[ecko_quote source="I Thessalonians 5:23"]Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit (man’s spirit), and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [/ecko_quote]
Today, I will conclude our series of devotions about “man’s three-fold nature”. Man’s spirit can be educated and improved just like his mind which can be educated and improved. The spirit can be built just how the body can be built through the study of God’s word. We cannot understand spiritual things with our natural minds. Therefore, we could see so many highly educated individuals who find it difficult to comprehend simple engrafted Word of God. The Apostle Paul said,” But the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned (understood) (1Corinthians 2:14). The Word of God was given by the Spirit of God because “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). This is why the natural mind cannot understand God’s Word. The Bible can only be understood with the heart (spirit). We must get the revelation of it in our spirit.
Sometimes we hear a preacher announce that “souls” were saved. However, it is not the soul of man that is saved at that very moment; it is the spirit of man that is born again. However, I am glad that we correctly say in our Telugu language “ఆత్మలు రక్షింపబడినవి”. Then comes a question, what about our souls? In James 1:21-23 the Bible says “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was”. Apostle James was telling believers if they want to get their soul (mind) saved, they must be a doer of the Word, not just hearers only.
As believers who have become new creatures in Christ Jesus, we are spiritually saved, and we have received eternal life. We should then receive the engrafted Word, which will renew, restore, and save our mind, or soul. This is something believers must do for themselves. Therefore, the first step in developing our spirit is to set aside time to meditate the Word and follow the word. Too often we think we can ignore God’s Word and accomplish the job simply by praying. We think if we could pray loudly enough, long enough, and get enough people praying, it will work. However, it will not. Prayer has its place, and I certainly would be the last to belittle the importance of prayer. However, if we are not going to do what God’s Word tells us to do, we can pray forever and ask God to prosper us but it would not be answered.
The world is entertained with movies, games, and sporting events, but movies, games, and sporting events will never transform an alcoholic, will never heal the crippled, or restore a broken life to the fullness. Only the revelation of the Word through the demonstration of power by the Holy Spirit will accomplish this. One of the greatest deceptions of the modern church is the idea that to attract the world; we must show the world that we understand them by looking like and acting like them. The tolerance of sin through the searing of the conscience (1 Timothy 4:1-2) will dullen the message of the gospel and eliminates the need for repentance. Of course, we do not want to be condemning and judgmental, but we cannot accept or ignore sin in order to draw the world to the church.
I have seen Christians spend hours trying to intellectually explain to a nonbeliever why they must repent. While it is good to share the Scriptures, we must never forget that the revelation of the Scriptures only comes through the work of the Holy Spirit. Remember, Paul said that spiritual things could not be understood by the natural mind (1 Corinthians 2:14). This is why Paul did not approach people only through natural persuasive words of wisdom but by the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:4).
We now know that; to develop our spirit life; we begin by meditating on the Word, practice the Word of God in our daily lives, give first place to the Word of God and obey the voice of your spirit. This will develop the inner man. Then the inner man will dominate the outer man. Worry from the outside cannot dominate us when our mind is renewed with the Word of God.
References: Kenneth Hagin and Cutting Edge
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