Life On The Highest Plane
It is A Life Conformed to God's Perfect Pattern
(2) The heart is purified. The spiritual man is pure-hearted. He wants to possess his inheritance in Christ so he sets his affection on things above (Colossians 3:2); he craves the vision of God granted only to the pure in heart (Matthew 5:8); he desires to see his Lord which is only the prerogative of the holy (Hebrews 12:14); he seeks the conformity to Christ promised upon His return to those who purify themselves even as He is pure (1 John 3:2), and so he allows the Holy Spirit to do within him all needed work of pruning and purifying.
Acts 15:8-9, "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."
1 Thess. 3:13, "To the end that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."
(3) The will is energized. The spiritual man knows that at the center of satan's being is self-will and that every one, in whose life self-will and tht every one in whose life God's will is supreme is the seed and the subject of Christ. He has compared and contrasted the "I will" of satan, Isaiah 14:12-15 and its result in Revelation 20:7-15 with the "I will" of Christ in Hevrews 10:5-13 and its result in Phil. 2:5-11 and has decided to cast in his lot for time and for eternity with Jesus Christ the obedient, dependent One. The spiritual man looks to the Holy Spirit to work in and then work out God's perfect will within him.
Hebrews 13:21, "Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever."
Phil. 2:13, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
The human body becomes the habitation of the triune God on earth. The spiritual man apprehends the spiritual significance and sacredness of his body. Under the Holy Spirit's illumination he learns what it becomes through the new birth.
(1) The body is the temple of the living God.
2 Corinthians 6:16, "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
(2) The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
(3) The body is a member of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:15, "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid."
(4) The body is the container of the heavenly treasure.
2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
(5) The body is the channel for good works.
2 Corinthians 5:10, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
(6) The body is Christ's broadcasting station.
2 Corinthians 4:10-11, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."
The spiritual man perceives through this truth that God wishes to become incarnate and to dwell on earth and that the way in which He has chosen to do this is by having the perfect possession, the complete control and the unhindered use of the human body of the believer. Acting upon this knowledge the spiritual man as presented God with his body here and now as a living sacrifice.
Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."
Not wishing to run any risk of defrauding God or of deceiving himself in regard to the completeness of this transaction he makes a special gift to God of each individual member of his body to be used hereafter as God's instrument.
Romans 6:13, "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments or righteousness unto God."
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 4
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