Brandenburg wrote: “No believer is any more spiritual than any other person. The Holy Spirit is a Person. When someone receives the Holy Spirit, he has all the Holy Spirit that he will ever get. He doesn’t need any fresh outpouring or anointing. The concept of “more spiritual” isn’t in the Bible. God does command believers to be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), which is to be controlled by the Spirit (Rom 6). When a believer is controlled by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will manifest Himself in various ways described in the New Testament.”
Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that all believers have equal empowering to be spiritual? Sanctification is progressive. “We all…are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). A Christian can be more or less Christ-like than he was a year ago; one Christian can be more Christ-like than another. It seems as if Brandenburg equates being spiritual with having the Holy Spirit rather than with the believer’s life being transformed by the Holy Spirit. Is being spiritual something different from being Christ-like?
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NewBrandenburg wrote: "No..."
Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that all believers have equal empowering to be spiritual? Sanctification is progressive. “We all…are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). A Christian can be more or less Christ-like than he was a year ago; one Christian can be more Christ-like than another. It seems as if Brandenburg equates being spiritual with having the Holy Spirit rather than with the believer’s life being transformed by the Holy Spirit. Is being spiritual something different from being Christ-like?