Phil: Those who are led by the Spirit of God are what? Children of God. Now it’s not just this influence in my life, this extra strength that I don’t have. Now, I’m actually His child. That’s incredible. That’s the relationship He wants. Those who are led by the Spirit of God.
God wants to be so real in our lives that we take our direction from Him. We don’t say, What is it that I want out of life and how can I get it, and focus our energies on that? But, Lord, I’m in your hands. Show me what you want.
Does not... Hebrews 12, as we said so many times, talk about running with perseverance what? The race marked out for us. I want the race that He’s marked out. I don’t know that. He doesn’t give me a panoramic view that this is how it’s all gonna work out. I’ve got to walk with Him day by day trusting Him, even when He takes me in places that I’d rather not go, like the valley of the shadow of death. But He’s with me, isn’t he? And He has a reason. Those are things that will be unfolded.
But anyway, those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Thank God. What an amazing thing that He wants that kind of a relationship with us. The Spirit Who you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Oh, how the devil loves to introduce fear into the equation. He must be so disappointed in me. I just can’t be …. Oh God, help us, set us free from that.
You who have children, are your children perfect? Giggle. Giggle. Yeah. But are they still your children? You still love them. Yes. You think you’re better than God? We’ve got a heavenly Father Who knows exactly where we’re at. He knows what we can and can’t do and just how to bring us along. But He’s not our slave master. He’s not demanding something we can’t do. He stands there ready to help us, to draw near to us, not in a Spirit of condemnation and fear, but one of love and mercy and help. We’ve got a throne, as we said so many times, where we can go and find the mercy and the grace to help us when in our time of need. You see how these scriptures just fit together?
So anyway, the Spirit you received does not make you slave so that you live in fear again, rather the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship, or it’s the Spirit of adoption, I think in the original.
Basically, now we’re taking a longer look. Remember, we come short of the glory of God. We’re saved. Now we have a hope of the glory of God. Now He’s beginning to talk about how we get there and what that is.
How many of you know what adoption is in this context? Well, yeah, adoption in our word, in our culture, is when you take a child, say, that doesn’t have parents, and you bring them in and they legally become your children.
That’s not what this is. This is the final product of a child born into a family, raised to learn its values, going through the whole process of maturing, and learning, and growing, and they reach a point of adulthood. They are completely ready to stand on their own and bring honor to their father and mother who had brought them up. And now they’re ready for the purpose of their entire existence.
There was a ceremony in their culture. Let’s say an important man had a child and they raised them. Do you think he would take a 2-year-old and say, Here’s my business, go run it? But no, there would come a time when he could present that son to the society of his day and say, This is my son. They are ready to take their place in society. And when they act, you treat that as if it’s me acting, I give them full authority to represent me, to handle my affairs. They are ready to take their place.
How many of you believe God has a purpose in our existence? There’s a place He wants to take us. I’m not able to fill that place right now, are you? If God turned over what He has made me to the responsibility He designed me to have, if He turned it over to me now, would I handle it correctly?
You better believe I wouldn’t. I’d mess it up. There’s things I wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t know how to do. I’d do it wrong. God is training and teaching us as His children getting us ready for a day when He’s gonna present us in full glory and say, This is my son. This is my daughter. They’re ready to reign. They’re ready to completely fulfill my purpose. And that’s what God’s Spirit living in us is all about.
Now, how does this fit in? I mean, think about how all this fits in with what Jesus said to Nicodemus, for example. What was the point that Jesus made about the Kingdom of God? Yeah, you gotta be born again. There is a literal birth that has to happen. Doesn’t that fit this? Where He becomes our Father? We have to be born.
And as I’m preaching this, I’m talking about this teaching, whatever you call it, I’m aware that there’s probably gonna be people, perhaps in here, perhaps who will hear it elsewhere, and none of this is real. It’s like this world is real. The desires I feel are real. All these things. I see my friends doing this and doing that and making plans, and this Kingdom of God, I can’t see it. I can’t see this God you’re talking about. It’s just not real. Pie in the sky by and by. You want me to give up my life for that.
But do you know it’s impossible to see the Kingdom of God unless you’re born again? We’re gonna have to have that divine encounter with God. Apart from that, our eyes will remain blind. I’ll tell you, if there’s anybody here who’s in that place, and this doesn’t make sense to you, what I’m talking about this morning, it’s not real, I’ll ask you the question, Do you want it to be? I would call upon you to seek God with all of your heart, to open your eyes because that’s the only way they’ll be open. I can’t explain it well enough to open people’s eyes. Only God can do that.
You think about Paul writing and talking about the blindness that is caused by the devil ruling over this planet. How he’s blinded minds so they’re unable to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But then he says of himself and Timothy, evidently, you notice the “we” all the way through that passage? It’s Paul and Timothy, who’s writing. So, it’s like he’s saying for Timothy and me, God shined his light in our heart.
The same God who said, Let there be light back there, now has shined and said, Let there be light in my heart. And He’s shown us the reality of His kingdom. And He’s called us to become a part of it, to give up our lives, hand them over to Him, and now, all of a sudden, something that I cannot see or touch, it’s real.
Do you want this to be real? I don’t want anybody just to blindly do anything. It has to be because God, by His Spirit, opens up the ear, the heart. And you’ll never see it without being willing to humble yourself and hand your life over to Him. But if you do, you’ll become His child. Praise God! This will become real. All right?
And it says, And by Him, now he’s talking about the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit that leads to sonship, he says, And by Him we cry Abba, Father. That was a very intimate word. I don’t want to trivialize it, but it’s like He’s papa, He’s daddy. Can you imagine? You think of the greatness of this God who’s behind it all, Who fills everything, is pure and holy, and yet we can look to Him and think of Him as our Father in that sense. That’s how He wants us to see Him.
Now, that’s not to bring Him down to our level and treat him with a casualness, but that’s a sense that I want, to have a real personal relationship with you. I care about you. I care about every detail. I know every hair on your head. I know every thought that’s ever passed through your mind and your life. I love you. I’ve got plans for you. But I want you to know me, not as just some awesome monarch somewhere that you can’t see or touch. I want you to know me as Father, as Dad, as Someone that you can go to at your darkest hour and know that I’m there and I care. Praise God!
Now, I’ll get to where I think in my mind the focus has been on this, because one of the issues that the devil will focus on, he hates this truth. He’s opposed me thinking about it. Probably opposed some people from coming. He hates this. And he wants to do everything he can to undermine our confidence and our knowledge.
But I’ll tell you, God wants this to be real to the point that we have a solid foundation down here wherever, inside, (chuckles) that’s real, that is strong enough to stand no matter what kind of flood comes from this world and the condition that it’s in. God wants a solid foundation, not just out here, but in here. Okay?
So how do we know? How do we know that we’re part of this? You know, the devil’s gonna say, Well, you could go and do everything perfectly, sincerely, and yet get to that day and He say, I never knew you. Do you think that’s what the Lord is trying to convey by that? No. Those people are people that have resisted His voice on the inside and said, found ways to say, no. But there is a way that there is something that God wants to do for every one of us.
Verse 16, The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit, that we are God’s children. You know, the devil has often tried to make me afraid to say that. You imagine why? Because he wants to say, Oh, you’re just gonna make people, make good Christians doubt. You’re gonna make them live in a state of uncertainty.
I believe with all my heart, God wants us to have a state of certainty and not to be afraid to lift up this truth. Because when God has children that He births, He is more than willing to testify to that and say, You’re mine.
Human nature hates to get quiet and just face reality. Didn’t the prophet say, The wicked are like the troubled sea. It cannot rest, Waters cast up mire and dirt. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God to the wicked. There’s a restlessness in the human heart. But God wants us to be able to get to the point where we can be completely at rest and know that we know, that we know, get past evaluating, Am I His by our performance? but rather we can know that we’re His and just put our hope and our trust in Him every single day.
Do you believe God wants you to know that? Yes. Do you? I mean, do you know that right now? Is that witness there? God wants it.
And I guess it’s hard for me to preach this without going back to my own experience. I’ve talked about it many times. God will take us through this in different ways. Now, this is how He did with me. Because I was among the people that at that particular time, that emphasized certain experiences that we were supposed to have, and there are genuine experiences. But anyway, that was the emphasis.
And you’re supposed to seek God and you’re supposed to get this real experience, and it’s supposed to be manifest in certain ways. And I came to a point where I looked around and other people seemed to be being blessed and I wasn’t. And I was mad. And I didn’t like it. What’s wrong with me? Why do you treat me this... You know, whatever, however it was put.
And so I quit. For about three days, I just did not put forth any effort. I didn’t pray. I didn’t praise God. I didn’t say I reject you or anything of that sort. I didn’t turn to sin. I didn’t go rob a bank. But I just simply quit. Put forth zero effort. And nobody outside knew what was going on. It wasn’t like somebody came with some magic formula, some word or something like that. It was just me and the Lord.
And yet during that time, there was this still small voice and I did my best to ignore it. I was upset. But there was a still small voice on the inside that basically communicated the truth. You’re mine. And I knew my spirit was agreeing with that. I knew that, Lord, no matter what, I’m yours.
And there was two witnesses there, me and the Lord. And the most quiet moment when I wasn’t trying to pretend anything, there was nothing else going on that could have fed into that, it was just nothing but me and the Lord and dead air, if you will. And yet somehow there was a conviction. Didn’t come from out here. It was in here. There was a witness.
I don’t know how that would happen for somebody else. And I’m sure there are others here who could testify to something along that line, where the Lord really bore witness down deep in your heart, You’re mine, and your spirit said, Yes, I’m yours. And the issue was settled. It was completely settled.
And many times that comes in times of difficulty because God is gonna take us through a lot of different things in this process of getting us to that place. He’s taken us, this adoption ceremony, if you will. He’s gotta teach us a lot. And many times He’s gonna take you on tour of what’s wrong with you and me. But you know, in the midst of that, what a difference it makes if we can come to that place and just be totally quiet.
I would challenge anybody here who’s got a question. You need to seek God from the depths of your heart until that becomes real. It’s not a feeling. I had no sensations, nothing that I could point to that was natural. It was just a reality down in here where I knew that He was real. I knew that I belonged to him. That I had already set out on a road, there was nothing to do but say, All right, Lord, I surrender.
And of course, the question was, Why aren’t you giving me experiences like everybody else, making me feel good? That happened to be the issue. And so, I finally was brought to a place where I said, Okay, very patiently, three days at least. And I went through this and finally I said, All right, Lord, I surrender. I will serve you if I never have a feeling.
Now, as I say, that happened to be the issue. It could be something else with you. But my prayer, and I believe it’s God’s heart, God wants to be real to you to where you can be completely at rest, not trying to feel good and scratch this itch or that one, but you can be just completely at peace with Him.
Now, think about how scripture describes our relationship with God. What did Jesus promise if we would come to him? Rest. See, that’s not... I got an itch, I gotta scratch. I gotta do something to feel okay. I can be at complete rest and peace.
Think about how that’s described in Hebrews. Is it Chapter 4? Where God wants us to enter into what? His rest. See, God’s not worried about whether He can pull this off. It’s done. It’s done as if it happened already. But He wants us to stop trying and come to a place where we just surrender and we find a place of rest in Him.
Now, once we have that, we’ve got a ground to be able to stand and face the things that life throws at us by God’s design. All right? But I gotta have a foundation. I gotta have something to stand on. God wants to bring every one of us to where we can be totally quiet. Nobody else knows what’s going on. It’s just you and the Lord. And deep down in here, there’s a conviction, Yes, you’re mine. I put my seal on you as what Paul put it in Ephesians 1. I put a seal on you. You’re mine. The devil can’t have you.
I wanna know that. And I want my spirit to join with Him in that witness and say, Yes, I have surrendered. I have nothing to bring to the equation but myself. I’m a lost, hopeless sinner apart from you. But I believe, and I have put my hope in you.
I want everyone who comes to this place, everyone who hears that to come to that place of rest before God, where you’re not just coming and going through the motions and doing the right stuff. I want you to have that witness in your heart. Because anything short of that isn’t gonna end well. God wants to make Himself real.
Oh my God! And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and coheirs with Christ. There’s an inheritance that’s coming. God has something that He is preparing for His family beginning with His son, but we are heirs right together with Him. Oh, what a heavenly Father we have. How worthy is He, and how worthy is the Savior through whom all of this has come about? Praise God!
What a salvation. Heirs of God, coheirs with Christ. If indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share His glory, now we’re back on the path of glory. It means we’re gonna have to put up with stuff. God is not gonna have sons that just muddle through. He’s gonna have sons that absolutely will face obstacles, face adversity, and continue on because they have Him living on the inside.
And we’re His, we’re not our own anymore. And we’re not seeking our own will. We’ve handed that off to Him. What’s in charge in your life? Have you ever been born of His spirit? Is this important? Does this matter? Are the things that Jesus said that make it absolute, this clear picture of most of humanity going in the wrong direction and God calling out those who will humble themselves and put their trust in Him?
I’m with Him. Are you? And I just pray that if that witness is not clear to you, that you’ll seek Him until it is. And don’t go looking for feelings. Don’t go measuring your performance. Don’t do anything except, Lord, I want to be yours. I wanna know that I’m yours. And I believe with all my heart, God will bear witness to His children. Isn’t that what He says? This is His promise.
And I’m calling Him on it because I got brothers and sisters here, and I want every one of you to know where you stand and to be able to stand on solid ground and go forward with confidence, not in yourself, but you know where your help comes from. You know you’ve been born of His spirit, and you’re headed for glory. And there’s no devil in hell that can stand in the face of that.
What a salvation that God has given to us. And there’s so much more that He unfolds here. But praise God, that’s enough for today, I think. I think the focus is the witness of the Spirit. Every one of God’s children needs that. You don’t need to say, Oh, I follow what Phil says. You need to follow what He says. It needs to be real personally to you regardless of me and my limitations, and whatever, it needs to be between you and Him.
And there’s nobody who wants it more than He does. He knows you. He loves you. Jesus died when you were still his enemy. Praise God! What a Savior we have. To Him be all the glory. Praise God!
