A Matter Of Spirit

(Consider this a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of thought uninterrupted.)

Understanding and comprehension are a matter of spirit. Intellect and reasoning, our IQ or Intelligence Quotient aren’t just affected by spirit, they are dependent upon the spirit within.

Human intelligence is anchored in the spirit.

For example, two people with the same IQ, the same degree of education, and in all aspects of intellect and training they are the same. Both hear the good news of Jesus Christ. For one person it makes perfect sense while the other sees it as total nonsense. What else other than spirit formed their conclusions?

Human intelligence and reasoning are used to justify and support what is spiritually discerned. This is how we make sense out of what the spirit determines to be.

There is but one spirit, but there are many aspects to that spirit. Just like there is one ocean, but there are countless waves of various heights and untold depths to that ocean, as well as billions of things living within it. All off these things compose this one ocean.

The present, what we know to be true and how we perceive truth is dependent upon our spirit.

The past, or our memory, and our future, both perceived and yet manifested, are spirit dependent.

The spirit powers and directs the will.

The spirit is life. Without it, all shall perish.

What you align your spirit with will determine how you think, how you act, how you interact with other people, places, and things, and what you will and determine.

We do not have perfect spiritual vision and clarity while in this body. The great battle that confused and plagued the Apostle Paul as described in Romans Chapter 7 that he had between righteousness and unrighteousness, his will to do or not to do, and the conflict between body and spirit are examples of our inability to see the truth of the spirit clearly and totally.

Another example is with Moses in Exodus 34:29-35. The Spirit of the Lord shone so brightly from Moses face that he had to cover it with a veil when in the presence of people. Pure spirit is too much for people to comprehend. This is why no one has ever seen God. He is beyond the capabilities of the mortal coil.

Paul in the last four verses of Chapter 11 in the Book of Romans describes it as, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).

God sent His son Jesus Christ to be the go between, the mediator between man and God because the spirit of man cannot handle direct contact with pure spirit and righteousness which is God. Jesus is 100% God and 100% man, this is how and why Jesus is essential for the salvation of man. Man has access to God through the humanity of Jesus.

“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)

Man is spirit driven. Intellect and reasoning are determined and influenced by the spirit. The intellect justifies the spirit and as a result, things make sense to the man. For the most part man is not cognizant of this process/fact.

Because of the nature of original sin, pure truth in spirit is too much for carnal man to handle. He can’t comprehend it. But to be in touch with God and to have access to all things divine, man must reach God. So, God created the opportunity for man to do so through Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Even with this access to God through Christ, all things of the spirit and truth do not make sense to man. This is why everything is based on faith. Faith is the spirit made manifest. Faith is born of the spirit within.

Everyone is spirit filled. Again, the spirit is life. Without it, all shall perish. Even the atheist is spirit filled. He may not know it or admit it, but he is. Faith is the manifestation of the spirit. What we have faith in is revealing the spirit within. Everyone has faith in something, more than people recognize. For example, you have faith that your care will start, that your heart will beat, that the sun will come up, that you will breathe, and that you will die.

If spirit is made manifest in faith, and faith is manifested in act, then spirit becomes act. What we have faith in, is where our spirit can be found. Your will is jump started by your faith. You do what you will to do.

Now of course, we can be made to do something against our will. Let’s say for example you were forced to give the combination of a safe to a robber while held at gunpoint. But that wouldn’t be your will. Your actions would be the will of the robber exercising power and dominance over your will.

This can happen in a much more subtle manner. Our wills can be subjugated by an outside physical will, (like the robber with the gun) and it can also fall victim to another will on a spiritual level.

What we think and how we think is determined by our spirit. By the way, a lot of folks look at the will as the agency of being not realizing that the will is a product of the spirit, which is the true agency of being. Free will is nothing more than the exercising of the spirit. But here’s what needs to be understood. Just like we have a triune God, one God but with three distinct features in the Spirit, the Son, and the Godhead, likewise our spirit is one, but with many separate and distinct aspects. Remember the ocean analogy above? Our spirit is facilitated by many spirits that make up the one spirit. There are also separate, distinct, and outside spirits that have sway and influence over our spirit in addition to the influence of the Holy Spirit.

We do not always see, feel, recognize, or are even aware of the influences of a spirit, on our spirit. But the effects of that influence can be seen, thought, and felt. This brings us back to Paul in Romans Chapter 7 and the internal war he fought in confusion between righteousness and unrighteousness.

We know what spirit is within or what spirit has had influence upon our spirit through the thoughts and acts it produces from us. It usually requires the act of a spirit to discover the existence of that spirit within. This realization can be a good thing when that act caused by the spirit is love, giving, forbearance, edification of others, etc.

But sometimes the manifestation of the spirit within produces pride, hate, envy, lust & covetousness, etc.

There is another aspect of the spirit we must realize. When the effects of a spirit surfaces, be it good or bad, in thought or deed, we don’t always recognize the thought or deed for what it is, a product of spirit. We blame situations and external circumstances for what we do.

Spiritual discernment is a fruit of the spirit.  The quickening or awakening of our Spirit which affords discernment of the spirit is a gift of God’s grace. Some people God blinds, others He never allows to see. It is His elect that He quickens at a time of His pleasure.

The revelation of God, the Son and the Holy Ghost is the start of a relationship between His spirit and our spirit. It must be understood in terms of relationship and not ceremony or agreement. The relationship is a marriage, a permanent bond. The bond is not of chains and fetters nor of legal agreement and obligation.

The bond is between spirits and is of word and of love. The love is not man’s fickle love that can quickly burn hot with emotion or cool to ice just as fast. The flames of love are like any fire. They can be easily enflamed or extinguished. Although this type of love can be a by-product of the relationship.

This love, the love of God, true love transcends emotions. It is best described as two becoming one, in essence and in being. There is no separation between two. There can’t be because we are one, so you don’t think in separate terms. There is not His and mine, only ours. Just like God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, so are you and God one.

Many people try to love others and try to find love in others because they don’t find love in themselves. Any relationship like this will fail. You are trying to get two by adding one and zero. It can’t happen.

But being one with God causes us to be like God and desire to be like God. Our spirit is active and mingles with His spirit. In Him we live, breathe, move and have our being. As a result, we want to do the same with like kind. Loving our neighbor becomes a need and desire. Our spirit, in concert with His spirit interacts with the world. Anything inconsistent with God’s spirit becomes known to us, be it externally or internally.

The progression of God’s love. First it is between us and God. Think of this as the perpendicular post of the cross. From our love of God grows our love for others. Think of this as the horizontal beam on the cross. If we attempt the cross beam of love to our neighbors first, it will fall straight to the ground. We must first firmly establish the beam towards God before we can attempt the cross beam of neighborly love.

God has devised a wonderful plan for dealing with our divine inconsistencies that we discover within, or more to the point, how to deal with our sin. First off, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay the price for sin. We are forgiven of our sins when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Once spiritually awakened and in tune with the Spirit of Christ, we are now blessed with revelation knowledge of sin.

“I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Hebrews 8:10).

God has devised a method called repentance enabling us to root out sin. By the revelation of the indwelling spirit we are able to see the sin and iniquities that are within our self. Sin will grieve the spirit, which in turn grieves us. As a result, we will want the sin done away with. When we discover sin within, are able to recognize it as sin and are grieved by it, then we are to give it to God through confession; we are then forgiven of that sin through the purchased price of redemption by Christ at the cross. Our sin is forgiven.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

As we grow in our relationship with Christ, we also grow in the spirit of Christ. Sin and temptation to sin become more and more obvious and known to us through the revelation of our growing spirit. It’s not always that there is more sin or that we are being attacked by the devil more. Sometimes it is revelation knowledge through the spirit which allows us to see and understand sin and temptation better.

But as we grow, we will encounter sins that we are blind to, and we fall. It is important to understand that everyone is affected and influenced by sin. Everyone. This affect is not always obvious or known to us. The noetic effects of sin is way of describing how sin can distort our thinking, alter how we perceive things, and, “hampers our ability to properly understand our world and the things of God” (H/T CARM.org). This is why it is paramount to stay in and work on your relationship with Christ. This is why the “Once saved, always saved” idea is nonsense and very dangerous. We can not rest on our laurels. We must be active and engaged in our relationship all of the time. We must persevere in that relationship. The only way to do that is on a day by day basis.

Jesus let us know, “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13).

Our relationship with Christ is an ongoing, day by day effort until we either die or Jesus returns.

“And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8)

Arguably, the most famous prayer of all times is the Lord’s Prayer. Read it carefully and see that if anything, the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer from man for perseverance unto the end.

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13)

Sin originates in the spirit and is made manifest via thought and finally by deed. This was made clear by Jesus during His Sermon on the Mound (See Matthew Chapter 5)

Because of the noetic effects of sin, sometimes we don’t realize our sin until it has gone from spirit to deed. The pain of this sin for the spirit, self and others can be overwhelming. But never forget Jesus and the price He paid for His children at the cross.

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

(Here God speaks up)

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” (Psalm 32)

We have one security, one safety net, one form of protection, one hope and one recovery; Jesus Christ. Our salvation is in our relationship, acceptance, reliance, and faith in Jesus Christ.

Bill Hitchcock