Living From the Inside Out

In this introductory sermon, we begin to deal in detail with the spiritual life and how to walk after the Spirit. Pastor O'Neill begins by outlining our personality the way God meant for it to work and how it has become perverted through sin.

What does it mean to walk according to the Spirit? This talk will focus on the functions of the soul and the spirit. If you are trying to contact God with your soul you'll always be in difficulty because God works only through your spirit by faith.

To be a friend of God meant that we had to be made in God's image and with a free will to love him or not. In this third talk we learn about the consequences of the fall of man when Adam and Eve sinned and the affect that it has on us even today.

Salvation is offered through the death of Jesus. When His death is applied to our perverted personalities God is free to give us the Holy Spirit. Our part in salvation is to repent and believe in what Jesus has done through his death on the cross.

There are two kinds of Christians, carnal and spiritual. This sermon focuses on what a carnal Christian is and how we come to be carnal even though we are born of the spirit.

This talk clarifies what it means to be a carnal Christian. Then it looks at the two steps it takes to be delivered from carnality. Finally Pastor O'Neill answers practical questions from the audience.

When you reach the ground of your heart, where you know a complete honesty with your Maker, then comes an absolute peace and complete faith and complete confidence that God is in charge of your life.

We often try to do God's will but in our own way. So instead of our spirits being governed by the Holy Spirit, we are led by our own emotions, minds and opinions. We serve God according to our own ideas, not according to His. We become self-conscious.

The absolute minimum for a child of God is to be saved from not just the guilt of sin but the power of sin. Envy, anger, jealousy and greed should not be the Christian's experience. How can we be free from these things?

God has delivered us from sin, but the only want to remain free is by dependence on the Holy Spirit and listening to His direction in daily circumstances. Examples of our self-management vs.. dependence on Him that are warnings to us.

A soulish Christian still tries to get from his mind and emotions what he is meant to get from God through his spirit. This deception can produce self-righteousness, confusion, over-sensitivity or argumentiveness that is contrary to God's nature.

Christians living by their souls (mind, emotions) impress us primarily by their strong personalities versus the tender sense of our touching God through them. They may blast us with opinions or manipulate us intellectually. How can we be changed?

We live either by the love of others or by the love of God. Even family love can dominate us unless we come free of dependence on their approval. Our concern with others' approval can prevent us from doing what we know is right to do.

Facetiousness, abruptness or a smothering affection for others are examples of personality traits that prevent Jesus' love and life from touching others through us. But only the Holy Spirit can reveal this to us through daily breaking experiences.

Most of us live with personalities that dominate our actions, but God wants to direct us from the inside out through our spirits. Our personality (soul) needs to be retrained by the Holy Spirit in order for others to see Jesus and not just us.

Most Christians are no different from Jews because they believe in a sacrifice for sins but have no spiritual life inside. They live by the power of the world coming in instead of God's life coming out of them through their own spirits.

What the world needs to see is people who not only say they know God, but who look like him; who are freed from anger and jealousy. The problem is that we don't get all we need from God; we try to get it from the people and things around us. How can we c

Does a change in our personality come from experience or repression or introspection? Do any of these bring a lasting change? Is there some other method or way to change ourselves?

Do you ever regret what you have said or done to someone? Ashamed of manipulating people and circumstances to get what you want and then realize it wasn't worth the distress you caused others? Is there a permanent release from this selfishness?

How can a pure life be possible without God? Do we use repression and suppression so people only see a certain type of person? How long does that last? Is there a permanent change possible? A change that comes not from within but from outside ourselve

We don't wait on God, that's why we don't hear Him. Peace and contentment will be found if we will rise into the freedom of caring only for God's opinion of us.

Are we living by faith in God's word? If he has remade us in Jesus, why do we live such unhappy lives? Are we missing an important part to our life in Jesus?

A spiritual man or woman is one who lives not what friends or things can give but off God's love alone. How is that possible?

Soulish prayer issues from the situation around us. ?Lord will you fix this flat tire?? Spiritual prayer is God revealing His will to us and then we pray for it to happen. Cry to the Lord ? what shall we do? Be ready to listen to God.

Our job is not to tell God what to do. It's our job to discover what He wants to do and then we ask Him to do it. Prayer is knowing your Father's heart, being utterly committed to do His will to make all of us like Himself.

Prayer is the method our Father has ordained for actualizing what He has done to us all in Jesus. Where there is real prayer miracles are performed and people react definitely one way or another. How do you pray?

This world is filled with people who truly believe Christ died for their sins but who are not willing to give their whole lives to Him.

We are meant to be picture frames in which a portrait of Jesus is painted for the world to see.

Why are you on this earth? Because there's a unique picture of Jesus that's to be created in you.

When you're facing a situation and are confused about what to do you're usually trying to tackle it only by the power of your mind.

There is only one way to be a Christian; that is to allow God's Spirit to come in and take over your life and teach you how to live from His love rather than from what you can get from the world--which you know never satisfies.

There are a few milestones in the Christian life beginning with asking Jesus to come into your life. Is he a visitor, resident, or possessor? Exercising your free will, do you follow where God leads - including to unexpected places?

The 'big questions' in our life as adults - job, partner, children - are these things that we can ask God about? How can believers know which way to go when making decisions?

There are things that God shares with you that are intended for you alone. If you then try to share those things with someone unprepared to hear them-there is no life in the words.

You can only have communion with God if you are born of God. How is that possible?

Are you living depending on the world and other people for the things that God wanted to give you? Stop living independent of God and know a peace that is unshakable.

Like a drunkard who becomes coarsened to the world around him, we become coarsened in our attitude towards God when we indulge excessively in what the world has to offer.

Do you have a sense of God as your Father? Or do you know that Jesus knows you?

Our conscious is often the thing that makes us aware that the way we're operating our lives is not the way God intended.

Depression, anger and irritability are only symptoms of the fact that we're looking to people or circumstances for our sense of security and importance and when those fail, we react.

God's plan from the beginning was that we'd learn from Him what the purpose of our lives was meant to be, then do that with all our hearts.

There is a distinction between sin and sins.

Conscience is that part of ourselves that is always encouraging us to live up to the highest or best that we know.

Our conscience is always our guide; convicting us when we aren't living up to the best that we know.

Does your life reflect a fresh, glad, delightful individuality, a beautiful spontaneous spirit? What is the source of your life?

Do you experience anger, jealousy or irritability in your life, yet still believe you're living the life meant to be lived by a normal Christian?

Where is there strain in your life? That's where you're wanting something God doesn't want for you--do you realize that?

The real you--your spirit--determines what affect your life has on other people.

Until you step into victory over sin in your own life, Jesus life cannot pour forth from you because His life comes from a heart that is glad and victorious.

If you become a Christian, God's Holy Spirit works to transform you to be like Jesus. He does this by flowing into you and through you-if you follow Him in your thinking, how you express your emotions, and how you take care of your body.

God's plan for your life is that you'd know Him and continually have joy and love welling up inside you and flowing out to others. There are ways you can block this flow, or you can let it flow unimpeded.

God does his work in the world through us. He will give a burden to us so that we will either pray, speak or act. Satan gives us weights that prevent us from any action for God. How do we keep our spirit free so that we can share in God's work?

God and trouble is usually a good thing because it throws us out of controlling our own lives and into the hands of God.

Our spirit is our real self and it is meant to be joyful and full of trust in God. Often however we feel anything but joyful, light and trusting. What is the secret to this kind of life and how can we enter into it?

Some people feel they've had an encounter with God which leaves an impression. It's merely an acquaintance - and hasn't progressed to any level of friendship. The first step of a friendship or journey is tentative until the mind is engaged.

Jesus' spirit is free and he wants us to have the same freedom as he does. How do we find this freedom and become the new person that we are meant to be in God?

Only in Jesus are the forces and powers that tie you to the world and people broken. Life with Jesus and cooperation with his Holy Spirit free us to be the unique men and women that we were meant to be.

If we aren't connected to our Maker then there is no real you to find. We can only find our true self by coming to the one person that is truly alive. How do we become born again and find the person God meant for us to be?

Once we are born again we partner with Jesus to live our life. But we are in danger of slipping back to a life governed by people and the world unless we are baptized with the Holy Spirit. What does this mean and what will be required of us?

We can be filled with the Spirit when we have aligned the purpose of our life with that of God's. His power is not given so that we'll have a better life but to enable us to be his witnesses throughout the world.

It's easy to change on the outside, but are you still in control of your will? Perhaps your mind and will is tied to something you won't let go of and it's weighing you down. There's no mystery about living the victorious life through your spirit.

You are different from everyone else -- not a boring stereo-typical robot. God has a picture of Himself that He wants to express through you. When we talk with God we can find out what He wants us to do and to learn what it means to live from within.

Do we depend on others for security? Do we need emotional healing? We see the greater need to have changed personalities and be made whole. We can be made new -- not by works or by reading a lot of books -- but by faith in what Jesus has already done.

Emotions are a big part of our personalities. Do we let the world govern our emotions -- causing us to have so many ups and downs? When we have a relationship with God and put Him first in our lives our emotions will freely be expressed from within.

Affection has ceased to be an outgoing expression of love. It has ceased to be a thinking of what the other person would like or what we can do for them and has rather become an intern thing ? a desire for satisfaction that we can get.

Love has nothing to do with marriage! Marriage has nothing to do with love! How can this be?

Love is the whole and total and absolute devotion of your whole being to the only dear person who deserves it. Then real love is truly shed abroad in you heart for others.

Has guilt and fear taken over your life? Living by our emotions can make life difficult and unfragrant. We can see that condemnation can come into our hearts. When we attend to our conscience and exercise our wills, we experience spiritual health.

It's dangerous to live by our emotions as they are influenced from our environment. When we lack feelings it is God's way of drawing us to Himself. The mature life of faith and joy is one lived in the spirit through the exercise of the will and obedience

Are we deceived into perverting our three natural desires of self-propagation, self-preservation and self-defence? Where does our excitement, significance, peace and comfort come from -- food, sex, power, pride, honor among men or being understood?

The mind wants to be justified in some way. That's where the battle is: that gap between a thought and the action which makes way for rationalization and disobedience. Are we careless in our minds? If God gives you a revelation, it's precious.

If you leave your mind passive and blank, it makes it a playground for evil. You can get yourself into trouble by using your mind to contradict God's word. Your WILL can control your mind and thoughts and can stop sudden insights that are not from God.

Do you suffer from unusual dreams, insomnia, anxiety or forgetfullness? Do you have trouble concentrating or are you depressed? Perhaps your mind has become passive. It's vital to begin to think and exercise your mind and take back your soul.

Do you go through the motions in your job? Are you dead inside: boring, depressed, disappointed? These are symptoms of a passive mind and you probably yielded ground to Satan. God's task is to renew our WHOLE being and deliver us from a passive mind.

Have you accepted any lies intro your life? Perhaps you are ill or your environment is in chaos. Maybe you are under the burden of imitating others. This is your opportunity to exercise faith by refusing to believe in only what you see with your eyes.

Who is in control of your mind? We are led to believe that lack of concentration, talkativeness, gossip and critical thoughts are just wayward habits of the natural process of our minds. But we CAN stop this passivity and engage our minds with God's.

If we try to rely on our renewed mind there will be great uncertainty in our lives. Our spirits lose its sensitivity because we don't spend the necessary daily time waiting upon God. That's why God calls us to Himself - to be friends who understand Him.

Do you feel that you are living a half-hearted, second-best kind of life? The old mind - drawn out with so many things around us - can create a blockage of the spirit. Your mind can become unfit to receive the messages from God and appreciate truth.

The will is king and key to everything. Are our wills flabby like a jellyfish making us dead to communicate with God? Obedience to our conscience brings God's spirit alive. Is there one thing that we won't give up that is making our lives agony?

After we have taken the first step in being born again, we need to deal with the basic problem of the garbage heap in our hearts. A carnal Christian lives the worst of both worlds. God must be obeyed or we will continue to live as if there is no God.

Most of us grew up depending on others' opinions of us for our significance. We depended on what happens for our happiness. Is there another, better way to get significance & happiness?

If you believe God, His power will come into your life as you exercise your will.

We often know what's right to do, but don't seem to have the will power to do it. We've tried different methods to increase our will power. Is there a solution that goes beyond this that works?

Have you ever thought what would happen if you did the very things God asks you to do?

Some of you have given your lives to follow God. But you may sense an ugliness inside-leading you to be mean to others, or be hung up about things about your body. You may not be willing to do some things God directs. Is there a cure for this?

What is the main reason people dismiss Christians' witness? Why do their lives so often contradict their words? Does Jesus ask us to do what we can't do? Is holiness a continual struggle toward an unobtainable goal? What about temptation?

Why is it some Christians seem to live so far above ordinary Christians? Don't they still have weaknesses? Don't they still have temptations? Don't they still meet great difficulties in their life? How have they been changed?

What do we do about that something in us that won't let us do what God wants? What do we do with this old personality that is so tied up to this world that we repeatedly try but fail to obey God? What is the secret of freedom and cleanness and joy?

Does the Bible teach our sinful nature is something we cannot be rid of? Does Romans 7 describe the normal Christian life? Does God contradict himself in what he has promised us? What did he mean by asserting, He Will Save His People From Their Sins?

I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I don't want is what I do. If that isn't normal for Christians, then why does it resonate with so many of us? Is there a secret to victory from that cycle? If there is why do so few find it?

Is struggling against our sinful nature the fight of faith? Why is it that it seems such an unequal battle? Why do all our self-help attempts work for a while but end us back where we started? Are we up against something bigger than us?

Do we find ourselves sinking into self pity? We know that we should be thankful and full of joy but we find it's more natural to sulk. Is the best we can do just to keep fighting it? Is there a way to send this personality back in to be made over?

Why is it when we think we should be patient with someone our minds and emotions do the opposite and we lose our temper? Where does that contrariness come from? Why can't we be what God wants us to be? What is the way out?

Have we sunk into a kind of boring existence? What keeps us from being spontaneous and living in faith? Could we have started to depend on our own knowledge of what is good and bad rather than on the one who creates sunsets and spring mornings?

Has our life often been one of defeat? Have we prayed and felt we were ready but then hit a situation where we failed again? What can we do differently to be what we know God wants? Is there a way through? What is our part and what is God's part?

Do others see us as good Christians but don't see anything that makes them hungry for the same? Have we become comfortable in our career but dry inside? Have we tried to consecrate ourselves to God but not seen much change? Is there more we need?

Are we made right with God by trying to be good? If we have been made God's child by a power outside ourselves, are we going to be able to live the life of a child of God by something of our own working? What is our part, then? What is God's part?

Is becoming pure and clean inside a long process? Can we change our old nature? Can we make our old nature gradually die? Why does it seem we have an enemy inside? Can we sanctify ourselves? What part is ours and what part is God's?

Are we meant to live with the constant battle of the desires of the flesh being against the desires of the spirit? Is there something we can do more than exercise our will power to crucify the flesh and its desires? Has God arranged a better way?

Are our efforts to be what God wants us to be, all full of the big I? Are we I this and I that? Why are our efforts at holiness so legalistic and hard? How can God take people that are all full of self and make them sweet and fragrant like Jesus?

The kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. But do we know the Holy Spirit? Do we hear his voice? Do we know what we are missing? Are there doubtful things in our lives? Since he is like a dove how can we not frighten him away?

There are two kinds of Christians, carnal and spiritual. This sermon focuses on what a carnal Christian is and how we come to be one even though we are born of the spirit.

If you are aware and maintain an 'identity' outside of being a friend of God, you'll inevitably spend many 'unhappy' years defending your self to others. God will steadily unpeel the onion skin until you see there's nothing to boast about in you.

A sub-normal Christian life - is where we don't have free access, the comfort and pleasure of God's presence. The garden of Eden was a snapshot of life with God - before the fall. Jesus came and restored that broken relationship.