Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
The mystery behind the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit; part 3. Handling the close relationships in life from the availability of divine power.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Because your body is a Temple of God and indwelt
by God the Holy Spirit,
you do not need to pray for a miracle or the removal of the suffering like Paul did in 2Co 12 with the thorn in his flesh.
2CO 12:7, And because of the surpassing greatness of
the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself,
“was given” is the aor-pass-ind of didomi
which is
e-do-the-e
meaning to give one something
for his own benefit, to present as a gracious gift; to supply, to
furnish that which is necessary.
Thorns in the flesh or suffering to keep us from becoming
arrogant, is graciously given to us for our own benefit.
a messenger of Satan to
buffet me - to keep me from exalting myself!
Messenger is the noun aggelos (ang’-el-os) meaning a messenger; one who is sent from Satan, a painful affliction or demon
sent by Satan to torment.
Satan’s angel did his best to get Paul down and try to cause him to quit, when, what he did in effect was to cause Paul to get on his knees, either literally or figuratively.
HOS 5:15, “I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
HOS 6:1, Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
2CO 12:8-9, Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”
God’s strength comes into its own in our lives in times of our weakness.
Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that
the power of Christ may dwell in me.
He quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift of
suffering under the indwelling and the power of God the Holy Spirit.
ZEP 3:17, The Lord your God is in your midst, He is a victorious warrior. He will deliver you, He will
rejoice over you with joy; he will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.
2CO 12:10, Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul takes his limitations in stride and with inner happiness, those limitations that cut him down to size, the abuse, the opposition, the lies about him, the total distractions from trying to fulfill his calling.
And so the weaker he gets, the stronger he becomes.
One of the most influential and serious areas of the first mention principle in people testing and in relationships
that really hits us hard is in the realm of marriage, family or close friends.
MAT 10:21, “And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.”
MIC 7:5-6 Do not trust in a neighbor; Do not have confidence in a friend. From her who lies in your bosom Guard your lips. For son treats father contemptuously, Daughter rises up against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
2TI 3:1-5, But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without
self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such individuals as these.
There will be the absence of faithfulness and loyalty among friends, followed by the great sin of forgetfulness of what was done for these same ones when they were in need.
ECC 4:9-12, Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm {alone?} And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three {strands} is not quickly torn apart.
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ sent the indwelling and the power
of God the Holy Spirit to protect us from becoming bitter.
HEB 12:15, See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
PSA 55:12-14, “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, Then I could bear {it}; Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, Then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, My companion and my familiar and intimate friend. We who had sweet fellowship together, Walked in the house
of God in fellowship.”
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit backed up by the power system of God the Holy Spirit protects us from feelings of self-importance, or self-justification.
Without any form of self-justification, self-deception or self-absorption, the most vulnerable relationship one can have in this life under the first mention principle is in the realm of marriage and the male female relationship.
1TI 2:11, Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.
Before the Holy Spirit was given, we have Eve, the first rebel of the human race. She was not a victim, she was a villain, a risk taker and a rebel, not a victim.
Before the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the availability of divine power from the filling of God the Holy Spirit, we have Sarah and Hagar: The Dueling Mothers.
Zipporah had delayed and disobeyed God and her husband Moses to
circumcise her son; and her perversity almost brought divine vengeance
on the father Moses. With reluctance and anger she circumcised the boy, yelling and screaming, EXO 4:25 Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s
foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.”
Zipporah was known as a woman who willfully would maim or cripple a
person under certain conditions.
She had a reputation as The Woman who stood up to God for mystery,
violence, and plain weirdness, no woman in the Bible even comes close
to this description.
In Gen 39, we have the account of Potiphar’s wife plagued with
jealousy because of rejection from Joseph.