Calvary Chapel At The Cross teaches Bible Studies through the entirety of the Holy Bible, every book, every chapter and every verse. Through the grace of God, our church has completed the teaching through of the entire New Testament’s 27 books, and the entire Old Testament’s 5 book Torah (Pentateuch).
On Sunday mornings, we are now on our 2nd time teaching through the entire New Testament.
In the last part of the mini series on “The Flesh vs The Spirit” we learned that the Holy Spirit wants to bring spiritual fruit in a believer’s life. He comes and makes His home with you and desires to fellowship with you. Paul lists 9 different characteristics that the Holy Spirit will bring about in a born again Christian’s life. We find that the first fruit on the list is “love” which is essential for all believers to understand before attempting to pray about having the other fruits come forth in their walk with the Lord. If we have no understanding of the love of God, how will we get to know the other 8 fruits listed in Galatians 5:22-23?
We learn in Galatians 5 that we need to walk in the Spirit but most Christians cannot describe it. We find that born again Christians need to first have faith and believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in them. We need to understand that we are owned by God and He lives within us to help and guide us. Paul tells us “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). The Holy Spirit is going to continue to take the spiritual nails and hammer to crucify our flesh as we walk with the Lord, and no Christian will escape Him unless they choose the road of disobedience and rebellion.
Paul teaches us that no one can add or take away from the grace of God. We as Christians need to understand that our flesh is at war with the Holy Spirit who dwells in us as born again Christians. We tend to try to lean on our flesh to walk with the Lord, which is legalism, but Paul tells us that we are free in Christ and need to live free for the Lord and not for our fleshly desires. Paul gives us a list in Galatians 5:19-21
At the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, Jesus reveals to Peter, James and John a bit more of His real Self.