When a king appoints an ambassador, his commission is sealed with the King's seal. The Holy Spirit Himself, by His life in us, is the seal of our sonship. (Google image, Happy Christian Woman)
His work is to reveal and glorify Christ in us, the image of the Father. By fixing our heart and our faith on Him, He transforms us into his likeness. What a wonderful thought!
The Spirit of the Father and the Son, the bond of union between them, comes to us as the bond of our union with them. He gives us the witness of the divine life within us and enables us to experience that life here on earth.
In the Christian life, everything depends on knowing the Holy Spirit and His blessed work.
Lord of All
First of all, we need to know that He comes to take the mastery of our whole being—spirit, soul, and body. Through it all, He reveals the life and the power of God as it works in our renewed nature.
Christ could not be glorified and receive the Holy Spirit from the Father for us until He died upon the cross and parted with the sin and weakness of our nature.
Likewise, the coming of the Holy Spirit into our hearts in power implies that we must yield ourselves to the fellowship of the cross and consent to die to self and sin. Thus, through the Spirit, the new and heavenly life may take complete possession of us.
This entire mastery demands complete surrender and obedience on our part. Peter speaks of the "Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32).
Christ Humbled Himself to the perfect obedience of the cross that He might receive the Spirit from the Father for us. In the same way, our full experience of the Spirit's power rests entirely on our readiness to deny self and yield ourselves to His teaching and leading.
The reason that believers are feeble and ignorant of the blessings of the Spirit is that they never made a decision to yield themselves to the control of the Spirit at every moment. Pray that God's children might accept God's terms—complete mastery of the Spirit and the unhesitating surrender of the whole being to His control.
We especially need to understand that the degree in which the working of the Spirit is experienced my very greatly. A believer may rejoice in one of the gifts of the Spirit, such as peace or boldness, and still be extremely deficient in other areas.
Our attitude toward the Spirit must be that of perfect teachableness, waiting to be led by Him into the will of God. We must realize how much there still is within the heart that needs to be renewed and sanctified if He is to have the place and honor that belong to Him.
(Chapter 5, pp. 25-27)
by Andrew Murray
Copyright © 1984
Copyright © 1984
by Whitaker House
Used by permission
Let's pray-
Father, our having Christ's Spirit in us, as the seal of our sonship, will cause Him to reveal and glorify Christ in us, as Your image. He is to fix our hearts and faith on Christ, as He transforms us into His likeness.
In our living as Christians, this gives us the witness of divine life and enables us to experience new life here on earth. Help us understand that our witness depends on knowing the Holy Spirit and His blessed work in us.
The coming of the Holy Spirit into our hearts in power implies that we have yielded ourselves to the fellowship of the cross and consented to die to self and sin.
This means that through the Spirit, this new life may take up full possession of us in complete surrender and obedience on our part.
Our attitude toward the Spirit must be that of perfect teachableness, waiting to be let by Him to do Your will for us.
We know that there is much to learn about living a sanctified life, and we ask in Christ's name, that Your will be done so we will honor Him as Your sons and daughters.
Amen
Today's Bible verses-
hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
shall be filled."
John 16:24 (NKJV) "Until now you have asked
nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive,
that your joy may be full."
Acts 4:31 (NKJV) "And when they had prayed,
the place where they were assembled together
was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness."
Today's quote-
~ W. C. Moore- "To whom is it that God gives power? It is the faint. To whom does He increase strength? To them that have no might (Is. 40:29). 'Melanchthon said, 'Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer, and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble." Believe God to deal with that difficult or impossible situation, and let Him make it a great blessing to us, to humble us, and to teach us to put our trust in Him alone!
Our blessed Heavenly Father wants us to permit all things to work together for our good, not for our harm. He desires that we be so anointed with His Spirit that we will be polished by the grindstone of life, not ground down.'
"We never would pray so earnestly if we did not have troubles. Brother, Sister, tested and tried, perplexed and cast down, look to Jesus, the blessed Son of God. Utterly trust Him, no matter how things seem to be! Praise His name! Let every test be a stepping-stone to a closer walk with God.
" 'My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations' (Jas. 1:2). 'In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you' (1 Thess. 5:18)."
(W. C. Moore, founder of Herald of His Coming)
(W. C. Moore, founder of Herald of His Coming)
Words of wisdom-
~ If you want Peace on all your paths, depend on Jesus to meet your weaknesses. Seek His direction for your life, taking time to lie down in His green pastures of Peace, designed especially for you.
~ The Lord says that we are His and that nothing can separate us from Him. Let's trust His design and purpose for today.
List of recent sermons of CFC ministers. CFC Potsdam NY church has a live service at 10 am Sunday's for shut-ins. If for some reason you can't make it to the church you usually attend, click on the above link, and still get fed!
Jean's blog (Click to see snippets of the 7 recent posts)
Helpful ways the Lord helped me in my marriage
Upcoming posts-
#10 The Spirit's Transforming Power (1,800 post!)
31st- Thursday's post by Andrew Murray
Passion for the Local Church
11/2nd- Saturday's post by Karen Friday
#11 The Spirit of Wisdom
5th-Tuesday's post by Andrew Murray
#12 Obtaining the Power
7th- Thursday's post by Andrew Murray
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Be like the sunflowers, eyes always on the Son |
So then, the "seal" is not a keeping component but it only designates one's credentials (as by verification of authority - a signet ring, for example) of the bearer's authenticity only. It is not a seal as in a door that you cannot open on a room you cannot leave. Or even as a seal that cannot be broken. This seal CAN be broken and one can become lost? No one seems to want to say that you cannot lose your salvation. I say, if you can, then, it was NEVER salvation, for it then depends upon the object of salvation to keep it. Also, it ceases to be a gift. It is now something that you earn in the keeping.
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