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I am a retired pastor of
the Church of God (Tennessee). My name is Isaac Livingston. I am from Neyyoor India. |
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I am a retired pastor of
the Church of God (Tennessee). My name is Isaac Livingston. I am from Neyyoor India. |
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Email: Pastor True Gospel
If video stops, you may watch this video by a click on this link: You-tube video.
We must receive a spirit to become spiritual. Jesus Christ gives the Holy Spirit as a gift to us. At present time, most spiritual or ministry gift manifestations are counterfeits. What is Born again; It is not born of the flesh, but it is born of the Spirit, live in the Spirit, and mortify the deeds of Flesh. And the Holy Spirit is a gift; but the Holy Ghost is God.
A so-called godly life according to our desire is religious; and our life in this world according to God's desire is spiritual. If we live by the will of God, God will give his spirit to guide us in this world. Because of the guidance of the spirit, our life will be spiritual. But, even if we live a disciplined moral life, if the spirit of God is not in it, it will be good religion, but it will not be spiritual. In short, if the spirit of God guides us, we are spiritual. Instead, our preachers guide our life, we are religious. But religious life may be a politically correct, which is civilized, yet it may not lead us to eternal life. If you attend church regularly, and get involved in church activities, then, Christians will consider you as spiritual. But it is religion; and it will be a life that is mixed with rituals, tradition, ceremonies, worship services, etc. But Spirit is invisible and supernatural. Spiritual is God centered, but not church centered. It will research bible, sing in choir, shout amen, arrange church picnics, distribute tracks, feed the homeless, etc. But spirituals will receive the holy spirit from God and live according to God's will.
By our own effort we cannot become spiritual. God has to give us the holy spirit to guide our life; this is to make our soul as living souls as in Genesis 2:7 and 1 Corinthians 15:45. That is, God gives life to our dead souls, or quicken us; so that we may live a spiritual life. "Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;" So, if we have a sincere desire to live a spiritual life, we must ask God to give us the holy spirit. Please notice, this is neither the baptism, nor the gifts of the Holy Ghost. "Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 13 --- how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Here, God gives the Holy Spirit as a gift. But the gifts of the Holy Ghost are also called as spiritual gifts, and they are different and are given for the ministry. The Holy Spirit is given as a gift, for us to lead a holy life. This is mandatory for eternal life. One condition we see here is that we must ask God as his child, to receive the holy spirit. "John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." Those Christians, who believe on him, must receive the holy spirit. If their desire is to obey God, God will give them the holy spirit. "John 7:39 But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive ---." God will always keep his word. So, ask; if you are sincere, God will give you the holy spirit. If you have received the spirit, then you will be spiritual.
If we have true repentance, we will desire to live a holy life. It will be very difficult to live a holy life without the help of God; and if we ask Jesus Christ, he will give us the holy spirit as a gift. If we have the holy spirit in us, we will desire to know God, to do the will of God, and to please God. At the same time, we will abhor perversions and lustful sins. But the leftists will desire to do all kind of ungodly things with desire, and they resent pure and godly things. But at the same time, many of them are also very zealous to the religious part of Christianity. They talk about amazing grace to all, unconditional love of God, eternal security, and such false twisted doctrine of men, and worship a fake Jesus Christ. They may manifest with fake spiritual gifts. So, just being zealous is not necessarily of the holy spirit. We are zealous after holy and righteous things. Spiritual gifts without holy living, is not by the will of God. "Hebrews 2:4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will." The bible refers the ministerial gifts as the gifts of the Holy Ghost. But the churches refer this as the gifts of the holy spirit. It causes confusion. However, Jesus Christ gives us the holy spirit as the gift. This gift is mandatory for eternal life. The gifts of the Holy Ghost are for doing the ministry. But this is irrelevant for eternal life. Christians must know the difference between these two.
In religiosity, preachers have the control. In spirituality, God has the control. Let me explain something about the ministry gifts manifestations. "1 Corinthians 14:32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." The spirit in this context is the gifts, they are subject to preachers, as to when to use it; but they cannot say anything they wanted to say, or to do what they wanted to do. But we control many powerful things in life. We use high volts electricity, cars, jet planes, bulldozers, etc; to do heavy works that we cannot do. We operate and control machines; and they do the work. God is omnipotent. He has enormous powers. We like to tap his power as we wanted. But it will never happen, since the gift are given only to do certain jobs with limits. But preachers want to use the power as they like. So, they end up faking it, and the devil helps them to do it, even with some manifestations. This is the story of many so-called well-known spiritual ministries. However, if God wants to do a work, he will use his people to do it. But his people will do the work of the Lord for free, because God has given the power to them freely and tells them to do it for free. They will not take the glory but give it to God. If they receive glory, money, or such benefits for themselves, then they are either fake, or they are of the devil. 2 Corinthians 11 says, "13 ... such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness." So, be very careful. If they do it for their profit and fame, directly or indirectly, they belong to Satan.
When a child is born, a flesh body is given to the soul. If a person is born again, God gives the soul a spirit body also. So, the person is born of the spirit. Now, the person has a body of flesh and a body of spirit. The spirit desires things of heaven and the flesh desires the things of the world. So, there will be conflict since they desire opposite things. The soul is caught between these two. If it loves the flesh, it will obey the flesh, against the will of the spirit. Romans 7 says, "24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." So, this person is wretched, but not spiritual. But if he loves the spirit, he will obey the spirit. Then, Romans 8:1 will fit him: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." He walks after the spirit, he is spiritual, and there will be no condemnation to him. So, even though we receive the spirit, it is up to us to obey the flesh or to obey the spirit. But, if we do not have the spirit, that is, if we are not born again, we will have no choice, but to follow our flesh in the world. The best we can, and we will do, is to be a religious person, which is spiritual hypocrisy. So, we must be born of the spirit.
Romans 8:1 appears to be simple, but if we do not actively live in the spirit, it is not simple. "Romans 8:13 .. if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Let me tell you what I have done. In a way, I took the spirit as sword and cut the flesh to pieces and killed it. But it turned out to be self-controlled mind circus, which failed every time. Then I tried to justify it somehow and miserably failed in that also. So, I became miserable. Then I noticed that Romans 8:13 does not tell us to mortify the body of flesh, but it tells us that we must use the spirit to mortify the deeds of the flesh, but not the flesh. We are souls and we need our body as a tabernacle to live; it is our house. "2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." So, our Soul is us, our flesh body is our temporary house, and our glorified spirit will be our permanent body in heaven. So, we must take care of our flesh body as we take care of our house, for our safety and comfort. We own the house, but our house does not own us. So, let our bodies not rule us, but take care of the body for us to live. So, we will mortify the deeds of the flesh and we will do the deeds of the spirit. And the spirit will lead us to eternal life.
The biggest tragedy that happens to us is ignorance, especially to Christians. We unanimously say that the holy spirit and the Holy Ghost are one and the same. But the Holy Ghost is God; the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost will not be forgiven to us; and if we defile the body that the Holy Ghost abides, God will destroy us. But the holy spirit is given to us as a gift, which is like a thing, and we have power to quench or to grieve the holy spirit, and so, it is not God, but merely a gift that God gives to us. However, the holy spirit is a spirit being, which leads a person in holiness to eternal life. A person cannot receive eternal life without the holy spirit in him. But the Holy Ghost baptism is the ceremony that Jesus Christ introduces the Holy Ghost to a person. The Holy Ghost may give a few gifts to the believers at that time, to do the ministry of God. These are spiritual gifts, or ministerial gifts, from the Holy Ghost. But, the holy spirit is a gift from Jesus Christ to lead us in holy life. The spiritual gifts, like speaking in tongues, gift of prophesy, gift of healing, etc; are gifts given by the Holy Ghost to do the ministry. We need the holy spirit for eternal life; but the spiritual gifts are to do ministry; and they are not for eternal life.
Please notice that the Holy Ghost baptism is not the abiding of the Holy Ghost. Baptism is just to dip in and to come out. In this case, the Holy Ghost just visit the person and gives a gift or few gifts to use it in the ministry of God with the power of God. Abiding is to live in the person. If the Holy Ghost abides in us, we will be the temple of the Holy Ghost.
The details of the Holy Ghost, who is God; and the holy spirit, which is a gift, is given in these links: Please listen to them; they will be very valuable spiritual truth, for spiritual growth. May God guide you.
Born of the Holy Spirit and Baptism of the Holy Ghost: "Video & Transcript."
Holy Ghost is God, holy spirit is God's gift to man: "Video & Transcript."
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Matthew 28:20, & Mark 16:15. Jesus Christ preached his commandments to obey, as his
Gospel; it is the true Gospel to inherit Eternal life. Genesis 3:1-4 & 2 Corinth 11:2-4. But Preachers, who are Serpents of Satan, preach the life of man Jesus just to believe, but not to live as a chaste virgin, as the gospel; it is another gospel, which cannot and will not give Eternal life.The true gospel will convert evil people to do good and thereby they will inherit the kingdom in heaven.
John 3:19-21 say that people are two kinds, evil and true. Evil doers will not come to the Light, who is God; but people of truth come to God for their deeds to be made manifest. We have good and evil people by our standard of our society or culture. These evil people may be converted to be doers of truth by the power of God, and they may inherit the kingdom of God in heaven.
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Email: Pastor True Gospel
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