Doing right things right by the right Spirit--this is what the Bible calls righteousness. Earthly wisdom sends you to the wrong source, but God's wisdom contains within it the necessary righteousness. Righteousness is by grace through faith.

Here is how it works: God speaks His hope. We hear. We receive God's word and believe Him. Faith comes by hearing the word (utterance) of God. Faith gives us access to grace, that is, Jesus stands at the door knocking and faith allows us to open that door. When we open that door, grace flows in with all the glory of God, and it brings God's free gift of righteousness with it. We yield ourselves to that righteousness, God does His works through us. This is doing the right things right. It is the only way we can do anything right.

(some caveats about hearing God's Voice)

The basic principle of overcoming is this: yield yourself to God (Romans 6:13). It has been said that we overcome by being overcome. But how, given our natural leaning toward self-will? The devil, the world, and our sinful flesh have made submission seem like a bad thing. We have only to receive what Jesus has purchased for us--our part is yielding. Our part is submitting to receive it. Jesus has paid the price of our freedom. Jesus is the only one who can set us free from servitude to Satan (Romans 6:18-23). We can't set ourselves free. He paid the price of our redemption. We only need to accept the free gift of our loving God.

If it were possible to complete all of this as a solitary activity, then the monks in the monasteries would have become manifested sons of God centuries ago. The fact is that God designed the church as a central part of His way. The trouble is that the church has not followed the pattern that God gave us in Scripture. Every member of the body of Christ is a ministry and is created to take a certain place in the body. The body is built up by that which every joint supplies. Each of us is only a part. None of us is complete in ourself. God is a God of order. When the temple of Solomon was finally completed according to the pattern, the glory of God filled the temple. That is a picture of the manifestation of the sons of God.

If any person is truly led by the Spirit of God, that person will be led to search the Scriptures. As they look, the Holy Spirit will show them the pattern of the church. The Holy Spirit will help them to discern between those who are following that pattern and those who are not. They will know the pattern when they see it.

The first step