The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Spirit"
"God is a spirit," meaning that in He dwells in a reality beyond and greater than material substance. A spirit hath not flesh and blood" (John 4:24; Luke 24:39). Of course, since the incarnation of the second Person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, God can also be said to live in the material reality of the universe He created. "The Word was made flesh… God was manifest in the flesh" (John 1:14; I Timothy 3:16). However, God's spiritual being remains the primary essence of who and what He has forever been.
Human beings are also spirits in our essence, which are either alive or dead. Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are spiritually alive in the primary selfhood of our being. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit… ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you… Christ is our life" (John 3:6; Romans 8:9; Colossians 3:4). Conversely, unbelievers may be said to have spirits, but which exist in a death characterized by the absence of the life-giving Holy Spirit. "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive" (John 7:38-39).
God calls believers to "walk in the Spirit," that is, to order the steps of our lives in accordance with the Holy Spirit's presence and working in our spirits. "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). We seek to be guided by His motivation, leading, and enabling, as opposed to the fleshly impulses and inclinations of our natural souls and bodies (Romans 8:13-14; I Corinthians 15:45-49).
We do well to consistently ponder these realities of our being and existence in the light of Scripture. Indeed, how are to "walk in the Spirit" if we do not know we "are in the Spirit?" If we fail to "reckon ye also yourselves to be… alive unto God," we will very likely consign ourselves to walk according to fleshly motions of death rather than being empowered by the Spirit of life who dwells within our spirits. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Galatians 5:25). This is written as a simple reminder of a most sublime and powerfully influential truth, namely…
"God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father."
(Galatians 4:6)
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
(Romans 8:2-4)
Weekly Memory Verse
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
(John 14:6)
6633
No comments:
Post a Comment