Etched on brain, burned into psyche

When a student is conversant with a school subject (or a professional with their specific expertise) it means they have a thorough knowledge of it where they're able to live it.

“In the middle of the word conversation are the words ‘converse’ and ‘concourse,’ ” explains Jordan. “When you’re conversant with something, you’re intimate in the way it works; you know how it happens and how it’s accomplished.

“It’s more than just being able to talk about it; it’s that you get right into the basis of it, and into its life.

“When Paul talks about letting 'your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ,' he's saying, ‘Let your manner of life, your lifestyle, who you are, be becoming; let who you are down inside adorn the doctrine.’ It’s Titus 2 terminology. 

*****

“When Paul advises to ‘be filled with the Spirit’ in Ephesians 5, he’s not talking about getting more of the Spirit of God; it’s to be filled by His instrumentality.

“God the Holy Spirit is going to be used by the Father in an objective, measurable operation to put some things into you that ought to be there. It isn’t about putting more of the Spirit of God in you; it’s that some things are beginning  to be produced in your life.

“It’s something that can be measured by words on a page in the Bible and identified in your life in specific ways. To be filled with anything is to be saturated by that thing to the point that it completely dominates and controls your life.

“It has to do with surrender. It’s the total surrender of your life and thinking over to the complete total dominion of the Holy Spirit so that HE carries you along through all of life. You say, ‘I can’t, I give up,’ and He wins.

“It requires the DEATH of selfishness and of self-will in your life. It isn’t my thinking, my way. It’s His way!

“Being ‘filled with the Spirit of God’ is equivalent to Paul advising, ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.’ It’s the Holy Spirit working THROUGH the Word of God to fill your life with the qualities of spiritual maturity. It’s taking the Word of Christ and letting it INFUSE every part of your being, having all your thinking and actions controlled by the Word of God.

*****

“One of my favorite verses is I Thessalonians 2:13. Paul says, ‘For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.’

“When you by faith take the Word of God and step out upon what God says, God the Holy Spirit takes His Word . . . God the Holy Spirit today works indirectly in your life through the instrumentality of the Word of God as you by faith rest upon it.

“As you objectively take your actions, your thinking processes, your attitudes . . . As you begin to think in your heart and mind the way God says He thinks in His Word, that is God the Holy Spirit working in you both to will and to do His good pleasure! It's that simple!

“Rather than asking God to move and do out there (in the physical realm), it’s His Word that WORKS and He’s in us, living His life out through our mortal bodies as we walk by faith in what He says in His Word.

“If something is effectual, that means it WORKS. It’s effective; it gets the job done. It’s not a misfire. It works effectually IN you. That’s where God’s working starts. It’s in you that BELIEVE! That belief is the catalyst of it.

“Colossians 1:9 says, ‘For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be FILLED with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.’

“There’s that word again! Let the Word of Christ DWELL in you! Let it come and fill up your life and be at home in you and live there!"

(another update later today--sorry for the long lapse)