Life in the Spirit

Life in the Spirit

Jesus said as the wind blows and we hear the sound but not knowing it's particular departure point or its arrival destination so is every one that's born of the Spirit. He said he that's born of the Spirit is spirit and he that's born of the flesh is flesh.This is instructive and fundamental of the life in the spirit. John 3

There is a life in the spirit and another in the flesh. To manifest as sons of God, we have to live in the spirit. If we must be like God and be conformed to Christ in character and in charisma we can't live in the flesh and succeed in that.

When we got born again, recreated with the seed of God and sealed by His Spirit, we got transformed within. We become free in spirit ended with authority and power to flow in the realm of the spirit but we also have our mind and bodies here where we live in the now.

Before the spiritual regeneration, we were described like what Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 2

[My Offline Bible] Ephesians 2
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

The past was death. We were dead in sin, we were trapped in the course of the world, in the power of a spiritual lord, the prince of the power of the air. We had no choice than to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were 'BY NATURE' children of wrath.

That was who and where we were spiritually before being born again and the more reason we need to take kindly to people who are yet to meet Christ around us in love.

This should instruct us that being born again is much more than some character and physical changes to suit laid down traditions we hold dear, it is a fundamental spiritual life transformation rooted in the spirit. It isn't the mental ascent of some vocabulary and way of speaking or even thinking but a deep seated spiritual change in a person.

The challenge here is that believers have the capacity to continue to live the old life even after being born again and so be deprived of fully manifesting the new life if he or she doesn't pay attention to the new life. We all are at different points on that scale.

We can either live in the spirit or walk in the flesh!

We can get physical things done by will power but we can't live the life in the spirit by self determination but by faith through knowledge. Will power may create religious discipline in us but will never bring spiritual transformation. The best that will-power will do in the spirit is take men into spiritism and witchcraft that's why witchcraft is part of the works of the flesh.

[My Offline Bible] Galatians 5
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But since we still live in the physical with only our home in the spirit, we have to know exactly what to do to our physical part in order not to continue to live like we were before the new creation. Living the life of the spirit isn't automatic to the new creation even if it is natural. The limiting factor of living here in the body with an active and functional mind has to be navigated through in order to give expression to the spirit life.

The first thing is to have the correct perspective of the body and to do with it what has to be done. The body has its natural desires but it has been bought, paid for by Christ and it belongs to Him just as every other part of us.

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 6
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

To glorify God in our body we have to gain control over it by the power of God from within, carnality and the works of the flesh become easy if we lose control of our bodies. Paul said I put my body under. The body shouldn't be what dictates how we live. The body wants all the good care and nurture and it deserves it but that shouldn't be what dictates our daily activities, dos and donts rather the Spirit of God. Both the body, the comforts and the feeding we give it shall perish, they are not eternal. We need the food and the pleasures to live, we don't live for the food and the pleasures. Rather we make a living sacrifice out of the body in using it to render acceptable service unto God holiness.

[My Offline Bible] Romans 12
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

But that alone does not bring us to living the life of the spirit. The mind has to be renewed rightly for the work done in the spirit.
[My Offline Bible] Romans 12
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Getting born again didn't wipe away our perspectives to life, neither does it automatically close the doors on worldly thinking and that affects the expression of the new life. We have to set our minds and affections on things above and not on things of the flesh. The thinking  and the perspective of Christ must become active as the operating system of our mind if the mind will ever permit the expression of the spirit. Speaking in tongues is a practical example of this. The mind is rendered unproductive to give total expression to the spirit as our spirit prays with our understanding(mind) unfruitful and so produce prayers perfectly in line with God's will.
The mind is aligned with the recreated human spirit through renewing by the knowledge of the Word of God.

[My Offline Bible] Colossians 3
9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

So the renewing system is powered by knowledge. You can't be renewed beyond the quality and quantity of the knowledge of God you are exposed to. And that also affects the quality of life we live in the spirit.

When the mind is loaded with superstitions, traditions, religiosity and so on instead of the knowledge of God's word we get conformed to something else aside being conformed to God.

Life in the spirit is a life of faith in God empowered by grace. With the body and the mind in correct positions, faith kicks in through the knowledge of the word of God's grace. Grace is the storehouse of all of God's resources, power and wisdom made available to mankind freely through Christ to bring our the image of God from within. It requires that we know what grace has provided per time to take by faith.

So we don't walk just by our physical inclinations if we are to live the spirit life, we live by all that grace has provided and walk daily in the faith of what those are. What compels us are not the needs and desires of the flesh or the expectations of society but by the things grace has provided in the spirit which we translate to the physical by faith.

Life in the spirit sees with God's perspective to things and not by the physical presentations and disposition of things. It pays attention to things' spiritual states and not their physical states. Life in the spirit is the way to the revelation of the new creation. The things that move one living the life of the spirit are different and sometimes life in the spirit may look awkward and impossible to someone living in the flesh. Life in the spirit is the normal Christian life and we must not be carried away or be satisfy only with the physical... We have been called into living in the spirit and we should live at that realm daily!

Good Morning