A Faith Based on Absolutes

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Carl H. Stevens Jr. is pastor of Greater GraceWorld Outreach located in Baltimore, Maryland.Pastor Stevens is also chancellor of Maryland BibleCollege & Seminary and host of the internationalChristian radio program “The Grace Hour.” Thisbooklet was created from a message preached byPastor Stevens.

Pastor Stevens can be seen weekly on cabletelevision stations throughout the United States.Call us for information re g a rding programming inyour area.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from

the King James Version. Italics for emphasis are ours.

GRACE PUBLICATIONSP.O. BOX 18715

BALTIMORE, MD 21206

Printed in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Copyright © 2003

Grace Publications is a ministry of

Greater Grace World Outreach, Inc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

SPIRIT-LED INTO ALL TRUTH

Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

HUMAN ENERGY VERSUS THE POWER OF THE

SPIRIT

Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

RENEWED MINDS KEEP COMMANDMENTS BY

LOVE

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

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INTRODUCTION

Day and night for three years, the apostlePaul taught believers in the city of Ephesus(Acts 20:31). During those days, people came outtwice every day to hear the Wo rd of Godp reached. Believers were hungry for the tru t hand recognized their need for a sure foundationin the midst of the turbulent times they were liv-ing in. Paul clearly understood this and madehimself available to preach and teach so thatthese Christians would possess a stable faith.

Isn’t it true that we as Christians must becareful not to enter into a casual attitude abouthearing and receiving the Wo rd of God? Com-ing to church needs to be a priority for every be-l i e v e r. Many professing Christians considerreading the Bible and receiving instruction in thet ruth unnecessary. This continues even as thingsspin out of control in this world.

Our faith must be established on the ab-solutes of the Word of God. But, before they can

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be established in us, our hearts and minds needto hear these truths many times. This bookletdiscusses the importance of hearing and receiv-ing the Word of God so that we can walk in theHoly Spirit in absolute faith.

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Chapter One

SPIRIT-LED INTO ALL TRUTH

“The LO R D is exalted; for he dwelleth onhigh: he hath filled Zion with judgment andrighteousness.

“And wisdom and knowledge shall be thestability of thy times, and strength of salvation:the fear of the LO R D is his tre a s u re” (Isaiah 33:5-6).

“And every one that heareth these sayings ofmine, and doeth them not, shall be likened untoa foolish man, which built his house upon thesand:

“And the rain descended, and the floodscame, and the winds blew, and beat upon thathouse; and it fell: and great was the fall of it”(Matthew 7:26-27).

We live in an age where certain re l i g i o u smovements worship the Holy Spirit indepen-dent of His relationship to the Father and theSon. There f o re, I believe it is important to dis-cuss the role of the Holy Spirit and the impor-

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tance of having a living faith in every word thatproceeds from God.

In the government of heaven, each memberof the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the HolySpirit—is fully God. While they are distinct per-sons in their expression, they are identical intheir character and equal in rank. The Father isthe planner, the Son executes the plan, and theHoly Spirit convicts us of truth re g a rding theplan that is revealed in the Wo rd of God. To-gether they operate as one Being, in absoluteu n i t y, and one is never jealous of another. TheHoly Spirit (who is God) understands His role,which is to glorify Christ. Instead of drawing at-tention to Himself, the Holy Spirit works to con-vict people of the truth and lead them to Christthrough the Word of God.

Human nature tends to be “religious.” Mostpeople try to commune with God through nat-ural forms of worship in human energ y. Often,those forms of worship take on levels of emo-tional expression. But as Christians who have acapacity for God’s righteousness, who desire toexperience the life of God, we can move in theHoly Spirit’s river. There, He fills us with wis-dom and assurance as we abandon our lives toHim.

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Indeed, the Holy Spirit is our Te a c h e r, re-vealing Jesus Christ to our hearts by re n e w i n gus, convicting us, and guiding us into all truth.The Spirit takes everything that the Son says andreveals it to us. With this in mind, it should beeasy to recognize how crucial it is for us to befilled with the Holy Spirit. He evaluates situa-tions to give us wisdom. He completes judg-ment through the Finished Work, and testifies ofChrist and His work in our hearts.

Each morning, we can recognize that we areb roken vessels and begin to acknowledge Godin all our ways through the Holy Spirit. As wetrust Christ with our heart, we are renewed. Webecome sensitive to God’s initiations of love andlife, truth is revealed, and we begin to have dis-cernment. At that point, the Spirit can actuallycontrol us.

The beautiful thing is this: Jesus Christ givesus freedom to be motivated and He starts theriver of the Spirit flowing inside of us for thatd a y. We receive streams of revelation of God’struth into the streams of our consciousness.

This can be such a powerful experience. Wecan grow in righteousness with God to the pointw h e re the moment the Holy Spirit is grieved, weare instantly aware and automatically respond.

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His divine power in us makes us very sensitiveas He guides us into all truth.

Filled with Rivers of Life

“ W h e re f o re as the Holy [Spirit] saith, To dayif ye will hear his voice,

“Harden not your hearts, as in the provoca-tion, in the day of temptation in the wilderness”(Hebrews 3:7-8).

People who allow their feelings to be hurtand wallow in their insecurities do not experi-ence the flow of the Holy Spirit within them. Be-cause these people only focus on themselves,rivers of life do not move in their souls, and thedivine energy of God is not allowed to work.

We are in bodies of sin and death in themidst of Satan’s world system. There f o re, it isimpossible to deal with our carnality unless wepermit the Holy Spirit to empower us. We can-not afford to be caught up with natural impres-sions, careless opinions, and wild personalityswings. Those things will cost us too much inour walk with God.

A Mandate and a Provision

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is ex-cess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians

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5:18).“Be filled with the Spirit” is a commandment

—a mandate from God—which is our provisionfor life. In our daily lives, some of us get soupset over the simplest things. We get upsetwhen we are not filled with the Spirit. If we arenot filled with the Spirit, then we are living inpersonal sin.

We have a mandate to be filled continuallywith the Holy Spirit. When we are filled with theSpirit, we will live a selfless life. The Spirit takesself out of the picture and puts God in its place.

Under certain conditions, some believers actstrange and abstract around other Christians.They blame their reactions on phobias—butphobias are not the problem. The real pro b l e mis a violation of the mandate to be filled with theHoly Spirit. There is no fear in love. There f o re ,if I am filled with the Spirit, I can be aro u n dother people without submitting to my emotionsof fear.

A Christian who is filled with the Spirit glo-rifies God with everything his hands find to do.His silence, his greetings, his handshakes, hiscountenance—everything about him points insome way to Christ. He is not “performing,”r a t h e r, he is honoring the royal law of love

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(James 2:8). He lives in Divine energy withoutmood swings. When someone is acting imma-t u rely around him, he doesn’t react. Instead, thatmoment becomes an opportunity to glorify Godand to minister love—either with his silence orthrough some other form of divine wisdom.

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Chapter Two

HUMAN ENERGY VERSUSTHE POWER OF THE SPIRIT

Quenching the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19),means I put out His fire within me and stop Hiswork in me; I do something to stop the flow ofGod’s river in my soul. When I am made awareof it, I need to instantly repent and rebound, ask-ing the Lord to fill me afresh. But before I everquench the Holy Spirit in me, I grieve Him.

Grieving the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) speaksof trying to control what He is doing in me. Sup-pose I am called to a specific ministry, whereverit may be in the world, and I know it is a defi-nite call. If I refuse to be faithful to that call,though I may go to church and try to do every-thing right, throughout those years I have beengrieving the Spirit, struggling to control thework He is doing in my soul. What I need is tofollow Christ with every part of my life.

Some preach Christ and appear to worship

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Him, but they have been grieving the Spirit foreight, nine, ten years. They may be pro s p e r i n gfinancially; however, much of what they do is ins e l f - e ffort—human energy—and in certain are a s ,they simply are not obeying what the Spirit istelling them.

Human energy can be a powerful force, par-ticularly when a group gets together and oper-ates in unison. Some religious groups can put upan entire church in just a weekend. The call goesout and hundreds of workers show up at a sitewith materials and tools. Yet, it is very possiblethat they organized with human energy underthe motivation of a religious spirit instead of theHoly Spirit.

As a ministry, we will continue to go toevery door and every neighborhood. We have acommitment to the Father and the privilege tobe filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit alwaysglorifies Christ, taking us out of the picture andputting God in.

Quickened According to the Word

“My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quickenthou me according to thy word” (Psalm 119:25).

This psalm speaks of Ezra’s teaching, whichhe imparted to the people as the nation of Israel

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was taken into captivity by the Chaldeans. Thesoldiers abused the children, the women, andthe men who were chained together as theytraveled from Jerusalem to Lachish and fro mLachish to Babylon. Each day at dawn, theywould begin marching, so Ezra prayed in thenight for God to give him something to sharewith the people. He asked God to teach him inthe night so that he could give doctrine to thepeople during the next long, difficult day. He de-veloped an amazing ability to isolate the inde-scribable things being done to him. He knew thepeople would be looking to him for instruction.

“Cleaving to the dust” might have re f e r re dto how dirty Ezra felt after being mistreated bythe soldiers. Constantly he had to isolate thosefeelings and enter into thinking moment-by-mo-ment according to the Word of God.

“Thus saith the LO R D; Refrain thy voice fro mweeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy workshall be re w a rded, saith the LO R D; and they shallcome again from the land of the enemy.

“And there is hope in thine end, saith theLO R D, that thy children shall come again to theirown border” (Jeremiah 31:16-17).

The prophet Jeremiah wept as he watchedIsrael being marched out of Jerusalem. But he

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kept teaching as they walked on. He had in-s t ructed Ezra, telling him, “Son, you will re t u r n .God will bring you back to this place.” And weknow from the Scriptures that God was faithful.Ezra did come back to Jerusalem and led in therebuilding of the city and of the temple (see Ezra3 and 4).

Truth Chiseled in Our Souls

“Having a form of godliness, but denyingthe power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Ti m-othy 3:5).

“Form of godliness” is m o r p h o s i s e u s e b e i a i nthe Greek text, and it refers to someone who hasa semblance of reverence toward God—an out-w a rd appearance of godliness but no innerp o w e r. On the outside, everything seems right;but inside, the foundation is just not there.

“But God be thanked, that ye were the ser-vants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heartthat form of doctrine which was delivered you”(Romans 6:17).

“Form of doctrine” is tupon didaches. Tu p o ndescribes the mark left by a stroke or a blow—such as a hammer and chisel being used upon arock. Didaches decribes the teaching of doctrine.This is great picture of how God chisels the

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foundation of truth into our hearts by the Spirit.Objective truth becomes the stability of our livesas we exercise faith that is secure, built on ab-solutes, having a solid foundation—the Wo rd ofGod that remains through the most violent as-saults.

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Chapter Three

RENEWED MINDS KEEPCOMMANDMENTS BY LOVE

A Christian with the objective truth of doc-trine hidden in his heart has so much more thanknowledge. The objective Wo rd brings in Resur-rection life because it is built upon absolutesf rom God. Resurrection life clears away ourAdamic personality. That leaves us with divinei n d i v i d u a l i t y, allowing the Holy Spirit to glorifyGod through us.

When the Holy Spirit guides us into alltruth, we begin to make supernatural decisionsthat glorify God. The Spirit takes the words ofS c r i p t u re and reveals what they mean, re l e a s i n gGod’s words to operate in us.

Then, a beautiful thing happens: our mindsare renewed (Ephesians 4:23).

“And be not conformed to this world: but beye transformed by the renewing of your mind,that ye may prove what is that good, and ac-

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ceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans12:2).

Notice these verses refer to the re n e w e dmind, never to the emotions. The various word sfor “new” imply that nothing old is left. Every-thing about the mind is renewed when our faithis built on the absolutes of the Wo rd. God’swords are spirit and life (John 6:63). Walking inthe Spirit means that we do not fulfill the lustsof the flesh. The Holy Spirit and the Word—thatvital combination—guide each step we take (seePsalm 119:133).

This World Is Not Our Home

We are in the devil’s world system. There isa real battle going on in our midst. Always keepthat in mind. This is not home for us. We arestrangers; we are pilgrims and foreigners in hos-tile territory. Our home is heaven.

T h e re f o re, the objectivity of the Wo rd mustbe our foundation. For example, a husbandshould receive an hour of doctrine somehowevery morning. As the head of his home, heneeds to receive the mind of Christ for each day.

We cannot aff o rd to get occupied with anypriorities without doctrine flowing into oursouls for this day. What we know means noth-

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ing if it is not operating as life in our souls. Amessage we heard three months ago meansnothing for the adversity we may encountertoday. God reiterates themes, because each timewe hear a particular theme expanded upon, ithelps us pre p a re to deal with the current activityof the kingdom of darkness.

God’s Timely Communication

God wants us to have a faith built upon ab-solutes. He wants us to pay attention to what isbeing preached n o w, as we hear it. Each messageis for our sakes. To ignore a message is an insultto God’s initiations. If we are not in a placew h e re we can get to church, we need to heartapes and watch videos and read the Bible andother related books of life. Absolutes from theBook are imperative in order for us to walk inthe Spirit.

“Casting down imaginations, and everyhigh thing that exalteth itself against the knowl-edge of God, and bringing into captivity everythought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthi-ans 10:5).

Why do some Christians have such a pro b-lem bringing every thought into the captivity ofobedience? It is because the proper flow of the

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Spirit is not at work in their lives. They do notput themselves in the place where they can re-ceive divine truth through the Holy Spirit, alongwith divine checks and balances. “Bring intocaptivity every thought to the obedience ofChrist” (2 Corinthians 10:5). This is a command-ment—and God’s commandments are not griev-ous (1 John 5:3).

Tithing is a commandment. It is not a sug-gestion. More than four hundred years beforethe Law was given to Moses, Abraham tithed.Abraham commenced it, Malachi commanded it(Malachi 3:8-12), Jesus Christ commended it(Matthew 23:23), and the Wo rd of God tells us tocontinue it. Abraham gave because the HolySpirit taught him to do it.

To give a tithe is simply to pay dues to Godf rom the first fruits of the increase He has pro-vided me. He did not say, “Do it when you feelgracious.” God commanded that we tithe. Thisis an absolute we need to live by. Some believ-ers will get to the Bema Seat and suffer loss ofre w a rds simply because they refused to obeyGod’s absolute truth about tithing. They will seehow they robbed God and rationalized it away.

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It Is Love, Not the Law

Read the blessings of God and the com-mandments of the New Testament. Then, re a dJohn 14:15: “If ye love me, keep my command-ments.” The commandments are kept by love,not by works or by law. I am talking about beingfilled with the Holy Spirit in order to keep them.

The absolutes of the Wo rd of God are therefor us to live by. We cannot be forgetful hearers.God desires that we grow into somethingdeeper than the place where we are right now.

The Holy Spirit will renew our minds forthis day and give us the absolute truth to livev i c t o r i o u s l y, moment-by-moment, in this pre-sent evil world.

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CONCLUSION

“Be renewed in the spirit of your mind”(Ephesians 4:23).

The Greek grammar of this verse indicates,through the instrumental case, that the mind ofChrist (the foundation of all doctrine), and theHoly Spirit are the instruments God uses to es-tablish absolutes in our minds. We are to re c e i v ethis action as it is initiated by heaven towardeach of us.

God imparts His righteousness to us apartfrom our works, and He imparts His truth to usapart from our own efforts. The Holy Spiritworks in our souls, going beyond our facultiesand expanding our capacities, filling us with thedoctrines of Finished Work righteousness. Heequips us to obey His mandates through graceand through the filling of His Spirit.

Our faith, there f o re, is not based upon a sys-tem of human energ y. It is built upon Christ’ssure foundation of righteousness.

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Everything I need for today is suppliedt h rough the absolutes that God communicates tome through His Wo rd. This is the integrity ofGod’s character towards me as He fills me, takesme out of the way, and lives through me by theSpirit and the Word.

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