God in You by David Jeremiah - Essay Example

David Jeremiah’s God in You Dr. David Jeremiah is a senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church, in San Diego, California. In hisbook, God in You, he talks about the third element of the Trinity that is the Holy Spirit. He explains the filling of the Holy Spirit that represents the God within you and highlights the meaning, the process and the impact of the indwelling. Good in You analyzes the power of the Holy Spirit and how He affects believers’ lives, their relationships and even their environment through the Word of God and Faith in Christ. Jeremiah focuses on the power of the Word and that of the Holy Spirit which illuminates people’s heart and mind and keep them from the temptation of the flesh. Chapter One: The Promise of the Spirit: Dreams Greater than our Memories Dreams illuminate our lives; however, the peaks are higher than the imagination. Jeremiah feels a great joy to participate in God’s work in the hearts and lives of people. God keeps his servants humble and saves them from temptation and self-centeredness. The devotion should be continuous and constant. The commitment is for life; and our dreams should be greater than our memories. When disciples worry about the future and ask to see the Father, Jesus answers that the Father dwells in Him and He is acting on his behalf. Jesus told his disciples that all his words, the miracles he accomplished and all deeds are God’s actions, not His. Jesus Explains that his presence is not necessary, God’s work will continue and that they may even have greater accomplishment than Him. He urges them to look in the future and not look back. Even though Jesus’ hint that his disciples can do greater work may be blasphemous, he invokes their beliefs and faith. In fact, the promise of doing greater work is linked to the coming of the Holy Spirit. However, Jesus had to leave for the Holy Spirit to come, which he clearly explained to his disciples. Therefore Jesus’ crucifixion, then ascension, was followed by the pouring of the Holy Spirit that becomes the third part of the Trinity. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole” (NKJV, Acts 4: 8-10). Jesus advocates the importance of the spiritual over the material and the eternal over the temporal. “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry” (NKJV, Luke 4: 2). Jesus preached over a small community; however, through his disciples and their followers, his words have now reached millions of people over the world. Through television shows and the internet, the ministry is greater. The secret to the greater works is in the power of prayer; God is going to do his work through us, and we will be channels for his work through prayer. Through the power of prayer, God will work through his mighty Spirit. Chapter Two: The Attributes of the Spirit: Discovering the Forgotten God The Holy Spirit represents the most confusing aspect of the Trinity; however, the truth about this forgotten God must be revealed. The unwillingness of the church to clarify the confusion about the Holy Spirit is a big disadvantage. Nobody can gain salvation without the Holy Spirit which resides inside us and is vital to our holiness. The understanding of the Bible constitutes a key to getting the Holy Spirit, but many people struggle to get the meaning. However, believers, who have the Spirit of God living with them, have a power within them that interprets the Bible for them. Sometimes people don’t have the heart to pray and during those difficult times, the Holy Spirit interprets our pain and conveys our prayers to God. Those who are saved receive not only the Spirit of the God but also the gift of the Spirit. This is answer the Angel gave Mary “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (NKJV, Luke 1:35). And everybody needs to put his gifts at work in order to benefit others. Without the empowering of the Holy Spirit, any attempt to win people to Jesus Christ will be vain. Only the Holy Spirit can make any witnessing successful. People worry more about their daily concerns than the Holy Spirit and are not eager to learn more about Him. The Holy Spirit is person that possesses intellect, emotion and will, but He is also God. The Holy Spirit possesses all the attributes of God; He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. When the Holy Spirit enters your life, it stays permanently, empowers and encourages you, leads your lives, and His presence fills you with a deep and never before felt happiness. Chapter Three: Born of the Spirit: The Truth about Second Birthdays The second birthday happens within the heart and marks a person’s deep relationship with God. This rebirth takes place when the Holy Spirit engages the heart and creates a spiritual regeneration. You have to experience a second birth in order to belong to the family of God and that rebirth can only be spiritual. When you are born of the family of God you are born of the Spirit and arrive with God’s blessing. “He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born” (NIV, Luke 1:15). Nobody is responsible for his own rebirth; it comes from God through the Holy Spirit filling the vacuum in the heart. You are born again when the Holy Spirit comes to live within you after you have invited the Christ in your life. Those who don’t have a second birthday will experience not only the physical death but also the spiritual death. Although the Spirit is invisible, you can feel and see its effects in your life. In order to get this new birth, the Word of God has to be used to convey spiritual truths, so the Holy Spirit gets in the heart of a person through the Word of God. Chapter Four: The Baptism of the Spirit: Where Life in Christ Begins Satan uses different strategies to destroy the work of God; he either tries to take you away from the Word of God or take the Word of God from you. The real Baptism is that of the Holy Spirit, through the faithful teaching of the Word of God. When the Holy Spirit came down the church was baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. This was the birthday of the church and the birthday gift from God was the Spirit of God Himself. On the day of the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was baptized, and people from different backgrounds were united into Christ. If you put your trust into Jesus Christ, you have been baptized into the family of God, and every single person may receive baptism from the Holy Spirit. “When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased” (NKJV, Luke 3:22). Baptism of the Holy Spirit happens only once in lifetime. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is an unemotional work of God that unites people in Christ. There is a difference between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is original and not optional; it places the believer in the body of Christ. The filling of the Spirit may happen many times and is a continuous work of the Spirit of God and foregrounds His presence in the believer. Chapter Five: The Filling of the Spirit: A New Power Within The Holy Spirit does not always have control of your whole life; you have to feel a strong desire to be filled, to let Him have full control. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit you have to be free of sins, denounce, confess and forsake them. The Holy Spirit will not take control unless you confess any known sin in your life. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you have to be fully dedicated to Him and depend on Him every day. Being filled with the Spirit of God brings noticeable changes in your life. “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (NIV, Acts 4:31). It will affect your relationship with others expressed through your speech and your singing. A spirit filled person will be very grateful, humble and submissive. Being filled with the Spirit grants you the ability to serve God differently and naturally saving you from any temptation if you let Him lead, guide and take control of your life. Chapter Six: The Illumination of the Spirit: Penetrating Light in a Dark World The Holy Spirit shines His Light on God’s Word to illuminate His children. The Holy Spirit guarantees a good comprehension of the Bible and provides the inspiration of the Word of God. The Spirit of God illuminates the Word, shines in your heart to allow the Word to make sense in your life and transform it positively. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, / Because He has anointed Me / To preach the gospel to the poor” (NKJV, Luke 4: 18). The wisdom and knowledge in the world is nothing compared to eternal truths. God’s wisdom can only be attained through the Spirit of God Himself being your counselor. The only way to know God is to understand His Word through the Holy Spirit who illuminates people’s dark paths. A spiritual discernment is needed to give the Holy Spirit room to operate. Spiritual Illumination is God’s Word reaching us as the Spirit of God provides understanding and fills our heart with the Word of God. Spiritual discernment is needed to understand that the Spirit of God can only be reached through the Word of God. “And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple” (NKJV, Luke 2: 25-27). The Spirit of God living in you provides a spiritual discernment that allows you to distinguish if something is right or wrong. This illumination is totally different from whims or intuition and comes directly from the Holy Spirit. Read the Word of God and be familiar with it in order to help the Holy Spirit to find answers already stored within you. You need to depend on God when you face a crisis in your life with the awareness that the Spirit of God lives in you. God is closer to you than anything else, and His Spirit will guide you through difficult times. Spiritual Illumination puts you in security, gives you confidence and allows you to grasp the power of the Holy Spirit. Chapter Seven: Walking in the Spirit: An everyday Dependence upon God To walk in the Spirit means to live every day in dependence upon God. It expresses a total reliance on the Holy Spirit to accomplish His Mission. It is not about trying; it involves a total dependence in which the Spirit-filled walk is the only option for Christians. Because the demands are so great and Satan is strongly determined to make us fail, a deep understanding of the conflict raging within us is necessary in order to win the battle. Life is a constant struggle against evil which stems from the old nature that resides in us. However even if you give the Holy Spirit a full control of your life, there will still be a conflict within you, but He will ultimately win the battle. The war within you involves the Flesh and the Spirit. Satan uses the flesh to have a negative influence in our lives. This phenomenon results from a discrepancy between our physical age and our spiritual age. Through Satan’s influence, the old habits suddenly come in your mind and heart. The culture we live in encourages this clash between flesh and spirit because we are surrounded with elements that constantly appeal to our flesh. Christians’ goals, desires and dreams are incompatible with those of the world around us. People do not often take the necessary responsibility for God’ Word, follow His instruction, and be filled with the Spirit. You need to be in constant conversation with God and keep asking for His forgiveness in order to overcome the flesh in you. Chapter Eight: The Fruit of the Spirit: A Growing Evidence of his Presence The Spirit of the fruit is visible and describes our personal experience with God. The fruit of the Spirit is Love which represents the most important characteristic and foundation of other principles. The fruit of the Spirit is also joy: a joy in Jesus which nobody can take away from you and can be felt even in difficult times. Spirit filled believers also feel peace whatever the situation they are in. The first three fruits, love, joy and peace, are Godward and the second three concern men. A person filled with Spirit engages in a serious relationship with others and treats everybody with kindness in any situation. Faithfulness, meekness and self-control are virtues expressed in people filled with the Spirit of God. Chapter Nine: The Gifts of the Spirit: Empowered to Equip One Another Every believer is gifted to provide blessing and encouragement for the benefit of others; however many do not discover this special gift. There are many categories of gifts and each one has its own purpose; however, they are all meant to serve God. They are given to equip, edify, establish believers or for the effectiveness of the whole church and the exaltation of Christ. You need to distinguish the natural gift from the spiritual one. Gifts are determined by the sovereignty of God and distributed by the Holy Spirit to every believer. People do not comprehend the difference between having a spiritual gift and being spiritual; the two are not necessarily related. The work has to be done to the best of our ability, but let’s not fall into the unbiblical specialist mindset. Self-centeredness should also be banished from the church. Chapter Ten: The Best Evidence of the Spirit: An Attitude of the Spirit and Chapter Eleven: Spirit-Controlled Church Members: Submitting to One Another Gratitude is one of the evidences of God’s presence in us because the Spirit of God within will triumph over any reasons to be ungrateful. A commitment to God’s Word, a peaceful heart, a prayerful life, a concern for God’s will result in gratitude. The Bible recommends believers to be submissive to the authority above them. If you have a spirit of willing and joyful submission you are allowing the Holy Spirit to take control. However, this submission does not mean disrespect or mistreatment. Believers have just to demonstrate that God has granted us with the inward power to have a submissive spirit. We’re to have a spirit of submission as leaders to our followers, as followers to our leaders and to one another. Submission demands a commitment to one another, a concern for one another, charity one to another, compassion for one another, humility toward one another, and requires taming the tongue. If we follow a submissive life, we receive God’s angelic safety system, God’s ample supply system, God’s amazing support system and God’s absolute security system. Chapter Twelve: Spirit-Controlled Marriages: The Foundation for Lifelong Joy and Chapter Thirteen: Spirit-Controlled Families: Strong Help for Parents and Children Without the Spirit of God in a marriage, it’s going to be a challenge to maintain any peace and joy in the relationship. God has created men and women so differently that if the Spirit of God does not provide the intimacy within the home, there will be more clashes. God recommends the wife’s submission to her husband but also the reciprocal responsibility of husband to wife. A Christian wife submits to her husband willingly, reverently and spiritually. A Christian husband also submits to his wife’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs. It is a fundamental duty of children to obey their parents whether they are Christians or not. The dominant principle of the Word of God is still submission to our parents by the power of the Holy Spirit because it is right, it is a precept of Scripture, it is a protection for the child, and it is a promoter of long life. Parents who lay the weight of the responsibility of raising their children at the feet of the Lord will find both hope and strong help as they trust in Him. Even not so good parents will be rewarded if they treat their children well: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (NKJV, Luke 11:13). Paul gives parents three positive principles: the principle of diligence, of discipline and direction. Chapter Fourteen: Spirit-Controlled Workplaces: Honoring Christ from Nine to Five and Chapter Fifteen: When the Holy Spirit Controls your Life: Walking into your Future with Confidence The indwelling Spirit of the living God will go with you even at the workplace. The Bible says that if both employee and employer understand their roles and strive for the well-being of the company and the community, the workplace will be a happy environment according to the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. It is recommended that employees obey their employers according to the precept of the Holy Spirit. Believers should work hard in order to deserve their salaries and get reward from the Lord as well. Employers should also respect their employees and refrain from abusive treatment. When the Holy Spirit controls you, He empowers your prayer life, your walk, and your witness. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (NIV, Acts 1: 8). Paul recommends believers to pray diligently, watchfully, thankfully, specifically, for opportunity, for clarity and for sensitivity. The Holy Spirit helps for our walk and Paul recommends that believers walk consistently, carefully, openly and urgently. The Holy Spirit also helps for our witness to be consistent, courteous, compelling, and compassionate. When the Holy Spirit controls your life, you will feel the changes around you and should be grateful to Christ. David Jeremiah’s God in You engages in a deep analysis of the Holy Spirit and the role He plays in people’s lives. Through consistent prayer and faith in Christ, believers may be filled with the Spirit of God. This God’s presence within us causes a noticeable change in our lives, our relationships and our environment. The power of the Word, through the Holy Spirit, has an impact on every aspect of people’s lives. Jeremiah, David: God in You: Releasing the Power of the Holy Spirit in your Life. Orange: Multnomah Publishers, 1998. Print. The NIV Study Bible. Ed. Barker L. Kenneth. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995. Print. The NKJV Study Bible. 2nd ed. Nashville: Tomas Nelson, 2008. Print. Read More