Person & Work of the Holy Spirit

Helen, who's not here, who started on the rabbit trail. Did anybody come up with a good definition for life? You're all waiting for the great answer. I never came up with anything, but I kept thinking about newborn babes, how they're born. And now some of them seem to have everything but are still born you know and just never come to life.

I was thinking of this banking at birth and I think Mike referenced that I was born talking. The doctor was thanking me to shut me up, I thank you that much. Ever since he's told me that, that's all I can think of is him slapping me to shut me up. So, nobody has a great definition for life after all that week, the week of pondering. That word quickening I think, that's I think what happening also with the baby illustration, it just has to have that spark. like having to have a battery or something.

I pondered that because it's one of those things, I think it was a great question. We use these terms when we talk about sanctification, death, all these things. We need to define the terms we talk about. And that was a great question. I really like that.

What is life? Because we're talking about the spirit of life. We're talking about all these different things. And what is life? So I actually, after that, I went and I talked to Vern and asked him his definition of life. And I got basically, well, I'm glad we're in the same position here trying to come up with it. He kind of came up with some stuff and then he sent me, of course, the email on definition of life.

And the gist of it is the English dictionary has multiple definitions for life. The World English Dictionary, for example, has 33 definitions for life. So and they went through a bunch of different things. And, you know, in the Greek, it has so many words in the bios, but those are not really what the how we interpret in English and Greek dialect and all this. And basically at the end of it, there was not a definition of life in all of this.

So I came up, I said, I can't, I'm just driving me nuts. So mine was, I broke it up into two different things, because there are, and he basically, in one point, kind of breaks it up too. I broke it into two different things, physical life and spiritual life. And those are the two probably the biggest categories or divisions within life.

Steve afterwards, the last week, in the coffee room, and we were up there talking about it, about life, and he goes, we were talking about life and what that means, and says, what about a tree? It's alive. So I thought, man, that's true. What about a dog? What about a tree? What about a flower? So that has life.

So that's the same life we talked about. So that's where I kind of separated into Physical life and spiritual life. Physical life I kind of broke down as being a functioning organic or carbon-based organism. Functioning organism. That's physical life. That's our body. That's the dog. That's the tree. That's the living organism is life or life of functioning carbon-based organism. So that's all the physical side.

The more important side is the spiritual side. And when I try to break that down is that that is, and we kind of touched on it and I think it was kind of a good definition or beginning of the definition was the manifestation or animation, the animation of what?

And it's the soul and the spirit. So you have a body, soul and spirit. The body part is on the physical side. The soul and the spirit are on the spiritual side. And so I looked at it as life is the manifestation of the soul and the spirit. So when you look at that from a spiritual side, in the flesh we manifest our soul, who we are, in the Adamic flesh. or the Adamic side, which is dead to or separated from God. So when we manifest the spirit of walking in the flesh, we are demonstrating or manifesting the soul and the spirit which is separated from God.

Then we have the other half. We have two natures, which is with Christ. We have that unity. And so the new creature in us, is a manifestation of our soul and the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Christ. That is a manifestation. So life can be manifested in Christ-like when our soul and spirit are in accordance with that, or the manifestation of that, or when we're walking the flesh, it's the manifestation of the soul, which is attached to the dead or separated spirit, from God. So those are the two different categories of spiritual life. So there's physical, and then there's the spiritual, which is the manifestation of soul and the separated, or again, spirit to God, and then, which is our flesh, and then the other, which is the new creature in Christ, which is the manifestation of what?

His life, His spirit, and our soul. And our soul being who we are, you know, it's, you know, Mike, Courtney, Wanda. That's the essence of who we are, the individuals. But that's linked to a spirit. And that spirit is either separated from God, the Adamic side, or the living side, or the new creature, the new creation in Christ, which is linked, unity, bonded to Christ. So it's a manifestation of Christ. That's when we see the conformity and our Growing in Christ, that's the manifestation of that life.

So, thoughts? Yes? I'm listening to you and I'm coming up with a definition. In accordance with the OSO. Totally in agreement with me. It is. I wrote down, life is that power whether vegetable, animal or spiritual that animates activity. That would be broad because the physical is the organic. Like I said, the physical side is organic. It's carbon based. It's the power or manifestation of that carbon based organism.

And then spiritual is the... I like where we touched on last week, the manifestation or animation of what? And that's the soul and the spirit. Holly? Well, I think with that definition, activity then would be thought too, right? I mean, you're including that. Movement, but thinking. See, that's where I think the link to the soul and the spirit. When we're in Christ, what does the scripture say about us? Whose mind do we have? The mind of Christ. So that life is expressing the mind of Christ, the life of that Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Christ.

And that's attached to us. So that's Holly's life is Holly and the Spirit of Christ. I like your idea of unity with Christ. That seems like that's kind of the whole And that's where I go back to John 17 where I start to think about that, our unity and who we are in Christ. And life is what? That unity is once we're walking in the Spirit, we are manifesting the Spirit of Christ. And so it is that unity between the Spirit of Christ and our soul, who we are, because it's me manifesting Christ.

Right, but then it also explains death as separation, so that's nice. Life is unity, death is separation. Yeah, that was what Erica, I mean Erica, I was very proud of her. She brought up, you know, if we're looking at life, what is the opposite synonym, which is death, which is what? Separation. So the opposite of separation is unity.

Isn't the soul the part that processes the information that we get? When the spirit is separated from God in the unbeliever, The processor has no other place to go but to the physical. Or the separated spirit, which what can it only do? It's really unfunctioning. It can only sin.

Our life, though, is different than the animal life or, well, plant life. You couldn't really call it the regular life. Because God breathed into it. Adam's life, whereas he didn't breathe into plants or animals life. Well, we have physical life. And that's why I said physical and spiritual. Does a dog have a spirit? No. Right. No. But God is the one that animated man, gave him the life. Right. We have a spirit.

And that's why I say there's a spiritual and a physical. We also have a soul that animals don't have. I think a dog has a soul because that's the identity of the dog. That's what Spike or Cam, our dogs, they're individuals but they don't have a spirit.

So there's an individual and life. So that's, like I said, a dog or a plant. A plant is a, you know, and that plant is a carrot. So they're individuals. They don't have souls. But they're different. There's a different manifestation. Now when you have an animal, I believe they have a soul, but they don't have a spirit. The soul of man lives forever. Yeah, one way or the other.

Separated from God or... Dogs, cats don't live forever. No, as much as those people who love dogs and cats, they're not going to heaven. So they do not have a spirit. Well, you don't know for sure. Show me a scripture where there's a dog and cat. I know you dog and cat lovers would love to have a dog and cat with you. Trust me, you're not going to want your dog and cat there. You won't care. You won't care. You won't remember that you're missing them. You don't. There's not even going to be a glimmer of thinking about our dog or cat or whatever.

So how's that? Is that okay? Sounds good, Corey. That was my best attempt at it, because I thought it was a great question. We're going to do two quick questions. I'm going to turn it over to Mike, because he needs enough time to get through his lesson. He said pick a couple of them. So I picked number five on lesson 24. Again, this is the Holy Spirit class, lesson 24. And we'll start with... Question five, we may have gotten through four last week, so five.

What is suggested by the expression, the Spirit of Christ? Well, by your definition, I don't know if this is in write out, but by your definition it would be unity with Christ. Power for unity, God-given power for unity with Christ, maybe. Okay, the Spirit of Christ. So it's like life with Christ. Life with Christ? OK. God exalts Christ. OK. The Spirit of Christ. What does it mean? Christ being glorified. OK. Others? OK. Based on the previous questions, we noted the unity between Christ and the Holy Spirit. The pre-incarnate Christ spoke through the Spirit.

Also when the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, remember when Christ spoke about the Holy Spirit. from John 16, 13 through 15. For when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak of his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will what? Take of mine, and will disclose it to you.

So the Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit disclosing what? Christ. That's the Spirit of Christ. It is the Holy Spirit disclosing everything about Christ. Remember, it's not anything of himself. He will take only what he gets, and where does he get it from? Christ.

So, Ryan also says, we find the Holy Spirit so closely and intimately identified with our blessed Lord, what our blessed Lord was to do and be when here upon the earth, that he anticipated these things. And he also goes on to say, does it not show that all God the Father's counsels centered about his son, that all the Spirit's work was to exhibit Christ, what ineffable love between the divine persons of the Holy Trinity. So again, that unity, the expression, the Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit manifesting Christ, all that he disclosed to them. We also look at Romans 8, 9 through 11, I like that one too, from our perspective.

But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. What? Through His Spirit who dwells in you.

I like that. For us believers, where is the Holy Spirit? He indwells us. I love that. And if that's it, who, you know, it's the Spirit of Christ. So who is He manifesting in and through us? Christ. And all, you know, I just love how, you know, you really start thinking about all this, how the scripture fits together.

We're being conformed to the image of Him. Correct? We have the mind of Christ. We are growing in the grace and knowledge out of Christ. All those things the Spirit is beginning to manifest through us. And what is that? It is Christ. The Holy Spirit taking everything of Christ, convicting, convincing, and all those topics we've been studying for the last year, to what? Manifest Christ in us.

To conform us. I think that's great. And the indwelling. That one tells us that He indwells us. And can that ever be changed? No. No. All right. I'll quickly get to question. I want to go to question nine, because I think one of the snow days a few weeks ago, I think we Marla, I think brought this up and I want to came up with this question. Number nine was Jesus capable of sinning and why? So.

I'm just going off the top of my head and I'm thinking that he would be because he had, you know, the sin nature, right? I mean, not sin nature. Well, he's 100% human, 100% God, but he didn't have human sin nature. This is off the top of my head. This is good, the thought process where it was coming out and saying, hey wait, that can't be. So, was he capable of sinning and why? No, because he did not have sin nature. He did not have a sin nature.

So why would he be tempted then? Why would the devil bother? The devil tempted him, but did he respond to that temptation? No. I can offer you and tempt you in 50 different ways. Well they said he was the word made flesh and he was tempted in every way as we were. But the way that he responded to all the devil's temptations was quoting the word. And he was the word. Great answer. And why was he tempted in all things? Uh huh. He was tempted but without sin. Why didn't he respond?

Well, the Holy Spirit remained on him. It doesn't remain on us. I mean, it remains on us, but we can... what? Now that would be the same. Yeah? What's the definition of sin? Oh, good one. Separation of marks. It's the missing mark. What's the mark? Christ is the mark. So if he is the mark, how's he going to miss himself? Here's another point.

He was never tempted, but he was tested. And there's a difference because temptation means there's a possibility that you would succumb to the temptation. He was tested with no possibility that he would ever succumb to temptation. I can offer you, tell you all these things, but you have to respond to that temptation. I think in James it's the process of how it goes through. You're tempted and then you succumb and then the final outcome is sin. And it's the lust of the eye and it goes through a process of that.

So, the difference, and Wanda this is for what you were talking about, very different than us. When we talk about the unity of spirit and unity of the body where unity of the body is a positional thing that can't be changed. We can walk in the flesh, we can walk in the spirit. We have two natures. That's the key difference. Does Christ have two natures?

No. So, He doesn't have a sin nature that can respond to temptation, that can sin. He does not have that. So, He is incapable of sinning because He does not have a sin nature. So he doesn't have our predicament right now. Why is that? Why does he not have a sin nature? I'm not disagreeing. I just want you to articulate that.

Well, and this is where I think Wanda got very excited about how sin comes through the male. So at the incarnation, who was the female was Mary, who was the The Holy Spirit. Inception, yes. Was the Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit. Perfect. Endless. Right. And Mary was so selected by God Himself to be His mother. But that doesn't mean Mary was better than anyone else. It just meant she was selected. Right. No, she wasn't better. She was just like the Jews. They were selected. How about our boy Adam?

Yeah. No sin nature. Yeah. But was tempted and bit the bullet. Yeah. Well, and we'll get to one. We'll get a couple questions. I also there's a question, too. So I said, did he have the same nature? No. Therefore, could he could he or would he have the desire to sin? No. So he must have been like a perfect little kid. Actually, yeah.

So so this is actually How is this different than us who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit? How is that different? Are you getting the answer? We have two. We have both sin nature and new nature. We reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto God in Romans 6.11. But we can still yield to the flesh in the sin nature. Because we have two. Another one. Could the Holy Spirit commit sin or yield to temptation? Oh yeah.

I didn't finish what Mike said about Adam. If Adam didn't have the sin nature, how did he choose to sin? I don't have an answer. What do you think? I mean obviously he wasn't God, but he didn't have the sin nature. He was made vulnerable though. He was innocent. With the ability to choose. Here's the difference. Adam was innocent. The Lord Jesus Christ is holy. And the difference is that a holy person loves the good and hates the evil. Adam didn't know the difference. He didn't know what good or evil was. He was just innocent. And so he was susceptible because he didn't have the resurrected life of Christ. So my question would end up getting to this. Could the Holy Spirit commanders yield to temptation.

No. Okay, so if you look at Colossians 2.9, and this is actually a verse I know Nick has, had a guy at work who basically said that Christ was not fully God and fully man. And so this is a verse that always comes up when I do that.

Colossians 2.9.

For in him, Christ, all the fullness of deity, dwells in bodily form. My question is can deity holy, some holiness and sin dwell together? No. No. So if Christ is fully God, deity, and flesh, could he sin? No. No. So again, the difference between Adam and him was he was fully God, fully man.

So you couldn't have the two together. He knew. He knows evil, good, all, fully God. Adam was not that way. He was innocent. And then he had the choice. So he didn't know good and evil and all that, you know, what ends up in the one thing he was not supposed to do. So he chose. Yeah, but he certainly did after he partaken of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

I will turn it over to Mike so he can have some time for his. Everybody got their lesson. Twenty five. So we have we have one more class after this and we're done. Some according on the phone this week. Probably the best class I've ever been around. I really love this class. I don't think I don't think there's a publication that talks about the person who works Okay, everybody ready?

First question in Lesson 25 was, what's the primary theme of Peter's sermon in Acts 2? Everybody know what Acts 2 was? I read it. Acts 2 was Pentecost and the Spirit comes down upon the disciples and apostles and then Peter gets up and gives a sermon for about 20 verses or something.

What was the focus of his sermon? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. Now lots of people think that when Peter said in his sermon repent you Jews And the word repent means to have a change of mind. They thought he was talking about their sins. And he wasn't talking about that at all. What was he talking about? Christ being the Savior? I'm sorry? Christ being the Savior? Yeah, the change of mind had to do with who Christ is.

He's referred to in that sermon as Jesus of Nazareth. That's like saying Courtney of Conner City. In other words, coordinating from the wrong side of the tracks. Jesus of Nazareth is Jesus from the wrong side of the tracks. You Jews need to change your mind about who this Jesus is. And so he's presented. The theme is, and here's the part I want, if any of you are confused about this.

There's no place in the person and work Jesus talks about or urges anyone to focus on him. Never. There is never to be a focus on the Holy Spirit ever. His entire job, the theme is, the primary purpose is for him to focus you on Christ. So I know that charismatic in our society wants you to pray to the Spirit and work with him and this, that and the other thing. That's unbiblical. You will not find any scripture that talks about you having a relationship with the Holy Spirit. His job is for you to have a relationship with Christ. It's a really important point to be clear about that.

Well, if they are all one, now this, I've been reading a book this past week, trying to get myself straightened out, and there is no difference. I mean, they are not, in this book, they are not jealous of each other. God doesn't care if I say, Holy Spirit, please be with me today, guard my mouth, and this kind of thing. And now, I just don't agree that there's anything... This is the first time you haven't agreed with us. And it won't be the last. Okay.

To answer this question, the Father is Spirit, right? God the Father. And God the Holy Spirit is Spirit, right? You ever seen Him? I've never seen God either. What does it say? The Bible says, Jesus said about the Spirit is that you don't see him, but you see what he did. He's like the wind that goes through a tree, the leaves shake. You don't see him, but you see what he did.

The Lord Jesus is called the Lagos of God, the Word of God. What does that word Lagos mean? Word? It means that Jesus is the expression of who God is. So if you want to know God, you have to go through Christ to know him. He said, he told the disciples, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Because they are one. If you want to know who God is, you have to go, your acquaintanceship has to be the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the Holy Spirit knows that. So what's he doing? His whole work is to reveal Christ to the believer. not himself, but if you know Christ, then you know God, and you know the Father, because they're the same. Right? And the scripture teaches us that we pray to the Father. Yeah, sure. Through the work of the Son, we have access to the Father. Even the Spirit, when the Spirit intercedes from Corinthians, He intercedes to the Father on our behalf. God has set up in his word a specific program of how a believer gets to know God.

It's the power of the Spirit through Christ. It's always Christ. Rideau says that the theme of Acts 2 is not primarily the Holy Spirit but Christ. It's Christ that the Jews have rejected. is the one that God had exalted, Christ through whom forgiveness of sins and every other blessing was offered. It's simple. Christ is the one that should be the focus of our attention. Is there a possibility that if you wake up grumpy tomorrow morning the spirit won't be with you that day? No. Absolutely not. So why would you ask him to hang out? Because he does. Well the point is if you live by faith you affirm what he has already said. If you want to ask him to do something, one of the greatest prayers in scripture is Philippians 3.

That I may know him, who is to him the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed unto his death. that by any means I may apprehend that for which I was apprehended in Christ Jesus. Christ is it. He's the focus. And as Rite Out goes through the first part of this last chapter, it should be clear to the reader that the focus is the Lord Jesus Christ.

But you're praying that to the Father. You pray to the Father in the name of the Son and the power of the Spirit. And I thought that Peter was really focusing on the resurrection of Christ as promised. And that was that he had said that the Holy One of God was not to seek corruption. And he was focusing on what's happening right now. He focused on the exaltation of Christ at the right hand of God and the promise of sending the Holy Spirit. And the exhortation was that God had made him both Lord and Christ. Yeah, so think about this. Courtney talked about and we've sort of gone through Christ in the Old Testament, Christ on the earth, and now the focus of Christ right today is where?

Where is he? He is in the heavenlies. So if the Holy Spirit is doing his job, he is revealing Christ to us in the heavenlies glorified. Important to know. He is not revealing to us a little Jewish guy this high running around Palestine who is going to be crucified. the Messiah hanging on the cross. That's not who is being revealed to the believer today. It is the resurrected, ascended, glorified Christ. So it's really important that every aspect, all the energy of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is to reveal Christ to you, the glorified Christ in the heavenlies. Well, is it wrong to ask, I agree with you totally, that you pray to the Father in the name of Jesus. But is it wrong to say, I just wonder if there's anyone else that's ever said, you know, Holy Spirit help me right now.

Were you praying to him? Or were you just asking a favor? Well, actually what I said to him was, do your job. That's what I'm really saying to him. Do your job. Well, then that's exactly... Your job is to be a part of me. I'm ready. Well, that's what I was talking about. You know, I don't see any room for that, to be honest with you, but I must admit I do it myself once in a while. I figure I'm God's son. He lets me get by with stuff that you wouldn't.

And also to that, I think the thing is, and this is in a prayer, you can ask anything in prayer. Sure. And we go back to where, what does the Holy Spirit do with our prayers? He takes them and presents them, but in accordance with whose will? God's. The Father's will. So we can ask anything.

And that may be He taking us through that to see, you know, I'm praying to the Holy Spirit or I'm doing this. Well, He'll use that in a way to say, where should you be? Here's what's interesting. That Romans 8 passage that talks about we don't know how to pray as we should, but the In our mind we think that here I am praying, and it's going up through this filter of the Holy Spirit into a language God can understand. Really? God doesn't understand English?

Now that focus is from the top down. The Spirit of God is informing me about the will of the Father, so that I can pray correctly. At the same time, Paul says with prayer and supplication make your request known to the Lord. Anything and everything. Just lay it out there.

And what's the promise if you do that? You get what you ask for? What's the promise? He will give you the peace that passes understanding. He doesn't guarantee that you get what you ask. But you get something so much more valuable. Who in this room came up with a better request than the piece that passes understanding. Anybody come up with something better than that? I mean, I would much rather have that than anything. It passes understanding, which means you can't explain it. But you have it, whatever it is.

So, focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. So what is the one, question two, distinct work of the Holy Spirit according to Rite Out? I'm going to read a little bit of what the write out says. Was that to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ? We're not quite there yet.

Well first of all he convicts of sins and makes us understand the need of a savior and to know that Christ is God's provision for our salvation. Now would you say that by the time we got to this last part Is right out writing to the lost or the saved? So is salvation the issue? So what is the issue then? The glorified Christ. That's the glorified Christ and the believer, right? So listen to this.

All this is beautifully typical of our Lord in resurrection glory. He, in his resurrection, is the antitype of Aaron's rod and thus proves his exclusive right to the everlasting priesthood, not after the law of carnal commandments, but after the power of an endless life. That's a good definition of life.

This accords with all that we have heretofore seen of the Spirit's work. We look at the passage I have just read from Numbers 8. The lights of the Holy Spirit were to give light over against the candlestick which was the perfections of Christ risen. The Spirit of God always, always, always is shining a light on the Lord Jesus Christ. Always. His perfections. In other words, the one distinct work of the Spirit is thus to exhibit the perfections and the glories of Christ.

You hear that when you think of, talk to that. But when it comes down to the practical working out of where we're going as believers, I think we forget that. We expect the Holy Spirit to be doing something other than what the Word of God says He's doing. So maybe it's a good thing we find out what the Word of God says.

Did you have a question? No. But He says that you lack wisdom to ask. And he doesn't, he isn't offended. You just swerved right into a good question. If I recognize I don't have patience or wisdom, should I go to the Father via the Son and say, Oh Lord, give me more wisdom and more patience? What do you think about that? If you say no, you have to explain.

The Spirit has the patience. Now think about who you have. Who is dwelling in you? The Holy Spirit. And He is the Spirit of Christ, right? Is Christ wise? Yes. Is He patient? Yes. So do I want His assets or do I want Him? Do you see what I'm trying to say? In other words, and I'm not picking on anybody, you ask God for one of his attributes and his answer is, I gave you Christ.

Who is patient? Who is wise? And as you grow in the knowledge and grace of him, his wisdom and his patience will be what you experience see that? but I think for a long time we secretly hope that the spirit working in us is going to make us wise it's very tough because we are what I call dualistic thinkers and what I mean by that is that like It's me and Courtney. And I talk to Courtney and Courtney talks back to me and we exchange ideas, we exchange time, we exchange...

But that's not how it works with you and the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 17 he said, Father, that they may be one as we are one. There's no dualism with you and the Lord Jesus Christ. You're one with him. And he's one with you. So why would I ask him, give me some of yours so that I can have it and you don't. You know, Courtney, give me a hundred bucks. Now I got it and he doesn't. I don't go to the Lord Jesus and say, give me a hundred pounds of wisdom and then I'll see you later. I'm really good now because I got some of your wisdom. It's not what you get.

You get him. It's a union of life and personhood And he's the one who's wise. He's the one who's patient. He's the one who has the peace that passes understanding. So knowing him and resting in him is really the secret. Not getting anything from him, because you already have him. Colossians says that in him, like you quoted, dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And then it says, you are complete in him. What are you missing? Nothing. Nothing? Now you may be ignorant about what you have, but from a positional standpoint, you're not missing a thing.

See, I think that what comes to mind when Juana brought it up is James in James 1 and 5, but if any of you lack wisdom, Let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect to receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." So, asking for wisdom. Well, here's the thing.

Let's say, I'm going to give you a good example. Let's say that you were Bill Gates. and you were my father and I needed a hundred million dollars for something which would benefit both of us. I would go to you and say dad why don't we spend your hundred million dollars doing this?

Are you giving me anything? Are you losing anything? Are we not united in terms of understanding? You're not going to give me... I've given you $100 in your pocket now. No, no. My point is that if I go to the Lord and say, you know, I lack wisdom, what do I get? Do I get wisdom? I get Christ. And that's, I think, the point.

What I was going to go to is 2 Peter 3.18, growing the grace of knowledge. That's what we're asking for, is to know Him. The wisdom is to know Him. That's what's asking here.

The wisdom is to know who I am in Christ. The only wisdom is to know who I am. Not that I'm asking for the Ferrari or whatever, or that I'm the next Bill Gates who has wisdom, or Einstein or whatever. It's the wisdom of who I am in Christ. And that's what I think, when you ask for wisdom, it's who am I? Do you know who's that from, Courtney?

James 1.5? Is that like, could that still be Old Testament too, to say like wisdom for kind of dealings here on earth, or no? Oh boy, James, let's put him.

We have to ask the question, what is wisdom? So my working definition of wisdom is knowledge applied. So if my knowledge is from a biblical perspective, then it's Lord help me apply the knowledge of your word to this situation. That's really good because I do have the mind of Christ. I may not be skilled in how to apply it. But as I grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, guess what? His very resurrected glorified life is the life I have. And like the definition that we talked about, life animates. It comes out. It has power. And so it's the life of Christ that begins.

And so you have to look at Christ and say, well, let's see, I don't have any wisdom today. Are you out of wisdom? I think so. Well, I think Christ understands. Yes, he does. why you're asking for wisdom you know it isn't that's the first thing you ask for you tell him what you're hoping he will forgive you and then you say please give me wisdom because you have said that I can ask for wisdom yeah and you think he'll refuse you of course not that's right he won't he won't he can't The other thing I think is kind of interesting is we've had this conversation. First of all, this has been awesome.

But when we do something out of the immaturity, we pray for something the wrong way or whatever else it is. That's part of spiritual growth. As far as sanctification, the Lord says, okay, you know what, I know what you need. I know what you need. And he intercedes for us because he loves us. And so it's not like, oh, you prayed wrong, sin.

It's not that at all. And I think the wisdom goes back to, again, just knowing who I am. It's asking for what's already true of me. It's like going back to your analogy of giving me $100 or anything. I already have $100 million in my pocket. Sure. Well, I'm an adopted son, so I have whatever's yours. Exactly. So it's not transfer. It's just what's true to me already. Wisdom is asking, show me what's already true to me. And that's the growing, the grace, and all that. It's not a transfer. It's basically, I think here, the applied knowledge. It's applied to who I am. I think a lifetime. Yeah. So we said we spent about a half hour talking about position starting in question three next week. Let's talk about condition. and how these two things we just talked about translate into our growth. So, let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your spirit, how we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, and how we thank you for the plan you designed to make us one in your son, and to manifest his life to us and through us, Father. We pray in the Lord Jesus' name. Amen.