The greatest work of God’s spirit today is inside each one of us. In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul told Timothy “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
This is what God gives those who have repented, accepted Jesus as their Savior, been baptized, and received the Holy Spirit. When you received this Holy Spirit of God, you were not possessed with God taking control of your mind, as God never takes away our free will. Therefore, your human nature was not erased! We still have a corrupted nature and live in a corrupted world.
2 Peter 1:2-6 "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises (from God!): that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance (self control); and to temperance patience (cheerful endurance with fortitude); and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity (love). For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
You see, he knows we can't do this on our own as we are all a hot mess with only our corrupt humanness! So He made a plan, a way for us to be able to actually grow to be more like Him. But as we learn we find two spirits are struggling within us. As Paul said in Romans 7, the things I want now to do, I don't do. The things I don't want to do, I do. This is why God gives us His power. Then as we put forth a cooperative effort with God's Spirit, we begin to change. It is a process, one we need to be patiently struggling with. His patience with us, His mercy, and His Grace will be there as long as we don't give up! The times I have been about to give up, I tell him. He tells me to just breathe, this will pass and we can get back to work!
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