Churchwork
06-25-2006, 12:52 PM
A believer is more spiritual simply and only because he possesses more spiritual experiences. And these experiences are not self-created but are based on spiritual facts. They are not self-centered, for a believer’s spiritual life is wholly dependent on the facts which God has accomplished for him. Fact is the foundation, faith is the process, and experience is the consequence. In other words, fact is the cause, faith is the way, and experience is the effect. A believer’s spiritual life experience is but the final result, the final success. In advance of his deep spiritual life is the complete work of the Lord Jesus, which serves as the source. It is absolutely impossible for the believer to attain holiness or victory by his own effort. In order to be holy, victorious and dead to self, he cannot use his own strength but must rather: (1) confess that he is holy, victorious and dead to self in the Lord Jesus; and (2) act as if he is holy, victorious and dead to self because he believes that he is united with the Lord Jesus in life. All the experiences one has or wishes to have are already experienced by the Lord Jesus. To draw out by faith is to reckon what the Lord Jesus has as one’s own. With the attitude and action of faith, one uses what he has reckoned as his own.
Yet in all this, let us not forget the Holy Spirit. How is it that God’s fact becomes man’s experience through faith? This is because of the work of the Holy Spirit. For when we believe in the fact which God has shown us in the Scriptures and exercise faith to draw upon it, the Holy Spirit will put upon us all the graces which God has accomplished in Christ and cause them to become reality in our lives so that we might experience them personally. Our confessing and our drawing out with faith open the door for the Holy Spirit to work by His adding into our lives that which the Lord has accomplished, thus enabling us to possess practical experiences. All the works of the Holy Spirit are based on God’s fact. The Spirit does not accomplish any fact for us, He simply makes the accomplished fact of God real and living in our lives. God has already accomplished fact in the Lord Jesus, and hence we should exercise faith to confess and to draw upon this fact, as well as trust the Holy Spirit to add into our lives what God has done so that we might have spiritual experience.
Yet in all this, let us not forget the Holy Spirit. How is it that God’s fact becomes man’s experience through faith? This is because of the work of the Holy Spirit. For when we believe in the fact which God has shown us in the Scriptures and exercise faith to draw upon it, the Holy Spirit will put upon us all the graces which God has accomplished in Christ and cause them to become reality in our lives so that we might experience them personally. Our confessing and our drawing out with faith open the door for the Holy Spirit to work by His adding into our lives that which the Lord has accomplished, thus enabling us to possess practical experiences. All the works of the Holy Spirit are based on God’s fact. The Spirit does not accomplish any fact for us, He simply makes the accomplished fact of God real and living in our lives. God has already accomplished fact in the Lord Jesus, and hence we should exercise faith to confess and to draw upon this fact, as well as trust the Holy Spirit to add into our lives what God has done so that we might have spiritual experience.