RAPT UP OR JUST TICKED OFF

RAPT UP OR JUST TICKED OFF
Merry Monday by Parris Bailey
Rev. 1:10 “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” John made a special effort to inform us that he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day while a prisoner on the island of Patmos. This meant there were times that he wasn’t in the Spirit. In my Spirit, Soul and Body class I am attempting to teach the class to be aware whether they are in the Spirit or in the flesh. Our whole Christian life must be sustained and maintained by the Holy Ghost through the same simple faith by which we first began. Paul even had to remind the church in Galatians 3: 3: “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” I believe many of us live our everyday lives totally unaware whether we are in the flesh or the carnality of our mind or living in the spirit. Jesus said “having eyes you cannot see, having ears, but not hearing.” This is how offenses come into our lives.
There is a song that we sing here at Victory, “I want to be more heavenly minded”. Being earthly minded I find gets me into trouble every time. In fact the majority of the offenses I have seen in the body of Christ happen over being earthly minded. Somehow they allowed their soul man to override their spirit man, and if they don’t watch out they begin to have layers of offenses build up in their lives. I wonder how Frank would feel if one day I walked in and begin to drag up from 38 years ago to the present every thing that I felt that he had done wrong? Wouldn’t it be obvious that I have not been “living in the spirit”. One of the chief characteristics of the spiritual man is to have his abode with the Heavenly Spirit. It is not so much the man, as the addition to the man, which constitutes his high character and heavenly power. We should not grow discouraged when we realize that at times we have allowed ourselves to be offended or led away into our carnal natures. For the Holy Spirit will come to us in his very loving and gentle way when we are ready to expose our carnality and fill us again with His Holy Spirit. When He does, wow the world becomes beautiful again. At the moment, John the apostle became “filled with the Spirit or wrapped in His power” he saw a whole new world around him. The Holy Spirit will always fill us up with his infinite supply for all our need.
We can learn to “love in the Spirit”. Let’s read what A.B. Simpson says about this love- “The apostle had just been visited by Epaphras, one of the ministers of the Colossian Church, and he had reported to him the condition of that Church. It was all summed up in one sentence, “He declared unto us your love in the Spirit.” This seems to have been the one characteristic of this Colossian Church; it was full of love. Its fellowship was perfect, its union unbroken; its members were filled with charity, unselfishness and consideration for one another. There were no gossiping tongues; there were no slanderous rumors; there were no misunderstandings and quarrels; there were no criticisms, murmurings and bad feelings, but all were joined together in harmonious love and beautiful cooperation in the testimony, work and worship of the Church. And this was manifestly a divine unity. It was “love in the Spirit.” It was not mere partisanship, nor personal friendship; it was not because they were clannish, and united in little cliques of personal favoritism, but it was all so heavenly, so holy, so Christ-like that it was evidently the prompting of the Holy Ghost. And so, as the apostle hears of it, he exclaims with thanksgiving and deep joy, “We give thanks to God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.” WOW! THAT’S A LIFE IN THE SPIRIT!
I encourage you to join the many others that have put down the “axe of offense” and decided to live a life in the Spirit. You can begin to live in Him and move in Him and have your being and then every day will be “the Lord’s day”; then will all life be one ceaseless Sabbath of holy rest and heavenly fellowship, and every place be a sanctuary, every season a Sabbath, and every moment a heaven of peace and joy and love. Amen and amen……