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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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GROANING WITHIN OUR RIGHTEOUS SPIRITS

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So how can we be confident of final victory in this

spiritual quest from selfish carnality, to enduring in

prayer through the purging process, to becoming a

prepared vessel that the Holy Spirit can use in

intercession? I found an answer to that question in my

studies and meditation of two different passages of

Scripture: Second Corinthians 5 and Romans 8.

The key to our ultimate victory is summed up in one

simple statement in Second Corinthians 5:5: God has

given to us the earnest of the Spirit. Let’s look at the

entire passage in context:

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle

were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not

made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For in this [earthly tabernacle]we groan, earnestly

desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is

from heaven[our glorified bodies]:

If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being

burdened: not for that we would be unclothed[we don’t

just want to die], but clothed upon, that mortality might

be swallowed up of life.

Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is

God, who also hath given unto us THE EARNEST OF THE

SPIRIT.— 2 Corinthians 5:1-5

Now let’s go to Romans 8:22-25 and compare the two

passages. First, let’s look at verse 22:

For we know that the whole creation [every created thing] groaneth and travaileth[as a pregnant woman]in pain together until now.

All creation groans for its deliverance from the

bondage of corruption in which it was placed at the fall

of man. All of creation, right down to the last atom,

came under a curse at that time.Now creation,

pregnant with a new heaven and a new earth, groans in

travail like a pregnant woman waiting to give birth.

Then in verse 23, Paul switched the emphasis from

creation to you and me:

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Everything in creation that is imperfect is in a form of

intercessional groaning, waiting to be delivered from

corruption. That includes believers who have “the first

fruits of the Spirit.”

Notice Paul said that we have the first fruits, and we

wait for the second fruits — the redemption of our

bodies. What are the first fruits Paul is talking about?

Jesus died and arose from the dead, and those of us who

are born again have become the first fruits — the first

harvest — of His resurrection. When we bowed our

knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and were born again,

adoption papers were served on us, and we became His

first fruits.

When I was born again, my spirit man was

instantly seated in heavenly places with Christ

Jesus.Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened

us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)And

hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in

heavenly places in Christ Jesus.— Ephesians 2:5,6

My spirit has taken on the express image of Jesus

Christ. It has been born of Him and consequently has

become the righteousness of God in Christ: For he hath

made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we

might be made the righteousness of God in him.Cor.

5:21). Therefore, on the inside of me, I have these

righteous feelings. Something in me is so holy that it

constantly wars with my flesh.

We who have the first fruits of the Spirit — in other

words, we who are born again and have received the

earnest or baptism of the Holy Spirit — are groaning.

We groan within our righteous spirits, waiting for the

entire adoption process to be culminated or completed

at the redemption of our bodies — the second fruits.

The reason you are groaning on the inside of your

righteous spirit is that you are imprisoned in your

fleshly body. You live in there. Your flesh has death

working in it, inherited from the first Adam. It is not

only capable of sin; it will sin if you let it. That’s why

Paul says in Galatians 5:16:

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

You are totally capable of walking in the flesh. Even

more than that, your body is imprisoned in a world of

warring and strife — a place where children are

starving to death and men kill each other, where sin

and perversion run rampant. Your righteous spirit

groans within your body, because you’re in an

imperfect world that has all this damnable sin, and you

are still capable of practicing it yourself.

In fact, Paul said that all creation is travailing like a

pregnant woman, sold to the bondage of slavery, crying

and groaning to be delivered out of that bondage. I am

in the middle of all this mess, and the righteousness

that has been implanted within me makes me groan for

anew heaven, a new earth, and a new, glorified body.

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Saved by Hope

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This is starting to sound like the passage in Second

Corinthians 5, isn’t it? Remember what verse 4 says:

For WE THAT ARE IN THIS TABERNACLE DO GROAN, BEING BURDENED: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

What are we groaning for? We are waiting for our

adoption process to be made complete.When? At the

redemption of our bodies. In other words, when we are

clothed with our glorified body, a house from Heaven

not made with hands.

When Jesus returns, our bodies will be changed in the

twinkling of an eye from corruptible to incorruptible as

we receive our resurrected bodies (1 Cor. 15:52). That

time is coming. Bu tin the meantime, while we are still

imprisoned in our bodies, we need Someone to help

us.That’s why God gave us the Holy Spirit — to

empower us during this time of waiting to have victory

over the dominance of the flesh.

Then in Second Corinthians 5:5, Paul goes on to say this:

Now he that hath wrought [or saved]us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

So God has wrought, or saved, us for the culmination of

His great plan. Actually, Paul is saying the same thing

but in a slightly different way to both the Romans and

the Corinthians.In Romans 8:24 and 25, he said we are

saved by hope.

For we are SAVED BY HOPE: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

We are saved by the hope of what? We who have the

first fruits of the Spirit are waiting for the redemption

process to be made complete at the resurrection and

glorification of our physical bodies. We don’t see it yet,

so “we do with patience wait for it.” We don’t have any

choice but to wait. We can believe God for Jesus’ return

until we turn blue and seven shades of white and green,

but Jesus is still going to come back when God says it’s

time for Him to come back!

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until next time

LARRY