Spirit

 

Job 32:7-8 “I said, ‘Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.’ But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.”

This week Michael writes: There is a difference between Holy Spirit and the spirit of man. The spirit of man is the breath of the Almighty life that we received when we were conceived in our mothers’ womb. Proverbs 20:27 “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.” The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, the supernatural [born of the Spirit] transforming agent in conversion of the soul and regeneration of the human spirit, and God’s indwelling gift for all Believers to guide the child of God, which we received when we were born-again of God’s incorruptible seed. The natural man is the fallen soul of all flesh that we inherited from Adam. This fallen spirit of Adam is contrary to the spirit of life in Christ we received when we were “born again” of God’s Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2 says that we who have received the spirit of Christ can understand the things of God. However, the natural man who does not have God’s spirit receives not the things of the spirit of life in Christ because these things are spiritually discerned. Through the Holy Spirit within us we can understand, know, acknowledge, and affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord. We can know that the Word of God is the final authority for truth, that we are men and women of prayer, that we can link together with likeminded spiritual Believers, and that we can give away the gospel message of salvation.

Even though we who have received Christ may feel broken, blind and deaf in the flesh, Jesus Christ is still Lord of our lives. 2 Corinthians 2 says, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (of the flesh) but mighty to the pulling down of (spiritual) strongholds. When the Holy Spirit takes residence inside us, we can work out our own salvation, our own wholeness with awe, respect, and reverence toward God and His Word. Then, when we allow our minds to be renewed, God will work within us to do of His good pleasure. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which He has foreordained that we should walk in them. For when we dwell within the word and will of God, we all with open-face beholding as in a mirror (of the word) will change from the reflection of the world into the reflection of the glory of the Lord. (2 Cor. 3:18)

Colossians 3 says, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. When we turn from the flesh and unto the Lord, we will allow our minds to be renewed in righteousness and true holiness. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, don’t worry about the things that sustain your physical life (food, shelter, clothing and drink), but instead focus on the things of the kingdom of God, then all these other things shall be added unto you. God will sustain us. He is our sole provider and our soul provider; our Jehovah-Jireh. As He said to Abraham, I am your provider, your portion, and your sustenance for life.

As bond-servants of the Lord, we serve Him from a heart of love. We love Him because He first loved us. For even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, which includes us. He loved us, rescued us, and saved us, not because of who we were but because of who he is. For Jesus Christ came not into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. When we turn to the Lord, the things of this world will become strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. When we turn to the spirit of life in Christ, then faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (through worldly eyes.)

In the things of this world he has called us to steward. Jesus said, he who is faithful in little, then he will be faithful also in much … the things of the spirit of life in Christ. The work God did within us and through us when we were born-again unto salvation, He has dedicated to his love, honor, and glory, that we might live according to the good pleasure of His will in the abundance of the spirit of life in Christ,

To the praise of the glory of His grace,
Your brother in Christ, Michael