Preoccupied with communing

Paul says in Ephesians 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”

“Why would Paul make that kind of a connection?” says Alex Kurz. “You understand what alcohol ultimately does; it takes control. It begins to possess you; it influences you. It distorts reality. Paul says, ‘Don’t be drunk with alcohol, but instead be saturated, be consumed, be intoxicated with the Spirit.’

 “The Spirit of Almighty God is consumed in the glorious eternal achievements of Jesus Christ, who did it all for free for who? For you! You don’t think that excites God?! Oh, you better believe, when God can take earthen vessels, those of us who were consigned to Satan himself for Satan’s own personal use, and give us life . . .

“And the Holy Spirit is so fired up and excited, He’s busting at the seams! The things that excite God the Holy Spirit are the things we have in Jesus Christ, and the Spirit just enjoys revealing them through the objective, authoritative source called Scripture, revealing to us the glorious details—‘Look what you got! Look at who you are! Look at who you have! Look at what’s going to happen to you!’

*****

“Walking after the Spirit is just meditating, reflecting upon, minding the things of the Spirit, and the one all-consuming passion of God the Holy Spirit is what Jesus Christ is doing and we’re invited now to let Him lead us.

“Romans 8:16 says, ‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.’

“The Holy Spirit is consumed in telling us what Jesus Christ achieved on our behalf, and if we’re going to walk after Him, we’re going to MIND those things, and the more we mind the things of the Spirit, the more we learn all about those details.

“Verse 2 says, ‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.’

“You understand what a law in science is. In a law, at what speed does an object drop? If you drop an object 10 million times, will it always fall at the same rate? That’s an established law.

“The idea of a law is it’s an established, fixed rule. An established, fixed rule is, ‘You sin and the consequences are death. The wages of sin is death. Whether it’s literal, spiritual or functional, death, death, death.’

“So what’s the purpose of the Holy Spirit? Hey, He’s made us free! We don’t live under the operating system of that sin debt. We’re living in newness of life. Verse 3 says, ‘For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
[4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
[5] For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
[6] For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

*****

The Holy Spirit is preoccupied with who you are and what you have in Jesus Christ. That’s what He’s thinking about. And if we want to walk after Him, where are we thinking? We’re minding the same things.

“Let’s get rid of all of the Christian silliness about walking after the spirit. All of this craziness about being moved or having impressions, inner impulses, desires, feelings, sentiments.

“In Acts 2 we see some Holy Spirit-produced activity and it’s supernatural. Visions, dreams, tongues, etc., but when we’re introduced to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8, we don’t see any of that. We’re focused on, ‘What are you THINKING about?’

“Paul prays in II Corinthians 13:14, ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.’

“It’s not your love for Him; it’s ‘the love of God.’ Remember Romans 5:5: ‘And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.’

“He wants you to live and be possessed by His unconditional acceptance of you and His unconditional love of you; the highest regard the God of the universe could ever have towards you. That’s where we’re supposed to be dwelling. It’s supposed to possess our thinking.

*****

“Are you having ‘communion with the Holy Ghost’? Forget all that silliness: ‘Yeah, he’s moving and leading me; I had this burning, this impulse, this feeling.’

“What does it mean to have common union; notice it’s communication? Are you having communion with the PERSON of the godhead? It isn’t to be ‘slain in the Spirit’ via some strange experience as the result of your praying in the closet and then ‘Kaboom.’

“How do I enjoy this deep fellowship and common union with the Spirit? If I’m preoccupied with the things He’s preoccupied with, guess what I’m having?

*****

“Here’s one illustration in Exodus 25:22: ‘And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.’

“How is Jehovah God going to commune with Moses? ‘I’m going to give you some information, Moses, that you now transmit and entrust to the nation Israel.’

“It means we lend a listening ear; hopefully two ears. Jesus Christ in the Book of Isaiah says, ‘I have given mine ear as the learned.’ God the Father is instructing His Son in the ways of edification.

“I cannot mind the things of the Spirit, according to what the Scriptures teach, unless He’s telling me something.

“Communing with the Holy Ghost is objective. It’s via an objective means of communicating and revealing information. It’s not through some whispered voice. You’ve heard this one: ‘I heard the voice of God speaking to me.’

“You know, why do people resort to those kinds of crazy clichés instead of just studying, ‘What saith the Scripture?’

Philippians 2:1-2 says, ‘If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
[2] Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.’

*****

“I hope we recognize that the Holy Spirit is a real person; it’s not an influence, it’s not an idea, it’s not a philosophical system, it’s not a force, it’s not a power.

“Please, I hope you don’t think that, ‘Oh, to walk after the Holy Spirit is walking after some nebulous metaphysical force, influence, unidentifiable thing’—kind of that New Age concept.

“When the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost, He’s as real a person as the Father and the Son.

“In Acts 5:3-4, Peter says, ‘Ananias, you lied to the Holy Ghost.' And then he says in the next verse, 'You didn’t lie to men, you lied to God.' Verse 3 refers to the Holy Ghost and the next verse talks about God. I took algebra. What we know from this passage is the Holy Ghost is God; He’s a person, a member of the godhead.

“I Corinthians 2 says, [9] But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
[10] But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

“Question. Is there any possible way for you to know anything about God via this self-generated, self-initiated, introspective, subjective moving of the heart? Your heart cannot know anything about God. Jeremiah says, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?’

“God does not use the eye; He does not use this external, visible, scientific--God does not use the scientific approach when it comes to knowing God.”