And you were talking to one saying we MUST still sin or that we still will.
I never said anything even close to this. With the capitalization of MUST, I said we MUST be born again of the Spirit. How could you twist that???
True in a certain sense of the word BUT NOT the way you're saying it. Jesus gave us the capacity to walk above sin yes. Sin shall have no dominion over you but that's only if you so choose every day and every moment to walk in the Spirit . Can you walk in that perfection without failing? We can strife to but I've never once seen anyone do it except Christ and I doubt you've achieved this either.
I will give you this.....we're to seek to have more faith in our ability walk in Christ in the Spirit and NOT to have more faith in our ability to fail. We're to have more faith in our ability to overcome. So here's a question for all. Do Christians believe it's possible to not sin .....for ......5 minutes. I'm sure most would agree yeah that's possible.
How about 15....how about 1 hour? 2 hours 3? 6 hours or a day? What's the number that someone MUST sin. Well we know there is no such number. God's attitude for us is just go for it having more faith in your ability to succeed. BUT.....I don't know anyone who has been perfect. 1 Jn says IF we sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. IF, IF, IF, IF not when but in real truth people need to acknowledge there will be a when.
You talk as if you are still under the Old Covenant where it was all us and our willpower. That is not the New Covenant at all. The New Covenant is supernatural. And being in the Spirit is not something that we go in and out of for minutes at a time. I'd be curious to know how you would describe true repentance. Is it you turning from evil? In your own power that won't last long. No wonder you think we go in and out of the Spirit. Just be honest with God that you love your sin, and can't let go of it and need Jesus to save you from yourself. If you are that honest, THEN Jesus will take away that gnawing desire right out of you and cleanse your sin nature completely, and fill you with His Holy Spirit which will empower you, and you might even receive gifts of the Spirit unless you're a cessationist in which case you probably won't receive anything. Cessationism teaches to have no faith in the supernatural, because they believe it will be of the devil.
And here though is where you've slid into error. You hold once one receives the Spirit all desire for sin is gone and your sinless. Absolutely not. Now you might be in a position for a brief period of time where you don't need to confess any sins.....and God sees you through the blood......but you claim by receiving the Spirit all sin desires are blasted out of one?
Nope, nope, nope. My experience is when I'm fully full of God's word then YES God's presence burns out of one sinful desire. But you have to maintain that high level fellowship in the Spirit and word for the things of this world to go strangely dim. One is only as good as their daily devotion life. How much power does one have working in them.
It's not receive the Spirit and you don't have capacity to sin. Just not true. Every day you 're going to decide....are you going to feed your spirit or are you going to give in to the flesh. Yes be more positive then negative about this BUT you are going to fail....you are going to sin.
Did you know there are two different levels of sin? Or were you taught that sin is sin? Wrong. 1 John 3:4-5 is the context of the type of sin Jesus came to take away from our nature - The Law of God. Catholics correctly names that type of sin as mortal sins meaning sins unto death. That is what I physically felt leave my body including adultery which I was currently trapped in with a married lover. The next day I found myself with no desire for him anymore except as a friend. Once you are born again as I was, the Laws of God are written on our conscience, so instead of our nature fighting against the law, now we establish the law by naturally keeping them. 1 John 3:24 is key to staying in the Spirit. "24 Now he who keeps His commandments
abides in Him,
and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. Abiding in Jesus is key to the next phase of the lesser sins Catholics call "venial" sins.
Now go to John 15:1-4 and notice that we are CLEAN. That is from this first stage we just talked about. IOW we are sinless of mortal sins. Now that we just received the Spirit God plants the fruit of the Spirit, and Jesus prunes our fruit over time to grow larger and larger fruit. The key to this is again "abiding in Jesus and He in us."
The problem that Matthew 7:19-23 shows where Jesus doesn't know us and casts us into hell is after we are sinless we never start abiding in Jesus and He in you. That is why Jesus will say "I never knew you." It is because that intimate relationship somehow got shipwrecked by our own doing.
I don't' accept your testimony that you received the Spirit and all desire for sin left you forever. Just doesn't work that way.
Now that's funny! Your unbelief has nothing to do with me and my relationship with God.
