Messages with tag - Spirituality

Since Christians today no longer sacrifice animals at the temple or follow Old Testament rituals, how do they grow to spiritual maturity? Listen to this lesson to learn the five distinct roles of the Holy Spirit in every believer's life. See that it is only during the Church Age that every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and understand the unique characteristics of how we are to live our lives. See that spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive and let us not squander or waste these tremendous assets God has given us.

Our scene is in Antioch in a well-established, conservative congregation, about 15 years after Pentecost. Antioch thrives with commerce and the decadent culture of the times. It also has a large Jewish population, within which are Christians, viewed as a sect of Judaism. Teachers and prophets gather to minister to the Lord and fast. What does it mean to minister to the Lord? What does fasting accomplish? Today a fast can be an initiation into a weight-loss program, a systemic purge, a social protest or a mystical manipulation of God. What was fasting about as it was practiced scripture? Is it a prescribed ritual for us? Is Biblical fasting an anachronistic term in our modern culture. Should we fast?

Legalism has been described as a list of things one should and shouldn’t do, and, by adhering to that list God will bless us. It reduces spirituality to morality. Is there anything wrong in aspiring to Biblical standards? No, as long as we understand that adhering to standards does not cause us to grow spiritually nor does it cause God to bless us. Every spiritual blessing already belonged to us at the moment we believed. All we have to do is live in light of that reality. How is that accomplished?

For a believer, dominion of the sin nature died with Christ. To have new life the old life must die. Because our sin nature died with Christ (though our new natures continue to war with it during this life), we have the new life Christ’s resurrection makes possible. Our new life in Christ is empowered only by another gift, the Holy Spirit – something an unbeliever cannot have, no matter how moral.

The culture of Asia Minor was known for its different philosophies and a tolerance that different religions were accepted within the culture as having equal value. In modern day 21st century society, we experience the same thing. Yet, the Bible clearly teaches that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of exclusivity. So how then are Christians to "think", living in such a pagan culture? And is there a secret to the Christian life? In this lesson, we begin to learn more about the 30 imperatives that Paul writes about that are to define the Christian life. The centerpiece of the Epistle of Colossians is in vs. 6-15. The core of that centerpiece is in vs. 6 and 7 - "walk in Him". We learn that this is both positional and experiential.