To achieve our goal, supplications, deprecation, intercessions and thanksgivings, are to be constantly made, watching with all perseverance, so that we and our fellow soldiers, who fight in the field of life, war a good warfare.
We, who have believed, repented, and been baptized for the remission of sins, God gives His good Spirit. We know this by the changed life we will live. What makes us change our lives but His presence in us. Abiding in us, the fruits or difference in us can be seen by all. Instead of anger and insult we have love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness of character. This distinguishes the new man from the old and only comes about by our allowing the communication of that Holy Spirit to stay in the heart which He has entered!! The affected change, which can be seen by all, is real!! We literally are not the same person. What used to be natural with us, now no longer is there. Something else is taken it’s place; God has moved in; yes, God now reigns as supreme in our heart!! It is no longer my will, but God’s will that I seek. It is a strange feeling for someone else to direct my life! I no longer feel about things the way I used to feel, I no longer talk the way I used to talk, I no longer intend to live the same life; I am totally a total change!! What has allowed this complete turnaround, the Holy Spirit of God!!
He is this marvelous thing I now have. I am not led by a weak, inefficient, and confused master! I no longer have to be concerned about the decisions I make, for the decisions are made by a molded character that has removed my life from trial and error!! “Is no longer I that live us, but Christ who lives within me!!” My steps are ordered by a director who not only is tried and chosen, but is perfect in the prosecution of my life I can’t lose, because He who directs my affairs, is perfect in every aspect of His being!! I have been betrothed to God, seemingly as Abraham’s servant, who acted as an envoy of Abraham whom he sent to a far country to betroth a woman as a wife to his son Isaac. Genesis 24:1-61 The caption that resides over my life is simple, but sweet, I do all things “in the name of the Lord Jesus.” There has been given me what is described in words as the “earnest of the Spirit.” The archaic word earnest referred to something of value given by one person to another to bind the contract. In 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:13; and 2 Corinthians 1:22, we find what has wrought, made, fashioned, prepared for us. Other translations instead of using the word earnest uses the word guarantee, as Paul writes: “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” or, “in whom also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Christ, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.” This guarantee is given by one person to another, to bind the contract or agreement. The Holy Spirit is given to the saints as an earnest or pledge, that is as a security or guarantee that they would receive all that had been promised to them. The Greek text, the word in question is arrabon. It occurs only three times in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit then, is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession. When God the Father betrothed us to His son Jesus, He gave us the Holy Spirit. In the old days, a betrothal was a binding contract regarding marriage. The betrothed woman was given a pledge of high-value, as security of that betrothal. In a similar way, God gives us the Holy Spirit as a pledge, that is, as a guarantee that our betrothal to Jesus would not be broken!! We, who have been baptized into Christ have had our sins forgiven and God has covenanted with us as proof, giving us proof of our marriage to His son, the Holy Spirit!!
