Jesus Christ is my God!
Issued 05.06.2006
Godīs Spirit and communityness
Participating in the mass Spirit caused by the Spirit of God is a dream of every true Christian. Such a meeting will certainly come true in the Kingdom of God, but would we be allowed to experience it now, even for one moment!
In a good company and community
In a meeting there was a good spirit, it was said, it was peaceable, safe, interesting and great to be there. Although there often are difficulties in the human relations, many however experience very great communityness. They live through each other. Why won't they rather live through God?
Many avoid being alone. Some actually are afraid of it. In one way or another they want a presence of other people in their life. Why don't they long for the presence of God? Of course the Creator is more interesting than creatures!
Where ever the atmosphere is great, there loneliness is disappears. In the charm of a mass spirit we rejoice, dance and shout for joy. With a crowd of people we also sink into evilness and crush under the consequences of our deeds.
Why do not they rejoice in the power of the Spirit of God and shout for the joy of the victory of Jesus? There is no loneliness in the company of God. By the power of the Holy Spirit we rise into the thoughts of God like up to a mountain, and we experience the inner transformation and do good deeds based on new motives.
In a meeting there was a good spirit, it was said, it was peaceable, safe, interesting and great to be there. Although there often are difficulties in the human relations, many however experience very great communityness. They live through each other. Why won't they rather live through God?
Many avoid being alone. Some actually are afraid of it. In one way or another they want a presence of other people in their life. Why don't they long for the presence of God? Of course the Creator is more interesting than creatures!
Where ever the atmosphere is great, there loneliness is disappears. In the charm of a mass spirit we rejoice, dance and shout for joy. With a crowd of people we also sink into evilness and crush under the consequences of our deeds.
Why do not they rejoice in the power of the Spirit of God and shout for the joy of the victory of Jesus? There is no loneliness in the company of God. By the power of the Holy Spirit we rise into the thoughts of God like up to a mountain, and we experience the inner transformation and do good deeds based on new motives.
The God of individuals or the God of masses
Every community has its own spirit and own ways to raise up its spirit. Normally a religious community behaves in a same way as others. What is the mass you belong to and whose flag do you carry? What spirit owns you?
In the Bible it's told about Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Paul and many other people of God. It's also often told how the greatest part of the nation of God abandoned their God. In the Bible the majority has almost always been wrong. Therefore the Spirit of God has not been the mass spirit of their community. In this sinful world God is the God of individuals and not the God of masses. It's not until in the Kingdom of God that the assembling congregation will live all the time in the godly mass spirit.
Occasionally God's people have experienced the power of the Spirit of God as a group also in this age, but usually a mass spirit that appears in a congregation is not from God but from men. A human communityness has often taken the place of the Spirit of God in the congregation. Fortunately individuals can have a Pentecost every day.
The persons born of the Spirit of God can be combined as one body only by the work of the same Spirit. Believers who live according to their sinful nature bring another spirit to a meeting. Because they resist the Spirit of God, they also resist the believers in the meeting who walk in God's Spirit. In this way this body is not assembled in the same spirit.
Every community has its own spirit and own ways to raise up its spirit. Normally a religious community behaves in a same way as others. What is the mass you belong to and whose flag do you carry? What spirit owns you?
In the Bible it's told about Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Paul and many other people of God. It's also often told how the greatest part of the nation of God abandoned their God. In the Bible the majority has almost always been wrong. Therefore the Spirit of God has not been the mass spirit of their community. In this sinful world God is the God of individuals and not the God of masses. It's not until in the Kingdom of God that the assembling congregation will live all the time in the godly mass spirit.
Occasionally God's people have experienced the power of the Spirit of God as a group also in this age, but usually a mass spirit that appears in a congregation is not from God but from men. A human communityness has often taken the place of the Spirit of God in the congregation. Fortunately individuals can have a Pentecost every day.
The persons born of the Spirit of God can be combined as one body only by the work of the same Spirit. Believers who live according to their sinful nature bring another spirit to a meeting. Because they resist the Spirit of God, they also resist the believers in the meeting who walk in God's Spirit. In this way this body is not assembled in the same spirit.
In the Spirit of God's grace
God's people are joined together by the same experience they have got from God. "I am a wretched one who called and God heard me and gave me His mercy because of Jesus." We have experienced God's grace through the sacrifice and the blood of Jesus. We have no own merits for our salvation. We are not better than the other people. We saw ourselves as evil in the light of Jesus and therefore we begged for mercy from God.
We are born into a child of God through the Gospel, by the Spirit of God's grace. The children of the same Father love each other, because they live by the same mercy. The communityness caused by the Spirit of God resembles the mass spirit created by a strong family feeling. The Church of God is a family and an ancestry and not an association or an institution. You cannot join it, but you have to be born into it.
God's people have got many "family businesses" that are confusingly called churches, although they are only human associations. Who lives by the grace of God is able to make a difference between the Church of God and the associations that serve it. The family of believers needs associations for the administration of practical matters, but don't give them a greater value than they have.
If you give human associations the importance of the Church of God, you bring shame on your family and on your ancestry. If you respected your association too much, you easily start to experience unity with other believers on the base of your dear mutual work. When your assembling doesn't happen any more in the family community, but in the working community, the elements for a division are ready.
The congregational associations are organizations that are working for the congregation of God. The members of the organization must have a mutual vision of how to build the Church. This vision can originate from the human mind or from God. Do we want to assemble in their own name and to act with human abilities or are there wanted to assemble in the name of Jesus and to act with spiritual gifts? The leaders of the assembling congregation are responsible for the meetings to follow the will of God.
If you know that the leaders of your congregational association are determinedly - not only for their imperfection - acting according to the human mind, rebuke them. If they will not listen, take one or two others along and together show them their fault. If they refuse to listen to you, leave their community. Notice that then you don't leave the Church of God, but only one Christian association.
The lording pastors like to call their association the Church of God so making it difficult for the church members to leave their shepherding authority. Don't obey them but follow the voice of the Good Shepherd. He will guide His flock into a sheep pen and out from there and lead to places of good food.
You can leave an organization without pains, if you have the right attitude on the people who stay there. You can keep in touch with them without belonging to their community. When only Jesus is the foundation of your relationship, then it is revealed who really are brothers and sisters in Christ. Who remains in Jesus, remains in the Church of God. God Himself will put out of His Church those who have abandoned Jesus. Only He, who has given mercy, can take it away.
God's people are joined together by the same experience they have got from God. "I am a wretched one who called and God heard me and gave me His mercy because of Jesus." We have experienced God's grace through the sacrifice and the blood of Jesus. We have no own merits for our salvation. We are not better than the other people. We saw ourselves as evil in the light of Jesus and therefore we begged for mercy from God.
We are born into a child of God through the Gospel, by the Spirit of God's grace. The children of the same Father love each other, because they live by the same mercy. The communityness caused by the Spirit of God resembles the mass spirit created by a strong family feeling. The Church of God is a family and an ancestry and not an association or an institution. You cannot join it, but you have to be born into it.
God's people have got many "family businesses" that are confusingly called churches, although they are only human associations. Who lives by the grace of God is able to make a difference between the Church of God and the associations that serve it. The family of believers needs associations for the administration of practical matters, but don't give them a greater value than they have.
If you give human associations the importance of the Church of God, you bring shame on your family and on your ancestry. If you respected your association too much, you easily start to experience unity with other believers on the base of your dear mutual work. When your assembling doesn't happen any more in the family community, but in the working community, the elements for a division are ready.
The congregational associations are organizations that are working for the congregation of God. The members of the organization must have a mutual vision of how to build the Church. This vision can originate from the human mind or from God. Do we want to assemble in their own name and to act with human abilities or are there wanted to assemble in the name of Jesus and to act with spiritual gifts? The leaders of the assembling congregation are responsible for the meetings to follow the will of God.
If you know that the leaders of your congregational association are determinedly - not only for their imperfection - acting according to the human mind, rebuke them. If they will not listen, take one or two others along and together show them their fault. If they refuse to listen to you, leave their community. Notice that then you don't leave the Church of God, but only one Christian association.
The lording pastors like to call their association the Church of God so making it difficult for the church members to leave their shepherding authority. Don't obey them but follow the voice of the Good Shepherd. He will guide His flock into a sheep pen and out from there and lead to places of good food.
You can leave an organization without pains, if you have the right attitude on the people who stay there. You can keep in touch with them without belonging to their community. When only Jesus is the foundation of your relationship, then it is revealed who really are brothers and sisters in Christ. Who remains in Jesus, remains in the Church of God. God Himself will put out of His Church those who have abandoned Jesus. Only He, who has given mercy, can take it away.
God's Spirit at work
The believers who have the same vision of the congregational work often start their own organization. Have they gone out of the fold because they followed Jesus or because they escaped Him? The desire to come together in Jesus' name is from God, but a dissension is a sin.
Many want to serve God, but does He need our services? God does well without our activities. What could we give Him, from whom we have got everything we have!
A self-imposed service is valueless. It is only a product of our selfish nature. God doesn't accept our religious bustle. Instead He wants to produce His own deeds in us. Jesus doesn't only save us from the dominion of sin but He also baptises us with the Holy Spirit. By that means He entrusts His spiritual gifts to us.
Only Jesus is the Son of Man who can serve God. When He lives in us, He does His work in us, "and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Ga.2:20
The children of God are worthy of serving God, because they are acting "in the faith of the Son of God". In the baptism of the Holy Spirit we receive that spiritual gift, with which we can serve God. Thus it is not our concern to invent how to serve God, but to believe this promise of Jesus, "but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses." Ac.1:8
This is how we know who has a spiritual gift from God: He proves to be a witness of Jesus. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but all of them are proclaiming the same thing to this world: "Jesus Christ is God."
"No-one can say. 'Jesus is Lord', except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men." 1Co.12:3-6
The Church of God is built up, when all believers put their spiritual gifts to work. However, remaining only in the lot that the Holy Spirit gave us is the result of struggles. It is a great temptation to do things that are none of my concern. We are often urged to this by our own humaneness and by other believers.
Many have neglected their spiritual gifts to serve God in some other service. In the family of God everybody has his own task prepared by the Father. "In the church firm" the managing director has dispensed his vision to the working teams and guided believers to work based on their human abilities.
If everybody, who attends a meeting, has the mind of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit can descend on the crowd in the same way as it happened on the day of Pentecost. This kind of event is a valuable moment, because then the believers are like one man - Jesus.
The believers who have the same vision of the congregational work often start their own organization. Have they gone out of the fold because they followed Jesus or because they escaped Him? The desire to come together in Jesus' name is from God, but a dissension is a sin.
Many want to serve God, but does He need our services? God does well without our activities. What could we give Him, from whom we have got everything we have!
A self-imposed service is valueless. It is only a product of our selfish nature. God doesn't accept our religious bustle. Instead He wants to produce His own deeds in us. Jesus doesn't only save us from the dominion of sin but He also baptises us with the Holy Spirit. By that means He entrusts His spiritual gifts to us.
Only Jesus is the Son of Man who can serve God. When He lives in us, He does His work in us, "and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Ga.2:20
The children of God are worthy of serving God, because they are acting "in the faith of the Son of God". In the baptism of the Holy Spirit we receive that spiritual gift, with which we can serve God. Thus it is not our concern to invent how to serve God, but to believe this promise of Jesus, "but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses." Ac.1:8
This is how we know who has a spiritual gift from God: He proves to be a witness of Jesus. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but all of them are proclaiming the same thing to this world: "Jesus Christ is God."
"No-one can say. 'Jesus is Lord', except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men." 1Co.12:3-6
The Church of God is built up, when all believers put their spiritual gifts to work. However, remaining only in the lot that the Holy Spirit gave us is the result of struggles. It is a great temptation to do things that are none of my concern. We are often urged to this by our own humaneness and by other believers.
Many have neglected their spiritual gifts to serve God in some other service. In the family of God everybody has his own task prepared by the Father. "In the church firm" the managing director has dispensed his vision to the working teams and guided believers to work based on their human abilities.
If everybody, who attends a meeting, has the mind of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit can descend on the crowd in the same way as it happened on the day of Pentecost. This kind of event is a valuable moment, because then the believers are like one man - Jesus.
Who is baptised with the Holy Spirit by Jesus
Coming to the faith means a new birth from the Holy Spirit, but the baptism in the same Spirit gives the power to be a witness of God. Also Jesus received a baptism in the Holy Spirit, when He had given Himself to the will of His Father by receiving a baptism in water from John.
With His example Jesus showed us what kind of a mind a person must have so that God fills him with His Spirit. A person, who voluntarily for love to God is ready to do His will in everything, makes heaven open on himself and a blessing flow over his life.
Someone was filled with the Holy Spirit already when he came to the faith. Another one seeks this blessing for years. Some complain that they don't get it at all. God is not partial, and He doesn't allow His blessings to us. If His promises don't come true in our life, it is our fault.
God humbled Himself becoming man in Jesus to get near you. He loved you by giving Jesus as the sacrifice for your sins. The innocent Son of God suffered your punishment. God gained the salvation for you, and it cost Him everything. The blood of the Son of God is the most valuable thing. It was shed into ground for your evilness. God's heart was broken because of the agony of Jesus, but it was also filled with joy, when His dear Lamb rose up from the dead.
Did you hear, did you see, did you experience the power of the gospel of God? You must have experienced something of it, if you were born into a child of God after you heard it. This same message, through which you became a believer, also makes you suitable to experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit. So hear it again and so deeply that you will be obedient to it.
"Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?" Ga.3:5 Thus do not expect God to act in you through what you did or through the ceremonies done to you, but concentrate on listening to God. He doesn't give you His Spirit, because you gave thanks to Him or worshipped Him, but because you heard Him.
Those who have internalized the gospel of God are free to do the will of God. Because their hearts are caught from the fire of God's love they are able to bring themselves before God so that He would bless them with spiritual gifts.
Coming to the faith means a new birth from the Holy Spirit, but the baptism in the same Spirit gives the power to be a witness of God. Also Jesus received a baptism in the Holy Spirit, when He had given Himself to the will of His Father by receiving a baptism in water from John.
With His example Jesus showed us what kind of a mind a person must have so that God fills him with His Spirit. A person, who voluntarily for love to God is ready to do His will in everything, makes heaven open on himself and a blessing flow over his life.
Someone was filled with the Holy Spirit already when he came to the faith. Another one seeks this blessing for years. Some complain that they don't get it at all. God is not partial, and He doesn't allow His blessings to us. If His promises don't come true in our life, it is our fault.
God humbled Himself becoming man in Jesus to get near you. He loved you by giving Jesus as the sacrifice for your sins. The innocent Son of God suffered your punishment. God gained the salvation for you, and it cost Him everything. The blood of the Son of God is the most valuable thing. It was shed into ground for your evilness. God's heart was broken because of the agony of Jesus, but it was also filled with joy, when His dear Lamb rose up from the dead.
Did you hear, did you see, did you experience the power of the gospel of God? You must have experienced something of it, if you were born into a child of God after you heard it. This same message, through which you became a believer, also makes you suitable to experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit. So hear it again and so deeply that you will be obedient to it.
"Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?" Ga.3:5 Thus do not expect God to act in you through what you did or through the ceremonies done to you, but concentrate on listening to God. He doesn't give you His Spirit, because you gave thanks to Him or worshipped Him, but because you heard Him.
Those who have internalized the gospel of God are free to do the will of God. Because their hearts are caught from the fire of God's love they are able to bring themselves before God so that He would bless them with spiritual gifts.
Difficulties to hear
If you heard the gospel so that the sacrifice of Jesus makes it possible for you to continue living in sin without a fear of a judgment, you heard wrong. If you heard a message of the gifts of the Spirit so that they will make you something great, you heard wrong.
If God has been allowed to cleanse the ear of your spirit to hear in the way of a child of God, you will get a faith to receive that spiritual gift which He has reserved for you. However, religiousness can again injure our sense of hearing.
Jewishness had bewitched the ear of the Galatian believers: "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified." Ga.3:1 Because they believed in the power of the Jewish customs, they lost the power of the gospel. In the same way many other religious traditions can shut the ears of our hearts and blind the eyes of our spirits from the greatness of the sacrifice of Jesus.
Efforts to get a self-made faith disturb the hearing, which would lead to getting the faith that God gives. If "hearing in faith" has been replaced with "owning in faith", then begging from God and waiting for His response have been left away. It is dangerous to replace a personal relationship to God with a self-made faith. There is big a difference between taking and receiving!
Although Jesus died for all people, you cannot, when hearing it, just start being a believer. You have to react to hearing by turning in earnest to God and get the salvation from Him.
In the same way although Jesus gives spiritual gifts to His own, you cannot, when hearing it, just own them for yourself. You have to react to the message by turning to Jesus and get from Him the baptism in the Spirit.
When you are hearing in faith you digest the message you hear in your spirit. The word of God treasured in the heart causes us to give God the response which is worthy of the message and to wait for His reaction. When you are owning in faith you yourself try to take what God promises to give you.
The assurance of faith comes from the hearing of God's voice. When He has spoken to me, then I know what I have got:
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of Him." 1Jo.5:14-15
This Bible passage speaks nothing about owning in faith, but it speaks about the confidence of getting a response, if we beg something according to God's will. John doesn't want you to react to his word in this way: "I will have immediately what I asked for, because I requested it according to God's will." Instead it is in accordance with God's will to think this way: "When I begged according to God's will I can wait for His answer in the confidence of faith."
Only he, who got an answer, knows that he has been heard. Many times John says in his letter "we know". Then he always means a knowledge and a confidence that God has given us and not a knowledge we ourselves have concluded.
The previous teaching of John is the same as the following encouraging word of Jesus to those who ask for the Holy Spirit. "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" Lu.11:13
People crowded round Jesus because of the miracles He had done. However He didn't seek fame with the miracles, but He wanted to show the goodness of His Father. "It is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work." Joh.14:10
The spiritual gifts Jesus has given us work in us in the same way as God's grace affected in Jesus. By them we want to show the goodness of Jesus and we say: "It is Jesus, living in me, who is doing His work."
If you heard the gospel so that the sacrifice of Jesus makes it possible for you to continue living in sin without a fear of a judgment, you heard wrong. If you heard a message of the gifts of the Spirit so that they will make you something great, you heard wrong.
If God has been allowed to cleanse the ear of your spirit to hear in the way of a child of God, you will get a faith to receive that spiritual gift which He has reserved for you. However, religiousness can again injure our sense of hearing.
Jewishness had bewitched the ear of the Galatian believers: "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified." Ga.3:1 Because they believed in the power of the Jewish customs, they lost the power of the gospel. In the same way many other religious traditions can shut the ears of our hearts and blind the eyes of our spirits from the greatness of the sacrifice of Jesus.
Efforts to get a self-made faith disturb the hearing, which would lead to getting the faith that God gives. If "hearing in faith" has been replaced with "owning in faith", then begging from God and waiting for His response have been left away. It is dangerous to replace a personal relationship to God with a self-made faith. There is big a difference between taking and receiving!
Although Jesus died for all people, you cannot, when hearing it, just start being a believer. You have to react to hearing by turning in earnest to God and get the salvation from Him.
In the same way although Jesus gives spiritual gifts to His own, you cannot, when hearing it, just own them for yourself. You have to react to the message by turning to Jesus and get from Him the baptism in the Spirit.
When you are hearing in faith you digest the message you hear in your spirit. The word of God treasured in the heart causes us to give God the response which is worthy of the message and to wait for His reaction. When you are owning in faith you yourself try to take what God promises to give you.
The assurance of faith comes from the hearing of God's voice. When He has spoken to me, then I know what I have got:
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of Him." 1Jo.5:14-15
This Bible passage speaks nothing about owning in faith, but it speaks about the confidence of getting a response, if we beg something according to God's will. John doesn't want you to react to his word in this way: "I will have immediately what I asked for, because I requested it according to God's will." Instead it is in accordance with God's will to think this way: "When I begged according to God's will I can wait for His answer in the confidence of faith."
Only he, who got an answer, knows that he has been heard. Many times John says in his letter "we know". Then he always means a knowledge and a confidence that God has given us and not a knowledge we ourselves have concluded.
The previous teaching of John is the same as the following encouraging word of Jesus to those who ask for the Holy Spirit. "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" Lu.11:13
People crowded round Jesus because of the miracles He had done. However He didn't seek fame with the miracles, but He wanted to show the goodness of His Father. "It is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work." Joh.14:10
The spiritual gifts Jesus has given us work in us in the same way as God's grace affected in Jesus. By them we want to show the goodness of Jesus and we say: "It is Jesus, living in me, who is doing His work."
Be filled with the Holy Spirit
Often we are filled with ourselves. Then we have no room for Him. We need to be emptied of ourselves for the good of Jesus. The Bible tells how the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time after the baptism in water. They had just then given themselves to Jesus by the power of love of God, as the baptism in water requires.
Also later they were filled again with God's Spirit just when they were in difficulties because they followed Jesus. Because of this truth Paul even delighted in troubles. "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2Co.12:10 Notice that he said, "for Christ's sake". Often we are in difficulties only for our own sake.
The power of Jesus Christ will rest on us, when we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow the Lamb of God. Many believers have received their spiritual gifts, but they have neglected them only for the reason that they are pleased with a human minded life. Discarding the Way of the Cross means rejecting the spiritual gifts of God.
Bad thoughts living in our hearts are the worst obstacle to the Holy Spirit to fill us. God purifies our hearts by the faith of the gospel. However many who became believers have firmly bound themselves to their dear wrong thoughts.
Many don't accept that filling with the Holy Spirit is conditioned by the purified thoughts. They say that mere believing is enough. Oh, if only they truly believed God in what He has spoken to them, and would not try to believe something God has not yet spoken to them.
The obedience to the Spirit of God is the path where you cannot take a shortcut. Even for a long time He waits for you faithfully to see if you would take the step that He has spoken about. Who walks on the road of God cannot avoid reaching, sooner or later, to the step where he is clothed with power from on high! Therefore continue on the Jesus road.
What a lock this is: you are waiting for God to baptise you with the Holy Spirit and God is waiting for you to do what He has asked you to do. "We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him." Ac.5:32
Often we are filled with ourselves. Then we have no room for Him. We need to be emptied of ourselves for the good of Jesus. The Bible tells how the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time after the baptism in water. They had just then given themselves to Jesus by the power of love of God, as the baptism in water requires.
Also later they were filled again with God's Spirit just when they were in difficulties because they followed Jesus. Because of this truth Paul even delighted in troubles. "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2Co.12:10 Notice that he said, "for Christ's sake". Often we are in difficulties only for our own sake.
The power of Jesus Christ will rest on us, when we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow the Lamb of God. Many believers have received their spiritual gifts, but they have neglected them only for the reason that they are pleased with a human minded life. Discarding the Way of the Cross means rejecting the spiritual gifts of God.
Bad thoughts living in our hearts are the worst obstacle to the Holy Spirit to fill us. God purifies our hearts by the faith of the gospel. However many who became believers have firmly bound themselves to their dear wrong thoughts.
Many don't accept that filling with the Holy Spirit is conditioned by the purified thoughts. They say that mere believing is enough. Oh, if only they truly believed God in what He has spoken to them, and would not try to believe something God has not yet spoken to them.
The obedience to the Spirit of God is the path where you cannot take a shortcut. Even for a long time He waits for you faithfully to see if you would take the step that He has spoken about. Who walks on the road of God cannot avoid reaching, sooner or later, to the step where he is clothed with power from on high! Therefore continue on the Jesus road.
What a lock this is: you are waiting for God to baptise you with the Holy Spirit and God is waiting for you to do what He has asked you to do. "We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him." Ac.5:32
The Bible version used in references is NIV