The conclusion of the series, focusing on The Day of Pentecost and the beginning of a relationship with God, the problem of the legacies we carry that prevent the fulfillment of our relationship with God, and, God’s desire for us to leave those legacies behind.

Prophecy is the one gift we can all do. You just need to be willing the hear, and willing to speak. It is not our ability to hear, but His ability to speak - and His desire to speak to us, is greater than our desire to hear from Him. Robin talks about how to listen to God and grow in the gift of Prophecy. Understanding the purpose of Prophetic words - Edification, Exhortation, Consolation and Maturing, and understanding the process of receiving Prophetic words - Revelation, Interpretation & Application.

Being lead by the Spirit first requires a Connection with God. Despite being adults, the negative impact of our parental legacies and first Church experiences can prevent us from achieving this connection with God and result in us being led by false interpretations and beliefs of who we are, and who God is. This causes us to be ‘slow’ about taking possession of the land that God has promised us. Becoming free from those legacies and experiences will allow us to fully be led by the Spirit.

Through peace and stillness we gain God’s wisdom. In Part 1 of Leadership & The Spirit, the focus was on our Connection with God. In Part 2 we continue with the other elements required to allow ourselves to be led by God: Correction - not humanistic rebuking, but the grace filled, loving, caring correction from God; Protection - what He offers us to taunt our enemies by showing our peace and stillness in his presence, even in the midst of serious trouble; and Consecration - being still, at peace, and looking into the face of the Father.

The heart of Christian ethics as conceived by Paul is to be people of the spirit. We no longer are what we once were. Our old nature, our ‘flesh’ as Paul puts it, is not just attracted to lawlessness but also legalism. And both are contrary to the spirit. So, to live as we now are, we must live as people of the spirit. The more of Him we have, the more His fruit of love, joy, peace, patience and all the rest will grow in us.

It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. If this is the case, then why do so many church voices seem to articulate something to the contrary? If freedom is so important, so central to the gospel’s message, then how come we can’t even agree on what it means? The reality is - as important as our culturally-informed perspectives on individual freedoms are - they PALE in comparison to Jesus and the freedom He speaks of and calls us towards, which must, by it’s very nature, be free from all social, cultural, political and historical forces. We look at what Paul meant when he wrote to Galatia of  'freedom from’ and ‘freedom for’ and how just like everything else, these truths can only really change our lives with the power of his spirit.

Paul concludes his argument against the Judaizers with a compare and contrast between the life of faith and the life of unfaith. One is free; the other enslaved. One is supernatural; the other material. One is heavenly; the other earthly. We were made for the former. We are people of the Spirit and we will not be fulfilled without the freedom and supernatural power of a life of faith. So let us never compromise, and seek the Spirit in all circumstances. He it is who sets us on things above, in heaven here and now on earth.

As we have heard so far in this series, the Galatians are choosing to return to the confinements and imprisonment of the old covenant. But, it is here - in these verses, that we reach the climax of everything Paul has said so far in this letter. Arguably, we reach the climax of the Gospel. Paul knows that the Galatians have encountered Jesus and the Spirit before, which enables him to powerfully reinforce his appeal and remind them of their experience. He appeals to their hearts, and presents them with the invitation of intimacy and adoption. Of forgiveness and inheritance. He’s saying - let’s get back to the Gospel shall we? Nothing else matters but Jesus and his Spirit. 

What then, of the law? How are Christians supposed to treat the Old Testament commandments? For Paul the key is to see the law both in its biblical and historical context. 1. Biblical: The Law was never understood to bring life. Only faith (like Abraham’s) does that. Instead the law’s purpose was to keep people close to God. 2. Historical: That purpose, since Jesus, has now run its course. Jesus has fulfilled the law. And so as Christians we do not destroy the law, we simply view it as it now is - part of a bygone era. The law was like a preliminary sketch for godly living. Because of Jesus we have the full-blown oil-on-canvas masterpiece. So godly living is now forever governed by two equal elements: 1. The dynamic life-giving ethics of Jesus: ‘Love God and love one another’; and 2. The dynamic life-giving direction of the Spirit. Be fully immersed in both. It is the only way we can get close to Jesus’ command to ‘Be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.’

Justification. Faith. Works. These three technical terms have come to define much contemporary evangelical Christianity. However their precise meaning, and Paul’s original use of them are rarely fully understood. What Paul has in view here is an understanding of how, post-Jesus, all can be part of God’s family and thus part of His plan to redeem a broken world. Faith is the entry point to this family, but faith is far more than a belief in a doctrine. It is an ongoing work of the Spirit of God. To be part, and to continue to be an effective part, of God’s redemptive work for the universe we need to be constantly filled equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit.