Monday, March 11, 2013

Does The Spirit Of God Abide In Us? - How To Know.

Brothers and sisters, I am often puzzled as I read the word of God. Such is the case in the first few verses below. Why would John warn believers not to be like Cain who was a murderer, unless it is possible for us to be so? I take statements like these very seriously. John goes on to tell us how we can know the Spirit of God remains in us.

Dear friends, you will not be challenged by the teachers of the day. Most are tickling the ears and the best teachers only have a short period of time each week to teach. You must get into the word of God, the bible. Do not trust man with your soul. We are so blessed to have bibles and we will be judged more strictly than those who do not have bibles. Our old nature is deceitful and desperately wicked. Do not be deceived.

I believe I am called to give the warnings in a time when God's warnings are ignored. If you do not treasure the warnings, you do not know God like you should and/or are likely practicing sin. God is Love. Love gave us the warnings. Without them, we would not see our need of a savior who gives power to his children to overcome sin and the wicked one.

See the warnings as coming from Jesus who is Love and went to the cross willingly, taking his Father's wrath to pay for sin. We are told to stop sinning. If we do sin, we are to turn from it and continue following Jesus and God will forgive our sin.


1 John 3 ISV

11This is the message that you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 
  • 12Do not be like Cain,i who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because what he was doing was evil and his brother’s actionsj were righteous. 13So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.

14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. 
  • The person who does not lovek remains spirituallyl dead. 
  • 15Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life present in him. 
16This is how we have come to know love: 
  • the Messiahm gave his life for us. 
  • We, too, ought to give our lives for our brothers. 
  • 17Whoever has earthly possessions and notices a brother in need and yet withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God be present in him? 
  • 18Little children, we must stop expressing love merely by our words and manner of speech; we must loven also in actiono and in truth. 
19This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be able to keep ourselvesp strong in his presence.
  • 20If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. 
  • 21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God. 22Whatever we request we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 
  • 23And this is his commandment: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus the Messiah,q and to love one another as he commanded us
  • 24The person who keeps his commandments abides in God,r and God abides in him.s 
This is how we can be sure that he remains in us: 
  • he has given us his Spirit.
Note: "remains" in Stong's Greek Concordance is #3306. Definition: I remain, abide, stay, wait; with acc: I wait for, await. 


                         Faithful One - Selah

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