Sealed by the Holy Spirit of God

2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us Christ changed us into a new creation, the old is gone and the new is here to stay!?

We cannot change ourselves into a new creation it was the work of God and nothing He does can be undone by us.

We are sealed permanently until He comes for us.

Ephesians 1:13-14

"13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise,

14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, regarding the redemption of God’s possession, to the praise of His glory."

2 Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. . ”

When Christ changes us He gets all the glory, we have nothing to do except to believe and trust in Him. He does all the rest from that point on, continually cleansing us until the end of our lives.

Ephesians 2:8-10 "…8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.…"

We are being sanctified by Christ Who lives in us until He takes us home.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Galatians 2:20

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Philippians 1:6

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

What a blessing to know that God is not going to quit on us, He keeps working and growing us until He takes us home. We are not left orphans without help.

John 14:17-19 "…17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live."

Hallelujah!!!!!!

Increased Anger in these Last Days

Over the past few years, I have noticed an increase in anger in many people. The anger inside of them is revealed in many ways, one of which is jealousy toward those who have great joy and peace in their hearts.

The Holy Spirit makes unbelievers uncomfortable with joy and peace because they know they don't have it. Instead of asking why someone is so peaceful the wicked person attempts to ruin that peace and joy.

Jealousy is the emotion that hates someone else's joy and peace while doing whatever the jealous person thinks they can justify removing that joy and peace. They will even make up lies about the one they hate to remove that godly joy. They can't remove it but they can cause others to dislike the godly one, this gives the wicked one great joy.

Instead of engaging happily with someone who is sharing joy, the resentful one engages in demeaning or dismissive gestures in a refusal to endorse the happiness of the other. They may completely ignore the one who is happy or they may use grunting noises without other responses to show disapproval. The goal of such a jealous person is to diminish the one who is full of joy and happiness.

If you have ever been around these people you know what a challenge it is to visit with them. As some people have expressed, these people "suck all the joy out of the room" when they walk in. They have a chip on their shoulder but lack communication skills so they use covert means to ruin the happiness of others. They seem sad all the time, and their happiness is only based on how much attention they are getting from others.

I have met genuinely joyful and peaceful people who have all the fruit of the Spirit. When these people walk in a room it is as though gladness and gratefulness walks in with them. They bring out the best in

others. The opposite is true of narcissists they tend to bring out the worst in those around them and they like it that way.

This is why God told believers to "come out from among them"

(2 Corinthians 6:16-18 "…16What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 17“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”…)

and to "avoid such people."

(2 Timothy 3:5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, [a]haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of [b]godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.")

Lovely Spirit-filled people love comforting, helping, and encouraging those around them. They have all the fruit of the Spirit. Godly people do not care about controlling anything, they just want to love others the way Christ loves them.

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

The narcissist has so much anger in their heart that they want everyone else to feel terrible like they do with them coming out on top as the controller of all things.

1 John 4:8

"Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Godly people love God and love righteousness. Narcissists hate God and love evil.

Lovely Spirit-filled people NEVER treat anyone disrespectfully, they merely tell the truth of God and are accused of hatred for doing it. No matter how calm one's delivery is, if the narcissist doesn't like it they will claim things that are not true to justify their hatred for the one they despise.

Anger is not something that comes up when provoked, it is in the very heart and soul of the one given to anger. The anger is always just below the surface ready to emerge at the slightest perceived offense.

Those who do not become angry do not automatically rage, they ponder, they answer but they do not rage merely because of a disagreement.

If a born-again finds themselves having reacted badly they apologize because they hate hurting others. Narcissists love to harm others and claim it is their own fault.

1 Peter 2 is an excellent passage to read to understand God's way for the born-again believer.