God wants to restore His image in you that was lost at the fall, and prepare and qualify you for your eternal citizenship, task, and leadership in His Kingdom.

It is quite possible, or maybe we should say, common, for true born-again children of God to fight a losing battle against sin and experience patterns of spiritual defeat in their Christian life. They may also experience patterns of dissatisfaction, frustration, lack of joy, unfulfillment, insecurity, unhappiness, depression, inferiority or superiority, a sense of rejection, low self-esteem, different kinds of bondages and other symptoms. Why is this so? These are all consequences of the fall and when we struggle with these symptoms the Lord wants to lead us to seek a solution that we will only find in Him and His purpose for our lives. We said in Part 1 that unless ALL THREE of the above Divine purposes come to realisation in your life, you will die an unfulfilled and incomplete person, for God has created you such that you will find true fulfillment only within God's complete purpose and plan for your life!

Regeneration is the first and fundamental step of God's purpose and plan for your life, but it does not stop there! With regeneration the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your spirit and He makes your spirit come alive with the purpose of fulfilling His work in and through your life. However, the task of the Holy Spirit is not complete with regeneration –– this is only the beginning! In the same way a baby is not born physically mature and immediately understands its purpose in life, you will not understand everything with regeneration.

There are, of course many advantages to being a child. Children experience special love and care from their parents. Children live carefree and happy in their parent's home, while enjoying themselves with their own toys. So it is in the spiritual realm. However, it is easy to believe that spiritual childhood is now the end of God's purpose and plan for your life. The danger is that you will never reach spiritual maturity because you do not realise that the Lord has a greater purpose and plan for your life.

As babies grow to adulthood and then leave their parental home to begin an independent purposeful life, so it is in the spiritual realm. It can and should only happen much faster in spiritual life.

The Bible teaches that man was created in the image of God. In what way was this image of God lost with the fall? What aspect of God's image does He want to restore in you and me that has been obscured by the fall? The answer is, our characters and personalities! The Lord wants to restore our characters and personalities to the image of God. We said in Part 1 that our soul, as represented by our WILL, INTELLECT and EMOTION, are the faculties through which our characters and personalities are expressed.

The truth that the natural mind simply does not want to accept is the fact that every form of sin and sinful habit, as well as every psychological disorder under the sun originates from the fall! God created Adam and Eve perfectly in the image of God. Each of the symptoms we mentioned above, including spiritual defeat, discontentment, lack of joy, unfulfillment, insecurity, unhappiness, rejection, depression, bondage in whatever form, and add here every other possible human and psychological problem and disorder you can think of, has its origin with the fall!

The gay debate is an excellent example to illustrate this point. Christians argue whether gay people are born that way or become gay as a result of their circumstances. I recently read a story of a gay man who came to faith in Jesus Christ and gave his testimony of how it (as he believes) began in his parental home, describing the struggle he waged as a young person, and continued to wage even after his marriage. From his testimony it is clear that he believes that he became gay because of his circumstances.

The fact of the matter, however, is, he was born that way! He inherited gay genes from Adam and Eve at birth, even though it only manifested itself at adulthood! Unless he accepts this truth he will struggle with his problem until death! (Alternatively, he will 'de-problem' his 'problem' by simply accepting it as 'normal' human behavior that cannot be changed and will want to convince all of society accordingly –– as it is currently happening in the world and in some churches.)

Is a thief, adulterer, liar, or murderer born that way or did circumstances make them that way? Those with a bad temper, or who are living in rebellion to, or disrespect towards a father or mother –– were they born that way or did they become that way due to circumstances? Most people will say, circumstances have made them so. It is my dad or mom's, or this or that one's fault. You see, this is precisely the pivotal character of sin –– the fact that we are always looking for the cause of our problem outside of ourselves. Man always seeks the cause of his problem in his circumstances, society, or someone else! This was the character of the Fall! Do you remember how Eve blamed the serpent and Adam blamed Eve?

The fact of the matter is, we were all born that way! We have all inherited a sin-infected nature from Adam and Eve at birth even though it may only manifests itself in adulthood! Is someone with an emotional problem, anger, hypersensitivity, some kind of phobia, rejection, depression, low self-esteem, a relationship problem, negative or unclean thought patterns, hatred and revenge, unforgiveness, pornography-, drug or alcohol addiction, born like that or did they become so due to their circumstances? The fact of the matter is, we were all born with that sinful tendency! We have all inherited the genes of sin from Adam and Eve at birth whatever our particular problem, even though it may only manifests during adulthood!

By making this statement we do not deny the fact that circumstances play a significant role in human development –– in the same way exposure to bacteria, viruses and germs affects a person's physical health. However, whether these bacteria, viruses and germs have a long-term or chronic consequence in your body depends on whether you are susceptible to it or not. It depends on how your body responds to it. This 'susceptibility' is something you inherited from your parents and is called genetics by science. In the same way you are 'susceptible' to certain genetically transmitted diseases due to your genetics, so too are all people 'susceptible' to certain sinful and psychological disorders due to our sinful 'genetics'. The problem lies with our sinful 'genetics' or human nature we have inherited from Adam and Eve.

The 'genetics' of sin explained

We confess in church that every baby is conceived and born in sin, yet we don't believe this when that baby grows up and falls into sin! Why not? Because we have a limited understanding of sin. What is sin? You see, sin has two dimensions. There is the 'deed' of sin, with which we are all well acquainted, but then there is also the 'seed' of sin -- our sinful nature. The 'seed' of sin leads to the 'deed' of sin. It is important that we distinguish between these two facets of sin.

The 'seed' of sin is like male seed being fertilised unto conception, or agricultural seed that germinates. For example, we read in Gen 3:15: “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; ... ”. 'Your seed', is the seed or offspring of the devil which is sin-infected seed; versus 'her seed', which is ultimately a reference to the Messiah who would proceed from Eve's offspring, as well as all who would be born from the seed of the Messiah through regeneration. The genetic manipulation of agricultural seed shows us how genetics works in agriculture.

We also read about the two kinds of seed in Jesus' parable of the sower in Matthew 13: 27-38: "So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' ... He answered and said to them: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. ... the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, ..."

Science helps us to better understand the heredity of sin. I read the following description of genetics on the website of Psychology Today: “All traits and personality characteristics, from height to fear of heights, are driven by a complex interplay of genes and environmental feedback. We now know that the lion's share of human genes are expressed in the brain and that almost all normal and disordered behaviors are polygenic, meaning that they are influenced (not to say caused) by multiple genes. Scientists are therefore tasked with a massive but increasingly plausible mission: mapping the pathway from genes and mediating forces to the person you see in the mirror ... ”  (Emphasis my own.)

If scientists would succeed in 'mapping' this 'pathway' to its starting point, they will arrive at Adam and Eve and the Fall! (See amongst other, Dr Nathaniel Jeanson's book, Traced! -- Human DNS points to Adam.)

Our DNA and the Biblical concept of sin

DNA is the human body's 'manual' making you who you are. You receive one half of your DNA from your father and one half from your mother. DNA provides for the transfer of genetic material from one generation to another. Your DNA determines what physical as well as psychological traits you inherit from your parents. Your DNA also determines whether you are susceptible to certain genetically transmitted diseases as well as psychological disorders. The wonder of this knowledge is that although science only discovered this in the 20th century, the Bible described it almost 3,000 years ago. King David writes in the Psalms:  “The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.”  (Psalm 58: 3.) In Psalm 51: 5, David says: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me."   Although David knew nothing about DNA or genetics, he accurately described its behaviour.

What we need to understand is that our sinful nature is linked to our natural, physical life, or flesh, as the Bible calls it -- which we inherited from our parents. (Please read the following Scriptures for more Biblical insight on this subject: Rom 7: 5, 18, 25; Rom 8: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 13; Rom 13:14; 2 Cor 10: 3; Gal 2:20; Gal 5:13, 16, 17, 19, 24; Gal 6: 8; Eph 2: 3.) The word 'flesh' is used in the Bible in more than one context, but always refers to the bodily, human, or physical life. When we study the word 'flesh', ('sarx' in the Greek), in the context of the above verses, we come to the conclusion that its meaning can be described as -- the human nature (character and personality) as driven by his inherited, sin-infected, natural or physical life –– in short, 'sinful nature'. Some Bible translations have indeed translated the word 'flesh' in some instances with 'sinful nature'.

The two sources of life and their natures

Let's now summarise. We explained in Part 2 that there are two sources of life –– physical as well as spiritual life. Opposite the carnal or physical life with its sinful nature, there is spiritual life whose source is the indwelling Holy Spirit. We also said earlier that all of us inherited a dormant or dead spirit at birth and that we can learn much about spiritual life by simply studying physical life. Therefore we also compared physical birth with spiritual birth. In the same way every human being inherits a sin-infected DNA with physical birth -- which is seated in his 'flesh' or physical life, so a child of God inherits a clean and pure spiritual life and 'DNA' from God with regeneration –– which is seated in his spirit!

Firstly, let us take a closer look at the INTELLECT and EMOTION.

The Intellect is the cognitive part and the Emotion the emotional part of our soul dimension. Our Intellect and Emotion consist of our Thought-System, Reason, Conscience, Imagination, Memory, Subconscious, Value-System, Self-Image, Emotion-System and our Disposition.

What is important to understand is that each of these areas of our soul were born from the sin-infected seed of Adam and are under the control of our inherited sinful nature. God wants to recreate these areas into His image. He wants us to think, reason, dream, remember, think about ourselves, moralise, feel and react like God. The Bible calls it sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which the Lord recreates our fallen characters and personalities into His image.

We can therefore now understand that for God to recreate our character and personality into His image, the areas of our Will, Intellect and Emotion must come under the control of the indwelling Holy Spirit and our spiritual life.

However, the question with which Christians wrestle is, do the Will, Intellect and Emotion not automatically come under the control of the Holy Spirit with regeneration?

We have said earlier that in the same way every human being inherits a sin-infected nature or 'DNA' at physical birth, so does a child of God inherits the pure spiritual nature or 'DNA' of God with regeneration! However, this is exactly where the born-again child of the Lord now faces a dilemma –– he is in possession of two natures! He now possesses a new Divine nature which is seated in his spirit, but he also still possesses his old sinful nature that was inherited at physical birth and is seated in his soul dimension, namely his Will, Intellect and Emotion.

Paul describes this dilemma of the Christian's dual nature masterfully in Romans 7: 14-24: “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ... For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ... I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Emphasis my own. The original word translated here as "members" means, "a part or parts of the body" -- which is the flesh.)

In Gal 5:17, Paul describes it like this: "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” (Emphasis my own.)

What Paul described above is the fundamental cause of a purposeless life, of every psychological struggle, spiritual defeat and controlling sin; patterns of dissatisfaction, lack of joy, unfulfillment, uncertainty, unhappiness and depression; of an inferiority or superiority complex, a poor self-image, a rejection complex, patterns of aggression and uncontrolled temper and unforgiveness; division in the home and church, marriage breakdown, family breakdown, emotional; sexual-, homosexual and pornographic bondages; and every other negative symptom you can think of –– in the lives of born-again Christians!

Is there a solution to this battle? For sure! Would Jesus Christ have died on the Cross just to plunge the Christian into a purposeless life and a lost battle against his sinful nature for the rest of his earthly life? Never! We quoted Paul in Romans 7: 14-24 above. In verse 24 he asks the question, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" In verse 25 he answers his own question: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”,  and then he describes the problem: “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”  (Emphasis my own.)

In Romans chapter 8 the apostle Paul describes the solution. However, before we get to the solution, we are going to deal with the third purpose of God for our lives as the solution for both purposes are the same.

The Lord wants to equip and empower you to represent Him and be His instrument, by helping to achieve His purpose in creation here on earth through your witness, co-working with Him to implement His plan and purpose for the world in anticipation of Jesus Christ's return. We said in Purpose 1 that one of the six most important characteristics of a born-again child of God is a passion to share the Gospel and win others for Jesus –– to be a witness for Jesus Christ. Someone who has spiritual life has a passion to reproduce spiritual life in others.

One of the most important characteristics of physical life is the urge to reproduce. The world calls it the sex drive. It is the desire to be sexually intimate with your spouse. Sexual intercourse is the culmination of love between a husband and wife. That's why people get married and have children. Marriage and family are a Divine institution and therefore a love relationship between a man and a woman must be based on a Biblical foundation and lead to a God-centered marriage. Any love relationship between you and another person that is not in harmony with the Word of God and does not lead to a God-centered marriage is OUTSIDE of the will of God for your life! When God created Adam and Eve, He commanded them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; ..." (Gen 1:28.) As we have already described in Part 1, God wants to produce an offspring in His own image –– and this is God's primary purpose for marriage!

The reason God hates homosexuality and gay marriages are against His will is because it is contrary to His purpose in creation! God wants a posterity in His own image! Marriage was instituted in the first place for the sake of God –– not man's pleasure and satisfaction! This does not mean that marriage is also intended for man's pleasure, but when man uses the gifts of God primarily for his own purpose and desires, the result in the long run is ALWAYS heartache and sorrow, suffering, struggle, discontent, failure, and destruction. It is God's will that man will find his fulfillment and joy within God's purpose and plan for his life. If your marriage does not meet God's primary purpose for marriage, or if you maintain your marriage primarily for your and your spouse's happiness and satisfaction, you will never find complete happiness in marriage! Let us repeat what we have said several times now: Unless of ALL THREE of the above Divine purposes come to realisation in your life, you will die an unfulfilled and incomplete person, for God has created you to find true fulfillment and satisfaction only within God's complete purpose and plan for your life!

However, let us return to the subject of passion to reproduce spiritual life. You will remember that we said that Adam and Eve had both physical and spiritual life before the fall, but that with the fall their spirit became dormant and they lost their spiritual life. Jesus Christ destroyed the curse of the fall on the cross of Calvary; and through His resurrection, ascension, and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, He paved the way for revival and reproduction of spiritual life in every person who accepts Him by faith.

Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, God is creating a spiritual posterity for Himself in His own image, and He does this through His children. It is God's will and plan for your life that you will be spiritually reproductive and fruitful! It is God's will and plan for your life that you will reproduce spiritually! The culmination of the love of God –– the love between a born-again child of God and Jesus Christ, is spiritual reproduction! The inevitable consequence of spiritual fellowship between a child of God and Jesus Christ is spiritual fertility. The result must necessarily be –– spiritual children! How many spiritual children have you produced for God? Or, what contribution have you made to produce a heavenly population and Divine offspring for God?

Act 1:8: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

He wants you to radiate and share a spiritual and Divine purposeful life through your lifestyle and communication with people in your family, social, work and digital environment, leading others to the same experience as you. To be an effective witness for Jesus, one must, of course, have a testimony and a life of spiritual and Divine purpose. Do you have such a testimony and are you living it out for the extention of His Kingdom?

Mat 4:19: "Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

He wants to use your occupation, your training and your skills for His purpose. He wants to turn your occupation into a calling. The Lord has a special calling for every Christian and also for you! He has a special task for you that only you can fulfill! Will you be at His disposal when He calls you?

Maybe you say, but I have not received any special calling from God. It may be that you are already in the area of His calling but does not recognise it as such; or the Lord's calling may still come in the future. However, He will not reveal His calling to you until you are ready to receive it, The essential truth to understand here is that it is of primary importance to know that you are in the centre of God's will for your life with regard to your job and occupation.

Gen 1:27,28: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it ...""

He wants to use your marriage as a standard and example for your children and the world to help populate heaven. We have already talked about the significance of marriage in God's plan and purpose in the paragraphs above. However, the fundamental question is, is Jesus Christ Lord of your love relationship and your marriage? Is your love affair or marriage in harmony with the Word of God and available to the Lord to populate heaven? We are not here only talking about physical offspring -- we are talking about spiritual offspring. Naturally, this includes our children and they are our primary spiritual responsibility.

Unless your marriage reflects the model and standard of the Bible, your marriage will be unfulfilled. Unless both of you are firstly unconditionally subject to Jesus Christ and the authority of His Word, the Lord will not bless and use your marriage for His purpose. If you want the Lord to bless your marriage, ensure that your marriage is subject to the authority of His Word in every area, including the Divine structure of authority within marriage as revealed in the Bible!

Luk 1:13-17: "But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. 15  For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, ... 16  And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17  He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS TO THE CHILDREN,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

It is the Lord's purpose and plan for your lives that you will educate your children in the fear of the Lord –– but more than that, that your children will understand their Divine purpose and calling! It is the Lord's purpose and plan for your lives that you will educate your children in the purpose and plan of God for their lives. We must therefore teach our children from an early age what it means to seek the will of God for their lives.

This process begins at a very important point, and that is to enter into a covenant with God for your children by dedicating your children to the Lord at birth. Your children must fully understand that each of them were dedicated and surrendered to the Lord at birth! This means that you -- as God's delegated authority in their lives -- have transferred every right to the Lord to use your children for His purpose. You have transferred your personal dreams for your your children to the Lord and replace them with His purpose and plan for their lives. It means that they are His property to be used by Him for His purpose as He wills. They are 'covenant children'!

However, this does not mean that they are saved from birth. Each one of them must still be born again and be set apart for God's purpose for their lives through a choice of their own free will. But what they must know and understand is, the longer they postpone to voluntarily surrender themselves to His Lordship, the more painful the consequence will become -- because the Lord will never leave them alone, for the sake of your covenant with Him!

Mat 25:14,15: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15  And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. ..."

Every human being on earth has received certain talents and gifts from God at birth –– some more and others less –– but every human being on earth has a talent! Those talents and gifts belong to God and he has lent them to you to develop, apply and use for His purpose and glory! Let me give you an infallible formula for a failed purpose in life -- use and apply your talents and gifts exclusively for your own purpose and your personal needs and pleasure. At the end of your life, you will testify with King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:14: "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind."

2 Cor 9:6-8: "... He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7  So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work."

What we said above regarding your talents and gifts also applies to your money and possessions. If you are a child of God, it does not belong to you! You cannot do with it what you want. It has been lent to you by God for His purpose! You are only the steward thereof. Rest assured, like in Jesus' parable in Matthew 25 of the talents, He will hold you accountable for the way you have managed His financial gifts.

Col 4:2,5: "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; ... 5  Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time."

What we said above regarding your talents, gifts, money and possessions also applies to your time. How much time would you like God to spend revealing Himself to you, protecting you, guiding you, carrying you through trials, leading and blessing you and your family? Make sure the answer to this question is no more than the time you are willing to set aside in His presence and for His purpose on earth! Is the time you give to God limited to a Sunday worship service? Then do not be surprised if this is the only time He has for you!

The question now is, how can we partake of and live out the Lord's purpose and plan for our lives? Humanly speaking, this is impossible! No human can lead such a life in natural power, and the reason why most Christians fail doing so is because they try to do it in human power, with their natural life and abilities.  

The answer to this question is to be filled with the Holy Spirit! Dear friend, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit! No human being can lead a Godly purposeful life without being filled with the Holy Spirit. No human can lead such a life -- only the Holy Spirit can live it through you! That is why Jesus said in Acts 1: 8: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; ..."  and in Ephesians 5: 18 we read:“And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,” The secret of an abundant and victorious spiritual life is a Spirit-filled and Spirit-controlled life.

The Holy Spirit wants to fill you with Divine power and passion. The Holy Spirit wants to give you a victorious life –– victory over your sinful nature and sinful desires, victory over your thoughts and your emotions, victory over your intellectual and emotional battles, victory over the world and your circumstances, victory over your psychological problems, victory in your marriage and family life, victory in your work and working conditions, victory in your relationships. The Holy Spirit wants to give you a life of spiritual power. He wants to give you power to be His witness, power to serve, power to live a holy life, power to overcome sin, power to forgive, power to overcome temptation!

Dear friend, a Holy Spirit-filled and Holy Spirit-controlled life is the only life worth living! It's the only life that will not lead you to a cul-de-sac or dead end! It is the only way to become part of, and walk in God's heavenly purpose and plan for your life! Every other road will lead you to a cul-de-sac –– if not now, finally on your deathbed! King Solomon was the richest, most intelligent and most prosperous man in the world of his time, and this is how he described his life in Ecclesiastes 2:9-11: "So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.” Surely you don't want to end your life with this conclusion, do you?

The question now is, what do you want? Do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? We said earlier that the dimension of our soul consists of our Will, Intellect and Emotion. It is important that we thoroughly understand the function of our Will.

What exactly is the WILL? Your Will is that attribute with which God created you that makes you a sovereign person. You have heard many times that God is sovereign. What does that mean? John Piper describes God's sovereignty like this: “God’s sovereignty is his right and power to do all that he decides to do.” It means that God makes His own decisions, thinks and feels independently, and is manipulated or influenced by nothing and no one else. In the same way, God created man in His image as a sovereign being. This means that man makes his own decisions, thinks and feels independently, and that man is not manipulated by God like a doll in a puppet show. This is why Adam and Eve fell into sin without God preventing it. In other words, man has the ability to choose for, or against God. God wants an offspring in His own image –– not a bunch of puppets –– in the same way your children are born in your own image, with a WILL of their own.

Your WILL is the throne room of your Soul. Your WILL holds the key to your soul-dimension. With your WILL you can lock or unlock any part of your soul to God. Your WILL, therefore, is also the key to a Holy Spirit-controlled life. Just as Adam and Eve became disobedient to God through a step of their own WILL, God is now searching for men and women who will surrender themselves to a life of obedience to God through a step of their own free WILL. The secret to sanctification, a restored character and personality in the image of God, the infilling of the Holy Spirit and a Spirit-controlled life consists of a voluntary, total and unconditional surrender of the WILL to Jesus Christ by faith!

In essence, this means that I surrender to the Lord the authority to fulfill His Divine purpose in my life. Jesus Christ experienced this spiritual battle as a human being in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, "Not My will, but Yours be done." In the same way Jesus taught us to pray in His Sermon on the Mount, "... let Your will be done". By implication, this means that we will not hold back anything from God that we are not willing to bring into complete harmony with His revealed will for our lives.

There are six fundamental Biblical principles or truths of an abundant, victorious, and Spirit-filled life. These truths consist of three fundamental Biblical truths you must understand, and three fundamental Biblical truths that you must respond to. We have already covered all six of these truths in the course of our discussion, but let us again summarise them for the sake of clarity.

• God has a dynamic plan and a glorious inheritance for you of Divine purpose, spiritual abundance, victory, and a Spirit-filled life.

• The fall, your own sin, and your inherited sinful nature is the only reason you do not experience God's purpose and plan for your life, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, His inheritance, abundance, and victory in your life.

• Jesus Christ is God's complete and only provision, and man's complete and only solution to the problem of the fall, your own sin and your inherited sinful nature.

• Faith! Sincere faith in Jesus Christ, His substitutionary sacrifice and work on Calvary (the Gospel) and His Word (the Bible), is the key to a Spirit-filled life, spiritual abundance, victory, and the fullness of His inheritance. Mat 9:29: "Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it be to you.""

• Repentance! Faith in Jesus Christ, His crucifixion and His Word, involves a wholehearted repentance of all conscious sin. You must turn your back on every sin of which the Holy Spirit convicts you through His Word. Acts 3:19: "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,"

• Full surrender! Faith in Jesus Christ and His crucifixion involves a death to your old self or old man –– your 'flesh' or sin-infected earthly life –– and a full and unconditional surrender of every area of ​​your life -- body, soul and spirit -- to the control of Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit -- by faith. This is also the solution to the dilemma of the Christian's conflicting dual nature as discussed earlier in Purpose 2. See the illustration below. Rom 12:1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

Absolute surrender is probably the Biblical subject on which most confusion, misunderstanding, and ignorance prevail. This is why so few born-again Christians are truly filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I am going to take some time to thoroughly explain this subject to you.

Absolute surrender is a way of describing how one surrenders yourself, or your old person, or your sinful nature, to be crucified with Jesus Christ. We are talking here about a faith identification with Jesus Christ and His work on the Cross.

The secret of victorious faith is to fully identify yourself with Jesus' substitutionary death and resurrection by faith. The faith the Bible speaks of means identifying with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. The Bible teaches us that the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus means that you and I were in Him when He died and rose from the dead. However, this truth remains only a formality for as long as your faith is passive. This truth will only become true in your life when you claim it for yourself through active faith in absolute surrender.