By Pastor Simeon R. Green III,
Special to The Mississippi Link,
In Jeremiah 24:7 God, speaking through the Prophet Jeremiah, said, “And I will give them an heart to know Me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart.” God identifies His people.
To be the Church of God, we must be a separate people. John wrote in 1 John 2:15, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” In 2 Corinthians 6:17 the Apostle Paul said, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean things; and I will receive you.” Then he said in 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
We may not always see everything exactly alike, but we must have the right spirit. We must be washed and made clean and set apart for Him.
God does a work within the heart with old-time salvation, and thank God when we get that salvation, we will have His spirit. His spirit will work in bringing us to perfection through sanctification and will set us apart completely.
The Holy Spirit must collaborate with us in leading and guiding us into all truth. To be the Church of God, there is only one spirit, one Lord, one faith and one baptism. We must be able to work with that one spirit. The spirit must have something to work with from us.
I thank God for a people who have the right spirit. There is no way that we can go to heaven with a wrong spirit. Some people do not have the right spirit. We can have strength to endure things in the right spirit.
We cannot have real unity with a spirit of division; that spirit of unity is not there when we have a divisive spirit. I cannot be against a brother, and he be against me and both of us have the right spirit. I am glad for the Spirit of God that enables us to have the right spirit.
David said in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” This means that he had the wrong spirit. Unforgiveness and bitterness are bad spirits. Also, faultfinding is a contrite spirit; it is a pharisaical spirit (hypocritically self-righteous and reproachful). We do not have to run around with an old-picky spirit. We should want to see the good in individuals.
God wants us to come out of confusion. This is the reason, He said to come out of Babylon. To be the church, we must walk in the light as God reveals it to us.
Do we know why some people do not have the strength to be Church of God? They are not willing to walk in the light as they see it. Why? They love darkness more than they do light. Many people will not accept the Bible standard because they love darkness rather than light.
Rev. Simeon R. Green III is pastor of Joynes Road Church of God, 31 Joynes Road, Hampton, VA 23669.
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