"Step Two...................."

If nothing changes, I’ll be visiting the Youth Detention Center tomorrow morning, hopefully the same unit of young men falling to me again on this occasion. Having already sown seed as to our spirit being “the candle of the Lord” with our emotions and our reasoning wrapped together as one “wick” and lit by God at birth, my intention is to now share how a “born-again” believer’s relationship with that second flame, the Holy Ghost, is to be maintained. We’ve already discussed the Sermon on the Mount’s strange demand for our eye to be “single”, two becoming one in a temporary merger; but it takes more than the stage being set, props in place, and the script memorized enough to quote a few verses. Encounter is possible again and again. Indeed, it is necessary if the well water within us (to make a different analogy) is to remain fresh and not grow stagnant. In Galatians, Paul repeats himself, declaring that, in Christ Jesus, it is not a physical marking that testifies of God’s covenant with us, but two internal events, the first being “a new creature”, and the second, “faith working through love”. Pentecost likes to see that initial demand as expressing “a switch thrown” wherein suddenly we are no longer prone to “do what we used to do” (drinking, smoking, and robbing banks emphasized, but anger okay as long as it’s “righteous”, fibbing nothing drastic if necessary to protect the innocent). I, myself, find the term merely repeating Jesus in His one requirement for us to both “see” and “enter into” the Kingdom. Thus, what’s “new” about any true convert is a restoration of what Adam knew in the Garden, what the Lord knew from Mary’s womb. The latter phrase above, however, serves us notice that “possessing the parts” doesn’t automatically ensure the “operation”. It takes prayer if we are to benefit from what has be renewed in us; but “connection” is what “seals the deal”, not just a few words mumbled more out of our head than our heart. His reality, alive in us, witnessing unto us, through us unto others, brings with it assurance; and the process takes no more than a surrender on our part, humanity humbled encouraging Spirit to meet with us, the Word confirmed……