Spirit driven

How do we know if a deed is Spirit driven/empowered? 

If it is done to bring honor (glory) to God out of love for and trust in God, i.e. if it is from (caused by), through, and to Him, it is Spirit driven; if it is a response to God's first treating us with love, honor, value. 

Operating in the Spirit is the interaction (reciprocation) of the source of love (God) and the recipient (us). He (the source) is lovely and trustworthy (and has already fully proven his love in giving us Christ). His great love that was poured out on us in and through Christ (without our doing anything to provoke/cause it), awoke our hearts to love, calling (wooing) us to love, trust and follow him in response.

A truly good deed must always start with God, i.e. there must be a lovely and trustworthy object (God) in which the subject (us) can place their love and trust. 

Why? 

1. Without a worthy object, there can be (and is) no love and trust in and by us. 

2. There is nothing worthy of our complete love and trust other than the infinitely lovely and trustworthy. Only an infinitely lovely object can evoke and draw infinite love out of us.  

3. God is the source/cause of love, not us.

4. By design we receive and respond to love, not initiate it i.e. as God-like creatures (in his image) we are hard-wired to respond to love. When loved sacrificially, we respond with love.

It (a deed) also must end with God. That which is Spirit driven is also God-focused (targeted). God is not only the cause/source of love, He's also the end/object of it i.e. all that we do is done for the glory of God.

God is both the beginning/cause (the Alpha) and end (Omega) of all our actions/deeds. 

This means we are all about "showing him off" to others. To say it another way, if you are truly God-focused (all about advancing his honor/worth/glory) you are Spirit-driven.

But it doesn't stop here 

This is only where it starts. God is the cause and end of our actions, but to know this fully (for it to be perfected/completed), we must act on who he is for us by faith. Our faith must be perfected/matured (just as Christ also learned obedience through His own struggles). 

To see, enter and experience him as lovely and trustworthy in ever-increasing degrees, we must pursue him as such, i.e. by faith. Our (subjective) experience of him as a being that is loving and trustworthy (objectively) is contingent upon our actions, i.e. that he is loving and trustworthy. This goes beyond the proof of God's love already shown by his past sacrifice and involves our present engagement, ongoing experience, and participation in that love.

This doesn't mean he loves us more when we obey him, it means we enter more fully into that infinite, unobstructed love he has already totally and fully secured for us in Christ and had for us long before we ever lifted a finger for his sake (Rom 5:8). 

True faith always results in acting upon what we believe. As James said, "...Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works..." There must be movement towards (attraction to and affection for) the object of love, otherwise, our knowledge of God is only in our heads and not in our hearts. 

If there is no attraction, affection, and resulting action, there is no real and true love, i.e. we really don't know his love for us. If we did, we would (and will) act accordingly. To truly know his love is to be moved to love him in return, i.e. moved to action-obedience. It is not possible to truly know we are loved by God and not be moved to love him back.

1Jn_4:8  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (i.e. it is impossible to know the God of love and not be moved to love) 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent (God's love for us moved him to act/send) his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

1Jn_4:19  We love because he first loved us (and only because he first loved us). 

1Jn_5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 

1Jn_5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Jas 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing...

2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?...

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. - James a disciple of Christ. 

The life love and Spirit of God

God's life consists of the Father and Son blissfully existing (abiding together) in a relationship of infinite overflowing love.

The life of God is the love God has (experiences) eternally as the Father and Son affectionately behold and enjoy the infinite glory, beauty and worth of the other in, by and through the Spirit.

This is referred to by some as the beatific vision.

The life, love, and Spirit of God go hand in hand, if not one and the same. 

Wherever the life of God is present so is the love and Spirit of God 

and 

Wherever the love of God is present so is the Spirit and life of God 

and 

Wherever the Spirit of God is present so is the life and love of God.

For...

God is love 1 John 4:8

God is life 1Jn 5:20  John 14:6-9

God is Spirit John 4:24

The life of God is the dynamic energy of God that moves him to action. 

The love of God is the holy affection that God has within his being as Father and Son, that emanates outward toward others.

The Spirit of God is that distinct being that is the manifestation of the fullness of God's life and love.

Everything regarding the Spirit has to do with affections (emotion e.g. passion, love, and joy) which move him to action (willing, choosing).

The essence of God's being is infinite worth, beauty, and glory. It is the joyful beholding of these qualities within and between the Father and the Son that generates and sends forth the love, life, and eternal Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is the overflow of his love and life to us.

Walking in the Spirit is our believing this very same love that God has for and within himself is fully ours (in and through Christ); then receiving, participating in and responding back to God in love by faith (faithfulness/obedience), and out to our fellow image-bearers (other God-like beings) thereby bringing him honor in and by displaying his glory, beauty, and worth to others.

When we come into God's presence through Christ via his Spirit, we are made fully alive. Why? Because our life consists of being valued/loved (just as God's does). When we are finally in God's direct and unobstructed presence (face to face) we will experience our greatest sense of love/value because He is most lovely and valuable. 

We are able to enter into and enjoy this overflowing God of love, joy, and bliss because we were made to i.e. we are like God - in his image.  

For more on the empowering of the Spirit click here

For more on how our love is a response to God's love, click here. 

the greater the evil the greater the healing

When we hear of an incredibility heinous violation of someone, such as rape, or kidnapping of a child and selling them into sex slavery, what possible good could come out of such horrendous acts? How could God possibly use something of such a destructive and heinous nature for good? -- It's actually the same question we can ask about the unjust murder of Christ himself. Can God bring good out of such evil? 

3 Things to consider. Such evil can result in...

• Observing mankind's evil demonstrates how desperately evil man's condition and heart are without God -- proving the futility of being disconnected from God and the importance and necessity of knowing Him and being restored to Him.

• How evil and destructive our rebellious distrust of God can be and is.

• How Christ fully understands the pain evil causes by going through his own at the hands of evil acts i.e. his rejection by his own people, and His subsequent trial and crucifixion. 

Probably the greatest value we derive from suffering at the evil hand of others is a greater appreciation of the sufferings of Christ and a deeper understanding of the love Christ has that moved him to take on this suffering for us. When we see this clearly, it frees us from the bitterness of our past hurts as well as ensures the ultimate and complete removal of it from us in eternity. 

Suffering is not the last word. 

When we consider the suffering someone goes through, no matter how wicked, it does not have to be the end of the story or the ultimate destruction of one's soul -- though it certainly will be if we become embittered and more firmly committed to distrust in God and self-protection. God can (and will) truly and fully restore those who go through such overwhelming abuse and suffering (and beyond) if they allow Him to. If not in this life certainly in the next. In fact, because Christ fully took on all our pain, the ¹greater the losses we suffer in this life, the greater our ¹potential gain in the next. 

Also, some of the greatest testimonies of his love and grace are from those who have come out of the most abusive pain and are now brilliant lights for him. 

In fact, he will use evil to heal us in a way we would have not otherwise or ever known without evil. The extent of the healing is (and can only be) in proportion to the evil experienced i.e. the greater the evil the greater the potential healing and appreciation for it. Healing occurs precisely because damage is done and is needed most where the damage is greatest. Without damage, no healing is required. Without great damage, there is no great healing.

What about the next life?

One of our biggest mistakes is to only view things from a temporary perspective. This is the opposite view taken in scripture (2 Cor 4:16-18). If this life was all there was, these horrendous deeds would only be devastating if not irreversible.

This is precisely why the resurrection is so vital and significant. It shouts that pain and death are not the final word... life is!

As Christ said, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but to lose his own soul? Wouldn't the opposite also be true? What great gain it would be to lose the world with all it's benefits and blessings if it became the means of gaining our eternal soul and ultimate bliss far greater then any pain that brought us to it? And if we did, how much greater and more appreciated that gain would be once we experience it. If the pain, suffering, and destruction lead to the saving of our souls, would this not indeed be a great gain beyond all comparison? 

Some may argue the wound is too great and deep. How could God heal it? However, because the wound is so deep is exactly why the healing can be - once experienced - and is so great. Even greater and deeper than the wound. As Paul said, where sin abounds, grace superabounds, i.e. the abounding is far greater than the loss. Though hard to grasp during the pain, this is the promise made to us. And this is not simply a promise of words but a promise backed up by the real suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ himself.

All of this is possible only because Christ took the evil of our brokenness into his own body and let it wound and destroy him in the most undeserved, painful, and ²humiliating manner. An evil more vile and unjust than any of us could know; a wound and pain ³far greater and deeper than any wound any of us could experience or ever suffer. Our wounds do not carry the full weight of humanity's sin. Christ's did. 

Part of what also makes it so great and distinguishes it from all our pain is it was a wound he was no more guilty of than those who suffer the kind of abuse mentioned at the beginning of this article. He was the ultimate and greatest victim of abuse -- though he submitted himself to this willingly out of love for us. 

And because he rose to life after his terrible abuse and wounding, those who are also abused can be raised to eternal bliss and will be if they are in Christ. And the eternal benefit will far outweigh any present suffering and loss. 

Some have ⁴testified of the delivery of knowing Christ's love after coming from such a background. This is the work he has done on your behalf and the promise he offers if you will receive it.

For a further discussion of how we are in a constant state of pain click here.

What is the knowledge of good and evil? click here.

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here.

For a discussion on suffering due to our own choices click here.

For a discussion on seeing Christ love in our pain Click here.
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¹it is a potential gain and not certain, not because God is uncertain but only because our trust in God is uncertain, which determines if we do or do not gain from such events. If and when we fully trust him the gain is absolutely certain. The greater our trust, the greater our gain. 

²All artists' render Christ hanging on the cross with some kind of loin clothe. However, the common practice by the Romans at the time was to crucify their victims naked, to strip them of their dignity, maximizing their emotional pain and shame in addition to their physical pain. We sanitize it by putting a loin cloth on him. God did not. Add to this that Christ was actually crucified on a hill outside the city walls overlooking Jerusalem. It is understood that everyone within the walls of Jerusalem could see this hill and any events taking place there. Those who not up on the hill that day could still see what transpired. Those who feel shame for their past abuse have someone in Christ who understands shame. 

Heb 12:2  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Heb 4:14  Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 

Heb 4:15  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted G3985 as we are, yet without sin. 

Heb 4:16  Let us then with confidence (a certainty he understands and does not look down upon us with shame) draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

³But this was not the final word, life was i.e. resurrection. And because it was for him, so it is for those who are in him.

⁴Joyce Meyers was raped over 200 times by her father before the age of 18. Eventually, she led her father to Christ before he passed away. We have also seen how God has used her over the years. She shared how she knows a key reason God has used her in the way He has was because of this abuse. 

G3985 tempted - πειράζω peirazō

Thayer Definition:

1) to try whether a thing can be done
1a) to attempt, endeavour
2) to try, make trial of, test: for the purpose of ascertaining his quantity, or what he thinks, or how he will behave himself
2a) in a good sense
2b) in a bad sense, to test one maliciously, craftily to put to the proof his feelings or judgments
2c) to try or test one’s faith, virtue, character, by enticement to sin
2c1) to solicit to sin, to tempt
2c1a) of the temptations of the devil
2d) after the OT usage
2d1) of God: to inflict evils upon one in order to prove his character and the steadfastness of his faith
2d2) men are said to tempt God by exhibitions of distrust, as though they wished to try whether he is not justly distrusted

2d3) by impious or wicked conduct to test God’s justice and patience, and to challenge him, as it were to give proof of his perfections.

"performance" or action by faith

What is the difference between

·        action by faith and

·        performance based action 

First, how they are alike. 

They both require

·        choice 

·        effort/action

·        giving to get

So in the above ways they are exactly the same. And this is also why they are so easily confused with each other. Why? Because understanding the difference is a matter of the heart, not simply the head i.e. knowing the movement/ motives of our heart is key but usually very hard to discern. 

However, they are totally different in other vital ways for the same reason; in ways not easily identified because they deal with the ways of the heart; hearts that are often hidden from our full awareness. 

Defining terms

Performance is acting to obtain something missing...a sense of "being right," being forgiven, accepted and valued by and through our efforts/actions. It's about proving ones goodness/worth/value by and through self/flesh driven (vs Spirit/love driven) effort/action. 

Action by faith, is acting out of fullness because of what you already have...you already know you are forgiven, accepted and of great value in the eyes of God. Your dependence/trust in God and his assessment of you is what you base your value/worth on. In other words, action by faith is based on knowing that someone of infinite wisdom, judgment and value sees you as good, right and of infinite value/loved (even though practically we often are not good and certainly never good enough). 

When you believe and fully embrace this (i.e. by faith), you respond accordingly i.e. you love Him back in response to his perfect love for you. The more you believe his assessment to be true the greater your action...actions that are an overflow of love, not an attempt to win love i.e. not performing ("jumping through hoops") to gain love.

To operate by faith is possible only because your value to God was already totally proven by actions someone else ¹took on your behalf i.e. God doesn't just declare you valuable, he treats you as valuable i.e. he took action in and through Christ to prove how much he values you. 

Christ took these actions so you might enter into and participate in the same love of the Father the Son has and fully participates in (and has always had from all eternity past). 

Christ wanted you to have what he has; the unlimited, unobstructed love of his Father. So much so he willingly gave up something of that love, that you might fully have it (2 Corinthians 8:9). 

This is evidence of how great he values you and has nothing but infinite love for you. He finds great joy and satisfaction in knowing he makes this happen for you. 

What kind of actions did Christ take that prove his love?

He set aside the fullness of his glory and took on human form so he could die in order to settle the debt of your unfulfilled obligation to love and honor God as ¹he deserves and you were designed to do (as well as loving your neighbor). This was necessary because your refusal to live according to his design alienates you from the Father and his love. We turned our back on God, he never turned his back on us  As evidenced by sending Christ to us - Emmanuel - God with us.

He did this for two key reasons. 

1. Because you could not  
2. So you would no longer have to in order to be fully in union with God again.

Christ also lived to fulfill your obligations to live as you were designed i.e. he lived exclusively to show forth to others the great honor and worth of his Father that you were meant and designed to do yourself. 

Why would he do all this? He didn't act out of obligation, guilt, need or any other reason. He created you and therefore values (loves) you. You are in his image. 

What do we get, how do we get it? 

So if we, because of Christ, already have God's full, unlimited and complete love, what are we getting when we act by faith?

We are "getting" (entering into or participating in) what we already have. 

To fully experience and benefit from his love already fixed upon us and fully ours in Christ, we must participate in it. 

This is like having the most renown gourmet of all time prepare, cook and set out for you the most delicious and healthy meal possible, with all their experience, resources, skill, thought and effort required to prepare it. A meal that would cost far more then usual (at no cost to you btw) or more than you have. A meal specifically and exclusively prepared for you. A meal that looks and smells exquisite. Clearly an act of care and love. 

Yet, one you won't fully appreciate and enjoy until you sit down and actually eat it. When you do, only then will you completely experience and enjoy the thoughtfulness and care (love) intended for and directed at you by this highly regarded gourmet chef who prepared it. 

So how do we eat/participate in the infinite love of the Father?

Christ himself tells us how he did when he said the following…

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Joh 15:9-11  

First, we must understand, we are talking about the perfect, infinite and infinitely loved Son of the eternal Father. Nothing Christ did ever caused His Father to love him. The Father loves the Son because of who Christ is, not because of what he did (though what Christ did certainly confirmed why the Father loves the Son with infinite affection). Christ and the Father have a love relationship that is constant and has always existed from all eternity past. There has never been a time when the Father and Son did not love each other, nor will there ever be. There was and is ²nothing Christ could do, add to it, or take away from this infinite love.

Nevertheless, Christ still went out early in the morning seeking his Father in prayer. Why? In doing so, was he trying to earn, through his efforts (performance), what was already fully his? NO!!! He did so to participate in the love that was already there, waiting for him to partake of. 

To fully abide in/experience his Fathers love he pursued the Fathers will i.e. followed his directions/commands. And because he loved and fully trusted his Father he found joy in doing so. This wasn't a performance to impress his Father. It was a demonstration and display of love and honor for the love (Father) of his heart. And there is something about acting on our affections for another that makes them more real. 

How does anyone experience a love relationship? Do they experience it best when they are miles apart and never interact or speak to the one they love? No, the experience occurs best and most when they are fully present, engaged and participating in that relationship - e.g. when apart from the one they most cherish, they travel to be with the other so they can be together or they get on the phone to talk to each other and see how the other is doing and how they can best show their care/love for each other etc. The greater the participation in the relationship the greater the experience of the love that is already there. 

Who has not been in a relationship with someone near and dear, such as a spouse, only to experience the affection of that relationship wane when time is not spent together. Is it not that way with any love relationship? 

If so, why would it not also be the same with us in our relationship with God? Wouldn't it be exactly the same (i.e. we desire and find love through relationship [time spent together] with God just like with others)? Isn't God a relational being as well, just like any person? We are no less relational beings when it comes to God simply because that relationship is with God instead of another fellow image bearer. In fact, all "personhood" is an expression of the very image of God himself. 

It all starts with and comes from God.

When we consider personhood comes from God as well as relationship; that God is a person in relationship via the Father, Son and Spirit, this makes a relationship with God even more significant and powerful. A relationship not with just any person but the very person who is the source of love and relationship and has always and only existed in relationship. 

The key difference is God does not need us, we need him. But he enjoys relationship with us no less. In fact He delights in relationship. He created us for it and is the source of it. It is who he is and it (i.e. love) drives all he does. 

So how do we participate in this love relationship with God? How do you with any relationship. You cherish the other person in that relationship. Some of the ways you do is find out what they like and then you do all you can to do that for them or give it to them i.e. you seek to discover everything you can about them and how you can best carry out their wishes and show them how much you value and love them by doing so. In so doing you are saying (by action, not just words) they are important to you. You value them. The greater your effort (faithfulness) to do this the greater the evidence of your value/love of them and the relationship you have together. 

This is just as true (maybe more so) with God as with any relationship. 

Joh 14:15  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

For a further discussion on love being something other then just feelings click here. 
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¹Because we fail to carry out this primary design of loving and honoring God according to the greatness of his worth, we also fail to carry out our secondary design to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

²not to suggest Christ's obedience was robotic, automatic or without real challenge as demonstrated in his wilderness temptation, the garden of Gethsemane and cry to his Father on the cross of feeling abandoned.