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live perfectly all at once the NEW
way of LOVE and concern toward
others, but your whole INTENTION–
your ATTITUDE- will have made that
change.
And you may not receive a FULL
measure of God's Holy Spirit all at
once. You probably will start out as
a " babe in Christ" like the Corinthi–
ans.
The Old Testament
~xample
Yet, because conversion definitely
also IS a process-a development- a
GROWTH that takes TIME, 1 also
wonder how many we may feel "are
just not converted at all ," when they
are, in truth, "babes in Christ"
who
have not grown very large SPlRITU–
ALLY as yet, but who HAVE received
the Holy Spirit, even in small mea–
sure, and are actually GROWING and
headed in the right direction.
Remember, God looks on the
heart-the attitude- the obvious in–
tention!
Many experiences recorded in the
Old Testament were intended as ex–
amples for us today. In I Corinthi–
ans lO we read: "Now all these
things happened unto them [of Old
Testament times] for ensamples:
and they are written for our admo–
nition, upon whom tbe ends of the
world are come" (verse 11).
lt
is true that the Bible deals in
types, which any biblical student
having the Holy Spirit ought easily
to understand. It also deals in sym-·
bols- but the Bible explains its own
symbols, not always in the same
context with the symbol.
It
also con–
tains allegories- but the Bible itself
explains the allegories so we can
UNDERSTAND. In other words, we
should never try to interpret the
Bible. The Bible interprets itself!
In a number of instances-as in
the Passover- Egypt is used as a
type of SIN. The taking of the lsrael–
ites out of Egypt is a TYPE of our
going out from sin. Their entrance
into the Promised Land is a type of
our entrance into the Kingdom of
God. In these instances- as well as
many others- the physical is a type
of the spiritual.
The presence of squatters occupy–
ing the Promised Land also is a type
of sin in our Jives. God OWNS the
earth . He had assigned by PROMISE
to Abraham, for his descendants,
10
this Promised Land. Therefore it
rightfully belonged to them, and not
to the Gentile nations who had sim–
ply moved in and taken it over.
God promised to drive out these
squatters. But He said: "1 will not
drive them out from before thee in
one year; lest the land become deso–
late, and the beast of the field mul–
tiply against thee. By little and little
I will drive them out from before
thee, until thou be increased, and
inherit the land" (Ex. 23:29-30). No–
tice also Deuteronomy 7, especially
verse 22.
God forbade the lsraelites to wor–
ship the idols and gods of these
The one thing even God
cannot create all at
once is holy, spiritual,
righteous character.
That must be built
within us with our own
consent, with a change
of mind and heart, and
with willingness to
beseech God to place
His character within us.
Gentile nations. But the wild ani–
mals coming in would have been a
greater danger. lf we were able to
drive out EVERY SIN from our Lives
all a t once, we would become spiri–
tually PROUD, and spiritual pride is
the greatest of sins. Job had it. And
he was tbe most difficult for God to
convert of any man in history.
I knew a Pentecostal family years
ago. The children were mature–
grown and married- but their
mother, so they claimed, was spiri–
tually PERFECT. Truly, she was a
good woman, to all appearances.
Yet she actually was guilty of the
greatest -sin of all . She herself
claimed to be perfect, without sin.
She and her family exalted her
above all others. Yet others could
see severa! real sins in her self-righ–
teous, holier-than-thou life.
What ls God's Purpose?
God's PURPOSE is to build HOLY,
RIGHTEOUS CHARACTER- God's OWN
character-into us humans.
It starts with a REAL and lasting
REPENTANCE- a total and permanent
CHANGE in attitude from GET to
GIVE. It requires BELIEF- not only
believing on Christ- but BELIEVING
CHRIST: believing and obeying
WHAT HE SAYS! Christ is the per–
sonal WoRD of God. The Bible is
that same WORD in print.
It
is the
LAMP .to our feet (Psalm 119: 105) to
GUIDE us in Goo's WAY, Like a lamp
on a dark night in the woods, lead–
ing us in the way ofsafety.
So, through Hrs WRITTEN WORDS,
we GROW in the KNOWLEDGE Of
Christ. It requires constant Bible
reading and STUDY.
It
requires con–
stan! earnest, heart-rending PRAYER.
It requires FELLOWSHIP with the
brethren. In church services, we not
onJy have fellowship with our breth–
ren, but also with Christ and the
Father. "If we walk in the light as
He is in the light, we have fellow–
ship with one another- and the
blood of Jesus Christ his Son clean–
ses us from all sin" (1 John 1:3, 7).
So remember, 1 have often said
God is reproducing Himself. We
who· are converted and are
being
spiritually matured are merely the
type of what we once were
before
human birth.
First, we were begotten
in a conception that required both a
father and a mother. In order to
make human reproduction possible,
God formed humans in two sexes–
MAN and WOMAN. Because He de–
signed us with the potentiality of
becoming Hrs very own born c;hil–
dren, God in His LOVE formed sex
as a holy and beautiful thing.
But because Satan has no sex, he
is jealous; he bates the fact that God
gave us humans this blessing. So he
has cunningly contrived to DECEIVE
humans into the misuse of sex and
even its nonuse- and total misun–
derstanding concerning it. Through
sorne professing Christian organiza–
tions, Satan has deceived MAN into
looking on sex as something shame–
ful, evil and dirty. (See my book
The
Missing Dimension in Sex.)
But this l DO KNOW: There is the
initial EXPERIENCE of conversion,
when the SELF-CENTEREDNESS in the
mind DIES and the Holy Spirit
of God ENTERS and produces a
total about-face in ATTITUDE of
mind.
(Continued on page 29)
The
PLAIN TRUTH
June
1977