Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Hello, everybody, and welcome to the unveiling. My name is Mark, and along with my partner Ajay, we'll be pulling back the curtain on the one true gospel. We are so glad you joined us today, so let's dive right in.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the unveiling.
We've got Mark and Ajay here together again, doing what we love to do more than anything, and that's look deeply into the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the message of his grace. And we are now rounding out a series which I think when we started Ajah, we thought might be maybe two parts.
But these things are so rich and life changing and glorious and just joyful that our conversation have really kind of taken a life of their own. And hopefully that life has been the Spirit leading us and breathing into the conversation and giving us wisdom and revelation to know him better. And I can't speak for all our listeners and for you, but I can tell you that this revelation of the Spirit, who he is and what his purposes are in our lives and the very reasons for which Christ gave us this promised Spirit has been life changing for me and just made a huge difference. How about you?
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Yeah, Mark, it's always good to see you. And also hello to our audience. And we are hoping and praying that, you know, this series is blessing our audience. You know, as we are going deep into the Spirit.
For me, Mark, and as I'm seeing, you know, what we are doing here, I think for me it's what we are doing is we are studying the character of the Spirit. Right. You know, before we understand and before we really, if we want to really have a good relationship with anyone. Right. You know, you need to know their character.
So it is very important. Many a time, you know, people have an incorrect response and reaction to God because they don't know the character of God. You know, we know God revealed in three persons, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we study the character of God and we study the nature of Christ. And now we are studying the character and personality of the Spirit. And for me also, it has been very, very enriching. And also it's freeing, to be honest.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Ajay, what's this scripture? It's one of the Corinthians books where it says, no eye is seen, no ear is heard, no human mind conceived.
What God has prepared for those who love him. Do you remember?
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I can look it up. I think it's first.
Yeah, it is in First Corinthians, chapter two.
Actually, I'll Read from chapter five. I think it's in context a little long, but that should help us.
First Corinthians, chapter two from verse five, verse four. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the of the Spirit and of power.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.
Yet not the wisdom of this world, nor the princes of this world that came to naught, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto your glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory.
Now it comes, Mark. But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of man, save the Spirit of man which is in him.
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: That's the part I wanted to focus on, that last line where Paul tells us that we've been not given the Spirit of this world, the Spirit of human earthly wisdom, but we've been given the Spirit of God so that we may freely understand everything he's given us. So one of the main purposes of the Spirit is to reveal to us and give us understanding into everything that God has freely given us. And what I just realized is one of the things, the biggest things that he's freely given us is His Spirit.
So his Spirit's job is to reveal the Holy Spirit. And I think that's one of the reasons this series has been so life changing for me and powerful is because the Spirit of God himself wants us to know Him. He wants us to know the Spirit of God. He wants us to understand Himself.
And he's trying to reveal that in us right now, even as we're talking about Him. Isn't that pretty cool to think about?
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Amen. Amen. Mark. You know, in fact, you know, if you closely examine the Old Testament, you know, sometimes we think of promises of God as, oh, yeah, you know, all the things we get in this world, you know. But if you really closely examine throughout the Old Testament, there are two promises, right? One is the promise of the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, who is going to come redeem us and what is the result of that redemption?
The result of that redemption is Christ in us, which is Spirit in us, Right? Yep. And that's why specifically, the Lord said, you will receive the promise of the Father, Wait for the promise of the Father. Right.
And when that he is talking of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
And when you read Acts, chapter two, when Peter talked about. When Peter preached the gospel for the first time, he talked about the death, burial and resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ and the ascension of Lord Jesus Christ.
Then he says, having received the promise of the Father, now he poured it on you.
And in Galatians, chapter three, it says, we are justified by faith so that we can receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.
So from the beginning, the promise of the Holy Spirit or the end of our salvation is basically the Holy Spirit, because Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. Like, what can be more than God in us? When we say Holy Spirit, God himself, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
And the purpose of God, God's creation for us is that we may become the dwelling place of God.
In fact, if you go to Revelation, chapter, last chapter, it says the presence of God is with humanity. You know, that's the end goal of our salvation. So it's no surprise. The Holy Spirit himself is a gift. The Holy Spirit himself is given to us freely and in the Holy Spirit. And by the Holy Spirit, we know all the things that we have in Christ.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that's an awesome point, Ajay. And in fact, just to put a little exclamation point on it, that is the gospel. And it was before the creation, before the beginning of time.
That has been true.
And so the end goal, you said God's dwelling place is in us, but he's also our dwelling place. It's a union.
It's a union of the most intimate nature, beyond anything a human can experience is our union with Christ.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. In fact, Christ in us and we in Christ.
The both sides of the coin are accomplished by the Spirit. Because if you think about it, the Spirit is the one that connects us to Christ.
And what is of Christ is revealed in us. And what is of Christ is given to us or ministered to us by the Holy Spirit.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah. He is our access to that, to step into those things.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: So Ajay where do we leave off last? Was it the Spirit of Christ? Is that where we left off last time? Okay, well, you want to start then taking us moving through the different names?
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Yeah, we have a couple of more, and I think, you know, we can conclude this. And I'm really hoping that, you know, we can probably go deeper into just one of the names, maybe in one of the future episodes.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Well, I don't know. I don't know if the Vegas odds are in our favor of completing it today.
We're gonna do our best.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: All right, so, yeah, as we said, you know, all these names are basically the character of the Holy Spirit.
And as we study more and more, the character of the Holy Spirit is no different than the character of Christ.
And the character of Christ is no different than the character of the Father.
So the next name is the Spirit of your father. Matthew 10:20, it says, for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you. So here the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of your Father.
We saw that Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of God. You know, what we said is by the Holy Spirit, when he is called the Spirit of God, he is basically God himself, right?
And now he is going one step further and saying, that Spirit of your Father.
That means, you know, when we have the Holy Spirit, right? You know, we see God as our Father. You know, we don't relate to God just as God, you know, God somewhere sitting in heaven is all powerful God, but the powerful God, the Almighty God, is now our Father.
In fact, the purpose of God giving us a Spirit, we already saw this one, the Spirit of adoption.
So the purpose of God giving us a Spirit is to reveal himself as our Father, Right. You know, from the beginning, we saw in Ephesians 1, God's purpose for us from the beginning is adoption as children through Jesus Christ, right?
And that adoption as children happened through the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is revealing God as our Father. So think of this one. That is one aspect, right? You know, God as our Father.
The other thing that you to notice is that Spirit of a Father. That means what? You know, the Holy Spirit's nature and character is also like our Father. You know, when you think of Holy Spirit, he is no different from our Heavenly Father. And the way he deals with us, the way he guides us and leads us and empowers us, is exactly the same as God the Father, guiding us and leading us and empowering us.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: The part of that scripture you just read that really stuck out to me.
And it's not the direct point Paul's trying to make. He's saying that if we're brought before people, kings and governors and judges or whatever, not to worry, because the spirit of your father will speak through you is the fact that it says the spirit of your father speaking.
The fact that the spirit is the Father's speaking voice. That speaking voice can speak to others through us, but it can also speak to us.
Now, I'm not saying it in human words of English, but definitely communicate to us.
It's the spirit that communicates the Father's thoughts and things that he wants to impress upon us and tell us.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Amen. Amen. Yamark, do you have any. You can probably delete this one, but do you have anything else or anything coming to mind on this one?
[00:12:52] Speaker A: No. Let's move on. Believe it or not, let's move on.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: Okay. Okay, let's do that. Yeah.
Yeah. Mark, I think the one thing that is that I am realizing through all this is the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ. And then the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Father, and the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God.
So whatever God is and whatever Christ is and whatever the Father is, that is the Holy Spirit. So, like, I keep on saying that, you know, sometimes we think of Holy Spirit as different from Christ. We think of Holy Spirit as different from the Father.
And sometimes, you know, like, people have this idea that, yeah, you know, Father Jesus Christ is really good. Right. He's a good shepherd. He's very loving. He died for me. But, you know, Father is not like that. God is not like that. You know, they look at the Old Testament and they point out at the Old Testament and say, yeah, you know, God killed people in the Old Testament, but Christ is not like that. So Christ is different from God. Or they say that, oh, yeah, you know, God used to be like that. Right. You know, he used to kill people, but now he has changed. And when it comes to the Holy Spirit, I don't know. Right. You know, that's this kind of. Yeah. When it comes to Holy Spirit, it's mostly what I have heard is like, yeah, you know, there is power, there is miracles, there is speaking in tongues, but they don't really talk about the character and the nature of the Holy Spirit. But when you do the deep study, you know, we are realizing that he is called the Spirit of Christ. He is called the Spirit of Father.
And so Holy Spirit is exactly like Christ and the Father. And the other thing we want to understand is that you cannot know the Spirit, you cannot know the Father without knowing Christ.
Because for us, the tangible reality of God is in Christ.
Yes, you know it is by the Spirit. It is the Father sent Christ, and Christ did everything he did by the Spirit.
But the tangible reality of God is Christ, you know, that's why, you know, the Bible says, you know the glory of the gospel it's in. I think we should read that mark real quick, if you don't mind.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: 2 Corinthians, chapter 4.
It says, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Where do you find the knowledge of God? It's in the face of Lord Jesus Christ.
He that has seen me has seen the Father.
So in order to know God, in order to know Father, and in order to know the Holy Spirit, we need to know Christ. You know, that's why the Holy Spirit is not revealing himself.
You know, sometimes we. Sometimes, you know, people say, yeah, you know, we talk about God, we talk about Jesus Christ, but we seldom talk about Holy Spirit. But, you know, Spirit did not come to reveal himself. Oh, look at me. This is what I am. This is what I am. No spirit actually reveals himself to us through Christ. That's why the Bible says In John, chapter 16, he came to glorify. He shall glorify me because he will take what is of mine and reveal them to you.
So the work of the Spirit is almost in the background when we see Christ, when we know Christ, that's when we know the Spirit. So again, the point I'm making is the Spirit is same as the Father, the Spirit is same as Christ, and Christ is same as the Spirit. But we really know the Father and the Spirit by knowing Christ.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Excellent. Let me back that up with a great scripture here. Hebrews 1:1 says, in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by. By His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.
I just love that. And I can still remember one of the apostles saying to Jesus, lord, show us the Father.
And Christ was, like, somewhat indignant, like, what do you mean, show you The Father. After being with you this long, don't you know when you've seen me, you have seen the Father.
So that's just a great point you made a. That in seeing Christ we come to our knowledge of the Father and the Spirit as well.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. In fact, Mark, I was, yeah, I was going to say something, but it slipped my mind. But yeah, you know, the point, like other thing that stood out for me is in the scriptures that you read, he is the express image of the Father. Right. He is the glory of the Father. So in seeing Christ, we see the Father and in seeing Christ, we see the Holy Spirit.
And you cannot really know the Father without knowing Christ because he said, I am the way to the Father. Right. So if you take some kind of a.
If you bypass Christ and if you try to know the Father in any other way, it is not possible. You. You know, that's why I don't really buy. Even some Christians I have known.
Yeah, you don't talk about Jesus. You don't talk about Jesus. You know, I'll just talk about God's love and I'll just tell God loves you, that's enough. But I personally believe that's not enough. You know, maybe that's a starting point.
They may, if you tell people God loves you, you know, they may ask, but how did God love me? You know, I'm having all these things, I'm going through all these things. What do you mean God loves me? You know, maybe that is some kind of a bait to talk more about Jesus Christ. But if you just leave people with saying God loves you, I think without talking about the cross, you will leave them more confused and they might get more angry at God. You know, I'm going through all these kind of troubles and you're coming and telling me God loves me. And what does this mean?
[00:19:42] Speaker A: And the thing is, how can you talk about God without Jesus? Since Jesus is God, it's impossible. And you know, what we're talking about here is a great mystery, the Trinity. We don't see a lot of things in our creation where it's one that exists in three different.
What's the word? Well, three different persons as far as the Godhead is concerned. C.S. lewis wrote something in his book Mere Christianity. It's a human illustration.
So it falls. It's always going to fall weak when you're trying to describe spiritual truth. But he said that it's like water.
Water is one thing, H2O, but it can exist as a liquid, as a solid, or as a Gas. Okay, now that's a very weak illustration, but it's the best you're going to do on this side of heaven, that three in one.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: When you've seen Jesus, you've seen the Father.
When you know Christ, you have the Spirit. They're all together. And it's really futile for us to try to separate the three of them completely, although they each have their own aspects. And that's why we're looking into them, because we desire to know more, to know God better.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It is one God in three persons.
And the Trinity. Yes, the Trinity has always been there, but it becomes more, or it is actually spoken more in the context of our redemption.
So Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, it was there like the Spirit of God was there. Right. But at the same time, it was not as clear as it is in the New Testament. Right.
So in the context of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit is more pronounced in the context of our redemption, because God the Son became human being for us. Right. And by the Spirit, he did everything he did, and now we receive the Spirit. So I think it also relates to God becoming man in Jesus Christ. And we joined to them, whatever joined to our Lord Jesus Christ. And whatever Christ is, we become. I think in the context of Christ becoming man also, I think this Father, Son and Holy Spirit relationship takes on a different.
I think it gives us a different perspective in the sense that, okay, now Jesus became the Son, Jesus became human, and then that human is relating to God as Father. Right.
And in Christ we can relate to God as Father.
And everything Jesus did, he did by the Spirit.
And we also do everything by the power of the Spirit or by the Spirit.
And also the other thing is we are joined to God through the Spirit or joined to Christ through the Spirit.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Yeah. The beginning of what you just said there, Ajay, was really just paraphrasing that Hebrews one that I had read about that in the Old Testament, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways his revelation of the Father, Son and the Spirit was there. But it wasn't until the sun came that we got the exact representation of his being and the radiance of God's glory, that the more perfect communication of who God is.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mark, you always say, you know, whatever we do, whatever we talk about, everything comes back to Christ.
So even in speaking of the Holy Spirit. Right. You know, we again came back to Christ because knowing the Spirit is only through knowing Christ.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: And basically, you Know, the more revelation, the more you know the gospel, right?
The more you are operating in the Spirit.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Good point, good point.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: All right, Mark, so I think we can move to the next one. 2 Timothy 1:7.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
So, you know, again, it goes back to humanity and goes back to the law, right? The whole human beings, as we know, we talk several times, right? We are born into Adam and then we are born under the law.
And law brings wrath.
So under the law, we are under bondage and we are under fear. Because there are two things, right? Under the law, we are in bondage to sin. The law says that if you keep all the commandments, you will become righteous and you will have life.
But we don't have the ability to do that because we are under bondage to sin.
If sin is our master, obviously sin is not going to tell us, hey, go do righteousness. Go keep all the commandments of the law. Because sin is dead against the law, right?
So we are under bondage to sin. We cannot really keep the law. We cannot get out of the law.
And then there is condemnation and fear of punishment. So these two things coexist in the law. One is bondage, and the second, actually three things. There is bondage, there is condemnation, and there is fear.
But you know, Spirit, as we have talked before, Spirit is not in the law.
Spirit. God did not give us a spirit to come into the realm of the law and help us keep the law. That's not what God gave the Spirit for us.
He actually gave the Spirit so that we can be delivered from the law. And we come into grace and into Christ.
So we are delivered from the law. That's why Bible says in Romans, chapter eight, let me pull that up real quick for you have not received the spirit of bondage. Again, to fear.
When it says again to fear, that means like, you know, Spirit is not like the law. You were living under the law, you were living under bondage, and you were living in fear.
You know, God did not give the Spirit to take you back into the same condition.
He gave us the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, abba, Father. So it's very important to understand that any kind of fear, any kind of bondage, any kind of condemnation, that is not from Spirit.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: Great point. That's a really rubber meets the road point.
If you as a believer are experiencing fear, that is not of God, it's not of the Spirit, it's not of Christ, it's Not of the Father.
That's your fear in the flesh.
And it reminds me here of 1 John 4, tells us that this is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment in this world. We are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment.
The one who fears is not made perfect in love. And the point you just made about that, about not being under the law, a lot of our fears are rooted in that fear that we're going to lose our salvation because we're not fulfilling the law well enough or doing enough right things or staying away from sin. Fear then, which puts the fear of death into us, even put sting into that fear.
So I love that. That's a very great litmus test. If we have fear, I think we need to acknowledge and just speak it out. Hey, you know what? This is not of the Spirit of God. God's not putting fear into me. I'm putting fear into me.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Mark, I'm glad that you brought up that verse right. You know, it says, perfect love casts out fear. Sometimes, you know, before I used to think, you know, perfect love casts out fear.
You know, I need to love others perfectly or I need to love God perfectly. But it is not talking about our love for God or for others. It is talking about God's love for us. Because our love is not perfect. Only God's love is perfect.
And the Bible also says, right, you know, the spirit of God in Romans, chapter five, it says the love of God that is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
So it's talking about the love of God. You know, when we understand the love of God.
And in fact, you know, we cannot understand the love of God unless we look at the cross, right?
When we deeply study the cross, when we understand how perfectly Lord Jesus Christ has taken all our sins away and how perfectly there is no condemnation for us, the fear will leave. So the Spirit came to reveal to us the love of the Father.
And in revealing the love of the Father, the fear will go away. In fact, it's interesting that it says, perfect love casts out fear.
You know, the love came to us to drive away fear. You know, we don't have to try hard to not be fearful, not be afraid, but God's love in us, you know, when we start focusing on God's love, the fear will be cast out because Lord doesn't want us to have fear. Because which father wants their children to constantly live in anxiety and Depression and fear that, oh, something is going to happen, nobody wants it, right?
So the way God also doesn't want us to have that fear, and the way he casts that fear is by showing us his love.
And that love in us will cast out fear.
[00:30:06] Speaker A: Excellent, excellent. So that really is another purpose of the Spirit then, The spirit of perfect love. He's trying to, you know, like in First Corinthians where he said that we've been given the spirit so that we understand what God has freely given us. He wants to understand his perfect love for us, to drive that fear out, to cast it out.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Amen. Amen. In fact, if you read the whole verse, right, that's what it says.
On the negative side, it is like he is not the spirit of fear, right? God has not given us the spirit of fear, but he is a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.
So he is the spirit of love and he is the spirit of power. So again, you know, when we talk about power, yes, you know, power to do things, you know, power to do miracles, power to cast out demons, all that is there.
But he has the power, right? He had the power. What is the power?
Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
So he has the power to save us, he has the power to keep us, he has the power to sanctify us, and he has the power to preserve us. So as children, when we understand that, you know, my dad is greater than the enemy, right? You know, nobody can.
When we were kids, you know, our dad is a superhero, right? You know, nobody can beat my dad.
So when we understand that, you know, my father is more powerful than the enemy, then fear goes away.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: He's also the spirit of the power of resurrection in us, which I love. And that's not just for our last breath, but that's as we walk through this life. He is the power of resurrection in us, which is.
That's another mystery, that hopefully as we walk in the Spirit, he will continue to reveal that resurrection power in us through all the. Through all the challenges of life.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's an amazing point, Mark.
Spirit is life because of righteousness, right?
The power of resurrection is in us. That is the life of God in us.
The law of the Spirit of life has made me free from the law of sin and death.
So life is already operating in us, that resurrection power, in fact, Bible says, right, the resurrection power is at work in us, work in all those who believe.
So the resurrection power is also operating in us.
And we see that, you know, one is, you Know, all these things are the factors for driving out fear, right?
It says, for God has not given us a spirit of fear and there is a contrast, but of power and of love and a sound mind.
So when we understand his power, when we understand his love for us, and when we understand his power on behalf of us and his power on behalf of us, and also the power in us, like you said, you know, the fear will go away.
And the last one is sound mind, right?
You know, the Spirit, the Bible says that, you know, God is not a God of confusion.
So he gives us a sound mind.
Because if you, in many, if you read the Gospels, you know, many a time, Lord Jesus Christ, I don't know if I want to call it reprimanded or chided, but he asked the disciples, he said, are you also not without understanding? So God's desire for us is to have a good understanding, right? Understanding of what the Gospel is, you know, who Christ is and understanding of God's love, understanding of our inheritance, right. You know, Paul, we already saw this, we already looked into this prayer of Paul, right? You know, Paul wanted us to have understanding. So having this understanding and having this sound mind is also work of the Spirit. When we have this understanding, when we have this sound mind, the fear goes away, right?
Because when we understand something clearly, there's no fear. Because we know what Christ did for us, we know our inheritance, we know that there is no condemnation and we know that there is eternal life. And we know that we have authority over spirits.
And we know that greater is he that is in me than that is in the world.
So when we have the sound mind, we have this clear understanding also.
That clear understanding also drives away fear in us.
[00:34:52] Speaker A: Yes, it does.
You know, I am just reminded, Ajay, it seems like sound mind is something that is a rare commodity nowadays in our culture. I mean, mental health has become just like serious issue. My wife is an online therapist and the people she deals with, they don't have a sound mind. They don't have peace or rest in their mind.
And you know, we talk about the law a lot and just how life transforming and powerful the gospel is in that it takes us out from under that law.
And I want to have a bigger conversation on this at some point. But the unsoundness, if that's the correct term of some people's mind is directly caused by what my wife would talk about as religious abuse.
People that have grown up under the law, it's an abuser and, you know, not doing the things you should do doing the things you shouldn't do.
Steal the soundness from our mind as we walk around with guilt and condemnation and broken relationships. Boy, do we need some soundness of mind nowadays, don't we?
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. In fact, you have that soundness of mind, you know, it is from the word of God, right? Understanding the scriptures, rightly dividing the word of God. And by his Spirit, we understand the grace of God.
In fact, I want to read this one. This is one of my favorite scriptures.
It's in Colossians, chapter one.
Paul is writing to the believers in Colossae and he says that.
Okay, actually I'll read from verse three. Colossians chapter one, verse three to six.
We always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people.
The faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace.
So when we truly understand God's grace, we will start bearing fruit.
So it has a lot to do with the sound mind as well. Right?
So in order to have a sound mind, we need to truly understand God's grace.
And in order to truly understand God's grace, we study the scriptures, right? We hear good messages that clearly explain the gospel, so we come to an understanding of the gospel.
When we understand the gospel, we will also have a sound mind.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, Ajay, I think we better move on to our last name of the Spirit here if we're going to get done today.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the last one, of course, you know, we are not saying that is the last name, but in our series, you know, this is the Last 1. Romans 14:17.
This is also one of my favorite scriptures.
I think it would be an awesome one to close on this 1, verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
You know, many times, you know, when people say, yeah, kingdom of God, God's kingdom, God's kingdom.
They keep on using this word, but I don't know how many of them. It might mean different things to different people, but Paul is clear about, you know, what the kingdom of God is. Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but it's righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
So one of the.
Yeah. As you know, right? You know, the Holy Spirit is a spirit of joy.
He gives us the joy of the Lord.
One way to know that we are operating in the Holy Spirit and something is by the Holy Spirit is we have peace and we have joy in the Holy Ghost.
And this comes through righteousness. Right. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
In fact, you know, in original, I have heard that, you know, it's not an end there. The end is actually, that is Lord Jesus Christ is saying that seek ye for the kingdom of God. That is his righteousness. Right. Because the Bible clearly, I mean, in the same passage, he said that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So unless you have this righteousness, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. So seeking the kingdom of God is seeking his righteousness.
And here it says, the kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking, in not all these external things, but it is in the righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. So when we have the righteousness of God, when we know that we are justified by faith, we have peace with God and then we have the joy in the Holy Ghost.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: You know, Ajay, you said something a week or two ago, and I'm going to let you repeat it, if you would, about something to the effect that salvation is not a change of locations.
It's not moving from hell to heaven. Do you remember what I'm talking about? Can you repeat what that point we were making there?
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
You know, salvation is not a change of location. It's not going from earth to heaven, or it is escaping hell, but it is going from death to life.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: That's a great point. And what I love here about this one, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us is the kingdom of God.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: It's not so much a place we're moving to, it's a person we're moving to that's moving into us.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:26] Speaker A: And I just love that because it just reiterates and supports your point that it's not a change of location, it's the Spirit. The kingdom of God is the Spirit in us.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, in fact, you know, when Lord talked about the kingdom of God, Right. You know, all the disciples, they were expecting Jesus to Literally take over, bring down the Roman kingdom, right. You know, and then establish his kingdom. They were thinking that he will physically take over the Roman Empire and release or deliver Jews from the Romans and then he is going to establish a kingdom. You know, that's how people interpreted the kingdom of God.
And they were actually disappointed. Right? You know, that's what.
On the road to Emmaus, when they met Jesus on the road to Emmaus, the two disciples, they said, yeah, you know, we thought, you know, Christ is going to establish the kingdom. I'm paraphrasing it. But, you know, he basically died.
And now people are saying that, you know, he rose from the dead, you know, but we are not even sure that that is truth.
So in their mind, the kingdom of God is a physical kingdom, right?
And in their mind, glory is like, you know, you are conquering the world.
And even now, I think, I bet most believers think of kingdom of God as, you know, okay, God is going to come, Jesus is going to come, and we are going to become kings and we are going to rule over.
Everybody will have their own small kingdoms, and we are going to rule over.
Rule over what? Maybe we all are like children of God, you know, maybe ruling over animals. I don't know what we will rule over. Right? So I think that is the idea they have. But you made an amazing point, Mark. You know, the kingdom of God is Holy Spirit. In us is the kingdom of God and the joy in the Holy Ghost, right? Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. So these are the.
What is the right. These are the characteristics of a believer, right?
A true believer. It's not about outward things. You know, we might be going through lot of different problems. You know, we might have financial difficulties, relationship issues, health issues. But that's not about the kingdom of God, because this body has to go to dust one day anyways, and then we will get the new bodies.
But what we have now is the righteousness of God that no one can take away.
And the peace of God, right? You know, the peace nobody can take away, and the joy of the Holy Ghost, which nobody can take away.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: Amen. And just to support your point even further, as Jesus walked through the towns and villages of Israel, he preached repent, which means change your mind.
For the kingdom of God is near.
How was the kingdom of God near? He was there.
Jesus. And then the spirit of Jesus in us now is the kingdom of God. And like you said, they didn't understand that. They thought it was a place. They thought it was maybe a political situation.
In which they would no longer be in slavery to Rome and that they would be the rulers of everything.
But he was the kingdom of God. Wherever he went, the kingdom of God was near. And now he's in us. That kingdom is in us.
[00:45:03] Speaker B: Amen. Amen. Yeah, Mark, I know we are at time, but I also wanted to close this out on this real quick.
You know, even now, people interpret the kingdom of God, or in earthly terms, in political terms, right? Yeah. You know, God is for America, and he's not for other countries.
You know, all those kind of things. But it's not literally, you know, God is not talking about physical kingdoms or he's not for one country, he's not against one country.
God came to save everybody in the world.
God doesn't want anyone to perish.
It could be any country, anywhere. You know, God is here to save individuals. He did not come to conquer kingdoms. He did not come to be, you know, run some kind of a political campaign.
None of those things. You know, sometimes we have this impression that, you know, God is for one country, he's not for other country.
You know, I think, of course, you know, as a nation, you know, we can trust God, but I think we need to be careful about saying that, oh, God is in this country, and he absolutely hates this country. You know, it's not like that. God loves all individuals. Everybody. God wants everyone to be saved. He doesn't want anyone to perish.
[00:46:28] Speaker A: Yep, absolutely.
So, Ajay, the way I'd like to round it up now, we've just had five, for me personally, incredible episodes and have had really new insight in new knowledge of who the spirit of God is in us, what his purpose is, for the reason God promised him from Old Testament times and then fulfilled that promise in Christ.
This is meant to have major impact on the children of God, on the sons of daughters, the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, in my opinion, and one of the reasons that we are so passionate about this podcast is that we live in a day and an age when it's hard to find a church that is preaching the one true gospel with no ands, ifs, or buts added. It's difficult. And this isn't the first time in history. It's been like that during the Middle Ages, for a thousand years, the Christian religion or church, whatever existed at that time, had lost the gospel. And when we had the Great Reformation at the end of the 1400s through the beginning of the 1500s, the establishment church at the time, which had lost the gospel and turned Christianity into just rules that they had made up. It was very corrupt.
When the revelation of the one true gospel came to Martin Luther in Germany, to Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, Switzerland, at the same time, unbeknownst to each other, God started to reveal his gospel.
They would attack him, saying, oh, you're bringing something new here. You're trying to change, oh, the historical Christian church. Martin Luther said, no, no, this is nothing new. This is nothing but a rediscovery of the real true gospel.
And in my opinion, we need this to happen again. And it needs to start with our pastors and our preachers, our church leaders, small group leaders. We all need it. We all need a revelation by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we would know God better.
ANDRZEJ as we've looked at all these different purposes for which Scripture tells us God has given us His Spirit, it just struck me as I was walking yesterday and today, just out walking, not studying scripture, just thinking that the pastors of this nation, if they want, and I think most of them have good intentions and they want their preaching to be, as Paul said, with a demonstration of the Spirit's power. They want to preach in the power of the Spirit, then it's of utmost importance that what they're preaching is aligned with what the Spirit's purposes are.
If they're going to have the Spirit's power, you can go back through. Let's try to name some of them now. But we know that Christ said that the Spirit was going to take of what was his and declare it to us. Pastors, preachers, take of what is Christ and declare it to your congregations. The Spirit was given so that we would understand everything God has freely given us. Preach everything that God has freely given us. We have life in the Spirit because of righteousness. Preach about our righteousness. If you want to have a demonstration of the Spirit's power in your preaching, then it's Christ and him crucified.
[00:50:32] Speaker B: Amen. Amen.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: Mark so I'm just going to leave everybody with that to contemplate that. And that goes for all believers as we share the gospel, that we need to align ourselves with the purposes of the Spirit of Christ in us. If we're going to have power and people are going to be saved and set free from bondage.
All right, everybody, we just want to thank you for being a part of this series with us. And we pray that you will have a revelation from the Spirit of all the things that he was given to give us.
That makes if that's a way of putting it. But anyway, have a great week everybody. God bless you all and we will talk to you again the next time.
We hope you were encouraged by today's discussion. If so, please subscribe and share with your family and friends. The unveiling podcast is available on most major podcast apps. Thanks for listening and we will see you again the next time.
All my days, Lord, I will delight in you all the days of my life in you I will delight in you I will light and you are well Delight.
