the same instant. That being the case, the answer would be “no.” You have two separate solutions being applied to two separate problems. After the Born-Again experience there remains in the Heart the presence of the original sin nature.
I recall, in my own personal episode, that in the Born-Again experience, I was totally consumed and focused on my need to find relief from the weight of guilt and condemnation regarding my past accumulated sins. I needed to find forgiveness and a new life. I wasn’t thinking about much else. At a later time, the kind and faithful Holy Spirit began working on taking care of the problem that made me accumulate those sinful acts in the first place.
* When it came to researching and discussing such terms as “Sanctification”, it was delightful to realize that the life of Sanctification actually begins with the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit in the experience of the Born-Again life, continues throughout the Holy Spirit’s work in the episode of the Spirit-Filled life and then, proceeds right on into the “Continuation” phase of the spiritual journey right up to the gates of heaven. Now, that’s “Entire Sanctification”!
* It was interesting to realize that in the Born-Again and Spirit-Filled experiences the Heart Function was cleansed and changed. The amoral aspects, however, of the mind, emotions, and will, were – and still are -- indirectly affected. Likewise, the amoral physical body can also be indirectly affected, many times resulting in better heath, less inner stress, and less debilitating anxiety. That does not suggest, however, that by being filled with the Holy Spirit the individual will be perfect in either the physical or the psychical functions.
* In my hundreds of conversations, it was consistently agreed upon, that the problem of original sin must be cleansed from the individual before the individual is allowed to enter heaven – There is no sin, and will be no sin, allowed to get into heaven! So, just why wouldn’t you want to take care of the problem as soon as possible?
Speaking of the “sin” situation; it doesn’t take much sincere research to discover that God is very serious when it comes to the understanding that human conduct in the New Testament implies conscious choice. Sin is a voluntary transgression against a known law of God. It is a matter of choice, intention, and purpose. God’s redeemed children must not keep on sinning. That’s not just a heavenly suggestion – it is a mandate:
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning . . . Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin . . . (I John 3: 6-9 NIV)
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. (James 4: NIV)
The reason that sinning is so serious, is because sinning separates us from God. It is not to be considered just an “Oooops” – it is a “NO, NO” – “Thou shalt not”!
But your iniquities have separated you from your God. (Isa. 59:2 NIV)
* Another insight and discovery regarding the subject of “sin,” dealt with the question of whether it was possible for an individual who had experienced the Born-Again and Spirit-Filled occurrences was immune to sin – “can you sin again if once you were spirit filled?”
Some of my friends had heard that there was a kind of celestial vaccine injected, and from that point on you could pretty much do what you jolly-well wanted to do, without consequences. One had heard that God’s pencil didn’t have an eraser on the end of it – so, once your name was written down, you could return to your old ways and there wasn’t much God could do about it.
It was pretty much a unanimous decision, over the years, that disobedience to God’s Spoken, Written, or Living Word was sin, and sin separates us from God. There seemed to be equal agreement to the rationale and research that the door was still open, and the invitation was still available, and the Holy Spirit was still very much in the business of wooing and winning the errant individual back into the family via the same procedure and response that had been followed before.
* It was good news, also, when it was discovered that a Born-Again and Spirit-filled individual could expect to experience Satan’s attacks of temptation, but without the presence of the in-bred sin nature jumping in as a “deceiving ally” aiding the bringing down of the individual. Now, the Holy Spirit of God was dwelling within the very heart of the individual. There was no longer any “conflict” or waring between the “original sin nature” and Christ. The Holy Spirit now empowered, strengthened, and enabled the individual to experience wonderful victory even in the times of temptation and testing. Jesus, the High Priest of the Heavens, has promised to be there to guarantee victory:
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens. Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Heb. 4:14-16 NIV)
* Allow me to share here, another personal insight I received during my Born-Again and Spirit-Filled life experience. To me, this was a huge factor. When I began to see the direction that the Holy Spirit was taking me, Satan really kicked in with the opposition defense. I was getting glimpses that “surrender” was going to be the required “operative word” as we moved forward. I had made success and wealth accumulation my “god”. I had spent my life putting a keen edge on the art of making the deal. I had become good at selling the product and structuring the necessary components into the deal. I was highly motivated to do just what I was doing. Indeed, I was addicted.
Then, the Holy Spirit began to show me that the idiotic addiction was what was going to kill me, destroy my family, and ultimately neuter my business relationships. He let me see all of that happening within the circles of my business culture -- to the very people that I admired most. Many of my friend’s lives were disintegrating before my eyes. No one within the circle of my partners and compadres was happy!
The Holy Spirit was very kind and patient to point out, and let me visualize, the “god” that I was worshiping. He was very forceful and uncompromising, however, in showing me that the “god” of personal accumulation and greed was going to have to be dethroned and die.
Satan kept telling me that if I surrendered my ideals, my dreams, and goals, I would end up a “milk-toast-nothing”! I would be a person wandering around like a dunce looking for my hat and searching for a stool in the corner to sit on. I would be relegated to a miserable life of useless boredom and “nothingness”!
I now look back over the past forty-five years and feel somewhat silly and ashamed for ever entertaining such thoughts. Once I said “yes” to the Holy Spirit, completely committed my life, my will, my future, my everything, to the Creator of the Universe, and the Lordship of Christ – only then, did I really begin to live a life of fulfillment, challenge, and happiness. The Holy Spirit, over the years, has kept me on the stretch, excitedly spending his energy and insights through me in activities and projects of his choosing.
I vividly recall in February, 2005, The American Red Cross was honoring “Project C.U.R.E.” an organization we had founded in 1987. It had become the largest handler of donated medical goods in the world. It was announced that Project C.U.R.E. had now exceeded the one-billion-dollar mark in its world-wide donations of medical supplies and equipment. I could have never dreamed the new journey could have been so challenging, rewarding, and delightful.
But what really made me happy, was that all of those accumulated efforts had not been made for personal or selfish accumulation or gain. It had all been done for God’s Kingdom and helping other people become better off! These days, I now tell people everywhere, that indeed, “I am the happiest man in the world”.
I’m sure that everything I would have accumulated and earned in my past I would have spent trying to buy the peace, joy, and fulfilment that Anna Marie and I now experience. Would I trade all of that selfish accumulation for just one minute of what I now experience in my new life of total relinquishment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the faithful guidance of the Holy Spirit? . . . Absolutely, YES!
* The “free moral agency” issue and the power of individual choice, has come up time and time again in discussions with my friends all around the world. I think it is worth reviewing this extraordinary concept one more time. It is astounding when you consider the price God was willing to pay to allow for an authentic and cogent relationship of intimacy to be established between created individuals of the “magnificent human project” and God Himself.
God had longed for fellowship, communication, expression, adoration, and worship. That’s why he said, “Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness. That meant something spiritual, special, and eternal. God desired our love and worship too much to destroy it by demanding it, or making us robots. So, God gave human beings “free moral agency.” Humans would have the ability and right to choose individually.
Even before the creation of the earth, as we now know it, God had given the heavenly angels this right of choice. The spirit of deceit, enmity, and evil manipulation had resulted in costing Almighty God the experience of disloyalty and betrayal of Lucifer and one third of the heavenly angels. They had abused the privilege of free choice and it had cost God immensely.
But God was willing to invest that extraordinary and revolutionary feature into human beings. Individuals were going to be able to choose whether they were going to obey God – or not! That right to choose was predicated on the idea that there could never be true, voluntary, and willing adoration, spiritual comradery, or worship without the human’s decision to choose God, alone, regardless of the perceived or real cost.
That discovery and insight alone is worth this entire study. Human beings are lost, because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Now, every living individual must personally activate his or her power of choice to be rid of the accumulated acts of sin and the inbred, original sin nature.
God has made full provision for that mandatory and complete restoration. His plan to offer the Born-Again Life and the Spirit-Filled Life, has been made available to us personally, right now. What a beautiful, restorative privilege we have, to allow the Holy Spirit to actually live out the life of Jesus Christ through us, to the glory of the Father!
Just stop for a moment right now, and let your mind explore the prospects of the possibilities of the unlimited life available to you because of the Born-Again and Spirit-Filled experiences now available to you. What an awesome miracle!
Next Week: FAITH Part 1: