I now realize that in the previous two chapters of 2 Corinthians Paul spoke of his relationship in Christ with God and then with man. In the third chapter he described his relationship with the Holy Spirit, his power source. I summarize below my understanding. Indeed this is my favorite chapter!
Chapter 3: Paul’s Ministry of
the Holy Spirit
Paul described the Holy Spirit as: The Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of Christ, the Lord.
The Holy Spirit writes letter in the heart, gives lives, changes lives.
New covenant of the Spirit gives life.
Ministry of the Spirit is far more glorious than the ministry of the Old Testament.
Whenever the Scripture is read and the people turn to the Lord, the Holy Spirit removes the veil in hearts to see Jesus as the Christ.
The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The Holy Spirit transforms us into the same image of the Lord, from glory to glory.
Paul’s sufficiency is from God who made him minister of the new covenant of the Spirit who gives life.
The ministry of the Spirit is also called: the ministry of the new covenant, the ministry of righteousness and the ministry of glory.
Holy Spirit causes: Boldness, unveiled heart when the truth is preached, liberty whenever one turns to the Holy Spirit, transformation of lives.
Faith in action (Sep 18 2020)”: Today’s prompting is entirely action-oriented: “look” and do not limit your looking. The word was first given to a man of established wealth and power. Yet, God gave him a very hands-on instruction. God told him to look far. Do not set your own limit based on your own limited view. God did not ask Abraham to look at the past accomplishment. No doubt he was a wealthy and powerful man in his own right in his own territory. But God had uprooted him and moved him to a strange, hostile territory with uncertainty and threat in all aspects. Yet God asked him to look beyond and keep looking, as far as he can see or imagine and even beyond…Awesome. God is awesome. We serve an awesome God. Note that God asked him to look at the further positive gains which God was giving and going to give instead of focusing on the loss of Lot and Lot’s loyal support.
What was Abraham required to do after looking in every direction? A simple task: “Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.” Just walk through the territory and claim his right, based on God’s covenant and God’s authority. What did Abraham have? He had the Word of God, the Name of God, and the Covenant of God. What did he do? He obeyed and started walking through, exercising and executing God’s given authority just as God had said so.
It may seem too simple to be true. But Abraham was not just any man. He was a spiritual man. He heard God and communicated regularly and naturally with God like a close friend. God called him friend. Abraham was an intercessor. He was also a hands-on and action-oriented pragmatic man. Is this impossible for today’s would-be-Abraham? No. Jesus called His disciples friends. He even gave His life for His friends. Those who are followers of Jesus are born of the Holy Spirit under the Covenant established by the blood of Jesus, given the authority as sons of God, the Word of God, and the Name of Jesus. Awesome. God is awesome. We serve an awesome God. We call Him our Abba Father. We have His Spirit in us. We can discern spiritual matters. We can do all things through Him who strengthens us.
Genesis 13:2 New Living Translation (NLT)
2 (Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.)
Genesis 13:5-6
5 Lot, who was traveling with Abram, had also become very wealthy with flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and many tents. 6 But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds living so close together.
Genesis 13:14-17
14 After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. 15 I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants[a] as a permanent possession. 16 And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted! 17 Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”
Footnotes:
13:15 Hebrew seed; also in 13:16.
Note: There is one condition for the Covenant to take place: Lot must go. The Word clearly says, “After Lot Had gone,…” Lot was not included in the Abrahamic Covenant and had no share in what God had given to Abraham. Lot had a choice to stay in the favor of God by supporting Abraham. But he chose to leave.
I am also reminded of a scene at the time when Governor Nehemiah (with a formal official decree from the King Artaxerxes) entered Jerusalem and started to rebuild the Jerusalem wall. When the adversary party of three officials (Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab) heard of his plan they continued to scoff contemptuously at him. But Nehemiah remained calm and undaunted, and boldly proclaimed, “The God of heaven will help us succeed. We, his servants, will start rebuilding this wall. But you have no share, legal right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:19-20)
In today’s scenario, there is a choice extended to everyone. No one should be left behind. There is one condition though —you need to be in Christ Jesus for your inheritance.
and the plans for all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, of all the chambers all around, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries for the dedicated things;
Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His hand, Both he who helps will fall, And he who is helped will fall down; They all will perish together.
[ The Good News of Salvation ] “The Spirit of the Lord Godis upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.
Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. 5 Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name,
Here are some Bible verses on “cross over”. We can note that the crossing has both spiritual and physical consequences. In my previous blog post I mentioned fasting at this crucial time. Fasting and praying have spiritual impact. Do persist and stay in the presence of our spiritual God, and let the Holy Spirit lead us.
When all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no spirit in them any more because of the Israelites.
The men of Ephraim were summoned together and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, Why did you crossover to fight with the Ammonites and did not summon us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire.
And when I saw that you would not rescue me, I put my life in my hands and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?
All the country wept with a loud voice as all the people passed over. The king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people went on toward the wilderness.
So all the people went over the Jordan. When the king had crossed over, he kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and [the great man] returned to his own place.
So Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat, whose plowing was being done with twelve yoke of oxen, and he drove the twelfth. Elijah crossed over to him and cast his mantle upon him.
And the Lord will utterly destroy (doom and dry up) the tongue of the Egyptian sea [the west fork of the Red Sea]; and with His [mighty] scorching wind He will wave His hand over the river [Nile] and will smite it into seven channels and will cause men to crossover dry-shod.
Although the following verse does not talk about ‘cross over’. it is relevant as it highlights a main purpose of crossing over – to witness God who has disarmed the spiritual principalities and powers (that were against us), displayed and enabled us to triumph over them in Christ and in the cross.How great is our God!
[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].
Because this watchman blog is all about God, I am reluctant to say much about my own thoughts or sharing my life. But I have been watching the increasing chasm between the spiritual and carnal Christians (those who are more accustomed to use their five senses) all over the world. So I have decided to share a bit based on my own personal experience here, despite the limitation of my words.
I have lived in different parts of the world and have encountered different customs and cultures for most of my life. I have been through many different kinds of churches: denominational, traditional, Bible believing evangelical, mission in the third world, Spirit-filled and Spirit-led churches, tongue speaking, divine healing, signs and miracles manifesting, and many others. I know what most Christians are because I have been one of each of the above at different times.
In the last ten years I have especially encountered the spiritual reality of the holy God in the Spirit, in the Bible and in my physical life. I realize what it means in real life to have the reverent fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2). This means agreeing the spiritual existence of absolute good and evil and the final accountability everyone must give to the holy God, who abhors things done not of the Spirit, but out of man’s flesh or carnality.
Jesus has Himself declared, the ruler of this world has nothing in Him. His disciples followed the same principle.
When one aligns with God, one does not yearn to be the same as the Jones. What do Christians have to do with evil? Why bring in their customs and cultures which are abominations in the eyes of the holy God? God wants us set apart for Him, away from the world and its customs, just as He had warned the Israel people.
Being spiritual means we live in awareness of two realms: the physical and the spiritual. The spiritual reality governs the physical. All customs and cultures have a spiritual realm where the spiritual rulers rule and direct their adherents’ lives. Apostle Paul had revealed this truth in Ephesians 6:12.
Our Lord Jesus warned the disciples to be spiritually discerning when sending them into the world! “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrew as snakes and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16) Jesus was talking about the physical as well as spiritual enemies. Why? Because they were stepping into spiritual enemy’s territory as they go out and witness for Jesus!
The pagans know better about the spiritual. They are wise on what to avoid and when. For example, different cultures round the world have their own ‘ghost’ festivals. The Chinese called the Halloween in the West, the Westerners’ ‘ghost’ night, the night when the evil spirits paraded, and they avoid going out that night. Why? Because the Chinese have their equivalent in the lunar July month when hell opens its gates and let the hungry demons come out. They call that month the Ghost month. They would avoid going out at night during those specific occasions. Other pagan religions also have their own ghost periods and festivals which demand certain rituals to be performed. The discerning Christians stay away from them and their ceremonies/rituals, including the Halloween.
A spiritually discerning person can see spirits. They see spirits in unclean houses, the streets, schools, offices, hospitals, shopping malls, movie theaters, funeral parlors, and spiritual/religious/idols processions. A normal, fit, healthy rational German Christian man recently testified in a divine healing gathering I attended, that he walked under the air vent of a shopping mall, and saw this huge black thing coming at him, entered and went through him. He was instantly hit with severe pain and collapsed on the floor. His wife and daughter who regularly attend a Spirit-filled, Bible believing and adhering church, took authority using the name of Jesus, prayed fervently, as he lied there near dead, gasping for breath. He finally survived. The experience was traumatic.
When Christians stay away from certain locations during certain time as mentioned above, they merely obey the leading of the Holy Spirit of the Lord. The evil spirits know too whether they are walking in the Holy Spirit or not. The Bible (Acts 19:14) recorded that sevensonsof Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were attacked by a man possessed by an evil spirit because it knew that this group of exorcists did not walk in the Holy Spirt. They were trying to do the right thing, casting out demon, using the mighty name of the Lord Jesus. But they were not sent by the Lord. They went on their own flesh and of course they suffered the terrible consequences —beaten up and had to escape naked!
When God sent Moses to Egypt to confront Pharaoh, the Lord gave him spiritual power to overcome the territorial evil spirits controlling the land there. When the prophet Samuel patrolled the Israel land he was just one man, but the territorial spirit of the Philistines feared him, because he walked in the Spirit of the Lord. None of his words fell to the ground. He merely spoke and the words took effect.
Unless we are sent by the Lord and walk in discernment of the spiritual realm and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we cannot do exploits. This is what I have learned over thirty years being a born again Christian, after having suffered immense loss.
So what shall an ordinary Christian do? Find out more about the reality of God and His words, the Bible. The Bible cannot be read as a knowledge book. Do not rationalize away the real meaning and purpose of the holy words. Jesus has warned clearly, as the pharisees and other religious leaders, even His own followers/disciples did not believe in the spiritual reality of Jesus and what Jesus has represented. Read the four Gospels again. Ask the Lord Holy Spirit to guide you. Daily pray the prayers of apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (1:16-23; 3:14-21).
What happens if some still cannot hear the Holy Spirit? I believe in the grace and mercy of God. Keep seeking to know God, keep asking His Spirit to reveal to you. For a start, daily praying the Lord’s Prayer can help you a lot, if you believe!
John 6:61-65 (NKJV)
61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
Faith in action (Sep 18 2020)”: Today’s prompting is entirely action-oriented: “look” and do not limit your looking.
AAA watchman 
You must be logged in to post a comment.