THEME: Spiritual Growth: Understanding The Whats and Hows of Growing Up unto God’s Life in Our Souls
LESSON: Seven
TOPIC: Leadings/Dealings of the Holy Spirit: Understanding How Lines Translate into Change of Nature in our Souls
TEXT: Romans 1:5; Romans 8:14, 16; Acts 14:22; John 21:18; Romans 8:36
MEMORY TRACK:
In a measure, by the Grace of God, we have been able to establish from scriptures what precepts and lines (Isaiah 28:9) are, and how they are important to the processes of the salvation of our souls. That the soul of a saint ought to go through these scripturally laid-out processes to come into inheriting God’s nature, God’s life (Isaiah 53:6, Proverbs 14:12, 16:25, Romans 6:21, Isaiah 28:9, Ephesians 2:1-4, Jeremiah 29:14, Ezekiel 11:17).
God’s ultimate desire and plan for man is for a full and total redemption from our different far-off countries where we have all journeyed. Satan made sure that man did not just die, but made man journey far from God. We were created and formed in the presence of God and had God’s nature (that is compatible with the earth). There was still a gap between the man, who had not fallen, and God in the Garden of Eden. Then, the negative life appeared in the garden, man began the journey to death, and was led into a further distance from God. From a living soul’s life to flesh life and to grass life. In mercy, God laid out for us in the gospel a roadmap back into all of God’s nature and life (Colossians 1:12 and Ephesians 1:11).
In today’s lesson, we will be considering the practical workings of the lines in the life of a saint, how lines are initiated, how lines emanate, and who initiates Lines? (John 16:7-14, 1 Corinthians 2:4-16).
X-Raying the Origin and Purpose of Lines in the Life of a Believer
Lines are measurements/standards/statuses of God’s life that emanate from the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17). Lines are the intelligence of the Holy Ghost (1 Thessalonians 4:7-9, John 16:7-14) to make a soul who has been exposed to God’s knowledge know how to live life to experience a change of nature from the fallen man’s nature to God’s nature (1 Corinthians 6:9-12).
Lines are likened (for illustrative purposes) to the cobweb of a spider [that a spider produces from its inside to produce a bridge or path for it to climb on.] Just that in our case (as believers) the Lines/webs are coming from the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 2:11), who wells up instructions or leadings within us, which we call Leading of the Spirit to live or go in a particular way that will enable us to erode and go against our ungodly nature of sin, which we also came into by leading (Genesis 4:16, Jonah 1:13, 1 Corinthians 12:2, 1 Peter 4:3, Habakkuk 2:18).
Note: In 1 Corinthians 2:11, the Scripture rightly puts that the things of God knoweth no man except the Holy Ghost; these things of God are things concerning salvation (Colossians 3:1-2, 1 Peter 1:9-12, 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 – the Holy Ghost searches out the things of God and communicates such to us at our different levels of growth).
So, lines are a web of instructions of life that emanate from the Holy Spirit, which is in us, to our human spirit, to our hearts, and ultimately to our minds, to re-culture and renew our minds (Ephesians 4:23, Romans 12:2). Of a truth, we are meant to engage Lines to turn knowledge/revelation of God into nature/conversation/lifestyle, hence, profiting with knowledge/revelation (1 Timothy 4:15).
Some Things That Lines Are Not
- Lines of God are not human works and hence cannot be humanly initiated or generated (James 1:20-22). It is not a work of morality or principles/commandments of men (Matthew 15:9, Mark 7:7, Isaiah 29:13, Titus 1:4). The wrath of man cannot work the righteousness of God. As good as man’s intention to do right is and to please God can be, it still cannot work out God’s righteousness (Isaiah 55:7-9). Human lines or righteousness cannot only work out human nature but the devil’s nature that is already in our soul as a result of the fall of man in Eden and his consequent journey away from God (Isaiah 64:6, Philippians 3:9).
- Lines are not just picking up standards or things to do from scripture and doing them in a bid to please God (this in itself is not evil, but it is not sufficient to change our souls) (Genesis 28:6-9). We do not presume what pleases the Father as Esau presumed in Genesis 28:6-9. For it to be lines of God that can lead to the saving of our souls, it must be initiated by the Spirit of God (Romans 1:16-17). The Holy Spirit, therefore, leads us in the scriptures and, through the scriptures, instructs us in living. Hallelujah! (Psalm 23:3-4).
- Lines are not church rules, bylaws, or denominational creeds. Yes, though these (mentioned earlier) are not in themselves evil and are meant to maintain order and decorum in the house of God as the Lord deals with saints from one church/denomination to another (Titus 1:5). It is good to stress that denominational standards may not necessarily be God’s standard per time (2 Kings 18:4).
At a season, it is God’s standard, but our journey as believers is dynamic. We are not static or stationary people but a people on a journey. We may, if we are not flexible in our yieldedness to the Spirit, build a monument around what God has said and refuse what He is saying now. Sin and death in man’s soul is alive (Romans 7:11-25). Creeds and rules (though they may not be evil) have been proven not to be able to defeat the nature of the devil (Romans 7:8).
It takes active and living instructions of the Holy Spirit that may actively vary from person to person and scenario to scenario to both tame sin in our souls and ultimately save our souls. Actively yielding to the Leading of the Spirit is what makes grace available to the soul for the salvation process and not mere rules (Luke 4:1-2, Titus 2:11-12).
Conclusion
In summary, from part A of this lesson above, lines are real life, real time Leading of the Spirit of God emanating from the wisdom and intelligence of the Holy Spirit (who knows our souls individually and specifically) to deliver us from Satan’s nature to God’s nature (Acts 26:17-18).