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Jesus is God. Jesus has always been
God. Jesus will always be God. Jesus was not always man. Jesus became
man. Jesus will always be man, while never ceasing to be God. Jesus Christ
is the God-Man, every bit God and every bit man. His favorite title for
Himself was obviously Son of Man.
Jesus walked on this earth as the
very first man was supposed to walk. He was utterly dependent. Having laid
aside His deity, He walked as man dependent on God His Father. He would not
dare begin His ministry until the Holy Spirit filled Him without measure.
In Luke 4, Now when all the people were
baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the
heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a
dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my
beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. And we are told, For
he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the
Spirit by measure unto him.
Immediately He was led by the Holy
Spirit into the desert to be tempted by Satan. And
Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was
led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the
devil. And the devil said unto
him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made
bread. You may want to note that Satans temptation was for
Jesus to defend His deity. Jesus had no intention of going the way Satan
was tempting Him to go. Notice Jesus reply, It
is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
of God. He is saying that Satan may want to discuss deity, but
Jesus insisted on representing man as the
man Christ Jesus. He was willing to talk about manhood in the
power of the Holy Spirit, but not His deity.
As Paul told us, Who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in
fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.
After being filled with the Holy Spirit
and after the temptation, the Scripture tells us, And
Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.
Jesus was not about to do anything as a man apart from the
power of His Father working in Him.
In this same chapter in the book of
Luke it says, And when he had opened the
book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to
the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed
the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes
of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to
say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
As He performed miracles recorded in
this same chapter, it says And devils also
came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God.
And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that
he was Christ. So the demons knew Who He was, but He would not
let demons announce His deity either.
If Jesus were going to walk as man
is to walk before God, He must not do anything on His Own. The
Son can do nothing of himself, but
what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also
doeth the Son likewise. I
can of mine own self do nothing. Jesus walked utterly
dependent upon the Holy Spirit so that we would have an example. Leaving
us an example, that ye should follow his steps.
If you walk as Jesus walked and you would walk without sin, Walk
in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
According to this Scripture, every time we walk in the flesh we will sin, but
if we walk as Jesus walked, in the Spirit, we will not sin. That is
how God intends for MAN to walk.
Jesus view of the Holy Spirit was
simply that a man cant obey God the Father apart from God the Holy Spirit.
He even declared this in regard to a mans initial coming to God. No
man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him.
We have the witness of John the
Baptist, And John bare record, saying, I saw
the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
John said that the Holy Spirit was the identifying mark for which he was to
look: I knew him not: but he that sent me to
baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt
see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. So Johns witness was based
upon Gods order to John to look for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Then Jesus ministry was defined as
he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
So we hear Jesus warn, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. And, That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. Jesus work in peoples lives is identified as
the work of the Holy Spirit.
Even our walk after His Spirit draws
us to the Father will be a demonstration of the Spirit in us. Jesus said, He
that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not
yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) Jesus
promised His disciples that He would send the Spirit to live in them so that
they could do more than He could do in a physical body on earth. I
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that
he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but
ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
The Holy Spirit is the means Jesus
intended to bring us into full knowledge of Jesus and His Fathers will in
our lives. But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth,
which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
And I have yet many things to say unto you,
but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is
come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of
himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew
you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of
mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine:
therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
So, if words mean anything at all,
Jesus tells us that His view of the Holy Spirit for Himself is that without
the Holy Spirit, Jesus, as a man, can do nothing. And since He
that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he
walked, we must walk IN THE HOLY SPIRIT for that was
how Jesus walked as the Son of Man. We are told, And
hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given
us.
Having the Holy Spirit dwelling in
us as He dwelt in the Son of Man is the only way we can know the things of
God, For what man knoweth the things of a
man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God
knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. So, as Jesus
promised by way of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, he
shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Consequently, 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. But
God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. That is the basis of
Johns statement: Now we have received, not
the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God.
So let us understand what Paul is
saying when he speaks to us as Christians: Which
things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but
which the Holy Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
But
he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no
man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
To see the seriousness of His view
of the Holy Spirit, we only have to listen to His warning, Whosoever
shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but
unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.
If you have the wrong view of Jesus, the Holy Spirit will guide
you into all truth, but if you refuse the leading of the
Holy Spirit there is no hope for you to come to the truth, for He is the
Spirit of Truth.
His view of the Holy Spirit reveals
why Jesus said as He walked as the Son of Man He could do nothing on His
own. If our Lord, walking as you are to walk, would not walk independent
of the Holy Spirit, be sure to Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
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