Jim Cymbala

HOLY SPPIRIT

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BABES IN CHRIST

GOD in His mercy has given to His human creation laws that help us navigate living in a world full of sin. GOD’s commands are moral laws recorded in the Old Testament; if followed they reconnect us back to GOD healing our break with Him caused by the Fall.  And in our depraved nature we think we are able to, on our own, keep the laws and secure GOD’s favor.  However,…

Theologians coined the phrase, “covenant of works” to define that impossible way of reconciliation to GOD. GOD established the works of the law, not to reconcile us back to Him but to prove we can’t.  It is impossible for me to do what He asks.

JESUS who followed the laws perfectly can only accomplish our reconciliation back to GOD.  GOD requires of us that we acknowledge our inability to follow His laws and put our trust in JESUS to do it for us.

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Corinthian church says: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ” (1 Cor 3:1 NASB).  “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all…”(John 6:63 ESV).  “The indwelling Spirit is the sure mark of the believer’s freedom from the Covenant of Works…” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p100).

 “…the greatest lack of all in Christendom today is the absenceof the Holy Spirit’s power and blessing….Until the Holy Spirit is again given His rightful place in our hearts, thoughts, and activities, there can be no improvement.  Until it be recognized that we are entirely dependent upon Hisoperations for all spiritual blessing, the root of the trouble cannot be reached” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p7). “The issue is not our ability but rather our availability to the person of the Holy Spirit” Jim Cymbala (ref#161, p45).

FATHER, I pray against defaulting back into the “covenant of works” where I try to reach and please You using my born-with abilities.  I am trusting You to remind me of the power and love of the SPIRIT so that I might walk daily with His blessing.

“The preservation of God’s people through all the vicissitudes of their pilgrim journey is accomplished, immediately, by the Holy Spirit.  He it is who watches over the believer, delivering him when he knows it not; keeping him from living in the world’s sinks of iniquity, lifting up a standard when the Enemy comes like a flood against him (Isa 59:19).  He it is who keeps him from accepting those fatal heresies which deceive and destroy so many empty professors [faux Christians]. He it is who prevents his becoming contented with a mere ‘letter’ ministry or satisfied with head-knowledge and notional religion” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p171, brackets mine).

HOLY SPIRIT

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THE HOLY SPIRIT REPRESENTS CHRIST

“The Spirit…is Christ without the limitations of the flesh and the material world.  He can reveal what Christ could not speak.  He has resources of power greater than those Christ could use, and he makes possible greater works than his” Jim Cymbala (ref#161, p18).

“…the Spirit…was the gift of God to His Son, and the gift of His Son to the world.  He came to fulfill the mission for which Christ came into the world.  He is our Lord’s Paraclete, His Advocate and Administrator” Samuel Chadwick (ref#195, p37).

“The Spirit is not our Advocate, but Christ’s.  An advocate appears as representative of another, and the Holy Spirit comes to represent Christ, interpret and vindicate Christ, administer for Christ in His Church and Kingdom; to be to the believer all that Christ Himself was and is…” Samuel Chadwick (ref#195, p33).

“He [the SPIRIT] is sent primarily to make us holy—to conform us to the character of God” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p71, brackets mine).  “He reveals, through the Word, the great love of God to sinners…” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Jan 14th).

“…our spiritual life is drawn directly from the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are sustained by Him through the indwelling Holy Spirit.  There is nothing more important in the Christian life than to realize that our union with Christ is a vital one.  It is a living thing.  It is not something mechanical or conceptual; it is not a thought or an idea; it is really a vital, spiritual union….something of His fullness and of His life is passing into us, and we are receiving it” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Jan 19th).

FATHER, guide me to correct thinking about the HOLY SPIRIT.  I too easily think of Him as a “vending machine”—His presence to aid me through life.  But He is CHRIST’s.  And CHRIST’s purpose is so I might walk in Your will and be transformed into holiness.

“He [the SPIRIT] employs simply and only the truth as it is in Jesus…He enters the soul…He moves over the dark chaos, without form and void, and in a moment a world of immortal beauty bursts into view.  He overshadows the soul, and a vital root is planted whose stream of existence, once it begins, flows on with the eternity of God Himself” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, July 4th, [brackets mine]).

CONFESSION

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CHRISTLIKENESS IS NOT ME IMITATING BUT THE SPIRIT IMPLANTING

…FATHER, my previous understanding of the term “Christlikeness” has misled me. I thought I would become Christlike by doing more and more good deeds like CHRIST did. FATHER, it is my desire to walk by the SPIRIT, not imitate CHRIST by externally acting out my perception of His good works.

But, Christlikeness is not me imitating CHRIST. Instead, Christlikeness is the impartation of the holy qualities of CHRIST in me (ref#7, July 23rd). These “holy qualities” are Your qualities, FATHER, brought to me by the Person of the SPIRIT.

The HOLY SPIRIT transfigured the Son of Man, CHRIST, and He transfigures me. It is an internal change in me. Bit by bit—from one degree of glory to another—my life improves as You, FATHER, enter more and more into my life (2 Cor 3:18).

The length to which I’m willing to be molded into Your image is the length to which the SPIRIT will help me. As long as I keep calling out for His blessing and help, the SPIRIT has fully committed Himself to respond (ref#78, p38).

“Only when we are full of the Spirit do we feel the need for God everywhere we turn” Jim Cymbala (ref#78, p58).

ADORATION

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RELATIONSHIP

Screen Shot 2016-05-18 at 11.05.56 AM“The Mystery of Christ is to realize that it is indeed just that, a mystery. To represent faith in Jesus merely as something we come to understand and accept is to rob it of the mystery of being in relationship with something that is infinitely bigger and wiser than we are” Michael Card (ref#137, p32).

FATHER, CHRIST says to me, “’Come, my beloved, let us go out into the country, Let us spend the night in the villages” (Song 7:11 NASU). He does not say, “Go into the country without me”—but, He says, “let us go.”

Re-impress Your image upon my soul that I might never more think it is okay to do anything without You (ref#76, p158). Without You I am an outcast, but with You I can touch Your kingly scepter. Without You “darkness spreads its horrors in front” but, with You “an eternity of glory is my boundless horizon” The Valley of Vision (ref#76, p158).

Without You “all within me is terror and dismay,” but with You “every accusation is charmed into joy and peace” The Valley of Vision (ref#76, p158). Without You “I hide my lips in trembling shame;” but, with You “I open my mouth in petition and praise” The Valley of Vision (ref#76, p158).

“If we don’t want to experience God’s closeness here on earth, why would we want to go to heaven anyway” Jim Cymbala (ref#78, p58)?

SUPPLICATION

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A HUNGER FOR GOD & HIS TRANSFORMING POWER

Screen Shot 2016-01-11 at 4.19.26 PM[Because we are Christians and live in the world we will always need prayer for our walk and for witnessing to others about CHRIST.  Here’s an opportunity to pray for others or even ourselves.  Fill the name in the blanks.]

“Jesus says to Simon Peter…do you have a love for me called out of your heart by my preciousness to you, a devotional love that impels you to sacrifice yourself for me? Do you consider me more precious and thus love me more than these [fish]?…” (ref#37, p266, [John 21:15]).

 FATHER.ç “What Christ died for is not that we might help him, but that we might see and savor him as infinitely valuable” John Piper (ref#92, p83).

FATHER, I pray for ____, that (he/she) rest in CHRIST’s love. Remind (him/her) that the moment (he/she) was regenerated (he/she) automatically became “a holy temple fit for habitation of the Holy Spirit”  Roy and Revel Hession (ref#101, p13). Hasten ____ to dwell on this truth as much as (his/her) new birth. “God has given a new life plus the indwelling of the very Person of the Holy Spirit” Roy and Revel Hession (ref#101, p14). It is through the SPIRIT that ____ will find CHRIST waiting for a relationship with (him/her). I pray ____ develop a hunger for fellowship and for CHRIST’s transforming power so that (he/she) may experience a vigorous and joyful life (ref#78, p25,26).