Atos 4

Atos 4

Barber on filling - As we yield to the Holy Spirit of God Who resides in our spirit, as we surrender to Him, as we allow Him to control us, we experience the fullness of all that He has given us in Christ Jesus....We are never to grieve the Spirit. We are to continually be under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. When you and I are willing to do that, we start tapping into that which is ours in Christ Jesus. Then comes the fullness of God (Ed: He is referring specifically to Paul's prayer for fullness of God in Eph 3:19). The degree of my surrender determines the degree of my realization of the fullness that He offers. J N Darby wrote "To have the Holy Ghost is one thing; to be filled with the Holy Ghost is another. When He is the one source of my thought, I am filled with Him. When He has possession of my heart, there is power to silence what is not of God, to keep my soul from evil, and to guide in every act of my life and walk; so that in both I am kept apart from the world. The Word of God teaches the Children of God how to live while the Spirit of God supplies the power to live for the Glory of God. Dr Howard Hendricks has a witty exhortation that relates to the saint's continually letting the Word of Christ dwell within "The text (1Peter 2:2) tells us: in order that you might grow. Please note, it is not that you may know. Certainly you can’t grow without knowing. But you can know and not grow. The Bible was written not to satisfy your curiosity but to help you conform to Christ’s image. Not to make you a smarter sinner but to make you like the Savior. Not to fill your head with a collection of biblical facts but to transform your life....How many years have you been a Christian? Nine months? Seven or eight years? Thirty-nine years? The real issue is, "How much have you grown?" Step up to God's growth chart, and measure your progress. That’s what this passage is teaching. So the first reason for studying Scripture is that it is a means of spiritual growth. There is none apart from the Word. It is Gods primary tool to develop you as an individual. (Living By the Book Revised - Howard Hendricks). Warren