God's View:
John 3:16
; Rom. 8:14
; 1 Cor. 6:17
; 1 Cor. 15:45
; Titus 2:5
-Faith in Christ
makes one a regenerated believer; obedience to the Holy Spirit makes one
a spiritual believer. The risen Lord is the life-giving Spirit. His union
with the believer is a union with the believer's spirit. The soul, the seat
of man's personality, belongs to the natural. All it can and is to be is
a vessel for expressing the fruit of the union between the Lord and the
believer's inner man. Nothing in man's soul partakes of the Lord's life;
it is solely in the spirit that such union is effected.
Hope:
Rom. 6:5
; Rom. 1:4
; l Pet. 3:18
; Rom. 7:4
, 6
-Because the Lord Jesus was
raised from the dead according to the Spirit of Holiness and was made alive
in the Spirit, we too, are alive when united with Him in resurrection, and
alive and united with Him in His resurrected Spirit. Henceforth, we are dead
to everything pertaining to ourselves and alive to His Spirit alone. This
requires faith being identified with His death, we lose the sinful and natural
in us; once identified with His resurrection, we are united with His resurrected
life, so that we serve now in the new life of the Spirit.
Col. 3:1-3 ; Eph. 1:2-4 -The Lord is the life-giving Spirit. Being joined to him, we are filled with life and nothing can limit that life. Dwelling upon God's word gives us the knowledge of God's will and mind, continuing to meditate on this provides a rich inflow of the Lord's vitality and nature. No longer swayed by emotion, we put under foot all that is earthly enabling us to discern everything with the transparent sight of heaven.
John 16:13 ; 1 Cor. 3:16 ; Eph. 1:13-14 ; 3:16 ; James 4:5-8 -God's indwelling Presence teaches, guides and communicates the reality of Christ in the human spirit. The human spirit is strengthened by acting on God's word when confronted with daily tests and temptations, yielding to the Lord and forsaking any doubt, willing to believe with prayer that He will flood their spirit with His power. Thus, the strengthened spirit gains dominion over the soul and body, and thus, serves as a channel for the life of the Spirit to be transmitted to others.
Change:
Rom. 8:4-6
; Gal. 3:14
-To live by the spirit means to walk according to
intuition. It is to have all one's life service and action in the spirit,
ever being governed and empowered by it, and this is the christian's daily
task. Such a walk by the spirit requires reliance and faith. The Holy Spirit
expresses His feeling through our spirit's delicate sense, working in our
innermost depth.
Gal. 5:16-18 -Walking after the spirit involves both the initiation of a work by revelation and execution of it through the Lord's strength. If we follow intuition instead of thought, opinion, feeling or tendency, we will end well, as we rely on the Spirit's power and not on our talent, strength or ability.
l Thess. 5:23 ; Rom. 8:9-14 -Paul describes the authentic condition of the spiritual man:
In conclusion, a spiritual man is one who belongs to the Spirit: the whole
man is governed by the inner man:all the organs of his being are subject
completely to it.