Makes sense to me.  A created being can't get more of God than God's Spirit...period.  AND it's been promised to humanity in the Scriptures.  AND it's what we as children should be asking the Father for anyway!

 

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give His Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

 

Something else...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    "Truly I tell you," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life."

 

Lotsa stuff here.   Think about this.  

 

1) Wasnt' Jesus' goodness directly related to the "Spirit of the Lord" being upon him (Luke 5)?  As I see it, one couldn't separate Jesus' goodness from the Spirit of Goodness, with which he was ANOINTED.  

 

2) Isn't it the Spirit of the Lord that makes what is humanly impossible possible?  

 

3) With respect to what people who leave earthly cares for the "sake of the kingdom of God" will receive both in this age and to come, aren't those rewards only possible through the activity of the Spirit of the Lord?

 

If all the above is what I think it is, isn't the Spirit of Jesus to be the MAIN THING we seek as a "gift" from God?  Seems so to me.  Jesus only was what he was by the Spirit.  Jesus was "Holy Spirit breather" by nature, being the Incarnate Son.  We become "Spirit-breathers" by Grace through faith.  But the bottom line is that, in this life, we can be "good" like Jesus in and through His Spirit...even though it is true that "No one is good--except God alone."

 

See what I'm sayin'?

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Post Edited (One Love) : 4/26/2009 8:08:58 AM (GMT-5)

 

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The Fourth and Deepest Fear 

But there is another thing we are prone to fear that goes right to the heart of God. It is perhaps the deepest fear of all and the one that may lie behind all the others. Perhaps that's why Jesus keeps it for last. We see it in verse 32: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

What fear is Jesus trying to eliminate here?

He is trying to eliminate the fear that God is not the kind of God who really wants to be good to his children.* This is a fear that rises up in the hearts of those of us who are prone to feel that God does not want to be gracious to us, that he does not want to be generous and helpful to us. We are prone to think of God as one who is basically irked with us—ill-disposed and angry.

Sometimes even if we believe in our heads that God is good to us, we may feel in our hearts that his goodness is somehow forced or constrained, perhaps like a judge who has been maneuvered by a clever attorney into a corner on some technicality of court proceedings where he must dismiss the charges of the prisoner that he really would rather send to jail.

 

...

 

 

What He Does Promise to Give

What does he promise to give to his little flock—to prove once and for all that it is not only his good pleasure to give, but that it is his good pleasure to give big? He promises to give them the kingdom of God.

And what does it mean to be given the sovereign reign and rule of God?

It means simply and staggeringly and unspeakably that the omnipotent rule and authority of the King of the universe will be engaged forever and ever on behalf of the little flock of God. What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9). And it is the Father's good pleasure to give it to his little flock. (OL's Note: What could this be BUT the fulness of God's Spirit??

Who can describe what it will be like when that saying comes to pass which Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, "As my Father has appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom" (22:29)?

Jesus Desires to Free You from This Fear 

Jesus knows that the flock of God struggles with fear. He knows that one of those fears is that God is the kind of God who is basically angry and delights most of all to judge sinners and only does good out of a sense of constraint and duty, not delight. Therefore the Lord is at pains this morning to free us from this fear by telling us the truth about God. He has chosen every word for our comfort and joy and peace.

Fear not,
little
flock
for it is your Father's
good pleasure
to give you
the kingdom!

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Here's a hint: Where is says "Kindgom" in the sermon title, mentally replace is with "His Spirit"

 

God REALLY DOES want to give us his very Self-Knowledge in his Spirit.  Like...for real.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am.  God is my life."

"God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christian living is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian."  -James Fowler