Without such character the gifts of the Holy Spirit bear no fruits in and through us, neither does it delivers any satisfaction to us personally.
God wants us to have more than anything else a continuous desire to be like Jesus. If God’s desire becomes ours, it will urge us to discover the gifts God has hidden inside of us.
« In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement, because as he is, even so are we in this world ».(1st John 4:17).
I can stand confidently stand before God only, when I have a witness in my spirit that I am living like Jesus lived while living in this world. Without the character of Christ the gifts of the Holy Spirit will be useless to the people around us, neither will they deliver true satisfaction to us personally.
1) Jesus Himself, while living on the earth, relied on Holy Spirit in everything, and we are called to follow in His step.
2) The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a God’s commandment for us, and not just an advice.
«And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit» (Ephesians, 5:18).
Paul wrote these words because he had experienced what being filled with the Holy Spirit meant for him. It is absolutely necessary to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
1) Jesus gave some commandments to the Apostles BY THE HOLY SPIRIT (verse 2).
Jesus Himself relied on the Holy Spirit in everything He did during His days in flesh. When He took on flesh, He was limited by it and He needed the Holy Spirit. As people we live in flesh and we also are limited by it. The only way for us to overcome these limitations is to rely on the Holy Spirit. We must be aware of the necessity and our dependency on the Holy Spirit. We must seek Him daily.
Paul is saying that many people hear the Gospel but still are not enlightened by that. These people had made their choice to continue living in sin, therefore, satan, the god of this world had blinded their minds so that the light of Gospel remains unveiled to them, regardless of how hard somebody tries to share the gospel with them. Nevertheless, Paul and his partners presented to others the brightest light of the Gospel, – that is Christ Himself, who is the image of God. Paul was convinced that people should be able to see God in Christ, so he preached Christ and instead of preaching about himself.
Based on 2nd Corinthians 4:1-5 we have already underlined the following principles:
1) We all already have a ministry – to reveal or manifest God to this world.
2) We must understand the ministry we received is by mercy and not by personal merits. It is by the grace of God.
«You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows». (Hebrews 1:9).
My way of life is directly related to the presence of God in my life. Therefore, obtaining the nature of Christ is our first ministry and then doing His works.
The bible said we are the light of the world, so each of us is a light bearer. And as you know, light is intended to enlighten and drive away any form of darkness. We have to realize though, that we do not have light on our own. The light we radiate is the reflection of the light we have received from God. If we have a distorted perception of God, and His ways, then the light we radiate will also be distorted. Quite often so many Christian radiate distorted light because their lamp is not clean.
· We are called to behold the glory of the Lord. In other words, this is a call to focus our attention on Jesus as the only standard and model for our life. We can do that by focusing our attention on His word, His life and His examples.
· The word “beholding” in the passage above means a continuous action. In other words we should keep beholding the glory of God all the time.
