Pentecost Provides Our Freedom by PETER AIELLO for Charisma News
The Cross, with the shed blood, procured our freedom; whereas, Pentecost activated our freedom after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. The Spirit of our ascended High Priest was made available to humanity to free us from slavery to our impulses. We can now be carriers of His rest. The Holy Spirit contains all of the essentials for overcoming the law of sin.[1] It enables us to be a habitation for God’s agape love which is the fruit of the Spirit, with its elements of peace and strength to deal with our sin nature. This love can’t be in us if we are attached to the things of the world by lust.[2]
Without the resurrection and ascension, there would be no Spirit of Jesus Christ to inhabit us and to be the conduit for God’s love to flow into us. A dead Christ wouldn’t do us any good. Christ became a life-giving Spirit.[3] He revives us in this life as well as in the next. We are told that “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”.[4] This starts while we are still alive on this earth.
What does this newness of life look like for us? Because of the law of sin, we are all born with a weakened willpower. This is what makes us prone to doing the things that we don’t want to do, and to not do the things that we should. [5] The old life is a life of slavery to the law of sin within us which saps our strength and ensures that we don’t have the strength or willpower to overcome our proneness to excesses. The fruit of the Spirit lifts us to a place of peace and strength to overcome the law of sin. Without the Holy Spirit, this is not possible. It is important for us to understand that our own willpower, without the Spirit, is not sufficient; therefore, we yield to the Spirit in order for its fruit to be activated in our lives.
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We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
Unconditional trust in God is what moves us from self-reliance to reliance on God. When we realize that our own strength is insufficient, we need to stop trying to use it for overcoming excesses, and humble ourselves before God because this is how we receive the graces of God. We are required to cast all of our care on Him;[6] then we are able to make choices from a position of strength. God does not reject a humble and contrite heart.[7] The principle is simple: A humble and contrite heart is required; and then we can proceed with our other religious activities.
The man Christ Jesus, our High Priest intercessor and mediator, is meek and humble towards His Father.[8] Because of this humility, Jesus can tell us to come unto Him and He will give us the rest that He has from His own humility. He shares His rest with us when we have His Spirit within us. This is the same rest that is called the peace that passes all understanding.[9] It is also the fruit of the Spirit peace.[10]
