Page 2. author of truth. He will lead you in the truth” (John 14:16 & 26). The Greek word here is to be a paraklet, a coach or a guide. If you’re going to understand the Word of God, it can only be understood spiritually and cannot be understood by a lost man or by a carnal man. 1 Corinthians 2:15, “He that is spiritual judges [or makes a judgment, this doesn’t mean to judge someone as sin, this is prudence in your life, this man is very prudent, he makes a judgment about all things], and yet he himself will be judged by no man.” The word spiritual here is the Greek word pneumatikos. In Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual [pneumatikos], restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself so that you will not also be tempted.” This is talking about a believer out of fellowship. He’s carnal. He’s fallen into whatever his lust pattern is and he’s gone astray. We are to pray for this person. We are to talk to this person. Encourage them to turn away from their sin and come back. Who is this person that is spiritual? This is the question, “You who are spiritual,” who exactly is the spiritual person? After I got saved I met some spiritual giants, or at least I thought I did, real men that were real spiritual giants in their life. They sounded spiritual. They looked spiritual. They acted spiritual. It was almost implied to me that if you wanted to be close to God, you should be a very sacrificial man. I heard a story about a rich man that loved the Lord and sold everything he had, drove a Volkswagen, owned one suit, one pair of underwear, and he was close to God. He gave away everything. Well, this is not what makes you a spiritual giant. You are not spiritual because you look holy. You are not spiritual because you sound holy. What is it that makes a person spiritual? Do some people achieve it to a greater degree than other people? Are some people more spiritual than other people? Is it some sort of stimulating emotional feeling that produces an ecstatic reaction like an emotional high? People say, “I’ve been with God today. God visited our church this morning.” God visits your church every day that you’re not even there because He’s immanent and transcendent and He’s omnipresent so obviously He is in your church and over across town at another church at the same time. Somehow or another, because you had an emotional service and you got all fired up, you think you got more of God than they did. This is just not true. Here are some clear and simple answers. Spirituality is available to any believer just like salvation is available to any person. To understand what spirituality is, you need to first understand what spirituality is not. It is not avoiding someone’s pet taboos. Unfortunately many well-meaning believers seek to manipulate you, manipulate their brothers in Christ. They want to lay a guilt trip on you. They’ll say, “Oh brother, you’re smoking that cigarette. You can’t be close to God if you smoke a cigarette.” They’ll tell you, “You can’t be spiritual and take a drink. You can’t be spiritual and smoke a cigarette. You can’t be spiritual and go to the casino. You can’t be spiritual and watch HBO on television.” These legalists will tell you that you cannot be spiritual and do a lot of things like eat in a restaurant if they serve alcohol. Spirituality is not a system of works. Anybody that tells you some of these things, leave them alone. Get away from them, they are manipulators. They want to try to tell you what is spiritual and what is not spiritual. It’s not you witnessing to somebody every day, carrying around a pocketful of tracts. I remember having lunch with a guy one time and he buttonholed End of page 2.
Page 3. our server. He kept the server from doing anything as he tried to present the gospel, give her tracts, and ask if she’s going to heaven. This is all fine and well, but her boss did not appreciate it. You are not spiritual because you read the Bible through from cover to cover every three months. You are not spiritual because you say you’ve yielded 100% of yourself to God. You’re not spiritual because you went to some retreat and re-dedicated your life to the Lord or you get up every morning and you pray at 5 AM. This is not how you get spiritual. You’re not spiritual because you look holy and wear black clothes, Johnny Cash type stuff or you have a somber attitude, you rarely laugh, have a serious demeanor, and you utter spiritual phrases all day long like, “Lord willing. God bless and have a great, blessed, wonderful, praiseworthy day.” When people tell me this, “Have a blessed day brother,” my first question I want to ask them is, “Okay, tell me how to do it.” They look at you like, “Huh?” I say, “Well, you just told me how to have a blessed day, tell me how to do it.” They can’t. Spirituality is not doing something or avoiding doing something. It’s not by something you do by having some upbeat, super excited personality who’s in love with Jesus. This is not spirituality. What is spirituality? Here’s what it is. Spirituality is a relationship with God the Holy Spirit. You received God the Holy Spirit at salvation. Let me read Ephesians 1:13, this is Paul speaking to the Ephesians, “In whom you also trusted, after you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation [once they heard about the Lord Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, they got saved], in whom also after you believed that you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” When you believe in Jesus Christ, the moment of your salvation God the Father seals you with the Holy Spirit. It’s kind of like the lady that makes homemade jelly and she puts paraffin wax on top of it. You don’t eat the jelly until you take the paraffin wax off of it. The wax keeps it fresh and it keeps it from getting infected. Well, when you’re sealed with the Holy Spirit it means that Jesus Christ our Lord promises that the Holy Spirit will be given to you, that He will lead and guide you, and that He will protect you. This is the sealing of the Holy Spirit. It is God’s mark that you belong to Him. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” When you were saved, you were indwelt by God the Holy Spirit and you were sealed by God the Holy Spirit. Take this very seriously what I’m about to tell you, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Now listen to 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, “Do you know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defiles the temple of God, him will God destroy, for the temple of God is holy and you are the temple.” What does this mean? When you allow unconfessed sin to defile your temple, mental attitude sins, sins of the tongue, overt sins, when you allow sin to defile the temple, to get into your life and you don’t rebound, use problem-solving device #1, you don’t get rid of the sin then you set yourself up for divine discipline. It always comes in three stages: warning discipline, intense discipline, even dying discipline. You can read about it in Hebrews 12:6-11. Romans 8:13 says, “If you live after the flesh, you will die. But if you will put to death the deeds of the body by means of the Spirit, you will live.” We are also commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Yes, we are sealed. Yes, we are indwelt. And Ephesians 5:18 says, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit,” End of page 3.
Page 4. pleroo. It’s a present passive imperative in the morphology of the Greek verb. This means that there is never a time in the believer’s life when he’s not to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The passive voice says the subject receives the action of the verb. The imperative mood is the mood of command and so we are commanded to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us. We are told in Galatians 5:16, “If we walk by means of the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh,” a present active imperative peripateo, walk, means your lifestyle. The present tense, there never is a time you are not to do this. The active voice, now you are under the filling of the Holy Spirit, you produce this action, and the imperative mood is the mood of command. Be filled with the Holy Spirit and walk by means of the Spirit. Then in Romans 13:14, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.” This is another imperative mood. This is a decision at a point in time when you are going to decide that you are not going to let your flesh control you anymore. Every time you rebound you are putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Spirituality, being a spiritual person occurs when you are filled with the Holy Spirit. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are spiritual. If you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, you are carnal, you are fleshly. Right now as you listen to me, you are either in the flesh, meaning you have unconfessed sin in your life, or you are filled with the Holy Spirit, meaning you are not letting sin fester in your life. You haven’t hidden your sin from God. Yes, you may have failed. Yes, you may have sinned. But you went to God the Father and you admitted your sin immediately to Him. This is spirituality. Spirituality is an absolute. It’s not a gray area. “It’s not maybe I’m spiritual, maybe I’m not, I don’t feel all that spiritual.” Right now, you are either filled with the Holy Spirit or you are in carnality. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are spiritual. If you are not, you’re carnal. This is not being a mature believer. Spirituality is based on the filling of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual maturity is based on the content of the Word of God in your soul. Spirituality is an absolute, not a gray area. Thus, if we take a famous preacher for example like Billy Graham. He cannot be any more spiritual than you. If he’s filled with the Spirit and you’re filled with the Spirit, you are both spiritual, but he may be more mature than you. This means he may have more content of the Word of God in his soul than you do. Spirituality is an absolute, it’s not a matter of degrees. It’s not a matter of Joe is more spiritual than Bob, no. Either Joe is filled with the Holy Spirit and Bob is filled with the Holy Spirit and they’re both spiritual. You are either filled with the Holy Spirit or you’re not filled with the Holy Spirit. You’re either 100% spiritual or 100% carnal. Spirituality is not you acting spiritual. It’s you being controlled by the Holy Spirit and not controlled by your sin nature. You have got to remember this, at any one time in your life you are either going to be controlled by God the Holy Spirit or you are going to be controlled by your flesh, your sin nature. There is no in between. There is no gray area. There are no degrees. Right now you are either spiritual or you are carnal. Look at yourself, is there unconfessed sin in your life? You say, “I don’t know. I don’t remember.” 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all our wrongdoing,” even the ones you don’t remember. Did you confess the last sin you did that you remember, a mental attitude sin such as worry, fear, anger, End of page 4.
Page 5. bitterness, jealousy or a sin of the tongue such as slander, gossip, maligning, criticizing, backbiting? You didn’t slander the ex-president did you? You didn’t call him several nasty names because you didn’t like him, did you? Do you think this might have been a sin? If you slander the new president, you hate him, you don’t like him, and you call him every name in the book to anybody who will listen, could this be a sin? Sure it is. You are not filled with the Holy Spirit when you slander people. You’re not filled with the Holy Spirit when you gossip about people. You’re not filled with the Holy Spirit when you judge people and malign people. These are sins so you have to confess your sins. Spirituality occurs when you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, no in between, no degrees. 1 John 1:5-10 uses the analogy of light and darkness, this is pretty simple. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. But if we walk in darkness,” there’s the sin nature. You are either walking in the light and fellowship with God, filled with the Holy Spirit or you’re walking in darkness, out of fellowship with God, under control of your sin nature. Spirituality occurs when you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. This occurs at the very moment you confess any known sin to God. It’s not something that comes later. It’s not some second blessing that causes you to foam at the mouth. It’s something that happens any time you name your sin to God. It’s always an absolute. Spiritual growth is relative. Believers grow because they see the need to grow. Carnal believers don’t grow because they don’t see any need to grow. Spirituality is absolute and carnality is absolute. However, maturity, this is a little relative. Can you tell if you are a spiritual Christian? Could you tell this? Can you look in the mirror and say, “Well I guess I’m pretty spiritual, looking in the mirror I look spiritual.” You can’t tell it. It’s not an emotional feeling where you feel close to God. There have been times when I felt closer to God than I maybe feel right now but this doesn’t mean I’m spiritual. Is it necessary for you to recognize the filling of the Holy Spirit? Must you recognize this? The answer is no. As long as you are fulfilling the Biblical mandates, you will be filled even if you don’t know it. You might not even sense it but you will be filled if you do what the Bible says, confess your sin to God. There are characteristics that manifest themselves in the Christian’s life when he’s filled with the Spirit. It’s called the fruit of the Spirit. As you grow in grace and become a mature believer, as you begin to have the capacity to love, personal love for God and impersonal love for others, this is a virtue envelope that God gives you. This is the fruit of the Spirit, virtue love. There is joy, this is the happiness that comes from being filled with the Spirit. This is another problem-solving device, problem-solving device #9, sharing the happiness of God. There’s a peace that comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit and that’s an inner stability. There is no fear, no worry in your life. There’s longsuffering in your life if you’re filled with the Holy Spirit consistently and this is the ability to be patient and to be persevering. There’s gentleness where you’re not overbearing, you are not rude. You are not impetuous and you demonstrate forgiveness to other people. There’s goodness, there’s faith, this is the faith-rest drill, standing on the promises of God. There’s meekness, this is humility, humbling yourself, letting the mind of Christ control you. There is temperance or self-control, self-discipline. All of these are manifested traits of God the Holy Spirit and exposed in the believer’s life when he’s End of page 5.
Page 6. filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit controlled believer will grow spiritually in his spiritual life. Remember, the power for the Christian life is in the Holy Spirit but the choice to be filled is controlled by your volition. You choose, you make this decision. God did not make you into a little automaton, you have a choice. You can choose to sin and disregard God’s mandates or you can choose to obey the mandates of God. Now when 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth,” you can choose to obey this or you can choose to say, “I don’t have time to study. I’m busy, I’m raising kids. I’m going to school. I’m doing all this. I don’t have time for God.” I’m sorry, if you don’t have time for God, why do you expect God to have time for you? Do you hear me? I hear this all the time. People say, “Pray for me.” I get these emails, “Pray for me.” People that never talk about God, that never have time for God, when they get in a jam they want the preacher to pray for them. They want their friends, they put it on Facebook, “Pray for me, I’ve got surgery today, pray for me.” The rest of the time? “Goodbye God, I’m busy.” You want God to have time for you and you don’t have time for Him? “Grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). “I don’t have time to grow. I don’t have time to study.” Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, “Take My yoke and learn of Me.” “I don’t have time to learn, I’m busy. Oh, pray for me, I need help.” This prayer is not going to go any higher than the ceiling most of the time. A spiritual Christian, a man or woman that is filled with God the Holy Spirit is going to go through several stages on the road to heaven. They’re going to go through that infant stage where they are easily distracted. They are going to go through the adolescent stage where they can be easily misled and they will go through the maturity stage and this is where they have some knowledge, wisdom, faith, grace, and production. Even a newborn Christian can lead another person to Christ. I did right after I got saved, but an infant Christian will not have maximum production in their life, never. This is a lot of stuff to think about. The difference between maturity and spirituality is radical. You are a spiritual Christian if you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. You cannot be a mature believer unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit and you are obeying God’s mandate to study, learn and grow. Without this, you are never going to reach spiritual maturity. You’ll go to heaven. You’ll have eternal life but you will not hear, “Well done My good and My faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23). I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention. I hope God the Holy Spirit is getting your attention. Until next week, this is Rick Hughes host of The FLOT Line saying thank you for being with me today. End of page 6.
