Dear Pastor John,
Thank you for tonight’s message. It was very straight-to-the-point, direct, and exactly, to a T, what I needed. In a world full of influences and spirits, I am very thankful to have a pastor with discernment to see passed it all and to help point the way to the right track. Getting our minds on God, having that bigger thing (the holy Ghost alive in us) to conquer the flesh, makes life so much easier, because we don’t have to weed through the wrong thoughts and ideas- we just need to turn to Him and respond.
Now, I have a question that stems from the message on liberty and relates to tonight’s message about being in the spirt/living in righteousness. For most of my life, I have followed rules, not knowing true liberty of the spirit, which tended to be a bit hard and easy to stray from. Since your message about having liberty and walking in righteousness, I’ve been wondering/praying to know what God’s righteousness really is. I know it’s not following a set of rules, because He is ever-changing, and what good would having liberty be if I only followed rules? Sometimes I’ll think I’m having a thought from God about something, but other times I will just juggle back and forth about whether it’s me or not; I just don’t want to question. I want to know what is truly righteousness, what is truly of Him, and not have to sift through my thoughts to figure out where they derived, meanwhile, missing the point or the opportunity. I’m just sensing a struggle there and I want to get over that and just live in peace and righteousness. It’s easy to say that, but I’m not sure what the righteousness really means.
Thank you for your feedback.
Love,
Anna
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Hi Anna.
It’s simple, really. Living in the righteousness of God is living according to the holy nature which God implanted within you when He gave you His Spirit. That’s all. Of course, you will need help in order to grow in that new life. That’s why there are elders, and when they function as they should, the “little ones” in Christ have a much better opportunity to “grow straight and tall”, happy and grounded in the faith.
To “grow in the knowledge of God” is to grow in the knowledge of ourselves because our new nature is His. As we grow in Jesus, we discover new things about ourselves all the time. This “new creature” that we now are is fascinating! It really is as if, as we grow along the way, Jesus is repeatedly introducing us to our new and improved selves, often to our great surprise and pleasure.
Hope that explains it well enough. Rules play a part in the development of an immature saint’s soul (and I will impose rules on this little body of believers as it is necessary to that good end), but the goal is always to teach the children of God to live so well according to their new nature we have that they do not need rules.
Pastor John