06 Manifestation Of The Spirit Of God

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Manifestation of the Spirit of God There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God [Father] who works all in all (1 Corinthians 12:4-6, emphasis added). God is Spirit and the Spirit of God is God, three persons yet one God. The Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. Each Person of the Godhead manifests Himself uniquely through His Spirit in each member of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ as He wills to the profit of all. There are three different levels of the manifestation of spiritual gifts according to the working of each Individual of the Godhead. The first manifestation is the diversities of gifts of the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4). The different gifts of the Holy Spirit are described as follows in I Corinthians 12:7-11: But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kind of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. The Holy Spirit is the one who leads and guide us into all truth. Through the revelatory gifts (word of wisdom, word of knowledge, prophecy, discerning of spirits,

interpretation of tongues, dreams and visions) of the Holy Spirit we come to the knowledge of the truth, which is Christ. Through the power gifts of the Holy Spirit (faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles) the Spirit of God restores lives and creation. All these graces are manifested by the Holy Spirit to establish the kingdom of God in all the earth. Everything is about the Father’s business; Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. The second manifestation of the Spirit of God is the differences of ministries by the Lord Jesus Christ. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord (1 Corinthians 12:5). This can be expanded as follows: For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slave or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers,

all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, variety of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). Anything divorced or independent from Christ is futility, which is death, darkness and earthy. A member in your body cannot operate independently from your head. Every action of each member of the body is a spontaneous manifestation of the pleasure of your will, so is Christ. Walking in the Spirit, as a member of the body of Christ is the revelation of Christ made manifested in you. The manifestation of Christ in the earth is to live and move and have your being in Him. How tragic to start in the Spirit and endeavor to search for perfection in the flesh through the efforts of your own will, apart from the mind and Spirit of Christ. This is to partake from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is death. A walk in the Spirit is a constant search for Christ to be revealed in you according to the anointing that is working in you as an individual and specific member of His body and to search out the glory of God in all His works and ways. You are not speaking the word of God or doing good works to obtain favor from God but because you have obtained mercy and grace from God you confess the truth and do good works. Maintaining this attitude or awareness ensures that your spirit is constantly open to God, which is practicing His presence.

Paul testified about the Spirit of Christ that was made manifested in him. He said, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the gentiles” (Galatians 1:15-16b, emphasis added). God called Paul as an apostle of Jesus Christ and in this, the apostleship of Jesus was revealed in Paul according to the anointing that was working in him. We should always search for the evidence of Christ to be revealed in the redeemed and ourselves. Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you (2 Corinthians 13:3, emphasis added). The third manifestation of the Spirit of God is diversities of activities by the same God. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all (1 Corinthians 12:4). The diversity of activities or power is released by the fullness of God in the perfected believer. This manifestation of the Spirit of God can be described more completely as follows: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoice in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13). We may have all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and a ministry in Christ and have revelation that sparks of hope and faith that creates a marvelous way of life and we may perform great works and sacrifice our entire being to God; it will profit us nothing if that lifestyle is not a manifestation of the love of God. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable but it is no barometer of being in good standing with God; love is. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declared to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!“ Without love you are in the flesh, isolated from God, and you do not know Him since the flesh is dead toward God because of sin and is in enmity with Him as it is not able to know Him. Love is that which separates the truth from the lie. Truth, which is Christ, manifests the fruit of the Spirit and the lie manifests the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:1626). God knows you by your fruit. Resisting the work of the flesh to bloodshed (Hebrews 12:4; Luke 22:44) in the cross of Christ and to live the power of His resurrection is God’s design to manifest His love in you. At the end of the day it is not what you do or not do for God but what you have become to Him as a son that bring Him joy and fulfillment. Will He find the manifestation of Christ’s love and life in you? Love is that which emphasizes your relationship with God, each other and the rest of God’s creation. God’s way is to rest in Christ’s perfect

relationships and not to manufacture your own imperfect love. Now remain faith and hope that is worked through love in our relationship toward God, which is the only way to walk and live in the Spirit. When the fullness has come and Christ has subjected all things to His and our Father only love will remain. To conform to the image of the Son of God, who is the fullness of the godhead bodily, is to conform to the love of God. Love is merciful, gracious and compassionate. Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of the Lord’s and our brothers you did it to Him. Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). A new commandment Christ gave us that we love one another even as He has loved and gave His life for us. In the same manner that Christ loved us we aught to love one another by becoming the servant of one another. When Jesus ministered to the people He ministered through the Spirit of God. He did nothing of Himself. Whatever the Father does, the Son does in like manner. The acts of Jesus were made manifest in the love and power of the Spirit of God, which is the mercy and grace of the Father. The fullness of the Spirit of God in us reveals the miracle power of God, which is the love of Christ that is at work in us and compels us to wonders and mighty deeds. All of His glory is His entire character and power made manifest in us who believe to the Father’s eternal glory and praise. The picture of the manifestation of the Spirit of God started in 1 Corinthians 12 and finds its climax in 1 Corinthians 13.

We start out with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and grow and develop into ministries of Christ. Presently, we are standing at the dawn of the Kingdom of God where the fullness of God will indwell us and His love and power will be revealed in us. This is the third day, the day of the Spirit, where we live in the sight of the Lord to the glory and praise of His name. Jesus has provided all things that pertain to the fullness that God has in mind for us. We do not need to strife to enter into the glorious realm of God’s fullness. Through faith in Christ we are appropriating the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the fullness of the godhead bodily and not by our own efforts. We have no confidence in the flesh. We do not follow regulations and laws but believe God to fulfill what He has promised. All of our efforts, no matter how big or how small accounts for nothing but is a futile waste of energy. Only through faith in God we can please Him. Faith in Christ’s abilities in us is a gift from God and do not originate from within our flesh. Faith came by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The word of God is Spirit and life and by the integrity of His word He brings to pass His promises. The Spirit of the Father that indwells us makes our mortal bodies alive toward God. The Biblical explanation for anointed signs in the body is the quickening of our mortal bodies through the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. When you start to worship God, the palms of your hands or lips may begin to burn because of your expressions of love toward Him. This mortal body is started to experience life. You may also experience signs in the body when you minister to somebody because of God’s compassion that compels you. How do you explain this? You are moving toward resurrection life. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, which is the Spirit of the Father, is starting to live

in you. You are experiencing the beginning of the redemption of your body. This is getting toward the manifestation of the sons of God for which all creation is groaning. The evidence of a future breakthrough into the first resurrection is the proof that the Spirit of the Father is already at work in your mortal body. An indication of the manifestation of the final phase of the redemptive work of Christ is the anointing that is experienced in the mortal body. Whenever you receive an anointed sign in the body, it is a sign that the Spirit of God that indwells you desires to dominate and is the evidence that He is imparting life to your mortal body. What glorious transformation awaits us! Anointed signs in the body is evidence that your basic bodily senses are in the process of being quickened. Paul was also reaching through faith into resurrection life. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conform to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11, emphasis added). He ended 1 Corinthians 13 with an interesting comment where he said, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Only through faith, hope and love, which are the different dimensions of our relationship with God, we will enter into the fullness of God. The restoration of your body start out with you presenting your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is an expression of love and worship toward God (Romans 12:1). In the time of Paul slaves were also called bodies. This word body is written in that context. So you must present yourself as a slave toward God as an act of love and worship toward Him, which is the standard of a slave of God. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew

20:27-28). Without faith, hope and love you cannot please God who lives in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13). Inasmuch as you serve one of the least of the brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have done it unto Him. Love is a manifestation of the Spirit of God and the doorway to experience signs in the body, which is an indication that the Spirit of God is busy to quicken your body to Him that is dead because of sin. Although Jesus’ sacrifice was made manifested in the natural only 2 000 years ago, the Lamb of God was actually slain from the foundation of the earth and He gave His life a ransom for many. From the foundation of the earth all things were reconciled to God. From the foundation of the earth a new creation with a new heaven and a new earth was created in Christ. The separation between the natural and spiritual realms that came about with Adam’s transgression was taken away when God created the one world of Christ. The heaven and the earth is one in Christ because God is one. He who dwells in the Spirit reconciled all things to Himself in Christ Jesus and removed the separation from God that Adam brought about. All things were made new and were filled with life, light and truth. Since the foundation of the world the saints were wonderfully made perfect in Him. Enoch (without the law) and Elijah (under the law) saw Christ’s day and they believed God and their faith in the Fountain of life gave substance to their hope so that they did not see death. Before God took them into the unseen realities of their faith where they dwell with God in the one world of Christ, they had a testimony that they pleased God. Without faith they could not please Him. God honored the substance of their lives in the Spirit that they have created through faith and captured them in glory so that they could not be found among the sons of men. They overcame the last enemy, which is death by living in the Spirit. The

law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed them from the law of sin and death. Enoch and Elijah did not see the manifestation of Christ’s day yet they believed God who gave life to the dead in contrary to hope, in hope believed so that they did not experience death. They did not consider their bodies of death, which were dead toward God because of sin, but they did not waver at the promise through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. They were fully convinced that what God had promised He was also able to perform and that was accounted to them as righteousness. As a result of their constant faith they received the testimony they pleased God. Their faith elevated them to a level of blamelessness before God and the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, whom indwells them made their mortal bodies alive toward God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, as it is dead toward God because of sin. This is the reason why those who sleep in Christ could not take their bodies with them to heaven. At the last trumpet the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible and the living mortals in Christ will put on immortality. However, Enoch and Elijah is living proof that we can live the future today and before the appointed time attain to the resurrection from the dead. The saints die because they believe they have to die. Fear of death is giving substance to their believe and so they are dying. What if you believe God that you will never see death but eventually die? God will never ignore your faith that created the substance of immortality. It will be reckoned to you as if you have attained to the resurrection from the dead. Your expressions of faith toward Him pleased Him. Because you have believed Him you will be counted among those that have never tasted death. Paul was such a

person. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11). It pleased God in His infinite wisdom and immeasurable love that for Paul’s own good he should suffered martyrdom for His name’s sake. People die because they are living according to the dictates of the flesh as they are setting their minds on death. This is a life separated from the Fountain of life, which is the Source of all light and the embodiment of all truth. To be carnally minded is death because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. In the darkness of their carnal minds, independently from God, they seek knowledge of good (law or legalism) and evil (lawlessness). Good is better than evil but it is still from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil whereby death was introduced into this world. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is the flesh, produces fruit of death, darkness and the lie because it has no excess to God in the Spirit who is life, light and truth. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God because faith, hope and love are only found in the realm of the Spirit. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Unless you live in the Spirit you cannot please God but you are suppressing the anointing that is at work in you. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed us from the law of sin and death. The righteous requirement of the law could never have been fulfilled in the flesh but in the Spirit. Eternal life is only found in the Spirit because Christ who indwells you lives in heaven, which is Spirit. Those who walk according to the Spirit are spiritually minded and they are continuously renewed in the spirit of their

minds resulting in being changed from glory to glory into the image of Christ as they behold Him in the Spirit. For this reason, Enoch and Elijah attained to the resurrection from the dead and were made perfect before the appointed time. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. Therefore do not neglect the anointing that is in you, which you have received by the Spirit of God. Meditate on the anointed areas in your life; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you (1 Timothy 4:14-16). Do not say to yourself, “I am too old, I have not enough time.” Consider that Jesus’ ministry on earth lasted only three and a half years and He saved the world. It is the same One that lives in you and is one Spirit with you. In all this we live not our lives unto ourselves but unto God for the benefit of all. The Spirit of God is given that we may know God as Father and that we may be His sons by manifesting His Son in us. Sonship is the manifestation of the Son of God in us through His eternal Spirit. It is only through the Spirit of God that we can live in the Spirit. Through the eternal Spirit of God we offer our bodies that are dead toward Him because of sin as being alive unto Him so that by faith we procure the substance of Christ’s bodily perfection. We are members of His body, His flesh and His bones (Ephesians 5:30). He is the fullness of the godhead bodily; so are we, His brothers, because we live and move and have our being in Him. It is through the Spirit of God that the manifestation of the Spirit of Christ is released in us. It is through the Spirit of God that we are made conform to the death of Christ and live the power of His resurrection. Though we have not yet attained to this reality in the

natural realm or have been made perfect or we do not yet see all things put under man, these things are very real in the Spirit if our faith give substance to this hope. We only posses what our faith embraces.