His Work Must Be By His Spirit, Still

          It is through Jesus Christ and by His Spirit that we have been delivered from an unprotected habitation and that we have been brought inside His safe habitation – a shelter especially designed for those born of His Spirit; it was by His Spirit and His spiritually anointed Word that we were born again and that we were made new spiritual creatures; it is by His Spirit that we live in Him and that we give His life; it is by His Spirit that we are instructed to pray, to act, and even to walk; it is by His Spirit that we have the law of God and that we are enabled to obey it; it is by the obedience of faith and by His Spirit's revelation to the first apostles and prophets that we know the way and have taken our place on the foundation of Jesus Christ who is also the Chief Cornerstone; it was by God's Spirit that this perfect Cornerstone was perfectly cut from His mountain and laid; it is through this spiritual Cornerstone that the whole spiritual structure is built up and is being held together; it is by His Spirit that we are made living stones as He is; it is by His Spirit that we are presently growing into a Holy temple that is becoming a perfect dwelling place for the Father in the Spirit; it is by His Spirit that we discern all things that He would have us to know and that come from the Father and His Son Jesus Christ; it is by His Spirit that we are equipped and built up in Him unto the complete measure of the stature of Jesus Christ... and the list goes on. We have begun by His Spirit, and if we shall be finished it shall be by His Spirit. It is by His Spirit, that we have been called from the open plains, the steep cliffs, and deep valleys of darkness into the sacred place where only the family of God is allowed to go. Not only have we been called by Him but we have actually been acquired by Him, and that by nothing of our own doing; we have simply surrendered to the terms of His acquisition.

We have been corralled – corralled and sealed (branded) by His Spirit and by His steadfast determination to do so through His unfailing love for us. Not only did He call us into His sheepfold, but He used countless things around us to guide and to gather us to the place of our calling. It is through this initial work of gathering that we have been separated unto Him so that He might continually lavish His love upon us apart from the masses. He desires to pour upon us every spiritual blessing that is found in heavenly places. And, through this gathering process He has transferred us to His own place so that we might have the right to become recipients of the outpouring of His Spirit.

A specific objective in the outpouring of His Spirit upon us is so that we are changed into His perfect likeness, thereby making a perfect dwelling place for His Father in the Spirit. This is why the Church must be a spiritual Church. It is all a continuing, unhindered work of His Spirit for Him.