The Work Of The Spirit Of God

How do we know if the Spirit of God is working with a person from the world (proving to the world to be in the wrong about sin, righteousness and judgment) or actually in them (You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.)? I refer to John 16:7-11 and Romans 8:5-8

John 16:7-11
Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

Romans 8:5-8
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

I guess when I read Romans 8, often I question whether I am simply am a sinner who has not been born again, but looking at the claims of the Holy Spirit about sin, righteousness and judgment, or if I am indeed born again and the Spirit is working in me, sealed in me 'til the day I die. I stumble so much. I have such a numb spirit toward God at times, and my faith is there, but it is so fickle sometimes. I'm doing all I can to receive God's love, but I don't think I can say I'm performing the first great commandment all that well, to love God with all my heart, nor the second commandment, to love others as myself.

Anybody able to shed some light on this?
 
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Acts 2:38 tells us that if you have repented and been baptised, then the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Some time ago, I had to learn a difficult lesson. My prayers were like a one way conversation. I bowed my head and did all the talking. I had to learn to bow my head and give God a chance to answer or instruct me. I regularly ask God for the Holy Spirit to dwell in me...to guide my thoughts, my actions, and my words.

You're not alone, banjo71.
 
Acts 2:38 tells us that if you have repented and been baptised, then the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Some time ago, I had to learn a difficult lesson. My prayers were like a one way conversation. I bowed my head and did all the talking. I had to learn to bow my head and give God a chance to answer or instruct me. I regularly ask God for the Holy Spirit to dwell in me...to guide my thoughts, my actions, and my words.

You're not alone, banjo71.

Thank you. I feel the same way about one way conversation. I feel like I'm doing all the talking too. I'll try to take your advice.
 
How do we know if the Spirit of God is working with a person from the world (proving to the world to be in the wrong about sin, righteousness and judgment) or actually in them (You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.)? I refer to John 16:7-11 and Romans 8:5-8

John 16:7-11
Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

Romans 8:5-8
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

I guess when I read Romans 8, often I question whether I am simply am a sinner who has not been born again, but looking at the claims of the Holy Spirit about sin, righteousness and judgment, or if I am indeed born again and the Spirit is working in me, sealed in me 'til the day I die. I stumble so much. I have such a numb spirit toward God at times, and my faith is there, but it is so fickle sometimes. I'm doing all I can to receive God's love, but I don't think I can say I'm performing the first great commandment all that well, to love God with all my heart, nor the second commandment, to love others as myself.

Anybody able to shed some light on this?

Banjo71, When God created Adam he was fully conscious of his physical and spiritual surroundings. When Adam sinned his spirit died and he lost the ability to be conscience of his spiritual surroundings. Not until Jesus came and paid the price for mans sin did God take the exact Spirit that was in Jesus Christ and place him inside man who believed the gospel. Now man was restored back to being able to be conscience of the realm of the spirit where God lives. Just as man has five physical senses so man can function in this world so also does the spiritual man have five spiritual senses so he to can function in the spiritual world. These new acquired senses need to be exercised daily so man can learn to operate successfully in the Kingdom of God where God has translated those who are his.
The first step is in knowing you have these senses, and believing they can be used for this purpose. The Apostle Paul in the book of Hebrews was teaching some Christian, but was unable to teach them the deep things of God because they were still baby Christians. They had been saved for a long time, but never grew up. Here is what he said.......

Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Exercising these senses is like learning how to walk as a toddler does, until he can run without falling down.
Man also has two minds, one in his head, and another in his heart. The carnal mind is a enemy of God, but the mind of Christ resides in our rebirth hearts. This is the spiritual mind that is life and peace. It is also has we learn to operated from this mind we become aware of these spiritual senses. Once you begin to discern these two mindsets and chose the spiritual mind you will be much more aware of the presence of God with you all the time.
 
My wife prayed to have the proverbial "brick up side the head" for an answer to her prayer. She got the brick, figuratively, and then said she will be more careful when asking next time. lol She got her answer, though it pervaded her thoughts and bothered her until she did what she was given to do.
 
@Tropicalbound, @banjo71

I have a quick question.

When you pray do you end with if it be your will Lord?

That is a general understanding between The Lord and I for my prayers. I make general requests, i.e. "could you help so-and-so?", but I don't tell Him how to do His business. Everything is always, "if it be His will".

Sometimes the best thing that could happen to a person is that they suffer, because suffering teaches.
But you really don't want to be praying for that.
 
Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy[d] Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

If your mind can be focused on the things of the Spirit, then you have the Spirit. Now you just have to allow it to be your driver of your car of life, not just a passenger somewhere in the back.
 
Banjo, let's look again at the verse,

Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

The judging of the Holy Spirit about sin is whether or not someone has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, so as to you question about your salvation, is it conviction or condemnation and doubt, the first is from the Spirit, the second is from satan, ...the Holy Spirit will not/cannot condemn you for your sin if you're saved and in Christ because all of you sin debt has been paid for, what He will do is convict you of a sin present in your life in order that you will confess it 1 Jn 1:9 and then your communion with Father and the Lord will be re-established, so if there is silence from Father is there unconfessed sin in your life?

Concerning prayer, what are you praying for, is it for yourself, you will at the moment or His will to be done, ...I have found that when I have something to pray about I present it to Father and then read my Bible, many, many times most of the time, He talks to me through His Word, most of the time it's not about the subject of my prayer, but rather He is teaching me from what I'm reading, I get so stoked I don't think about my prayer request and continue studying what He is showing me, sometimes my prayers are answered with a yes, or a no, but most of the time it is wait, just trust Me.

The point I'm trying to make is if I look to my prayer life to hear God's voice it can seem to be silent, but if I'm in His Word studying asking Him questions, we are having a continuous conversation.

I hope this helps,

Blessings,

Gene
 
@Tropicalbound, @banjo71

I have a quick question.

When you pray do you end with if it be your will Lord?
No. I usually end with thanking God for various things...... and thanking Him for the gift of His son, Jesus, without whom I would not be able to approach Your throne. His death was not in vane God as Jesus is my Lord and Saviour, and it is in His name I pray. Amen.

As far as His will, I do ask that He make His will known to me in various situations.
 
That is a general understanding between The Lord and I for my prayers. I make general requests, i.e. "could you help so-and-so?", but I don't tell Him how to do His business. Everything is always, "if it be His will".

Sometimes the best thing that could happen to a person is that they suffer, because suffering teaches.
But you really don't want to be praying for that.

Good for you that you do. It is how we are told to do it.

Or else God becomes a spiritual vending machine. Insert prayer, get yummy gooey request out.

Just as bad as indulgences.
 
The King did it and says to do so.

So why not?

Well.....John 14:13-14........
“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

That is not a magical formula but means praying with His authority and asking God the Father to act upon our prayers because we come in the name of His Son, Jesus.

Praying in Jesus' name means the same thing as praying according to the will of God, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15). Praying in Jesus’ name is praying for things that will honor and glorify Jesus.
 
No. I usually end with thanking God for various things...... and thanking Him for the gift of His son, Jesus, without whom I would not be able to approach Your throne. His death was not in vane God as Jesus is my Lord and Saviour, and it is in His name I pray. Amen.

As far as His will, I do ask that He make His will known to me in various situations.

Sometimes his will is not for you to know.

Best to cover that with a quick by your will, not mine. As The King did even when he was asking to be spared from death.
 
Sometimes his will is not for you to know.

Best to cover that with a quick by your will, not mine. As The King did even when he was asking to be spared from death.
"Sometimes" is correct. That's why I pray like I pray. I wasn't asking for advice, just answering a question. Sorry for the confusion.
 
Banjo, let's look again at the verse,

Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

The judging of the Holy Spirit about sin is whether or not someone has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, so as to you question about your salvation, is it conviction or condemnation and doubt, the first is from the Spirit, the second is from satan, ...the Holy Spirit will not/cannot condemn you for your sin if you're saved and in Christ because all of you sin debt has been paid for, what He will do is convict you of a sin present in your life in order that you will confess it 1 Jn 1:9 and then your communion with Father and the Lord will be re-established, so if there is silence from Father is there unconfessed sin in your life?

Concerning prayer, what are you praying for, is it for yourself, you will at the moment or His will to be done, ...I have found that when I have something to pray about I present it to Father and then read my Bible, many, many times most of the time, He talks to me through His Word, most of the time it's not about the subject of my prayer, but rather He is teaching me from what I'm reading, I get so stoked I don't think about my prayer request and continue studying what He is showing me, sometimes my prayers are answered with a yes, or a no, but most of the time it is wait, just trust Me.

The point I'm trying to make is if I look to my prayer life to hear God's voice it can seem to be silent, but if I'm in His Word studying asking Him questions, we are having a continuous conversation.

I hope this helps,

Blessings,

Gene
There's not anything I know of I haven't confessed to God. There's a lot of stuff we're talking about... but it's all confessed. And I sometimes will even tell God about possible sin in my life that doesn't come to my mind, things I've forgotten. I even blame myself for things I don't even know I've done or not.

I have a better sense, though, of what you're talking about now. The convictions are coming from God, and everything tormenting is not coming from God, although He does allow it.
 
That's it!

I take John 3:16 and put my name in it and I recommend it for every child of God to do too, for you it would read like this.

For God so loved banjo that he gave His only begotten Son, so that banjo would not perish, but have everlasting life.

That makes it personal, and since we are a part of the world we are not devaluating the sense of the verse and that way not only is it a evangelization tool for us, it also becomes a precious life verse for us when satan intimidates.

We all were the property of satan, but Jesus Christ has paid the price of redemption, bought us off of the auction block, that doesn't make satan happy, so even though he no longer has authority over us he still continues to harasses us by placing his thoughts in our minds, ...our minds are the battlefield in this war, but we know his tactics, it hasn't changed since the Garden, he is constantly whispering in our ears, "...did God really say?"

Yes God did really say....,

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Num 23:19

So you need to receive into your heart and appropriate the Truth into your soul that Jesus paid for ALL of your sins, the sin you have committed, the sin you commit today and the sin you will commit tomorrow, just under 2000 years ago on the Cross of Calvary, it's a done deal, anyone that is IN Christ is totally forgiven, do you see that banjo, it's a historical fact and we can't change history, you are forgiven, so may I humbly suggest you stop listening to the devil and concentrating on and worrying about which sin you need to confess and start walking in the newness of your new life in Christ 2 Cor 5:17 and learn about our wonderful God and Savior, ...your heart is in the right place, you are conscious you are a sinner, ...let the Holy Spirit do His work, He will show you when and what He wants to heal and change in your life, it's a process called sanctification, if the Holy Spirit were to change everything wrong in us, into the image of Jesus Christ in an instant we couldn't handle it, it would blow our minds, so just relax, you are in Good Hands John 10:28, 29, so just let go and let God work in your life.

Be Blessed,

Gene
 
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