Lam 3:21 -25; I recall this (doctrine) to my mind, and it gives me confidence. Because The Lord's mercy never fails; His grace provisions never cease, they are renewed every morning; Great is Your faithfulness... Therefore I have hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait silently on Him.
In our study of the doctrine of the winner believer. Heb 12:2; Rev 2:7; We have noted that winner believers are the unknown, unsung heroes of history. 2Cor 6:9; who are the targets of God's grace imputations and the reason that God continues to support the human race.
We are now in a segment where we are discussing the doctrine of church age spirituality. Last time we noted the absolute concept of spirituality that is described as being filled with or by means of the spirit.
We noted that the believer in fellowship with God is described as spiritual in the sense that the Holy Spirit controls his soul and he lives inside God's power system.
The believer functioning in this manner can also be described as a protocol Christian in the sense that, when he is living inside God's power system he is executing the protocol plan of God and gaining momentum from reception, retention and recall of God's Word of truth (Bible Doctrine).
The believer who is out of fellowship can be described, as a carnal Christian because their thinking is controlled by the old sin nature or as a cosmic Christian because they reside inside the arrogance and antagonism of satan's cosmic system.
Spiritual maturity varies according to spiritual growth from positive volition to God's Word of truth. Reversionism varies according to spiritual decline from negative volition and rejection of God's Word of truth. Both are relative.
When believers are filled with the spirit you cannot accurately describe one believer as being more spiritual than another because every believer who is filled with the Spirit is as spiritual as any other believer.
The relative concept of the spirituality of the Christian life is based on spiritual growth from positive volition to God's Word of truth or lack of spiritual growth because of negative volition to and rejection of God's Word of truth.
The relative concept of Christianity is related to the believer's volition and the resultant spiritual growth or spiritual decline from that volitional choice.
Spirituality, the absolute concept of the Christian life begins at the moment of salvation. The moment anyone believes in Jesus Christ God enters them into His power system through the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
Six of the ministries of God the Holy Spirit at salvation are permanent. They never change regardless of how the believer's experiential status changes.
God the Holy Spirit takes faith, and faith alone, in Jesus Christ and makes it effective for salvation in efficacious grace.
Regeneration, where God the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life by God the Father. Eternal life is imputed to the human spirit, John 3:1-6; Titus 3:5. The Holy Spirit is the agent of the new birth.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:5; 1Cor 12:13; Eph 4:5 permanently enters every believer into union with Christ as a member of the new spiritual species.
The Holy Spirit permanently indwells every believer to provide a temple for the indwelling of Christ, Gal 3:2, Gal 4:6; 1Cor 6:19-20; 1Cor 3:16;
Every believer is permanently sealed by means of the Holy Spirit, whereby He stamps a seal on every believer so we can never lose our salvation. Eph 4:30; Eph 1:13; 2Cor 1:22; 1Pet 1:5;
At the moment of salvation every believer irrevocably receives a spiritual gift for the purpose of participating in the development of the body of Christ. 1Cor 12:11.
The only ministry of the Holy Spirit that the believer receives at salvation that can be rejected is the filling of the Holy Spirit.
The filling of the Spirit is the product of the volitional choice to remain resident in God's power system. It depends on the believer's volitional choice to conduct their life by means of faith (doctrine) under the ministry of the Spirit. Gal 5:16;
Any sin that the believer chooses to commit results in being released from the power of God the Holy Spirit that keeps the believer inside God's power system.
By default the choice to sin results in the believer being placed back into satan's cosmic system where they were before salvation under the control of the old sin nature.
This is illustrated by what happened to Adam and the woman when they were expelled from the Garden of Eden after they committed the first sin. Gen 3:23-24; NET
We see from this that there are two concepts of spirituality. First there is the positional reality of the believer residing inside God's power system under the principle of "keep on being filled with the Spirit.' Eph 5:18;
Second is the believer applying God's Word to the challenges of life under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit under the principle of "walk by means of the spirit." Gal 5:16;
The noun "spirituality" refers to the believer in the absolute status quo of the filling of the Spirit. The power of the filling of the Holy Spirit results in the Holy Spirit controlling the believer's soul.
The spiritual skill of the filling of the Spirit is the function of the Holy Spirit related to the believer choosing to reside inside God's power system through the application of the problem solving devices instead of the arrogance skills to life's circumstances.
The adjective "spiritual" has several meanings depending on the noun it modifies. It can refer to a believer who is filled with the Spirit or to a believer who demonstrates "spirituality" because they have the spiritual capacity to remain inside God's spiritual power system when under pressure.
A question that can be asked is that since we are filled with the Spirit at salvation, why does God command that believers stop sinning and be filled with the Spirit in Eph 5:18?
The only reasonable explanation for this is that the first time the believer commits a sin after salvation the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit is rescinded because of the believer's volitional choice reject the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and succumb to the OSN by sinning.
In the status of post-salvation sin, God the Holy Spirit still irrevocably indwells the believer's body, but He no longer controls the thought processes that occur in the believer's soul so God the Holy Spirit reverts back to His convicting and convincing ministry in an attempt to get the believer to change their mind or repent and come clean with God by admitting the sin.