The Mystery Revealed - Christ In You

By Gordon Gentry

Salvation is not a change of mind or an emotional experience; it is when God comes to indwell the believer and we become "partakers of the divine nature." When God comes to dwell within by the Spirit, He makes us His sons and daughters. By a divine working of God He brings us into His family. Separate from God we can do nothing and know nothing. But as we move in union with Him under His direction, we have the power to do and to be all that God intends for us. Like Jesus, we should be able to say, "When the Father works, I work." This little tract encourages the believer to understand and to experience the mystery of "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Table of Contents

- Introduction

- The Power to Be

- A Continuous Partaking of His Life

- Built Together a Habitation for God

Introduction

Many today believe the baptism of the Spirit is only an endowment of power to enable believers to do the work of God. Some are taught that they receive the baptism of the Spirit to be able to do the work of God. We often fail to realize that the Spirit is God; thus without a true understanding of the Godhead, we make our own doctrines about God. We need to study the scriptures and see what God says about Himself. Then God's plan for man will become clearer, and His purpose will be seen as we are built together as a habitation of God by the Spirit.

Scripture clearly tells us that separate from God we can do nothing and know nothing (John 15:5, I Corinthians 2:11). The power to do comes from the Spirit, as we are moving in union with Him under His direction. We never work for God; God works and uses us. The gifts of the Spirit are manifestations of the Spirit, and the Spirit works all things as He wills. Jesus said, "When the Father works, I work." The ability to do comes from God at all times and in every situation.

The Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost to indwell the believers, that they might be partakers of the divine nature. Scripture tells us that "the baptism of the Spirit" is the time we partake of the promise of the Spirit by faith. It is the time we are sealed (Ephesians 1:13), and made sons of God, so we can cry, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). It is the time we are quickened, or made alive (Romans 8:11).

What makes a person a Christian? Is it not when he or she has been a partaker of the divine nature? Salvation is not a change of mind or an emotional experience; it is when God comes to indwell the believer. We can't work for, nor do we deserve, what God gives us. It is by grace, through faith. Salvation is not in a doctrine, but in a relationship, a divine working of God that brings us into His family. It is not simply believing that Jesus died for you; it is much more than giving mental assent to a historical fact. The New Covenant is God coming to dwell within, giving us the ability to be His sons and daughters.

This is the beginning place for believers--being made alive unto God when we receive the Spirit. The Spirit makes us sons of God. It is God, then, who confirms His word as He works signs and wonders through the believers. "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17,18).

The Power to Be

Believers do not have the power to do anything separate from the Lord. We can't use the Spirit, or use a gift of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that is the originator of all spiritual working. We only move in faith in obedience to the leading of the Spirit. We can say with all authority: God does not give us power to work His works separate from Himself. All gifts are manifestations of the Spirit, according to the will of God and in His time. Jesus said, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem...and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). This is not power for service, but power to be sons of God, witnesses unto Him.

The purpose of God from the beginning was that He made man for Himself (Colossians. 1:16). Paul tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost (I Corinthians 6:19). The question is, when does the Holy Spirit come to indwell the believer? When was the promise given? John the Baptist said, "There comes one greater than I...He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire" (Matthew 3:11). In Galatians 3:14 Paul says, "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

Paul also says, "Received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?" (Galatians 3:2) The scriptures reveal clearly that the promise of the Spirit comes by faith. On the Day of Pentecost, the question was asked, "What shall we do?" (Acts 2:37) The answer was, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

Today we are so far removed from the beginning, and man has come up with many different doctrines of salvation. But as we read the Scripture, it is clear that the underlying theme of salvation is the promise of the Spirit that would come to the believer by faith--God coming to indwell man. "...For ye are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (II Corinthians 6:16).

A Continuous Partaking of His Life

God's first promise was a Savior, one who would pay the price for our sins. All men were dead in their sins, and there had to be a way made to cleanse us so God could give us the second promise, which was Himself--the Spirit. Man was made for God (Colossians 1:16). Both promises are God giving Himself for man because of who He is: Love (I John 4:16), Christ came and paid the price to redeem us back to God. The Spirit was given to make us sons, not by a legal transaction, but by giving us life and making our relationship a reality.

So we can see that Jesus Christ came and paid the price, dealt with sin that we might once again know God's indwelling in this body of clay. Our bodies are made to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is clearly seen throughout the New Testament. Of what value is a temple, unless the Holy Ghost comes to indwell? There is no other salvation or way of life that God has made, other than the believer becoming a partaker of the divine nature of God. Peter tells us that we have been given "all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (II Peter 1:3).

It's not enough to receive; then we must continue to walk in the Spirit. Many today have experienced something along the way, but they have failed to know the Lord and to grow and mature as God has designed. Let us not be children, but let us by faith enter into what God has prepared for us. He tells us that the anointing will teach us, and bring us into the fullness of all that He is. We must come back to the simplicity of this walk of faith, responding in obedience to a loving Father. We are created with a choice, and God holds man responsible. We cannot save ourselves--that is by God's grace. But we are responsible for what we do with that grace, and God's free gift of eternal life. We are responsible to abide (John 15:4-6). This can only be done by faith, in an ongoing relationship.

In Ephesians 4:5, Paul tells us that there is one baptism. This is not water baptism; it is the baptism of the Spirit. The beginning of life is when we are baptized in the Spirit. We then go on to know the fullness of the Spirit as we submit to Him in our union with Him. To know the fullness, there must be a continuous hungering and thirsting, a continuous partaking of His life.

Built Together a Habitation for God

Man has not changed, from the time Jesus walked this earth until the hour we now live in. In that day, men searched the scriptures, because they thought in them they had eternal life. But Jesus said, "They speak of Me, and you will not come to Me." (John 5:39,40) As long as man tries to figure out God, put God into a set of doctrines, and study the Word of God only to know facts about God, he will never know the reality of experiencing God.

Many are trying to say, "Salvation is by grace"--and it is. But grace is God's ability to bring us into this vital relationship with Him, which is a union. Jesus prayed, "Father, make them one, as we are one." That is exactly what God is doing by His Spirit, and He also is taking us farther and building us together as a habitation for Himself. God has given the abundance of His grace, He has made every provision for us, and He has clearly told us that we must believe Him. We must enter in. We must have faith in God, because without faith we cannot please Him.

Attached to that walk of faith is diligence--we must believe that He is a "rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." If God gave us promises without bringing us into the reality of true sonship now, we would have only a religion of the mind. But Jesus Christ did not come to give us a religion; He came to give us life, an abundant life that allows us to experience God and know God, in every step of our life and walk down here on earth.

"I will put My Spirit within you, and you shall live" (Ezekiel 37:14). This is what we need today. Let us lay aside anything that comes short of what we have stated in these few lines from the Word, and know that God has given us something far superior to the "cheap believism" of our day. Let us enter in to know God, and to walk in the fullness of His power and anointing and grace. It is the difference between life and death.

This is not by works of man; it is what God has done and what God will do, if we will believe Him. Let us not be those that continue to have a form of godliness, denying the power of God. Let us go on to know God in the fullness of His blessing.