The Spirit of God!

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” – John 14:23-24 NIV

First of all, we ought to know that God, our heavenly Father (Ephesians 4:6) and the Creator (Genesis 1:1), talks with us through His Spirit, whom has been poured into us (John 14:15-27). The main reason why the Spirit of God has been within us is that God still wants to speak with us, even though we have sinned against Him (Romans 5:12-14) and have been separated from Him and His kingdom (Genesis 3; Revelation 12:7-9). This is because all of us are part of His creation; God formed us in His image (Genesis 1:27). Thus, for this reason, the Holy Spirit has been within us since after Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection (John 16:7-15). Furthermore, Jesus Christ invites us to come into Him, rest in Him and take His yoke rather than the world’s (Matthew 11:28-30). To be more specific, He actually has been knocking on the door of our hearts to come into us (Revelation 3:20), in order to make us the righteousness of God through Him (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24-25). The main reason for this is that God wants us to share His glory from the end of the age. “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19-21) This is why the word of God states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:1-13)

However, in order to abide the Spirit of God through Christ Jesus (2 Peter 1:3-11), we ought to crucify our worldly nature (Galatians 5:24-25), even though it is hard (Matthew 16:24-27). The main reason for this is that we are not be able to serve both the world and God (Matthew 6:24), due to the fact that the desires of the flesh and the Spirit are contrary to each other (Galatians 5:17). Hence, we have to walk through the narrow road that God has been directing us into (Matthew 7:13-14).Nevertheless, Christian life manifests within us to create satisfactory hearts that we long to have. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

                                                                                                             

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)