Person & Work of the Holy Spirit
Randy Peterman · May 19, 2013
Holy Spirit (2013), No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926352225793

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, we left off when we finished question four. And so we're on question five. Does everybody have the handout for this week? Oh, OK. All right. You need the next lesson. Oh, this is 11. We're going to have a number nine. That's it. That's the one. Oh, that's the last copy we have. Thank you very much. Alright, so question number 5 that we have here is this.

The first paragraph on the top of page 37, the author describes the view from Psalm 110 verse 3. What does it mean? And we should probably look at Psalm 110 verse 3. It's always good when you have a scripture verse to actually read it. At least I'm a fan of that. So Psalm 110 verse 3 says, your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power.

In holy array from the womb of the dawn, your youth are to you as the dew. In the question, what does the dew describe? What does the dew mean? Okay, early morning. How often does the dew come? Well, not in Colorado. Let's pretend we're more sea level. How often does the dew come?

Daily, hopefully. So it's always new. So it's always new. It's fresh on a daily and new basis. Last week when we ended off, we were talking about refreshing and refreshment and how the water from the rock was refreshing. So the dew is new or it comes daily.

Now what is the offer to contrast that with? If you looked at the book and you read the question, he's contrasting the fresh, life and the daily do with something else. What do you remember? As it turns out. Go ahead. Turning, well, with forgetting the do. Yeah, he talks about the church in Ephesus that they've forgotten their first love. That's the contrast that he puts there. Taking it for granted. Yes.

Forgetting how clean, wonderful and full of life it makes you be, us be. One of the things in my own experience was that I went down to Texas in 1999 and I went to seminary. And in seminary I learned a lot of technical details. but the focus was often on the technical details and very little focus was actually put on my walk as a believer and the life that should come from Christ and so while I actually found myself reading the warning to the church in Ephesus going wow that sadly sounds awfully like what has become of my life and it was honestly refreshing when we moved here in 2004 to come to church and start learning about the life of Christ being lived through me.

And that is refreshing. That is more what the author is concerned with. The last sentence in that paragraph that the questioner is asking about says, truth has taken clear form A keen sense for error is present, but oh, where's that freshness which ever marked our adorable Lord? And I thought that was a really good sentence. So if you have your books, highlight that one if you think it's as good as I do. It just really stood out to me as I could identify what I had been taught as erroneous doctrine, but I lacked some of that relational passion which we're going to discuss in a few moments.

Any other thoughts on that? I thought about that hymn. Okay, which hymn? I'd walk in the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. I like that. And that's very much about the daily relationship with the Lord, and I think that's a really fantastic illustration of the relationship we should be having with him.

Now we're going to get on to the negative side of this question. In question six, how does a believer choke the spirit within himself, and what can he do about it? If the spirit would desire to come into our lives like a refreshing dew on a daily manner. What does the believer do that quenches that or chokes it? Focus on what's going on around you. Yes, what's going on around you. Formalism. Formalism is the word that they use. How could we expand the word formalism so that we all feel comfortable with what that means? Ritual. Ritual, I think that's really a key word.

One thing that I think is interesting in Maya, and again this is from my own experience so it's anecdotal, is that if there was a pattern that you could notice about something that made a church service feel extra good on one particular week or something, people really enjoyed it and they came up and afterwards they said, oh that was really good, then you'd look at the pattern and try to cook and cut or copy that for another event. As though the formula of what was going on was what brought life rather than the spirit. And that's what ritual comes from. You have this sense of like, oh, well, the message was good, the worship was good, we need to copy that pattern to the next thing. Or in our own lives, let's say it's Monday through Friday and you don't go to church Monday through Friday. What is the ritual that you get in for that? The formalism. Are there any things that you find in your own life that you tend to do out of habit, but they're not spirit directed?

It's just this thing that you do. I sit in the same pew. You sit in the same pew. Sometimes it's just the habit of praying the same prayer. Oh, I better pray. And we pray the same prayer and it's a memorized prayer and it's not one that our heart's in. It's just the, oh, it's time to pray. Now, there's parts you'll notice when I pray, I often say, draw our hearts and minds to things above. That's out of scripture, out of Colossians, and I do believe that's a key part of our walk. So if you hear me praying with repetition, know that it's not just a religious thing. It is a thing that I think Paul calls us to have as part of our lives. So let's take a look at the answer from Rite Out.

He harkens back to Isaac and says, But as in Isaac's day the Philistines choked the wells which his father Abraham had dug, so now formalism chokes the upspringing of the spirit, and we lose the refreshment the blessed spirit of God would ever give. The spirit is in us, just as the water is in the wells, but the stones for men are getting at it for practical use. There is nothing for us but to return to the first love, to dig again, to open up again the channels for the welling up of the spirit. God does not give his spirit by measure, and if we are straightened, it is in ourselves. What does straightened mean?

I actually looked at that and I... It's constrained. Constrained. It's held. Yeah. If we find ourselves clogged or blocked. Okay. Thank you. Because I looked it up. I actually found another version of this online and it had the same word there and I said that seemed like an interesting word to use. I thought maybe they had a different context back when he delivered this presentation.

So let's ask an important question. Is this talking about salvation? I've got a few head nods saying no. We want to make sure that there's an emphasis. The clogged well is not a loss of salvation or something like that. So the second half of the question is what can he do about it? What can the believer do about having had their well choked up? return to the first love. What does that mean practically?

Let's put some tennis shoes on this. Unless you wear flats or something. To behold Christ. I think it comes down to fundamentally this is a lot to do about prayer and the time of the word and relationship building. How do we have a relationship with the Lord? Through the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, and it is through spending time in His Word. What did the Holy Spirit use to establish relationship in New Testament times?

And to equip the saints? He used the Word, right? So if you're looking for life, if you're looking for His direction, if you're looking for His truth to resonate and be part of your life and the renewing of your mind, like Romans 12 tells us, then a lot of that is going to have to do with spending time in God's Word and spending time in prayer.

He also used the apostles and stuff too, so for people who didn't have availability, then they got it through. Yeah, and he inspired their words and spoke through them and gave them sound offering. It aligned with the word. Apostles could only be in one place, so a lot of it was transmitted in letter form. I don't disagree with you at all with that. The word... The Holy Spirit inspired the word.

He quickens the word in our minds when it's something that we have read. He speaks through it, sometimes from us to others. How many times have you been in conversation with somebody, somebody shares something that's going on in their heart, and you respond with the scriptures?

So if we don't have the word, then what do we have to share with our friends? What's the alternative to the word that you would have if you were thinking carnally? How about we say it that way? What kind of advice would you give? You could quote the scripture.

Well, you should, but what I'm saying is that if you're not in that relationship and you're not in the state of reckoning or abiding, then the consequence of that will be not life-giving, will it? There are cases where somebody needs very specific worldly advice.

If I have a question about real estate, I go to Mike and ask him a question about real estate, and he doesn't say, Let's open up the word and see what the comps on your house are. There's things that he has to actually do research in an earthly context, but that's not the life we're talking about. That's not the daily do. That's not the life of the Holy Spirit. But spending time in the word is an important part of that. Any other thoughts or questions on that? Choking?

So, Rite Out says to return to your first love. How do you do that? I mean, what he's saying here is, we can give a formula, which we've just done, but what does it mean to return to your first love? In other words, it speaks to me of relationship, of intimacy, of something other than religion, and that I have a relationship with Donna that, you know, there are words that describe it. but I'd rather hang out with her than you. What he's saying is that formulism or tradition or whatever takes away from that intimacy and the exhortation is to return back. So how do you do that?

You do it through the word I think, but you recognize that the reason that you study the word is not to come up with a new formula, Or a new method or a new way of doing things. It's just to hang out or have intimacy with your first love who is Christ himself. And the Spirit of God is about promoting that intimacy. And probably like getting to know the person again. Like getting to know Again, what Donna likes and what Donna doesn't like and just that sort of relationship. I hadn't gotten into it. It's all about Donna. Which it would be. It would be all about God.

For the recording she's blushing. And that's a really key thing. We're going to transition, we've got one more question, then we're going to transition into the topic of communion, which for me is a really key doctrine for the body and for the believer and their walk with the Lord. And it's one that I am... Mike asked, hey, I know you're doing worship this morning, do you want me to take over? And I thought, no, I want to talk about communion with you.

So that's exciting for me. But we're going to get into that because I think that's the key. When we go to uncork the well that's had the rocks in it, it's to restore that community and that fellowship and make that normal. I would just think that's why knowing identification is so important because if it isn't, I mean if you don't know that, you go to a formula.

Yeah, well the identification, lets you set aside any distraction and barriers, because you know you're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. You don't have to wonder, oh, what are the steps I have to go through to make God happy with me again? You know, I'm reconciled. I need to recognize that, and be reckoning with that relationship, and then walking in it, rather than what I used to do, which is try to pray through all the sins that I knew I was aware of committing, and hoping I didn't forget anything so that the Lord would want to have fellowship with me.

I'm going to take this Donna thing a little further. It would also be like, if Mike was trying to get to know Donna better, or going back to the first love, it would be like, if he's like focusing on himself, like, boy I really could use a new car, you know, or whatever it might be, I'm just kidding, but it's like how dad isn't getting to know another person when you're focused on yourself and trying to find out how to get more of what you want or think you need. Yeah, it's not using a relationship in a selfish way, it's recognizing the value of the other person involved, which is good.

Question 7 is actually not written in the question form, but it says, review the four features of the Holy Spirit's indwelling. And this came right out of the book. The author reviews it. He says, thus we have looked at four features which characterize the indwelling of the Spirit. And you guys tell me what those four are, and let's talk about them.

Because you did your homework, right? Homework is the wrong word. You looked at the lesson plan. Well, it's permanent. It's permanent, okay. The permanency of it. Why does that matter? Hopefully everybody feels good about it. I think it matters a lot. A lot. It stays with you. Okay, but why does it matter that it stays with you? He stays with you.

Well, I'm sorry, the permanency of Yes, sorry, I was redefining that as salvation, which I should not have done. Not an it. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the it that is here. The whom, why does it matter that the whom is permanently indwelling? We'll say it that way. Because it wouldn't be grace then, it would be based on what you did or did not do, whether you was in it or not.

So the relationship that we have with the Holy Spirit is permanent because of God's grace, it's not a meritorious relationship. which is good. The contract is between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit when they worked out the plan for salvation and all we had to do was believe it. So we lucked out. Luck's the wrong word. But we were eternally blessed by having the Lord choose to create a relationship that we could enter into not with our own merit. It's so great because to have something so solid that we can stand on and depend on. Same yesterday and today and forever.

So in the Psalms, if you look at Psalm 51, the Psalm says, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And there was music put to that Psalm. And I used to sing it back in the day when I was charismatic. And I would sincerely pray that. I thought the Holy Spirit came and went. And that changes your whole relationship. If you're praying to the Heavenly Father, hoping that he's listening, hoping he's forgiving you so that you can have the Holy Spirit come back, hoping that you might have a feeling.

But this doesn't describe that, does it? prior to Pentecost, the Holy Spirit kind of came and went. Yeah, so they were Old Testament saints, they were saved, but the Holy Spirit's permanent presence was not common for the Old Testament saints. And that's a distinction between Old and New Testament that's important to recognize.

So secondly, is what? Enlightenment of Him. Okay, so the enlightenment that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. What is the enlightenment that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Understanding of the word? Okay. You know what? I've made notes. I want to make sure you get these.

So for the first one, write down John 14.6. That's the Bible verse that write out quotes. Whenever you've got a Bible verse that's quoted, I always like to know where that is. Good quotes out of context are useless. That's for permanency.

For enlightenment is John 16.13. I'd like to go back. Okay. So for permanency, John 14, 6. And I'm going to go ahead since we've already moved on, but I'm going to go ahead and turn to John 16, 13 for permanency because it's good to have that. For second enlightenment is John 16, 13.

But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. truth, and he is going to enlighten you with the truth.

So it's not that he has it and then you're hoping that maybe you might find out something that is true, it's that he has it and he is gladly and willingly and actively sharing it with us as we study the Word. That's also a description of Christ. Well, and that's the thing, the Trinity, all three parts of the Godhead are actually involved. What's the opposite of that?

I was just thinking, if you run that through, if the Spirit guides you in all truth, then if you don't have the Spirit... Yeah, you don't have the eternal context and truth. And then that's of course why Satan is the father of lies. And without salvation, we don't have Satan. Satan is our father and we don't have Christ as our Heavenly Father as our Father.

And the indwelling of the Spirit is our truth. So that's John 16, 13 for enlightenment. And again, that comes back to needing to be in God's Word, doesn't it? For the relationship and fellowship with the Holy Spirit brings those things to our attention. Third, we have what that characterizes the indwelling of the Spirit?

The liberty. That's one of those double-edged sword words. It sounds like you might have fun and smile every once in a while. What does liberty mean? Okay, freedom. You're not under the law. Okay, you're not under the law. So the Bible verse that we have for that is Romans chapter 8 verse 2. And this is a good one, you have to read this one out loud. What is it? Romans 8 verse 2. Okay, thank you. If you get there, go ahead and somebody read it out loud. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Alright. So we have liberty, but we have liberty from bondage and law and legalism to what?

Is that where grace comes in? Grace is the whole operating system. Our operating system before was a legal operating system and that's the answer. We've been moved to a new operating system of grace that removes all of the things that we think we can contribute. We don't get to contribute anything in grace. It's His life and His work and His liberty and His direction that comes out in our lives as believers. So yes, we move them out of law and into grace and the liberty that comes with that.

I think it's important in that verse to translate the word law as a word principle rather than, so you don't get the idea that we're talking about a statute, that we're talking about a way of principle, a way a thing operates or functions. What did you say? If you change the word in that verse law to principle and you read it, the principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the principle of sin and death. And the word principle means that something operates or functions the same way every time. So if the principle of the life in Christ Jesus It operates and functions setting me free every time from the principle of sin which condemns me to death every time. So it's not something for me to obey, it's the way that the life of Christ functions. Does that make sense? And lastly in the list we have what? The result of the dwelling of the spirit. Freshness. There that word is again.

And so right out, quotes John 4.14, a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.

And there he's taking that out of the interaction with Christ with the woman in Samaria. We won't rabbit trail too far on this woman with Samaria story. If you've heard a good lesson on it, then you probably have a lot of awareness about it. But Christ even being in Samaria was considered highly, highly atypical. Jews as a whole would avoid the Samarians. and stay away from them because the Sumerians actually had a different set of rules and interpretations about things in the Old Testament. And so the staunch Jews actually thought the Sumerians were heretics.

So Christ comes in and shares the good news. of salvation at the time, at least in describing what was coming up in his work, and he talks about afreshness. And the woman of Samaria was shocked because she was just thinking about the water in the well.

But Christ is talking about life and eternal life, everlasting life. What does that look like today in the church? Not in the woman in Samaria's context. What does that eternal life, that fresh eternal life look like in the church today? I've heard those televangelists. I know it's really good things that come from them. It's not spoken much? It's not spoken much? It's not spoken of much. I'm sure it is in various circles, but the truth of the matter is that it's less about the words that we say and more about the life that is lived out through us.

It's hard sometimes to quantify what that is because it's very contextual. If the Holy Spirit moves you where you are to do something, that is the freshness, but it's not going to be the same for everybody in the body necessarily. For me it's very personally one thing sometimes that I feel the direction of the Lord to do something, but it would be silly if everybody in the body did that. So the freshness is going to be individual, and I think that's an interesting thing. We can't say, ah, that person has the freshness because it looks like they're doing this, or they buy this brand of toothpaste, or whatever else it is that makes it fresh. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and it's hard to just quantify as one simple thing other than it looks like life.

Holly? It seems like the what is always the same. The goal is of the Holy Spirit. The how is different for everybody. The how is the Holy Spirit working through the believer. So in that sense it's the same. But the what is going to depend on what the Holy Spirit is doing. So I would swap those words.

The word, the Bible, it's all going towards that goal and to conform to the image of Christ. But the how seems like a personal, individualized way of doing it. Yeah, the Holy Spirit knows what we need to grow us from where we're at now to where we're going to be. I would say that the growth is from the how and the what to the who. Say that again. I would think that the work of the Spirit is from the what and the how to the who. That sounds like an English class. That's right. He works us to a who. And who's the who? Christ.

Going back there to Romans 8-2, it's also interesting to realize that he's defining two laws, the law of the spirit of life in Christ and the law of sin and death, and one's freeness. Yeah, the principle of liberty is really a key takeaway. We're being transitioned away from something that only condemns, only leads to death, to something that has eternal life and liberty. It's a massive shift and there's no in-between. I think that's the other thing that's really important. There's no in-between. You can't have a little bit of both and mix them together. The principle is this two-whole concept or two-whole principles that don't mix.

If there's in-between, I think you get in trouble sort of like Rock's wife. You know, she was ambivalent and can get you I really want to look back at that law's wife. I just want to take one more look at that, in this case, the analogy of the law. She wanted to have one more gander at that law and turn it into a pillar of salt.

So those are the four things, the permanency, the enlightenment, the liberty, and the freshness. Do you have a specific birth or freshness? Yes, John 4.14.

Alright, now we're going to write out, it's going to transition into a related but different concept. It's one of my favorite topics, so I'm personally a little excited about it. But question eight is, what does the word communion mean? And it's actually a good question, because we took communion last week, but why?

Fellowship. Fellowship, that's a really good synonym. He says sharing or participating. Sharing or participating, yeah. Those are good. The word communion most often comes from the Greek word koinonia. So if you hear people talk about koinonia, there's places called koinonia house or whatnot. That's the same concept.

It's fellowship. It's intimacy. It's participation. Having a share in something. A joint ownership. So communion is really an important word. But then the next question, and this is the one that is relevant in parts of this class, is what does communion of the Spirit mean? It says simply sharing in the Holy Spirit's thoughts.

His thoughts, his affections, and his purposes. The effect that he has on you. Like embracing it. Here's where we want to work through this. Communion is your involvement on a relational level in the qualities of the Holy Spirit's thoughts. How do we know that we have access to the Holy Spirit's thoughts? This is an important question. He lives in us. He lives in us. But does the Bible tell us anywhere that the Holy Spirit is involved with thinking? We have the mind of Christ. Okay, we have the mind of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul writes in verse 14, But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them. because they are spiritually appraised, but he who is spiritual appraises all things that he himself is appraised by no one. I think I skipped too far. I did skip too far. Starting in verse 10, so let's step back.

For to us God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, and by the spiritual thought, the spiritual words. So the Holy Spirit knows the depths of God's mind, knows the depths of our minds, and then reveals God's thoughts to us. And we should probably stop right there and let's just meditate on that for a while. That should change our attitude about thinking. What? How?

Well, if you are just thinking your own thoughts after your own self, How wise are you in your knowledge? Well, depends. You've lived at least two or three years longer than I have, so I would expect your life experience more than my own. But even still, my life experience, if I'm honest, is pretty weak. Right. I haven't created all things, I haven't known all things, and I really am limited in my capacity and my understanding.

But this tells me that the Holy Spirit wants to reveal the fullness and capacity of God's mind to me and renew my mind in the way that I am thinking about thinking. Our world today wants to entertain us all the time, doesn't it? Here's Facebook or here's the news or here's a sitcom or here's the newspaper or magazine or whatever else and those things aren't wicked by themselves necessarily although some of them might be bluntly that way.

But do we take time to stop and think the thoughts of Christ or the thoughts of God after him? And that's really what this is telling us is that we as believers being renewed in our mind and having the Holy Spirit indwell us can think God's thoughts after him. Where were you reading that? That was 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 10-15. But we have the mind of Christ and that's a really powerful thing.

And the Holy Spirit is communicating to us. But since he knows your mind, what things is he going to communicate to you? Since he knows your mind. But he knows what you need to be communicated about, doesn't he? He's not guessing. The Holy Spirit isn't saying, well, I really wish I could figure out what Randy needed. I'd show it to him if I could. That's not what this tells us, does it?

And he's proactive. He's proactive. He might tell you what you need in 30 minutes or 3 days or Maybe he needs to tell you now so you can stew on it like Mike talked about last week. Sometimes he tells you something and it takes you a while before you can tell anyone else about it because you're still trying to chew through how to express it appropriately.

You know, I'm an outdoor person and I love to sit out there on the patio and look at the moon. It makes me cry. And through the trees, and I tell you, and the breeze blowing through the trees. And I just praise the Lord and I can't describe. It just seems like I meld with Him and everything. For me, that's... The distractions go away and you can see His glory being shown. Yeah, right. And appreciation of all His creation. Yeah. So, we're going to... I hate to bring this up, but I want to do it anyway. Yeah.

If your mind works like my mind, there's garbage coming into it all the time. And I can't control that. Yet I'm aware, as the verses that you've just described, that the Spirit of God is constantly revealing the mind of God to me. So I can't control what comes into my mind. I guess the only thing I can control is what do I do with the information that comes in. So you take every thought captive as a principle.

And you know what, I was just reading in Hebrews, I've been trying to read through the New Testament in my morning devotional time. I was just reading through Hebrews and in Hebrews chapter 2 It says that the Lord knew temptation, like we understand temptation.

He understood that He didn't fall into it. So He can come into our lives and understand our temptations. So when the thought comes in, He comes to us and helps us in our time of temptation bring it in and reign it in and take those thoughts captive and then begin setting our minds on things above again. And that for me actually was an interesting verse to read because I've kind of I'm sure I've read it before but it was like okay here's Hebrews and he's writing to him talking about temptation and Christ understood that and then will help us in those times of temptation. Can he be overwhelmed by temptation? No. And that's the thing is that we call on him and we're setting our minds on things above and the temptation is not something we're going to do as we're walking in the spirit, is it?

If you're walking in the spirit then you're going to be doing things in the flesh. And so that's what he enables us to avoid the temptations. But he understands it. Holly? I think that to go a little bit further with that. So let's say you did succumb to temptation and got stuck in it.

Then I think that there's a point where then he helps you realize that you don't have any control over it yourself. You're not going to go through, you know, a formula to get yourself out of it, you're going to come to the realization that the only place you can turn is to Christ. Yeah, and it comes down to understanding the Romans 8-2 principle we talked about. We're not under the law of sin and death anymore, but we're under grace and liberty.

But we have to recognize that and walk in it, or else in our own strength in the flesh, It would be like if the captain or whatever got strapped to the mast. If you kept listening and kept listening and finally you got to the point where you're following his orders and following his orders even though he's not in power anymore. As if they strapped you to the mast before you could get away with it for too long. But then it would come to the point where you just say, you know, I give up. There's kind of a rabbit trail of where that goes, but the way to avoid that is actually where we're going with the principle of communion. So let's keep going in that direction.

That verse you quoted triggered in my mind at 2 Corinthians 10. It says, For our weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. What's interesting about that is that it presupposes that this war is going to go on, but that you have superior armaments against it to win. And the one who brings the armaments is the Spirit of God Himself. That second Corinthians 10, 4 and 5, and it's a relief. So Mike, it's just like what you said, it depends on what controls you. And remember, so then the Holy Spirit just helps you out if you put your mind back on to Christ. But it's easy though to be controlled.

I mean, you know, unless you are steadfast in reading the Bible. I mean, you know, like you said, garbage comes into your head. Well, I think you have to fight it, I guess. Well, I don't think there's ever a time that isn't opposition. The point is that the struggle is there, but it's winnable from a practical standpoint. Because the Spirit of God brings the Word of God to bring all your thoughts into captivity. And so when you are aware of that and rest in that by faith, your thought process is in fact freed from What I call garbage.

Let's go back to what Rydot says here. I think there are some parallels. The first item that he says is thoughts, right? So we've just now explored thoughts. But the second one is your affections. And that's one that for me is a little bit... It's something where I think the Holy Spirit has drawn my attention to the question of what are my affections. If my affections are worldly events, if my affections are worldly things, those things are coming and going, they're passing all the time, and they're highly distracting. But if those things are the only things that I have any affection about, or any concern about, those are not the things that the world, or that the Holy Spirit is necessarily overly passionate about.

Sorry, quick one. I was reading Ecclesiastes, I think, and I didn't know that vanity meant exactly that. Vanity isn't like excessive attention to how you look. Vanity is on all the temporary worldly things that are, like you said, going to come and go.

Yeah. And thank you. That's a good point. They're quick. They're passing. They're fleeting. And yet, the thing I find to be most awkward is that, at least as far as attention is concerned, that the media has done studies, their gossipy sort of material is very popular in the United States. And yet it's very fleeting.

I don't care about the breaking news on Britney Spears. I just don't care. It doesn't matter to me. But OK, so now I'm hearing about the stock market. That's more mainly. Is either one of them more or less than? It isn't that they don't matter at all and have zero value, like Britney Spears, she is a soul that needs saving. The stock market will impact people's lives, but as believers those don't define life, do they? And that's the affection side of things.

How about the next one, the purposes, and this is where we better... They're asking. Because I have noticed that when I'm driving around Denver, I'm not seeing you on the street corner holding signs telling me I'm going to go to hell. Come on, what are our purposes? What's the Holy Spirit doing? Conforming us. He's conforming us in the image of his Son. But the purposes that he has, and you'll forgive my street preaching joke there. There's nothing against street preaching if the Lord has moved someone to do that. But what are the purposes of the Holy Spirit? What does he do in your life? What is the Holy Spirit? As you're communing with him, because that's the point of this, if you're communing, what are his purposes in your life? And one of them, not most, is that we're being conformed to the image of the Son. But how does that work out in your life? It changes you. It changes you.

And that, we're being conformed to the image of God's Son. We're having our minds renewed and he's directing our steps in a unique way. And that's the cool thing about the body and the communion of the body as we transition and we're not going to get to it this morning so we'll have to pick it up next week. When we talk about communion, it's the Spirit's communion with us impacts our communion with the body. And it's in unique ways. It's interesting that This transformation into the image of Christ goes back to being able to behold him or to the fellowship idea issue. And that's again back to the idea of intimacy and walking with him. And so the Spirit of God is constantly focusing us in on an intimate personal fellowship with the glorious Lord Jesus Christ all the time.

And then all these other things are a result of that. The consequence is an impact on our thoughts, an impact on our affections, an impact on our purposes and what we're doing. And the consequence is lifelong, and the consequence has eternal impact. And that's really true. It's not just earthly, it's also positionally related.

The next question, we're going to leave a cliffhanger. Is there communion among believers and why? But you'll have to come back next week to find out if there's communion. Listen, I'm going to go over this again next week, but I've got a fantastic J.B. Stoney quote about communion. So listen to this, and this will be our close for the class. Who is this person? J.B. Stoney is just a believer from a hundred and twenty years ago.

When there is cooperation in work without communion in truth, the work is made the object of communion and fellowship and not the mind of Christ. And thus, Christ's servants are reduced to the level of mere philanthropists who cooperate with one another merely to promote a certain good for man. And I just thought, man, that is a humdinger.

If we're communing with the Holy Spirit, And the Holy Spirit is causing communion around truth in the body. And he's doing something through us together. That heavenly focus is the point of our communion. If we're doing it in the flesh, then it's just philandering.

It's just niceness to other people. I thought, man, what a greater goal. Yeah, I think there are a great many people caught in that. Yeah, what a great opportunity for communion as a body. ourselves, why am I doing this? It's the communion of the spirit. Not just so I can say, Bruce sent me an email saying it's a church work. And look at the good we're doing. Well, we feel good.

We'll pick up next week on question 10 and we'll start there. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth of your work. We thank you for For the four truths we understand about your spirit, that he is permanent, that he brings liberty, and that he brings a freshness. I've already forgotten the fourth one, which is silly. And the enlightenment that he brings in our lives. We just pray that you draw these things to our attention throughout the weekend, and make the life of Christ the focus of our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.