Full life in the Spirit (Part 2)
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
SUMMARY: Building our lives on biblical principles can be frustrating if we only see it as a set of instructions to follow. The Bible is a source of living water, a spiritual energizer, and a way to grow in obedience. The challenge for Christians is to walk by the Spirit of God and do things according to His will. Love is the meter of our true spirituality in Christ, and it shows that we walk in the Spirit. The full life is joy, peace, and freedom to do good. Let us allow the Spirit of God to enter every area of our being and honor the One who died to give us life.
Building our lives on biblical principles can at some point frustrate us in our walk with Christ. The bible is not a manual of instructions to follow but a flow of living water to drink, a 'vitamin complex' that strengthens the soul and spirit, a spiritual energizer to grow in obedience for a full life. When the Word is assumed only as instruction, there is a risk of discouragement because God's norms are not easy to follow in a context where society continually invents patterns, formulas and methods that focus on the performance of man as being social, and not in the sovereign God creator of all things.
The great challenge of the Christian life is to walk by the Spirit of God, that is, to do things according to the Spirit who has given us life and freed us from the power of sin. This is a crucial issue for all Christians, not just new believers. Spiritual warfare is continuous and permanent. We are new creatures to whom the Spirit of God has given a new nature, but there are still certain carnal issues whose solution we must entrust to the Spirit of God because they come from that corrupt and debauched nature that we used to have. Spiritual warfare exists because there is opposition, there is a contender, an enemy that we must keep at bay.
If we walk by (in) the Spirit, then let us evaluate how our “amorometer” works because the state of love (to God and to others) is the meter of our true spirituality in Christ, it is our law, it is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. Because all the Law in a word is fulfilled in the precept: "You will love your neighbor as yourself." (Galatians 5.14). For the Galatians then and for Christians today, the resource is the same: love.
Love shows that we walk in the Spirit, of our new life, of our fullness. Full life is joy and peace as permanent states of mind in the Christian life. Spirit is love, it is putting into practice obedience in love that flourishes as a voluntary act by the grace that God has placed in the heart through his Spirit. The full life is freedom to do good, which pleases the Lord, discarding all desire to do bad. Understanding the doctrine of walking guided in the Spirit is not enough, it is imperative to put it into practice every day, although we know that it is not easy.
When Isaiah prophesied the Messiah's reign, he said: "And the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, will rest on Him" (Isaiah 11.2). This same Spirit dwells in us. Let Him enter those areas of our being that we still resist and honor the One who died to give us life, full and abundant.
God bless you!
The great challenge of the Christian life is to walk by the Spirit of God, that is, to do things according to the Spirit who has given us life and freed us from the power of sin. This is a crucial issue for all Christians, not just new believers. Spiritual warfare is continuous and permanent. We are new creatures to whom the Spirit of God has given a new nature, but there are still certain carnal issues whose solution we must entrust to the Spirit of God because they come from that corrupt and debauched nature that we used to have. Spiritual warfare exists because there is opposition, there is a contender, an enemy that we must keep at bay.
If we walk by (in) the Spirit, then let us evaluate how our “amorometer” works because the state of love (to God and to others) is the meter of our true spirituality in Christ, it is our law, it is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. Because all the Law in a word is fulfilled in the precept: "You will love your neighbor as yourself." (Galatians 5.14). For the Galatians then and for Christians today, the resource is the same: love.
Love shows that we walk in the Spirit, of our new life, of our fullness. Full life is joy and peace as permanent states of mind in the Christian life. Spirit is love, it is putting into practice obedience in love that flourishes as a voluntary act by the grace that God has placed in the heart through his Spirit. The full life is freedom to do good, which pleases the Lord, discarding all desire to do bad. Understanding the doctrine of walking guided in the Spirit is not enough, it is imperative to put it into practice every day, although we know that it is not easy.
When Isaiah prophesied the Messiah's reign, he said: "And the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, will rest on Him" (Isaiah 11.2). This same Spirit dwells in us. Let Him enter those areas of our being that we still resist and honor the One who died to give us life, full and abundant.
God bless you!
