It seems to me that most of our concepts of discipleship, the attempt to produce a healthy mature Christian with some level of purity, might be faulty. The Bible makes a clear simple statement which is usually ignored. If we "walk" in the Spirit (have an ongoing relationship with the Spirit), we will not "fulfill" the lust of the flesh. Not fulfilling the lust of the flesh is the goal. That is a life where purity and holiness blossoms, where the spirit of man takes ascendency over the flesh and the soul. One, (Holy Ghost relationship) eliminates the other (lust of the flesh). The Scripture goes on to say that if we "live" in the Spirit , the very essence of true Christianity, then we should "walk" in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-25). If we are not walking in the Spirit then the opposite is that we are walking in the flesh and the flesh will have its way. All of this, on the surface, seems simple and was meant to be simple.
To live the pure life, requires Holy Ghost relationship. That is a problem. Seeking God, preaching Holy Ghost baptism, crying our for manifestations of the Spirit, allowing correction by the Spirit is a price religious men don't want to pay. Many are those who will lead others to salvation and then no farther. If we have brought a man to salvation but we do not teach him how to live in, walk in, be baptized with and drink of the Spirit, we have failed. Many religious workers, including pastors, are willing to accept and live with that failure. They get people saved, then train their flesh to live a certain way and call it a victory when in fact, Holy Ghost discipleship has yet to even begin. Flesh training becomes a substitute for walking in the Spirit. At this juncture, you have clouds of people declaring they don't "smoke-drink-'cuss, nor chew" who think they now holy. They trained their flesh to suit the mold presented to them by religion. They think they are walking in the Spirit.
Religious leaders, wanting their people to live clean, and pure and come to holiness set out to achieve that by training the flesh, thus discipleship by the flesh. For example, I read one discipleship book, about 300 pages long, that didn't mention Holy Ghost baptism until page 275. What a waste of paper! Other programs are worse. They don't mention the Holy Ghost at all, except in some abstract way. According to the Bible, the Holy Ghost is the "Spirit of adoption", or the Child-Trainer. He doesn't do that training apart from us. He does that training within relationship with us. Religious defining has brought us the idea that if, by flesh training, we don't do all those evils listed in Galatians five, then we must now be walking in the Spirit. That is not the case. Many are the cults who produce a life lived free from all those evils. But they are not walking in the Spirit! We must not confuse walking in the Spirit with the fruit of walking in the Spirit.
Holy Ghost discipleship doesn't just produce victory of the evils of the flesh. It produces victory over the war of the flesh with the spirit of man. Yes, it produces holiness but it produces an ear that hears God. It produces a radical worshipper. It results in Holy Ghost saturation (baptism). It teaches men to drink and continue to drink, daily, of living water. It makes Jesus Lord. It inflames passion to love and worship God. It floods the soul with peace, righteousness and incredible joy in the Holy Ghost. Oh, I pray for great success on those who are soul winners but I also pray that we take those souls and turn them into men, women and children who know, love, worship, live in and walk in relationship with God on earth, the wonderful Holy Ghost.
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