Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
What it menas to be initiated into the secret of the mystery. Part 35. The baptism of the Spirit and our position in Christ. .
Friday, March 25, 2005
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is also related to the analogy the head and the body.
1CO 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
There is also an analogy but also a difference between your old position in Adam versus your new position in Christ.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is one of the most important things that happened to us at salvation because it forms the church universal, the body, the Royal Family of God, the new spiritual species.
PHI 3:1 On the one hand, to be writing the same doctrines to you is not troublesome to me, while on the other hand, it is a safeguard or a basis of security for you.
When we see that God is working all things in our life together for good to make us more and more like TLJC, we will not be discouraged or filled with guilt even though some of those things are our failures, sins, and shortcomings.
PHI 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who has begun in you an absolute good work will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.
1TH 5:24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
It is one thing to know “WHAT” God’s purpose is for our lives, but it is another to know “HOW” He is accomplishing this purpose.
EPH 4:22-24, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in {the likeness of} God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
COL 3:10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.
One of God’s most effective means in accomplishing His purpose for our lives is the process of failure to point out insufficiency of self.
He wants us to experience the failure of our position in Adam so that we live in our new position in Christ, as members of the body of Christ.
ISA 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
Failure where self is concerned in our Christian life and service is allowed and often engineered by God in order to turn us completely from ourselves to His source for our life – Christ.
As we consistently concentrate on Him who is revealed to us in the Word of God, TLJC, then the Holy Spirit will quietly and gracefully change the center and source of our lives from self to Christ.
GAL 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;
God has a natural law in operation to the effect that we are conformed to that on which we center our interest and love upon.
In the USA, through radio, TV, movies, music, sports, etc. these things contribute to a rising generation of young people who try to emulate their entertainment heroes.
If we are attracted to this present evil world, we become increasingly carnal and worldly.
If we pamper ourselves and live for self, we become more and more self-centered; but when we look to TLJC, we become more and more like Him.
If I am to be like Him, then God in His grace must do it, and the sooner I come to recognize that principle, the sooner I will be delivered from slavery and bondage.
Just withdraw from the self-improvement garbage and nonsense and get out of it as quick as possible.
Don’t try to be “like Him,” just “behold Him.”
MAT 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”
Come to the Word for one purpose and that is to meet the Lord, not to get your mind crammed full of information.
PHI 2:13 for it is God [the Holy Spirit] who is at work in you, both to will [give you motivation] and to work [He gives you the ability to execute] above and beyond His good pleasure.
2CO 4:11 For we who live [the spiritual life] are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Self is the fleshly, carnal life of the first Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, EPH 2:1; thoroughly corrupt before God, GAL 5:19-21; the life in which there is no good thing in the sight of God, ROM 7:18.
Paul, with God’s “Not I, but Christ,” GAL 2:20, was the total and absolute truth.
In order for any of us to get beyond just knowing about the Lord and enter into a consistent and growing personal fellowship with Him, we must first come to know ourselves.
Introspection is not involved here, the Holy Spirit uses experiential revelation.
JOH 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
2CO 4:11-12, We who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.
Life in TLJC = your life as a member of the body of Christ that you have been baptized into.
The first step toward getting out of the struggle of the seventh chapter of Romans and into the victory of the eighth chapter, is to realize the insufficiency and death of the self-life.
This shattering discovery is a prelude to a magnificent series of further discoveries of things which God has designed for our spiritual enrichment.
Self-revelation precedes divine revelation – for both spiritual birth and spiritual growth.
The believer who is going through struggle and failure is the Christian who is being carefully and lovingly handled by his Lord in a very personal way.
PHI 3:10 come to know Him, and the power of [behind] His resurrection and the participation of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
These are the type of individuals who realize that people, circumstances, etc. are never the cause of failure.
All spiritual life and growth is based upon the principle of position.
It can be summed up in one word: source.
ACT 17:28 for in Him we live and move and exist,
Through the exercise of faith, our eternal position (source) affects our daily condition, but in no way does our condition affect that heavenly position.
COL 3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
GEN 1:11 “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth”; and it was so.
ROM 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
1JO 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.
The position, the source of life, of every believer as a grain of wheat, is God’s firstborn Grain of Wheat, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The principle of position, both natural and spiritual, is that life in its fullness and completeness is resident in the source, and is transmitted through birth and growth.
Resurrection life is explicitly after its kind; it is “conformed to the image” of its positional source.
The Lord Jesus Christ as the Father’s Grain of Wheat took our place at Calvary, and His death and resurrection brought forth the “much fruit” of similar grains of wheat, believers predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
In the natural realm, the life that is already complete in the vine is increasingly supplied to the growing branches.
The branch is not only a product and a living part of the vine, but that which is produced in the branch is also the fruit of the vine.
The chief responsibility of the branch is to rest just where it was born, to abide in its living position in its living source.
As the believer rests in his position, the life of the Vine (the “fruit of the Spirit”) is manifested in his condition; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
The indwelling Spirit of Christ is the living link between Him in heaven and our spirit here on earth –
1CO 6:17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.