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Showing Grace And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 The Book of Ephesians describes the behavior that ought to characterize Christians as they relate to one another. Our actions ought to be permeated with kindness. Kindness is love expressed in practical ways; it is putting the needs of others before our own. It is intentionally considering ways to meet other people's needs. Being tenderhearted means that we are keenly sensitive to the feelings of others. When a fellow Christian experiences sorrow, we grieve also (1 Cor. 12:26). When another believer is joyful, we, too, rejoice. Being tenderhearted means showing compassion toward those around us. We show forgiveness because we, too, fall short of God's ideal. Knowing that God has graciously saved us from destruction motivates us to forgive others when they offend us. Often we are less patient with our fellow Christians than we are with nonbelievers. We expect more of Christians, and we feel betrayed when they fail us. When this happens, we need to look closely at the cross and remember the forgiveness we received there. We must set aside the self-centered attitude that leads to impatience and criticism of others. Jesus did not say that the world will know Him by our miracles, by our grand testimonies, or by our vast Bible knowledge. The world will know Him by the love that Christians show to one another (John 13:35). Are you constantly in conflict with others? Ask God to give you kindness, a tender heart, and a forgiving spirit. As you allow the Spirit to build these qualities into you, your life will be a blessing to others around you. Blackaby, H. T., & Blackaby, R. (1998). Experiencing God Day by Day. B&H Books.- “IS.” (2 Cor. 12:9.) IT had pleased God to remove my youngest child under circumstances of peculiar trial and pain; and as I had just laid my little one’s body in the churchyard, on return home, I felt it my duty to preach to my people on the meaning of trial. Finding that this text was in the lesson for the following Sabbath, I chose it as my Master’s message to them and myself; but on trying to prepare the notes, I found that in honesty I could not say that the words were true; and therefore I knelt down and asked God to let His grace be sufficient for me. While I was thus pleading, I opened my eyes and saw a framed illuminated text, which my mother had given me only a few days before, and which I had told my servant to place upon the wall during my absence at the holiday resort where my little one was taken away from us. I did not notice the words on returning to my house; but as I looked up and wiped my eyes, the words met my gaze, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” The “is” was picked out in bright green while the “My” and the “thee” were painted in another color. In one moment the message came straight to my soul, as a rebuke for offering such a prayer as, “Lord, let Thy grace be sufficient for me”; for the answer was almost as an audible voice, “How dare you ask that which is?” God cannot make it any more sufficient than He has made it; get up and believe it, and you will find it true, because the Lord says it in the simplest way: “My grace is (not shall be or may be) sufficient for thee.” “My,” “is,” and “thee” were from that moment, I hope, indelibly fixed upon my heart; and I (thank God) have been trying to live in the reality of the message from that day forward to the present time. The lesson that came to me, and which I seek to convey to others, is, Never turn God’s facts into hopes, or prayers, but simply use them as realities, and you will find them powerful as you believe them.—Prebendary H. W. Webb Peploe. He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater, He sendeth more strength when the labors increase; To added affliction He addeth His mercies, To multiplied trials His multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, When our strength has failed ere the day is half done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources Our Father’s full giving is only begun. His love has no limit, His grace has no measure, His power no boundary known unto men; For out of His infinite riches in Jesus He giveth and giveth and giveth again. —Annie Johnson Flint. Cowman, L. B. (1925). Streams in the Desert (pp. 229–230). The Oriental Missionary Society.
Second Thessalonians Series: 2 Thessalonians 2:17-Exhorting, Encouraging and Strengthening the Hearts of the Thessalonians in All They Say and Do
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday August 17, 2025
Second Thessalonians Series: 2 Thessalonians 2:17-Exhorting, Encouraging and Strengthening the Hearts of the Thessalonians in All They Say and Do
Lesson # 46
2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself as well as God, who is our Father, who divinely loved each and every one of us, namely by means of grace having given to each one of us as a gift an encouragement, which is eternal resulting in a confident expectation of blessing, which is divine-good, 17 encourage and exhort your hearts. Specifically, by strengthening each and every one of you with respect to every kind of action and oral communication, which are divine-good in quality and character. (Pastor’s translation)
Now, in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, Paul communicates to the Thessalonian Christian community an intercessory prayer that he, Silvanus and Timothy regularly offered up to the Father on behalf of each one of them.
In verse 17, we have the content of the prayer request.
Paul, Silvanus and Timothy requested that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God the Father encourage and exhort the hearts of the Thessalonians by strengthening them with respect to every kind of action and word, which is divine-good in quality and character.
As we noted in our study of 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 contain a grammatical oddity related to the referent of the third person singular form of the verbs agapaō (ἀγαπάω), didōmi (δίδωμι), parakaleō and stērizō (στηρίζω) since all of these verbs are used with a plural subject.
Specifically, the subject of all four of these verbs is the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun kurios (κύριος), “Lord” as well as the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός), “God.”
Therefore, both the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father are the referents of all four of these verbs and thus perform the actions of all four of them.
Therefore, in relation to the verbs parakaleō (παρακαλέω) and stērizō (στηρίζω), this would indicate that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy requested the Father in prayer that He and the Lord Jesus Christ would perform the actions of encouraging the hearts of the Thessalonians by strengthening them with respect to every kind of action and oral communication, which are divine-good in quality and character.
Another interesting thing to point out is that 1 Thessalonians 3:11 contains the same grammatical oddity which appears in 2 Thessalonians 2:17.
1 Thessalonians 3:11 Now, may He Himself, namely, God, specifically, our Father as well as our Lord Jesus guide our journey into the presence of each and every one of you. (Pastor’s translation)
In both verses, the articular construction of the nouns kurios (κύριος), “Lord” and theos (θεός), “God” distinguishes the Lord Jesus Christ from God the Father.
However, in 1 Thessalonians 3:13, they are closely linked with the singular form of the verb stērizō (στηρίζω) in order to emphasize that Jesus Christ shares the divine nature of the Father.
Thus, like 2 Thessalonians 2:17, Paul in 1 Thessalonians 3:13 is honoring the Lord Jesus Christ by employing this grammatical oddity by affirming His deity with this unusual grammatical construction.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:17, the verb parakaleō (παρακαλέω) contains two ideas, namely exhortation and encouragement.
It is expressing the idea of the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father causing each member of the Thessalonian Christian community to be encouraged either through Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s Spirit empowered teaching of the gospel.
It is also expressing the idea of both the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father filling them with courage or strength of purpose and the raising of their confidence in their relationship with Trinity through Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s Spirit empowered teaching of the gospel.
It also expresses the idea of the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father exhorting them in the sense of authoritatively training the Thessalonian Christian community through Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s Spirit empowered teaching of the gospel.
The purpose of which was to compel obedience in every area of their lives in order that they might live their lives in a manner worthy of God.
The hearts of the Thessalonians would be strengthened in the sense that their thoughts, conscience, emotions and volition would be firmly rooted by faith in the gospel and this would reflect a settle conviction with regards to the gospel.
The conjunction kai is used to connect together the verbs parakaleō (παρακαλέω) and stērizō (στηρίζω) in order to form the figure of hendiadys, which indicates that stērizō (στηρίζω)is intensifying or advancing upon the idea expressed by parakaleō (παρακαλέω).
Therefore, when Paul speaks of both God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ exhorting and encouraging each member of the Thessalonian Christian community, he is speaking of strengthening each of them with respect to every type of action and oral communication, which are divine in quality and character.
The noun ergon (ἒργον), “action” is the object of the preposition en (ἐν), which is a marker of reference or respect expressing the idea of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community would be strengthened “with respect to” every kind of action or oral communication.
It is also very important that we understand that these two verbs parakaleō (παρακαλέω) and stērizō (στηρίζω) are both in the optative mood.
Both are a voluntative optative which expresses an obtainable wish or prayer and is frequently an appeal to the will, in particular when used in prayers.
Therefore, in relation to parakaleō (παρακαλέω) it is expressing Paul, Silvanus and Timothy “politely requesting” of the Father that He and the Lord Jesus Christ would exhort and encourage the hearts of the Thessalonians.
Also, in relation to stērizō (στηρίζω), it is expressing the idea of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy “politely requesting” in prayer to God the Father that He and the Lord Jesus Christ would strengthen the Thessalonians with respect to every type of action and word, which are divine in quality and character.
Now, it is also very important that we understand that the optative mood of these two verbs does not indicate that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy prayed to both the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 does not record the act of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy praying to the Father and the Son but rather it simply records the content of what these three men asked the Father to do for them.
This is indicated by the fact that the Lord Jesus Himself and the other writers of the New Testament all taught that all prayer is to be addressed to the Father and not the Lord Jesus (John 14:13-14; 16:23-27; Rom. 8:15; Eph. 3:14; 5:20; Col. 1:3, 12; 3:17; 1 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 1:6).
There is a big difference between the act of praying and the content what is requested in prayer.
They are not one in the same.
So therefore, 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 does not teach that the Lord Jesus is the recipient of prayer from believers along with the Father since as we noted, the Lord Jesus and the other writers of the New Testament all taught that there is a protocol to prayer.
There is yet another interesting grammatical issue in 2 Thessalonians 2:16 with regards to the word order because it mentions the Lord Jesus Christ first followed by God the Father.
Usually, the order is reversed in Paul’s writings (cf. Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Phil. 1:2; 1 Thess. 1:1; 3:11; 2 Thess. 1:2, 12; Phlm. 3).
Since 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 presents the content of the prayer that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy regularly offered up to the Father when interceding in prayer for the Thessalonian Christian community, this would indicate that the word order is related to prayer.
Thus, I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is placed first before God the Father because it is only through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross that the Father received prayer from these three men and any Christian for that matter.
Also, it is only through the merits of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s union and identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father that the Father receives prayer from these three men or any Christian.
Now, when Paul speaks of exhorting and encouraging the hearts of the Thessalonians by strengthening them with respect to every kind of action and oral communication, he is speaking of encouraging and exhorting and strengthening them for the benefit of their post-justification faith in the gospel.
This is indicated by the contents of 1 Thessalonians 3:1-2, which like 2 Thessalonians 2:17 contains the verbs parakaleō (παρακαλέω) and stērizō (στηρίζω).
In 1 Thessalonians 3:1-2, the exhortation and encouragement of the Thessalonians through the Spirit empowered teaching of these three men was for the benefit of the post-justification faith of the Thessalonian Christian community.
1 Thessalonians 3:1 Therefore, because I existed in the state of not being able to endure it any longer, I thought it best to be left alone in Athens. 2 Consequently, I have sent Timothy our brother as well as fellow-worker for the one and only God with regards to the proclamation of the one and only gospel about the one and only Christ in order to strengthen each and every one of you, yes for the purpose of exhorting and encouraging for the benefit of your faith. (Pastor’s translation)
Second Thessalonians Series: 2 Thessalonians 2:16c-The Grace of God is the Means by which the Child of God is Blessed by the Father and the Son
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday August 17, 2025
Second Thessalonians Series: 2 Thessalonians 2:16c-The Grace of God is the Means by which the Child of God is Blessed by the Father and the Son
Lesson # 45
2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself as well as God, who is our Father, who divinely loved each and every one of us, namely by means of grace having given to each one of us as a gift an encouragement, which is eternal resulting in a confident expectation of blessing, which is divine-good, 17 encourage and exhort your hearts. Specifically, by strengthening each and every one of you with respect to every kind of action and oral communication, which are divine-good in quality and character. (Pastor’s translation)
In 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, Paul communicates to the Thessalonian Christian community an intercessory prayer that he, Silvanus and Timothy regularly offered up to the Father on behalf of each and every one of them.
They communicate this prayer to the Thessalonians to encourage them and to express their love and concern for them and in this prayer, both the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father are described as having loved them.
By divinely-loving them, Paul means that by means of grace the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father gave to each of them an encouragement, which is eternal in nature which resulted in a confident expectation of blessing, which is divine-good in quality and character.
Paul, Silvanus and Timothy requested that both the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father encourage and exhort the hearts of the Thessalonians by strengthening them with respect to every kind of action and word, which is divine-good in quality and character.
The apostle Paul asserts that it was “by means of grace” that he, Silvanus and Timothy as well as the Thessalonians were given as a gift by the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father an encouragement, which is eternal in nature resulting in a confident expectation of blessing, which is divine-good in quality and character.
The noun charis (χάρις), “grace” refers to the grace policy of the Trinity in relation to sinners.
Grace is all that God is free to do in imparting unmerited blessings to those who trust in Jesus Christ as Savior based upon the merits of Christ and His death on the Cross.
It is God treating the sinner in a manner that they don’t deserve and excludes any human works in order to acquire eternal salvation or blessing from God.
Grace means that God saved us and blessed us despite ourselves and not according to anything that we do but rather saved us and blessed us because of the merits of Christ and His work on the Cross.
It excludes any human merit in salvation and blessing (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5) and gives the Creator all the credit and the creature none.
By means of faith, we accept the grace of God, which is a non-meritorious system of perception, which is in total accord with the grace of God.
Grace and faith are totally compatible with each other and inseparable (1 Tim. 1:14) and complement one another (Rom. 4:16; Eph. 2:8).
Grace, faith, and salvation are all the gift of God and totally exclude all human works and ability (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).
The unique Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross-is the source of grace (2 Cor. 8:9) and He is a gift from the Father (2 Cor. 9:15).
Jesus Christ was full of “grace and truth” (John 1:17) and the believer receives the grace of God through Him (John 1:16).
It is by the grace of God that Jesus Christ died a substitutionary spiritual death for all mankind (Heb. 2:9).
Therefore, the throne in which Christ sits is a “throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16).
The grace of God has been extended to every member of the human race because of the act of love and justice on the Cross.
At the cross, the Father imputed the sins of every person in history-past, present and future to the impeccable humanity of Christ in hypostatic union on the Cross and judged Him as a substitute for the entire human race (Titus 2:11).
The message of God’s saving act in Christ is described as the “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24), and the “word of His grace” (Acts 20:32; cf. 14:3).
By His grace, God justifies the undeserving and unworthy through faith in His Son Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:24).
Grace is an absolute and is no longer grace if we are saved on the basis of human works (Rom. 11:6).
A Christian is someone who is a “partaker” of the grace of God (Phil. 1:7) and he is to live by the same principle of grace after salvation (Col. 2:6; Rom. 6:4).
Grace is the Christian’s sphere of existence (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; Col. 1:2).
The believer who rejects this principle is said to have “fallen from grace,” (Gal. 5:1-5).
God in His grace and love disciplines the believer in order to get the believer back in fellowship with Himself (Heb. 12:5-12).
He also trains the believer through undeserved suffering in order to achieve spiritual growth (2 Cor. 12:7-11).
The believer is commanded to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18).
The believer experiences the grace of God while in fellowship with God, which is accomplished by obedience to the Word of God.
God in His grace has given the believer the ability to learn and apply bible doctrine through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in order to achieve spiritual maturity (Jn. 16:13-15; 1 Cor. 2:9-16).
God in His grace has provided the church with the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher to communicate the mystery doctrine for the church age, which produces spiritual growth (Eph. 3:1-5; 4:8-12, 16).
The Christian life from beginning to end is built upon God's policy of grace (2 Cor. 6:1-9; Rom. 5:2; John 1:16).
The grace of God has been manifested and revealed to the entire human race in time through the following: (1) Unique Theanthropic Person of Jesus Christ (2) Salvation work of Christ on the Cross (3) Word of God (4) Holy Spirit’s various salvation and post-conversion ministries.
God the Father according to His grace policy has provided the unbeliever the spiritual gift of evangelism and the royal ambassadorship of believers as the vehicles that God the Holy Spirit employs to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ for their salvation (Jn. 16:7-11; Eph. 4:11; 2 Cor. 5:17-21).
God the Father according to His grace policy has provided the believer with the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher as the vehicle, which the Holy Spirit employs to communicate the Word of God, which produces spiritual growth (Eph. 3:1-5; 4:8-12, 16).
God the Father according to His grace policy has provided the human race the Word of God and the Spirit of God, which reveal His plan from eternity past (Word: 2 Pet. 1:20-21; 2 Tim. 3:15-16; Spirit: Jn. 16:13-15; 1 Cor. 2:9-16).
In relation to the unbeliever, God the Father’s gracious provision of salvation based upon faith in the merits of the Person and Work of Christ on the Cross-is revealed by the Holy Spirit through the communication of the Gospel.
In relation to the believer, the Holy Spirit through the communication of the Word of God reveals all the benefits of God the Father’s gracious provision for their salvation.
The Spirit of God through the communication of the Word of God reveals all that the Father has graciously done and provided for the believer to do His will.
Therefore, we learn about the grace of God by listening to the Spirit’s voice, which is heard through the communication of the Word of God (Colossians 1:3-6).
The believer receives the grace of God by obeying the voice of the Spirit who speaks to the believer regarding the will of the Father through the communication of the Word of God by the believer’s divinely ordained pastor-teacher, or fellow-believer.
Grace is God giving of Himself (His holiness) in order to benefit all mankind.
Grace is the sum total of unmerited benefits, both temporal and spiritual, imparted to the sinner through the harmonious function of the sum total of divine attributes of each member of the Trinity as a result of the sinner making the non-meritorious decision to trust in the Person and Work of Christ on the Cross.
This is why John writes the following: John 1:16, For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. (NASB95)
Prayer Series: Fellowship and a Productive Prayer Life
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday August 13, 2025
Prayer Series: Fellowship and a Productive Prayer Life
Lesson # 14
Prayer is one of the means that God gives the believer in order that they might enjoy and experience fellowship with Him and achieve intimacy with Him.
Today, in the twenty-first century many Christians do not have a biblical understanding of the concept of “fellowship.”
The Scriptures teach that Christian fellowship which is biblical has two directions: (1) Vertical: God (2) Horizontal: Body of Christ.
Christian fellowship is a relationship and partnership with God and Christ’s body and involves sharing His objective of advancing His kingdom on earth by caring for and working together with the body of Christ in this endeavor.
The church age believer can experience fellowship with God because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Fellowship with God and their fellow believer is based upon their union and identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
There are many synonyms in Scripture which describe the church age believer experiencing fellowship with God.
As we will note, it is first of all synonymous with experiencing eternal life.
When a Christian is experiencing fellowship with God they are experiencing eternal life.
They are also experiencing their salvation or in other words, their deliverance from eternal condemnation, condemnation from the Law, spiritual and physical death, personal sin, enslavement from the sin nature and Satan and his cosmic system.
To experience fellowship with God is also to experience sanctification or in other words, fellowship is experiencing being set apart to serve God exclusively in doing His will.
The believer must be filled with the Spirit or more accurately influenced by the Spirit in order to experience fellowship with God which is accomplished by obeying the Spirit’s voice as He speaks to the believer through the communication of the Word of God regarding the will of the Father.
They must also be operating in the love of God in order to experience fellowship with God.
When a believer is experiencing fellowship with God, they will experience undeserved suffering which advances them to spiritual maturity.
The believer will pray when they are in fellowship with God.
Lastly, the believer who experiences fellowship with God and grows to spiritual maturity will experience intimacy with God.
Christian Fellowship denotes the following concepts:
(1) Relationship with Christ: We are all permanently united together by the common (eternal) life that we share as a result of regeneration and the baptism of the Spirit (Acts 2:42; 1 C. 1:9; 1 Jn. 1:3).
(2) Partnership: We are to work together for a common purpose to obtain common objectives for the glory of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Phil 1:27; Phlp. 1:5; Gal. 2:9; Heb. 1:9).
(3) Companionship: We are to communicate with one another and have fellowship with one another sharing with one another the things (viewpoint and thinking) of Christ (Acts. 2:42; Heb. 10:25; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Thess. 5:11; Rom. 1:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Thess. 5:11; Philem. 6).
(4) Stewardship: We must recognize that all we have belongs to the Lord and has been given to us as trusts from God to invest for His purposes.
Believers need to be willing to share their material possessions for the promotion of the gospel and to help those in need.
Good stewardship stems from recognizing our relationship to Jesus Christ, but it also means recognizing our partnership in Christ’s enterprise on earth. (Rom. 12:13; 15:27; Gal. 6:6; Phil. 4:15; Rom. 15:26; 2 Cor. 8:4; 9:13; Heb. 13:16; 1 Tim. 6:18).
An English dictionary can shed a lot of light on the Bible if we would use it in our Bible study.
The translators chose English words according to their real and exact meanings.
When we study our Bibles, we assume we understand the full significance of a word, but often our ideas are very incomplete and this is particularly true of the word “fellowship.”
Webster’s English dictionary can add to our understanding of the concept of fellowship.
They provide the following definitions for the word “fellowship: (1) companionship, company, associate (vb.) (2) the community of interest, activity, feeling or experience, i.e., a unified body of people of equal rank sharing in common interests, goals, and characteristics, etc.; (3) partnership, membership (an obsolete usage but an important one. It shows what has happened to our ideas of fellowship).
There are three key ideas that come out of this: (1) Fellowship means being a part of a group, a body of people. It is opposed to isolation, solitude, loneliness, and our present-day independent kind of individualism. (2) Fellowship means having or sharing with others certain things in common such as interest, goals, feelings, beliefs, activities, labor, privileges and responsibilities, experiences, and concerns. (3) Fellowship can mean a partnership that involves working together and caring for one another as a company of people, like a company of soldiers or members of a family.
When a believer is experiencing fellowship with God, they are experiencing eternal life and thus they are one in the same.
If you are experiencing eternal life as a believer, then, you are experiencing fellowship with God and vice versa.
John 17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (NIV84)
In order for the believer to experience fellowship with God, they must be filled with the Spirit or more accurately, they must be influenced by the Holy Spirit who permanently indwells them.
Therefore, being filled with the Spirit and experiencing fellowship with God are one in the same or in other words, the believer who is filled with the Spirit or influenced by the Spirit is experiencing fellowship with God and vice versa.
The filling of the Spirit takes place when the believer is obeying the voice of the Spirit, which is heard through prayerful study of the Word of God.
It is not an emotion (though it will result in emotions such as joy) but rather is the mental state of the believer who does not have any unacknowledged sins in their stream of consciousness and is applying the Word to their thought process.
The filling of the Spirit takes place in the soul of the believer when they allow God the Holy Spirit to influence his soul, which He does through the Word of God.
Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. (NIV84)
“Filled” is the verb pleroo which means, “to be fully influenced.”
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the word influence: (1) Capacity or power of persons or things to produce effects on others by intangible or indirect means. (2) Action or process of producing effects on others by intangible or indirect means. (3) A person or thing that exerts influence.
If we were to paraphrase Webster’s definition of the word, we would say that Paul wants the Ephesian believers to permit the omnipotence (intangible means) of the Holy Spirit (Person) to produce Christ-like character (effects) in them.
Ephesians 5:18 And do not permit yourselves to get into the habit of being drunk with wine because that is non-sensical behavior, but rather permit yourselves on a habitual basis to be influenced by means of the Spirit. (Pastor’s translation)
To experience fellowship with God is to experience salvation and they are one in the same.
Experiencing salvation is describing fellowship from the perspective that it is a deliverance from eternal condemnation, condemnation from the Law, spiritual and physical death, personal sin, and enslavement from the sin nature and Satan and his cosmic system.
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (NASB95)
A believer who is experiencing fellowship with God is experiencing their sanctification and they are one in the same.
The believer who is experiencing sanctification is experiencing fellowship with God and vice versa.
Experiencing sanctification is describing experiencing fellowship with God from the perspective that it is experiencing being set apart to serve God exclusively.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. (NASB95)
- Asking for Mountains “You heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.” Joshua 14:12 Caleb 's faith in God never wavered, though everyone around him doubted. God convinced Caleb that the children of Israel should enter the Promised Land, but the people were intimidated by giants and fortified cities (Num. 13:28–33). Their disbelief forced Caleb to wait forty years in the wilderness before he finally entered the Promised Land. Even after all those years, Caleb was as confident as ever in God's power. When God was dividing the land among the Israelites, the people were asking for the lush valleys and grassy plains. Caleb asked for a mountain. The Israelites had driven their enemies into the mountains, where they had built fortresses. This did not intimidate Caleb—he asked for a challenge! He did not trust in his own strength but in God's presence. Caleb longed to see God work in power, and he knew he would be less likely to rely on God if he dwelt in the easy places. He chose a situation in which he would have to trust in God. Caleb knew his inheritance from God was on the mountain. He refused to allow the difficulty of gaining it to stop him from enjoying all that God had promised him. If you always choose the easy way, asking for the peaceful valleys, you will never see God's power displayed to enable you to take a mountain. Seek out the mountains, and you will witness God doing things through your life that can be explained only by His mighty presence. Blackaby, H. T., & Blackaby, R. (1998). Experiencing God Day by Day. B&H Books.
