Believers Who Are Overcomers Are Both Godly AND Spiritual

As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, ‘I am holy; you be holy.’ You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living. Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! ~ 1 Peter 1:16-24, MSG

The reason why most of today’s Christian believers do not have the same supernatural successes like the first century Christian believers had is because too many of this 21^st century’s Christian believers are spiritual but not godly, or they merely are hypocrites—that is, they have an outward appearance of being godly and spiritual, but inwardly they are neither godly nor spiritual. Furthermore, since God who is a Spirit is godly and spiritual, then anyone who calls him or herself a Christian believer also must be both godly AND spiritual.

For the record, if someone were living a godly life, then this person’s conduct would be under the influence of the Holy Spirit (he or she would be Spirit-driven)! That is why a Spirit-driven believer is a born again, saved, indwelt, and filled with the Holy Spirit person who, thus, is both godly and spiritual. Certainly, to conduct one’s life in the godly ways that Jesus the Christ conducted His life no doubt means he or she must display the same kind of godly characteristics the Lord displayed—holiness, righteousness, love, kindness, mercy, grace, forgiveness, gentleness, patience, self-discipline, and so forth. Therefore, for Christian believers to be overcomers who are godly and spiritual, their godly characteristics ONLY can be the “spiritual” results of the Holy Spirit’s sanctification process—a process that gives every baptized with the Holy Spirit (every full of the Holy Spirit) Christian believer the power, authority, and spiritual gifts that make it possible for a Christian believer to live like Jesus the Christ lived AND to do the same kinds of “good” and “righteous” miracles, signs, and wonders that Jesus the Christ did!

So then, while there are genuine Christian believers who indeed are godly AND spiritual (full of the Holy Spirit individuals), who steadfastly and faithfully demonstrate Christ-like characteristics, unfortunately, there also are genuine Christian believers who have not allowed the indwelling Holy Spirit to grow them up in the Spirit. As such, these latter believers are spiritual, in that they are born again, saved, and have the Holy Spirit living inside them, but they do not consistently or faithfully conduct their lives in godly ways, because they have not surrendered to the Holy Spirit’s leadings, promptings, teachings, etcetera. The bottom line: These Christian believers are spiritually immature and, therefore, supernaturally powerless believers, all because they are not full of the Holy Spirit (are NOT baptized with the Holy Spirit)!

Then too, there are those individuals who profess to be Christian believers (those persons who only have made a mental assent); they are not spiritual for they are not born again, saved, or indwelt by the Holy Spirit; therefore, they also are NOT godly—they have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof (cf. 2 Timothy 3:1-5). In other words, if they are not spiritual (are neither Holy Spirit indwelt nor Holy Spirit filled), then they never can be truly godly; that is, they will never have the supernatural power, authority, and spiritual gifts that ONLY are available to the spiritually victorious born again and saved believers. As a result, the mental-assent believers only can act as if they were holy, righteous, merciful, gracious, and so on, but their acting would be just an outward show because they would lack the necessary inward conversion.

The sad truth is that these professed Christian believers have heard Divine Truth, have believed, accepted, and agreed with what they heard, have testified to the veracity of what they have heard, BUT, in reality, they ONLY have head knowledge. Consequently, these mental-assent believers do not do what they profess to believe, approve of, attest to, and so forth. Put differently, they just have ideas (head knowledge) about what it means to be a Christian believer instead of knowing in their “heart” (spirit) who God the Father, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit truly are!

The question then is: What kind of Christian believer are you?