Programme 10: Knowing Positional Truth by the help of the Holy Spirit - Part 1

In this Series we have been talking about how important it is to KNOW the TRUTH of Who we are in Christ, for if we do not know what God has done for us and in us, be will not be able to walk in and enjoy the new-life God has freely provided for us.  
 
 In John 8:31,32: “Jesus said to those who believed Him, “If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth (you know) shall make you free.”The truth we must know is what God has done for us in the New-Birth. “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (v36).
 
 Where is this truth to be found? Jesus said that we would find it in His Word, for it is those who continue in the Word who will discover and know the truth. But although the Truth is in the Word we can only truly know the Truth for ourselves if the Holy-Spirit reveals it to us. He is our Teacher and we need His Ministry of revelation and illumination. Therefore as we look into the Word we must develop an attitude of prayerful dependance on the Holy-Spirit. The Spirit of God not only performed our New-Birth, but now He is also revealing to our heart who we are now as sons of God through the New-Birth so that we can live it out and express it in our lives. He takes the Word of God (which He wrote) and makes it come alive to us so that it is real to us and we know its truth in a personal way. We need this ministry for otherwise the Word of God will not change our lives.
 
Isaiah 11:2: “The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.” 
 
 John 14:16,17. The indwelling Spirit of Truth: “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” 
 
 1John 2:20,27: “But you have an Anointing from the Holy One, and you KNOW all things....v27 But the Anointing (of the Spirit) which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone TEACH you; but as the same Anointing TEACHES you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has TAUGHT you, you will abide in Him.” The Holy-Spirit is our TEACHER and GUIDE into all Truth.
 
 John 14:26: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will TEACH you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you (bring the Word to life).” He is the Teacher. He will always teach in line with the Word. He brings God’s words to our mind and reveals them to our hearts. 
 
 John 15:26: “When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” He will reveal Jesus Christ and all that we are and have in Christ. 
 
 John 16:13,14: “When the Spirit of Truth has come, He will GUIDE you into all truth; for He will not speak on His ownauthority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” We cannot know the truth without the help of the Spirit of Truth, whose ministry is to lead and guide us into all the Truth of God’s Word, including the truth of who we are in Christ. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” He will take whatever is Christ’s, whatever is in Christ, and declare, reveal, impart the revelation and reality of it to us.
 
 *We need a Tour Guide in a strange place (eg Israel) who can lead us into a discovery of what is there, because He knows exactly where everything is. Without one who knows leading us we get lost.
 
 Jesus said we need to know the truth through continuing in His Word.
He also said the Spirit will help us and guide us into all the truth. The Spirit and the Word work together. As we read the Word we need to pray for the Holy-Spirit to open it up and reveal it to us, then He will open our eyes and guide us step by step into knowing the full truth and reality of who we are in Christ. 
 
 We see the Word and Spirit together in Matthew 11:28-30: 
“(1) CALL to SALVATION: Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden (trying to save yourself) and I will give you rest. 
 
(2) DISCIPLESHIP: Take My yoke (My Spirit) upon you and learn from Me (My Word), for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
 
 The yoke is what connects us to the Lord. The gentle yoke He gives us is the Holy-Spirit and as long as we stay under that yoke and are guided by Him, we will walk with Him and do His will effectively. So His will for us is to receive and be guided by the yoke of His Spirit and to learn of Him through His Word. The two go together: as we study the word the Spirit will open it up and reveal it to us, leading us into its truth, so we experience its reality in our lives.the Word is the Truth we need to know, and the Holy-spirit is the Revealer of the Truth. Without Him we cannot see or know the truth.
 
 The classic passage on this ministry of the Holy-Spirit is 1Corinthians 2:6-16: “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature -yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (this is not just about Heaven, but our PT now).
v10: But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. 
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 
 v11 For what man knows the things of a man 
except the spirit of the man which is in him? 
Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 
 
 v12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world but 
 (we have received) the Spirit who is from God, that we might KNOW the things that have been freely given to us by God.” 
 
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; 
nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For: “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” 
The Holy-Spirit is the spirit of knowledge, wisdom, revelation and understanding. He wants to give us the mind of Christ. 
 
 He is the Spirit of vision, illumination and seeing. His ministry to all of us without respect of persons is to reveal spiritual realites to us:
“It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28). 
 
 Jeremiah 31:33-34: “This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My Law (God’s Word) in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’ for they all shall know Me (through the Spirit of God revealing and writing God’s Word on their hearts), from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord.”The Spirit will take God’s Word and reveal it and imprint it on our hearts so that we know the truth of the new covenat and walk in it.
 
 2Corinthians 3:3: “You are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”
 As God’s finger, the Holy-Spirit wrote the 10 Commandments on the Tablets of stone, so now the Spirit writes God’s words on the tablets of our heart, so that we know them and live by their truth.
 
 2Corinthians 3:14-15: “Speaking of unbelievers: But their minds were blinded (by unbelief). For until this day the same veil (of unbelief) remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart” (preventing them from seeing the truth of Christ). He talks about this veil in 2Corinthians 4:3,4: “Even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” Unbelief is spiritual blindness. An unbeliever’s spiritual eyes are closed so they cannot see the glory of Christ and His salvation.
 
 2Corinthians 3:16: “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord 
 (and becomes a believer), the veil is (being) taken away.”
 This describes an ongoing process. The Holy-Spirit starts removing the veil so they can see Christ and put their trust in Him for salvation.But that is just the start for a new believer, like a baby, has little knowledge of the truth. he needs the ministry of the Spirit to lead Him into all the truth of the Word. So as he continues to walk with God and His Word, the Spirit continually removes more of the veil of ignorance and unbelief so that more and more of the truth is revealed to him, and as he knows the truth he begins to walk in it and the truth (he knows) will set Him free - He will enjoy and experience it.
 
 2Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is the Spirit (the Holy-Spirit is the Lord God and is doing this work of transformation in us); and where the Spirit of the Lord is (He is in our spirit) there is liberty.” In the New Birth He set our spirit free from sin and indwells it. He is also works to manifest this liberty in every area of our lives. 
 
 2Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a Mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
 
 This describes how the Holy-Spirit transforms us from the inside out. 
 
 First, He regenerated and indwelt our spirit (the New Birth) - v17. 
 
 Then, He reveals to us the truth of who we are in Christ. He takes the veil of unbelief away from our spiritual eyes, and opens our eyes to see, so that with an unveiled face we are able to look into the Mirror of God’s Word with a spirit of faith and clearly see ourselves in Christ, as we truly are in the spirit. What do we see when we look in the Mirror? The glory of the Lord! Why? Because by the New-Birth our spirits contain the glory of the Lord. Our spirits are recreated in His image and possess the life and nature of Christ, and out of them issue the fruit of love, joy, peace, goodness, humility and faithfulness. We see ourselves in the Word helped by the Spirit revealing to us more and more glories of who we are in Christ. 
 
 Then, the Spirit brings to pass a transformation whereby the glory (love, wisdom, righteousness) in our spirit is shown in our lives. As we see by faith more and more of the glory of who we are in Christ, we experience an ongoing transformation (or ‘metamorphisis’) from glory to glory, whereby our outward life is being changed into the very same image that we see in the Mirror. That is, who we are on the inside gets expressed and revealed in our life and experience.
 
2Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a Mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 
 
*PRAYER. Since our transformation depends on us KNOWING the truth, and knowing depends on the revelationary ministry of the Spirit we urgently need to pray for the Holy-Spirit to give us revelation of our Positional Truth, as well as for the power to put it into practice. In fact Paul continually prayed this kind of prayer: 
 
 PRAYER 1. Colossians 1:9,10: “For this reason we also, 
since the day we heard it, do not cease to PRAY for you, and to ASK that you may be filled with the knowledge of His WILL
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in 
every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” 
 
 God’s Will for you includes all thoughts, plans and provisions that He has for you. His will is that you are a new-creation, more than a conqueror, the righteousness of God. It is everything you are and have in Christ. So to be filled with the knowledge of His will means knowing all the Positional Truth of who you are in Christ. God wants to fill you with the knowledge of who you are in Christ and what He has freely given you in Christ, and the wisdom to know how to apply that to the way you live. For only when you KNOW these things can you put them into practice, and demonstrate them in your life and so walk worthy of the Lord and walk worthy of who you are as a son of God in Him. 
 
 When you know you are a new creation then you can start to live like a new creation and as a result the New Creation life in you will be released. As you do the Word you will please Him, you will release the life and fruit of your spirit, your good works will be fruitful and effective and you will grow spiritually in your knowledge of God.
 
 Yes, God wants to fill us with the knowledge and understanding of His Word (PT), but He will only do this if we ASK Him. So we must PRAY this prayer for Him to fill us with the knowledge of His Will and then the Holy-Spirit, our Helper will have the right to move and open our eyes to see the truth and reality of the Word. As you come to the Word ask the Spirit to open it to you and reveal it to you so that you will be filled with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
 
 The ministry of the Spirit is to GUIDE you into all the truth of the Word, so lean, depend and call upon Him to fulfil this ministry as your TEACHER and REVEALER OF TRUTH as it is in Christ. 
 
 *Pray the Colossians prayer for them: “I PRAY for you, 
and ASK that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” 
 
 *Remember the Holy-Spirit is your Helper. 
Walk hand in hand with Him. 
Develop your communion and fellowship with Him. 
Together you make a dynamic duo! 
He is your Teacher and your Guide. 
He wants to be close to you. He wants to help you. 
He wants to lead you into all the truth of the Word as to who you are in Christ, for only by knowing the truth will you be able to enjoy the abundant life that Jesus Christ came to provide for you. 
 
 *Ask Him to fill you with the knowledge of His will that you know who God has called you to be, and ask for His wisdom to know how to apply this knowledge to your life, so that you can live it out in a fruitful life. Without the revelation of the Holy-Spirit we cannot see or enter into the spiritual realities of what God has done for us and freely given to us in Christ. 
 
 
 
2Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and the love of God (the Father), and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
 
 1. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ includes all the blessings of our salvation, all that we have and are through our new birth in Christ 
 
 2. This Grace originates in the love of the Father who loved us from eternity (before the foundation of the world) and planned our salvation, and sent His Son to die on the Cross to procure it for us.
 
 3. But it is only through the Communion with the Holy-Spirit, that we can come into the experience of all these blessings. As we fellowship with Him and call upon His help, He reveals them to our heart and manifests them in our life. Thank God for the Holy-Spirit!
 
*Next Time - we will discover more about the ministry of the Holy-Spirit leading us into the truth of God that will set us free. 
 
 *website, 
product list.