Crucified Hearts

Being filled with the Spirit of God is not an optional experience for an elite or special group of Christians. The Spirit-filled life is the normal Christian life, the highest privilege of the Christian, yet one that is often misunderstood or neglected, as if it were an add-on experience, something only available to ministers, missionaries, or the specially selected of God.

However, it is the infilling of the Spirit that Jesus said all must have if they would see the kingdom of God. Such was his teaching to Nicodemus, the Pharisee who came to him at midnight.

“Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
— John 3:3

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
— John 3:5-8

The Spirit-filled life Is evidence of Christ abiding in the heart, the union of divinity with humanity, making us partakers of the divine nature, our only source of power in the fight against evil and the sin that so easily besets us.

Paul the apostle declared that the Spirit-filled life is the true evidence that we have been adopted into the family of God, being made one with him in character and purpose, as well as one in spirit with all our brothers and sisters in Christ. This was the sign of New Testament believers, evidence of a changed life, a new creation made in the image of Christ for obedience to and the worship of God.

“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”
— Romans 8:8-9

“So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs⁠—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

Romans 8:12-17

Old Testament prophets proclaimed this New Covenant experience: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.”

Ezekiel 36:26.

On this Ellen White remarks:

“The change in human hearts, the transformation of human characters, is a miracle that reveals an ever-living Saviour, working to rescue souls. A consistent life in Christ is a great miracle. In the preaching of the word of God, the sign that should be manifest now and always is the presence of the Holy Spirit, to make the word a regenerating power to those that hear. This is God’s witness before the world to the divine mission of His Son.”

Ellen White,  DA 407.1

It would be well for us to study the following passages on the the promise of Jesus for his indwelling Spirit.

Many are confused regarding spirits work, always looking for ecstatic experiences, extraordinary signs, or some manifestation of power that proves they are Christians. The biblical truth is that the Holy Spirit comes to be the abiding presence of God with us, so that all that Jesus was physically to his disciples of old will be to us today. He is the spirit of truth. It is only in this Spirit that we can be called children of God.

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:23,24

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

John 14:16-18

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”

John 15:26

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

John 16:13-15

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.  The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 2:12-16

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
— Acts 1:8

“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
— Acts 2:1-4

“But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
— Acts 2:14-21

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
— Galatians 5:16

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
— Galatians 5:22-25

All who have been born of the Spirit, in all who are baptized in Jesus name and receive His Spirit, all of the fruits of his Spirit will be manifest. Not one will be missing. And as we continue to grow in Christ, we will experience more and more of these fruits, a full and rich and abundant life for the glory of God.

It is thus that we fulfill the promise of Jesus that we would be one with him as he is with his Father, also making us one with each other through the abiding of his love in the heart.

“I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

John 17:23-26