Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 5-1] Abide in Christ Trusting in the Gospel of The Water and the Spirit (Galatians 5:1-16)
(Galatians 5:1-16)
“Stand
fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do
not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to
you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I
testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor
to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who
attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we
through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails
anything, but faith working through love. You ran well. Who hindered you
from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who
calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in
you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles
you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still
preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense
of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would
even cut themselves off! For you, brethren, have been called to liberty;
only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through
love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even
in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and
devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say
then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh.”
Have You Died and Risen with Jesus Christ?
The
Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with
Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” If we
believe in this Word, that we have been crucified with Christ and He now
lives in us, then we have already died in Him, and our Lord already
abides and lives in us. Christ shouldered all the sins we commit on this
earth, from our past sins to our present and future sins, through the
baptism He received from John the Baptist, and He died on the Cross and
rose from the dead again. Now, as our Lord lives in us, He has thereby
enabled us to always do His bidding and pleasure. Our Lord is already
living in our hearts as the Holy Spirit, and He is leading all of us.
Let’s
turn to Galatians 5:6 from today’s Scripture passage: “For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith
working through love.”
Our
Lord is working in our hearts as the Holy Spirit. And our Lord is
saying to us that He has indeed blotted out all our sins. We believe in
the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts. Through His baptism, our Lord
took upon Himself all our sins committed while on this earth, whether
before or after receiving the remission of our sins; He died on the
Cross in our place; He rose again from the dead again; and He has
thereby blotted out all our sins. When we have faith in this gospel of
the water and the Spirit, the Lord enables us to never stumble over all
these sins that we commit out of our insufficiencies and weaknesses.
That’s because our Lord has saved us from all our sins.
What Do We Now Need?
When
the Bible says here, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love”
(Galatians 5:6), it means that all that we need is to just believe that
our Lord has blotted out all our sins out of His love for us. By our
very nature, we are insufficient and evil. So as long as we live on this
earth, we cannot help but reveal our shortcomings. And it’s easy for us
to be bound by our insufficiencies and weaknesses. In other words,
there are times when our own faith may be shaken, thinking to ourselves,
“Given who I am, how could I preach the gospel to others, far less than
save anyone else from sin?” When we take a look at ourselves, we are
prone to be discouraged and sometimes even want to give up our lives of
faith.
However,
the Apostle Paul, who had the same human nature as all of us, said, “I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Indeed, it is by our faith in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit that we now live. Those of you who believe
in the baptism of Jesus and His Cross are no longer who you were in the
past. That’s because if we really believe that all our sins were passed
onto Jesus Christ when He was baptized, and that He died on the Cross in
our place, then we have already died with the Lord on the Cross, and
Christ now lives in us. We are now new creatures in Jesus Christ.
If
we truly believe that our Lord has already blotted out all our sins
with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then we can believe that
the Lord is indeed alive in our hearts. This faith is the faith that
makes us born again. If we have this faith, then just like the Apostle
Paul, we can become the workers of the gospel of God.
God
said, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
avails anything, but faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). If our
Lord indeed took upon Himself all your sins and mine by being baptized,
and died on the Cross, then this means that you also passed your sins
to Jesus at that place and died with Him; and if Christ indeed rose from
the dead again, then it means that we have also risen through our faith
in Jesus Christ, and this resurrected Lord of ours is now abiding in
your hearts and mine. Now, by placing our faith in the atoning love of
Jesus Christ, we have been freed from all the sins of this world.
You
and I actually do continue to commit sin in this world. Even though we
have received the remission of our sins by believing in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, this does not mean that we have no
insufficiencies. All of us are still insufficient and weak. Whether we
look at ourselves or others look at us, we still are insufficient. We
know very well that our shortcomings are not just a few, but too many.
Yet we can’t expect to see any changes in the future, and so we
frequently bind ourselves in our own weaknesses. We tie ourselves up,
thinking, “While I have no doubt that I have received the remission of
my sins, I am still too rotten. I am so disappointed that this is who I
am, even after receiving the remission of my sins.” And as carnal
thoughts rise up like fog, we fall into confusion, worrying and
questioning ourselves. Genesis 1:2 says, “The earth was without form,
and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.” Like this passage,
when we are bound by our own weaknesses and insufficiencies, our hearts
get all confused and empty.
The
Lord is alive in our hearts. Because Jesus came to this earth once,
took upon Himself all the sins of the world once for all by being
baptized by John the Baptist, and died on the Cross, that the Lord is
alive means that He has blotted out all our sins once and for all. So we
are saved by believing in this Truth of salvation, that our living Lord
has blotted out all our sins. And we are no longer bound by our
weaknesses, but now that we have been freed from all our sins and
transgressions, we live by our faith in the Lord.
The
Lord is alive in our hearts. If this is true, then we are inevitably
drawn to the conclusion that the Lord has indeed blotted out all the
sins of our entire lifetime. Therefore, our Lord’s love that has saved
us from sin sets us free not only from all our sins, but also from all
our insufficiencies and weaknesses.
Our
Lord abides in our hearts as the Holy Spirit. Is our Lord alive in your
hearts or not? He is alive. Then did our old selves die already or not?
Our old selves died already. If this is the case, then you have died
and risen again in Jesus Christ. The Lord lives in the hearts of the
believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, while our old
selves died completely. As we have reached our salvation by our faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we are forever free from all
our sins, insufficiencies, and all our blemishes.
This
Truth is indisputable. All that we now have to do is just believe in
the Lord and thank Him for blotting out all our sins once and for all
with the gospel of the water and the Spirit and delivering us from all
the sins of the world. If we indeed believe that our Lord is alive in
our hearts, then this means that we have been saved from all of our
insufficiencies. That is how we can begin to do God’s work by trusting
in our Lord.
We Are the Lord’s
The Apostle Paul said, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
Because
the Lord now lives in our hearts, it is natural for us to yearn to live
following the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who provokes such
desires in our hearts. It’s precisely because our Lord is alive in our
hearts that He raises such desires of the Holy Spirit in us. In other
words, for those who have received the remission of their sins, their
hearts are compelled to yearn to do the Lord’s work, to preach the
gospel, and to serve the Lord. The Spirit of our Lord has come into the
hearts of all those who have received the remission of their sins
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and this Spirit inspires
them to serve the Lord’s gospel, to love other souls, to preach the
gospel to them, and to support the preaching of the gospel in many forms
and ways. It is in times like this that you and I come to walk by such
desires of the Holy Spirit. The Lord says that we will then not fulfill
the lust of our flesh.
My
fellow believers, we must believe that our old selves have already died
on the Cross with Christ. We must believe that the Lord has blotted out
all your sins and mine, all the sins that we were born with and commit
in our lives out of our every insufficiency and blemish, and that He has
now come into our hearts as the Holy Spirit. If you have this faith,
then you were crucified to death, and now that you have been born again,
it is Christ who lives in you. You then have the same faith that the
Apostle Paul had when he professed in Galatians 2:20, “I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in
me.” And all that now remains for you to do is to just live by faith,
trusting that the love of God has saved you, just as the Bible says that
nothing avails but faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).
What Kind of Faith Is the Right Faith?
What is the overall message of today’s Scripture passage from Galatians chapter five?
The
Apostle Paul had preached the gospel to the region of Galatia, but now,
the saints there were bound by their insufficiencies. When the saints
of the Galatian churches looked at themselves, they saw just how
insufficient they were, and so they fell into despair, wondering, “Why
am I so wretched, when I really believe in Jesus as my Savior?” And then
they came to think that they should be physically circumcised to get
the final affirmation as the people of God. They thought, “If I am
circumcised, my heart will have a stronger faith.” As there were some
people who misled them into receiving circumcision at that time,
practically all the saints of the Galatian churches ended up being
circumcised willingly. That is why they sought to receive physical
circumcision, on top of believing in Jesus Christ.
This
is why the Apostle Paul was upset. He told the Galatians saints, “Even
though you had no choice but to die for all your sins sentenced by the
Law, didn’t Christ take upon your sins by being baptized, die on the
Cross in your place, and rise from the dead again? Didn’t Christ save
you like this, and weren’t you saved by believing in this Jesus Christ?
Why have you then once again bound yourselves in the old rituals of the
Old Testament?”
The
Apostle Paul was so angry and frustrated that he said, “I would like to
be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about
you” (Galatians 4:20). When Paul said here that he wished he could
change his tone, he meant to say, “I had respected you as God’s people,
but now that you have turned yourselves into the Devil’s children, I
can’t trust you any longer. I have serious doubts about you.”
However,
the Apostle Paul continued to admonish: “He who is circumcised is
obligated to keep all the requirements of the Law. Anyone who wants to
return to the Law and be justified by it must keep the Law completely
for 100 percent. Try if you want. In Christ, neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through faith. God has
indeed saved us through His water and blood out of His benevolent love
for us, and it is by believing in Jesus Christ with our hearts that we
have been saved. All that you need is just this faith; what does it
matter whether you are circumcised outwardly or not? Why do you try to
perform this ritual according to the Law?”
So,
to those among the Galatian saints who were bound by the weaknesses of
their flesh, the Apostle Paul admonished as the following: “Since we
were crucified with Christ, did we not die with Christ? Do you really
believe in Jesus? If you indeed believe in Jesus, then believe also that
when Jesus took upon your sins and died in your place, you died also.
You and I both died. Did we clearly die with Christ or not? We died with
Christ. Now Christ lives in me. If the Lord rose from the dead again
and has come into our hearts as the Holy Spirit to live in us, then
there is no need for you to be bound by the Law. You no longer need to
bind yourselves with your insufficient deeds. You have already died. In
Christ, all your sins and mortal transgressions were condemned with Him
because all your sins have already been remitted away. You have been
saved. So do not bind yourselves in your own weaknesses. Nothing avails
us other than faith working through love. Do you really believe in the
Lord? Do you really believe that the Lord is my Savior and your Savior?”
If the Apostle Paul were asking us like this now, how should we answer? We should say, “Yes, I believe.”
“Do you believe that the Lord took upon all your sins?”
“Yes, I believe that the Lord shouldered all my sins.”
“Do you believe that all your sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized?”
“Yes, I believe.”
“Do
you believe that Jesus took upon all the sins of everyone in the world
in your place, died on the Cross, and rose from the dead again?”
“Yes, I believe.”
We
have nothing else but such faith. Faith in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit is what is truly right before God, only this faith saves us,
and only this faith sets us free from all our sins, weaknesses, and
insufficiencies. It is for this faith that we are commended by God. None
other than this is true faith. This is what the Apostle Paul
proclaimed.
How
about you and me today? While you and I live in this world, we do not
always follow our flesh. Sometimes we follow the flesh, but other times
we follow the Holy Spirit. But what do you do when you find yourselves
following the flesh and discover your insufficiencies? Do you imprison
yourselves over this? You might often imprison and condemn yourselves,
saying, “It’s been so long since I received the remission of my sins,
and yet I am still so wretched. I am such a loser! What a fool! How can I
follow the Lord to the end with such weak flesh?”
My
fellow believers, while living in this world, we waver back and forth
from two different kinds of works. In everyday life, we vacillate back
and forth between the work of the Spirit and the work of the flesh. We
do this constantly. Whereas those who have not been born again cannot
help but be absorbed with carnal affairs always, those who are righteous
waver back and forth between the work of the flesh and that of the
Spirit. Put differently, even the righteous will inevitably fall into
the work of the flesh unless they do the work of the Spirit. We the
righteous cannot but commit sin when we do not walk in the Spirit. But
even so, should you and I offer prayers of repentance everyday trying to
wash away such personal sins? Are you now trying to wash away all your
sins through your own prayers of repentance, just as the Galatian saints
long ago had sought to be circumcised trying to get the final
affirmation as God’s saved people? This would be akin to once again
returning to the Law.
The
Lord said that nothing is of use but faith working through love. It is
through our faith, by believing that the Lord took upon all our sins,
died on the Cross, and rose from the dead again, that we have reached
our salvation. Yet despite this, are you still trying to be sinless by
offering prayers of repentance?
My
fellow believers, when certain insufficiencies of your flesh are
revealed, what you need to do is admit that this is who you are by
nature. Rather than saying, “I’m not like this actually,” you should
admit your fundamentally weak nature. Since this is the basic nature of
our flesh, we can’t help but follow the desires of the flesh if we don’t
walk in the Spirit. This is who we are. Therefore, you should not feel
frustrated when you somehow commit sin unintentionally. If you do not
admit your real nature, you would keep on blaming yourselves, thinking,
“This is not who I really am; I shouldn’t make such a mistake again.”
However,
if you realize that this is who your true selves are, then you can find
the solution. When your insufficiencies are exposed, you should first
admit that this is who you really are. And then you should affirm that
you have been saved and made new creatures freed from all your present
insufficiencies by faith, believing that you had died with Christ, that
He has blotted out all your sins, and that the Lord now lives in you.
Now
that we have been freed from all our insufficiencies by faith, how
should we live then? We now need to live according to the desires of the
Holy Spirit. As mentioned, the desires of the Holy Spirit are the holy
desires that God provokes in our hearts. The more we carry out God’s
work, the more we want to do such holy works. Those who serve the Lord
desire to serve Him more and more. Although they find it difficult at
first, they want to serve the Lord even more as they realize how
precious it is to serve Him. It’s very awkward and hard to bear witness
of the gospel for the first time, but once we get used to it, we yearn
to bear witness even more.
This
is none other than the desire of the Holy Spirit. All that we have to
do is just live according to such desires of the Holy Spirit. There is
now no need for us to be bound by our sins and insufficiencies. We have
been saved by faith. Today’s Scripture passage tells us that nothing
avails but “faith working through love.” Since we have already been
saved by faith, what’s the only thing remaining? All that remains for us
to do is just to live according to the desires of the Holy Spirit.
Circumcision
is a certain ritual of the Law. But do you really become God’s children
and righteous people only if you cut off your foreskin? You may cut off
all the body parts you want, from fingers to toes and feet, but this
will not make you righteous. Even if you threw your bodies into the
fire, your souls will not be justified.
How,
then, can we be made righteous? It is by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, the gospel of Jesus Christ who has worked through
love, that we are made righteous.
That
is why the Apostle Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is
no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). And the
Apostle Paul went on to tell us to live according to the desires of the
Holy Spirit.
When
the Bible tells us to walk according to the desires of the Spirit, you
may think that there is something special to this, but that is actually
not the case. Your hearts’ desire to serve the gospel is the very desire
of the Holy Spirit. That is the Holy Spirit’s wish. The desires of the
Holy Spirit are not that demanding; when we have a small desire to live
for God, all that we have to do is just live according to this desire
since this is the very desire of the Holy Spirit. When Christians live a
spiritual life for God according to the desires of the Holy Spirit,
their lives would be graded A+ before Him. They will pass the test with
flying colors. Even though we constantly waver back and forth from the
desires of the Holy Spirit to those of the flesh, our Christian lives
would score perfectly as we live according to the desires of the Holy
Spirit trusting in our salvation. This is what the Apostle Paul is
telling us today.
That
is why you have to shake away your mistaken thoughts. “When I am so
hopeless like this, how could I live for others, for the Church, or for
the gospel? I can’t even handle myself.” Do you, by any chance, worry
like this? You too are like this. But even though this may be who you
are, if you realize and believe in the fact that our Lord has blotted
out all the sins of the world including yours, then you can still lead
your lives of faith successfully. The Lord already knew that you would
commit sin like this, and that is why He blotted out all your sins
including the sins you would commit even after being born again.
Had
the Lord taken away only original sin or your personal sins, then He
would not have been the Lamb of God, nor could He have said, “It is
finished,” at His death. But John the Baptist left a very concrete
testimony of Jesus in the Bible, saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) By believing in this
written Word as it is, all our sins were passed onto Jesus through His
baptism, and we could be crucified to death and rise from the dead again
in union with Christ. We are the righteous people born again through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
My
fellow believers, do you have sin, or are you sinless? You have no sin.
And now, you believe that you’ve passed your sins to Jesus Christ, died
with Christ, and risen with Christ. Then what is in your hearts now?
You have no sin, but only faith working amidst love. My fellow
believers, it is by faith that we have been made sinless, and it is by
faith that we have become God’s children. It is because we have no sin
that we now yearn to do God’s work by faith.
That
is why from now on, you must realize and believe that there is no sin
in your hearts, and you must be freed from the bondage of your flesh. In
the days to come, even if you are insufficient, you must still follow
the desires of the Holy Spirit by faith. Although the born-again may not
be able to follow the desires of the Holy Spirit all the time, at the
center of their hearts, they still want to follow the Spirit’s desires
by nature. A dog on a walk with its master may venture elsewhere to turn
over garbage cans and sniff around looking for something to eat, but it
soon comes back and follows its master. Likewise, even though we often
follow the flesh and waver back and forth between the flesh and the
Spirit, we are still the saved people who follow the Lord until the end.
Even
though we are insufficient, we are now sinless, and therefore we must
live according to the desires of the Holy Spirit. When we work
faithfully from small things according to how God inspires us, then the
Lord will make our hearts want to do even more works. If you don’t know
what to do, then just carry out faithfully what has been entrusted to
you by God’s Church. When we serve the Lord and the true gospel in
anyway possible, we are made into truly upright Christians before God.
My
fellow believers, God has given us liberty, not bondage. God has freed
you from the ties that bound you, so that you may follow Him out of your
own hearts’ volition, follow Him in joy, and serve Him in joy. The Lord
has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, so that we
should never again be bound by sin, nor by judgment.
Just
as some people in the Early Church era who had heard the gospel from
Paul received circumcision to cover their shortcomings, Christians in
this present age are also trying to cover their sins by offering prayers
of repentance when they sin. Is this faith right? No, of course not.
Most Christians, however, don’t realize that the sins of the world were
passed onto Jesus through His baptism, and this can only mean that they
don’t really believe in Jesus. They don’t know that their old selves
have already died with Jesus Christ by uniting with Him through His
baptism and crucifixion. That’s why they resort to offering prayers of
repentance. If they really believe in Jesus, then they would not try to
wash away their sins through their own prayers of repentance.
Today’s
Christians who try to receive the remission of their sins by offering
prayers of repentance whenever they sin, are of those who have been cut
off from Christ and drifted far away from Him, to be placed under the
curse and condemnation. They are not the ones who truly believe in
Christ. If anyone really believes in Jesus Christ, then even if he is
insufficient, he would actually thank God for his insufficiencies by
trusting in the Lord. You and I must be thankful to God whenever we find
our insufficiencies because the Lord has blotted out all those sins
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
My
fellow believers, you and I must lead our lives of faith being grateful
to Jesus Christ by faith. You must never allow yourselves to turn into
the pitiful who bind themselves only to perish away. Some saints confess
that they wish to go out into the world, buy nice clothes, and see nice
things, and that there are too many things they want to do. When you
come down with a fever from all these desires, you have to recognize
that this is actually who you are by nature. If you really need to buy a
set of new clothes, then buy some clothes to quench your desire. Then,
keep on following the Lord again. Is this somehow a sin? No, of course
not. My only admonishment is that you shouldn’t fall into the desires of
your flesh thoroughly and be discouraged by your thought that this is
all that you are. That is only a small part of who you are. Your true
selves want to follow God’s desires. You may be insufficient, but you
are still righteous people. I ask all of you to have a clear
understanding of your identity, and live by faith as God’s own
children.
Even
though you are insufficient, you are still God’s children who have been
saved through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I want you all to
follow the Lord and praise Him, believing without any doubt that you
are indeed righteous people before God, holy saints, of those who have
received eternal life, and the workers of the righteousness of God. You
have identified yourselves as such.
Those
of you who have not been identified yet consider this Book of Galatians
very difficult to understand. They can’t quite comprehend its spiritual
teachings. So, they are likely to say, “What is Paul saying? I can’t
understand what he is talking about. All that he needs to do is just
tell people to live virtuously, and yet he is talking about something so
complicated.” Even the theologians do not know exactly why the Apostle
Paul was so angry at the circumcisionists in the churches of Galatia.
They just mention the definition and lexicons of the circumcisionists.
For
the born-again, however, Galatians, Hebrews, and Leviticus are
flawlessly planted in their hearts as the simple and clear Word of
Truth. When the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit read
the Word of God, they are able to understand it very easily, and so
they know it and accept it to be the Truth, taking it in as their food
of faith.
Because
God our Father loved us, He sent His Son to this earth, baptized His
Son to accept every sin, and crucified His Son to die on the Cross in
our place. So when you and I say that we believe in Jesus Christ, it
means that we believe that all our sins were passed onto Jesus when He
was baptized; that when this Jesus died, we also died; and that when He
rose from the dead again, we, too, were resurrected. And since God the
Father gave up His Son out of His love for us and condemned this Son for
all our sins, it is by believing in Jesus Christ that we are saved.
Because our souls have now been saved by faith, from this point on, our
insufficient acts cannot trouble us any more, and all that we need is
for our hearts to follow the will of God by faith
My
fellow believers, we are the righteous who have received the remission
of sin. Yet despite this, do you still feel as if you have to offer
prayers of repentance every time your insufficiencies are revealed?
“Lord, please forgive me. I’ve sinned. Please wash away my sins.” Most
Christians today feel like this, and so with their tongues they give
such prayers of repentance at the slightest wrongdoing. However, they
can never be remitted from their sins in this way, no matter how
ardently they might pray to God to wash away their sins.
The
salvation of Jesus was already completed over 2,000 years ago, and it
is only by believing in this Truth that one can receive the remission of
his sins. Since this salvation that Jesus has brought to you through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit now abides in your hearts, you
are free from even the sins you commit at this present point. You have
already been saved from all your future sins as well. That is the Truth.
Do you believe this?
The
worldly pastors are prone to make a fuss when they preach sermons to
their congregations. They have no other choice but to be flamboyant
because they have nothing to preach in their hearts. And to exploit the
congregation for money, it’s inevitable for them to stir up their
congregation’s emotion and throw them into a frenzy. When such pastors
say, “Fire, fire, fire!” their congregations would say, “Amen.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!” Swept away by their own emotion, people
carelessly empty out their pockets. That’s because filled with emotion,
their minds get all disoriented, and they have little time to think
straight. Emotionally overwhelmed, they give up all their money, and
when this is not enough, they take off and hand over their jewels and
precious stones. The religionists are obedient to these false prophets
not because they have a genuine desire to serve the Lord, but because
they lose their minds momentarily.
You
and I may be insufficient, but we are still righteous people. We were
crucified with Christ. And we have risen again. Although we are
insufficient, we are God’s children. We are righteous people. We are the
workers of righteousness. We who have truly been born again want to
follow the desires of the Holy Spirit, out of our hearts’ wish to serve
the Lord in anyway possible. All that such people like us have to do now
is just live according to the desires of the Holy Spirit. These desires
of the Holy Spirit are aroused when you carry out the Lord’s work. You
are awakened to the Holy Spirit’s desires when you stop living according
to the desires of the flesh, come to God’s Church where such desires of
the Spirit can be aroused, listen to the Word, and unite your hearts
with God’s work even if you are a bit insufficient.
When
your hearts wish to do God’s work, do not ignore this desire, but
continue to follow it even if it’s small, and unite with God’s servants
and His Church. Once you do this, your small desire will grow like a
snowball rolling downhill. In this way, you will come to have a burning
desire to live for God, carry out God’s work more and more, and
eventually, without even realizing it for yourselves, you will turn into
God’s great workers. No matter how insufficient we might be, God has
placed the Holy Spirit in our hearts. He has become our Savior abiding
in us as the living God, and He has also given us the desires of the
Holy Spirit so that we may do blessed works.
I
thank the Lord for giving us such desires. I hope and pray that you
would all live according to the desires of the Holy Spirit aroused in
your hearts. Hallelujah!
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