Living in the Spirit
"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."- Galatians 5: 25.
What is it to Live in the Spirit?
It is to be born of the Spirit. It is to have received a new spiritual life from above. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." (John 3:6) "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." (John 3:5) "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
We may have the brightest intellectual life, the most unblemished moral character, and the most amiable qualities of disposition, and yet without the new life of the Holy Spirit in our heart, we can no more enter Heaven than the lovely canary that sings in our window can become a member of our family, or the gentle lamb that our children play with can sit down at our table, and share our domestic fellowship and enjoyment. It belongs to a different world, and nothing but a new nature and human heart could bring it into fellowship with our human life. The most exalted intellect, and the most attractive, natural disposition, reach no higher than the earthly. The Kingdom of Heaven consists of the family of God, those who have risen to an entirely different sphere, and received a nature as much above the intellectual and the moral as God is above an angel.
What is it to Live in the Spirit?
It is to be born of the Spirit. It is to have received a new spiritual life from above. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." (John 3:6) "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." (John 3:5) "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
We may have the brightest intellectual life, the most unblemished moral character, and the most amiable qualities of disposition, and yet without the new life of the Holy Spirit in our heart, we can no more enter Heaven than the lovely canary that sings in our window can become a member of our family, or the gentle lamb that our children play with can sit down at our table, and share our domestic fellowship and enjoyment. It belongs to a different world, and nothing but a new nature and human heart could bring it into fellowship with our human life. The most exalted intellect, and the most attractive, natural disposition, reach no higher than the earthly. The Kingdom of Heaven consists of the family of God, those who have risen to an entirely different sphere, and received a nature as much above the intellectual and the moral as God is above an angel.
Posted in Going Deeper
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1 Comment
What a beautiful and wise explanation of what it means to Live in The Spirit. Thank you for the time and effort you spend to deliver these up lifting messages.