Will you please turn to 1 Thessalonians, 1
Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 23 and
24.
1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 23.
2 Now the God of peace himself sanctify
you wholly, and your whole spirit and soul
and body.
3 Be preserved blameless at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 He is faithful who calls you, who
will also perform it.
Proverbs, Proverbs, chapter
20, verse 27.
Proverbs, chapter 20, verse 27.
5 Man's spirit is the lamp of Jehovah,
searching all the inner parts of the belly.
I'll repeat it.
Man's spirit is the lamp of Jehovah, searching
all the inner parts of the belly.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee
for what Thou has done for us.
We thank Thee that Thou has perfected forever
salvation.
Thou dost save to the uttermost, and we
thank Thee that Thou has called us into
this glory.
So we pray, Lord, as we continue in
Thy presence, that Thou will by Thy Spirit
quicken Thy word to our hearts.
That we may not only understand, but we
may enter in.
We commit this time into Thy hands.
May Thy name be glorified.
We ask in Thy precious name.
Amen.
We begin to have some fellowship on 1
Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 23 and verse 24.
We find that we have all been called.
What calling has God called all of us?
And God's calling actually is that we may
be wholly sanctified.
And our whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved, blameless, at the coming of our
Lord Jesus.
Now that's what God has called us to.
We mentioned last time that sanctify or sanctification,
holy or holiness, actually is the same thing.
Holy is very unique because it is the
character of God that He alone has.
Now last time, I said that in the
Korean, this word holy, in Arabic, not in
Sanskrit, has never been used.
It is only we find it in God.
He is the holy one.
He is the one who is separated from
everything that is common.
He is unique.
He is all by himself.
And that is what holiness really means.
And yet, we thank God that it is
His will that He wants us, who are
His people, to be holy.
That is to say, He wants us to
be so separated from anything, everything that is
common, ordinary, worldly, natural, fleshly.
And to take upon us His own character
of being extraordinary, unique, all by Himself.
That is to say, to be like Him.
And that is what God's purpose is for
us.
That is what we are called to.
And He said He will perform it.
Because nobody can do such a work.
But He said He will do it.
So what we need is to respond to
Him.
To be wholly sanctified.
Spirit and soul and body.
You know, when God created us, He created
us in such a unique way that we
are a tripartite.
We are made up, our being is made
up of three parts.
Spirit and soul and body.
Spirit gives us God consciousness.
Because God is spirit.
And we can only communicate with God if
we have a spirit.
Soul gives us self-consciousness.
We are conscious of ourselves, of our being.
And then body gives us world consciousness.
To be conscious of the physical world around
us.
That is how we are made up of.
And God said He wants our spirit to
be wholly sanctified.
Our spirit to be preserved, blameless, at the
coming of our Lord Jesus.
So this is something that really concerns every
one of us.
And this is something that we should seek
after.
Last time we just laid the foundation.
Now this morning we would like to concentrate
our meditation on man's spirit.
Do you know you have a human spirit?
Do you know that you are different from
all the living animals in the world?
You have a body.
The other living animals all have a body.
You have a soul.
You are conscious of yourself.
You can think.
You can feel.
You can decide.
You have a personality.
So all the animals.
You look at these animals.
They have a soul.
They have a limited amount of thinking, of
feeling, even of determination.
Now what makes man different from all the
living animals?
Because we are created with a soul, with
a spirit.
We are the only living things on the
earth that can communicate with God, the spirit.
So our spirit is very, very important.
According to divine order, our spirit is like
a master or a mistress who decides, who
commands.
And our soul is like a steward.
We receive what is decided, commanded, and pass
it on, transport it to our body.
And our body is like a servant, a
slave.
We work out what is being directed and
communicated.
So in God's order, man's spirit stands at
the top.
Even though our soul is the center of
our being, because that's what we are.
In the Bible, oftentimes you find soul and
man are equivalent.
But our spirit, because it is able to
contact God's spirit, therefore in God's purpose of
creation, he wants our spirit to take the
lead.
Then our soul will follow, and our body
will also follow.
So it is very, very important that we
know our spirit.
But you know, a human spirit is a
substance, but it is not a material substance.
It is immaterial, incorporeal, not our body.
Our body is made of matter, and it
can be seen.
But our spirit is immaterial, is not physical.
But not because of that, it is less
real.
As a matter of fact, our human spirit
is more real than even our human body.
Why?
Because our body is temporal.
Scientifically speaking, every seven years, all the cells
of your body totally change.
So you have a new body every seven
years.
And not only that, but this body is
a mortal body.
One day it will pass away.
When you are resurrected, it is a spiritual
body.
So the spirit is eternal.
It is much more real than even our
body.
But unfortunately you find in the world, people
do not know they have a spirit.
And in a sense, this is correct.
Because their spirit was dead in sin and
transgressions.
Therefore, we find people say, a man is
made up of soul and body.
I remember when I was a boy, we
had a missionary lady who stayed with us.
And this lady came from Virginia.
We called her grandma because she led my
father to the Lord.
And whenever she was exasperated, you know what
she said?
Oh, my soul and body.
Now, where is the spirit?
So you find that people in the world,
they have a soul, a living soul, a
living body, but a dead spirit.
Now, by dead it doesn't mean that the
spirit is non-existent.
It simply means it is in coma, in
deep coma.
It has lost its ability to communicate with
its proper environment that is God.
But remember, they do have a spirit, human
spirit.
But it has lost its proper function.
And that's the reason why unbelievers can communicate
with evil spirit.
Because the spirit is still there, but the
function is completely distorted.
It has lost its proper function.
But thank God, when we believe in the
Lord Jesus, the first thing that God does
is to renew our dead spirit.
He quickens our dead spirit.
He takes away our sins, cleanses our conscience,
and gives us a new spirit, as it
were.
A spirit that has been cleansed, awakened, revived.
A new spirit.
This is regeneration.
And not only that, but after he gives
us a new spirit, his own spirit, the
Holy Spirit, himself comes and dwells in our
spirit.
That is what we usually call salvation.
Now, how do you know the spirit?
You cannot see it, but how do you
know that it is true?
Yeah, we know the spirit by its functions.
We cannot see it, but the spirit has
certain functions.
And when it functions, we realize its existence.
According to the Word of God, the main
functions of our spirit are three.
One is communion.
The other is intuition.
And the third one is conscience.
So, when there is communion and intuition and
conscience working, you know the spirit is alive.
Communion simply means that you can communicate with
God.
Now, before you believe in the Lord Jesus,
you may believe there is God, but he
is a distant God.
You may know many things about God, but
you do not know him personally, because there
was no contact.
But immediately after you are saved, something wonderful
happens.
You find that communion with God is immediately
re-established.
So, you find in Romans 8, we are
told that the Holy Spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we are children of God.
And we cry out, Abba, Father.
Isn't that true?
Maybe before you were saved, because you were
brought up in a Christian family, you knew
something about the Bible, and you even prayed.
And when you prayed, you said, Our Father
who art in heaven.
But the feeling is different.
So, I have a co-worker in China.
He said when he was married, the first
time he went to his parents-in-law's
house, and according to Chinese custom, you call
your father-in-law Father.
So, when he entered that home and saw
the father-in-law, well, he tried to
call him Father, but he felt that it
was very uncomfortable.
Calling Father, the father-in-law, is very
uncomfortable.
It's not like calling his own father.
And before you are saved, that's what you
were doing.
You may pray to God, but you pray
to your father-in-law.
But immediately after you are saved, something happens.
When you pray again, the first time you
pray again, there is a relationship, a closeness.
He is really your father.
There is a touch there.
Brothers and sisters, because your spirit is being
renewed.
And the Holy Spirit dwells in your spirit
and bears witness with you that you are
a child of God.
That is the proof of salvation.
After you have a new spirit, your spiritual
life begins.
Before you have a new spirit, you may
be religious, but you have no spiritual life.
You may be even active in Christian works,
but you have no spiritual life, because spiritual
life begins in the spirit.
Spiritual life is the exercise of your spirit
together under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
That is spiritual life.
Anything that does not originate from the spirit
cannot be considered as spiritual.
If it comes out of your soul, if
it comes out of your body, that is
not spiritual.
No matter how alike they look, because you
will find the working of the soul and
the function of the spirit in many areas
look alike.
But the origins are vastly different.
So, dear brothers and sisters, there is one
thing that we need to remember all the
way, and that is, spiritual life must begin
from your spirit.
It is the Holy Spirit that communicates God
to you, to your spirit, and then, through
your spirit, influences your soul and your body.
So it has to come from the spirit
itself, and that is spiritual life.
Anything that is outside of that area is
not spiritual.
No matter how it looks, it is not
spiritual.
So, brothers and sisters, it is very, very
essential that we who are the lords, we
should know our spirit.
Do you know your spirit?
Do you know how your spirit functions?
Do you know how you can, through
exercising, make the functions of our spirit sharper,
more sensitive, more powerful?
Put it in another way.
After you believe in the Lord Jesus, you
are a new-born baby.
You have a new spirit, and all the
functions of your spirit begin.
For instance, after you believe in the Lord
Jesus, not only in this matter of communion,
your contact with God is immediately established, but
in your daily life, sometimes you are going
to do something that you have been doing
all along in the past, but when you
begin to do it again, someone seems to
be within you saying, Be careful.
Don't do it.
Now, do you have such kind of sensation
as if someone within you is speaking to
you, telling you what the will of God
is and what it is not?
Now, that's intuition.
Now, what is intuition?
Intuition is direct knowledge, the knowledge that we
know, mental knowledge.
How do we have knowledge?
We have knowledge by receiving information from outside.
We gather data, and as we gather information,
it becomes our knowledge.
So you'll find that our human knowledge comes
from outside.
It's indirect.
Then you analyze it, but intuition is direct
knowledge.
It does not come from outside information, not
because someone has taught you.
Someone tells you what to do.
What is it?
Is it right or is it wrong?
No, it doesn't come from outside.
It comes from your spirit.
The Holy Spirit speaks to your spirit's intuition,
and you directly receive that knowledge from above.
That's intuition.
So after you believe in the Lord Jesus,
you'll find not only the function of communing
begins, your intuition begins to function.
And not only that, you'll find your conscience
also begins to function.
Now, what is conscience?
Conscience, sometimes we say, is the voice of
God.
When you are doing something that is not
right in the sight of God...
Now, it may be right in your sight.
It may be right according to the world's
opinion.
But when you, after you are saved, and
you are doing something that is not right
before God, you'll find your conscience begins to
speak.
And when your conscience speaks, it contradicts your
thinking, because you think one way, and the
conscience tells you this is not right.
It accuses you.
And if you are doing something right before
God, it excuses you.
Not accuse, but excuse you.
Now, that is the work of conscience.
So sometimes we say conscience is like in
a car.
You have to brake.
When you are going too fast, or when
you are having some trouble, you brake it.
Now, that's conscience.
God is keeping, touching your brake in your
spirit.
And when that happens, better listen to it.
Now, do not fight against it.
Listen to it.
So you'll find that the moment you are
saved, your new spirit begins to function.
It's supernaturally natural.
And that's why you'll find in the new
covenant that we are in.
It says you do not need anyone to
teach you.
Know the Lord, because every one of you,
from the least to the greatest, shall know
himself.
Now, what does it mean?
It means that after we are saved, we
have the anointing.
Within us.
Every one of us.
The Holy Spirit is the anointing.
He is in us.
And he will teach us in all things.
Where does he teach us?
He teaches us in our intuition.
And whatever he teaches, the great things and
the small things, and whatever he teaches is
true.
It is not a lie.
And if you obey his teaching, you abide
in Christ.
That is 1 John 2, verse 27.
That's about intuition.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to, what
we call, learn to walk in the inner
way.
Inward way.
You know, in Proverbs, chapter 20, verse 27,
it says man's spirit is the lamp of
the Lord.
Now, think of that.
Man's spirit is the lamp of God.
Searching all the inner parts of the body.
Man's spirit is the lamp of God.
Man's spirit is not a light of God.
It is the lamp of God.
In other words, it is an organ, like
a lamp.
It is not the light itself, but it
is that vessel where the light is put.
The light is God.
God is light.
The light is Christ.
He is the light of life.
The light is the spirit because he is
the spirit of light.
Now, God himself is the light.
But where does he dwell?
Where does he reveal himself?
In your spirit.
Because your spirit is the lamp that contains
that light.
And having that light within that lamp, it
searches all the inner parts of the body.
Now, in the old days, the body is
not a physical body.
The body, in the old days, represents the
soul, our soul.
So you find that it is the light
from the spirit that searches every inner part
of the soul.
It searches our emotion.
It searches our feeling.
It searches our thinking.
It searches our willing, our opinions, our determinations.
And this light of God will shine through
our spirit, searching all the parts of our
soul and reveal what our mind is, thinking
is, what our feeling is, our emotion is,
what our will is, our opinion, our volition
is.
Whether it is from God, or whether it
is from ourselves, or whether it comes from
the world.
We do not know our soul.
Nobody knows himself or herself.
The Bible says the heart is deceitful.
Above all things, who knows it?
Nobody knows.
But it is God who searches the heart.
So brothers and sisters, you find our spirit
is so essential, so central to our whole
spiritual life.
If we neglect our spirit, then we live
in our soul.
We live a fleshly life, a carnal life,
not a spiritual life.
So dear brothers and sisters, we need to
know how important is our spirit.
And because it is so important, we need
to pay attention to our spirit.
And we need to know how to facilitate
the functions of our spirit.
So here is the first thing.
We need to exercise our spirit.
In 1 Timothy 4 verse
8.
1 Timothy 4 verse 8.
For bodily exercise is profitable for a little,
but godliness is profitable for everything, having promise
of life of the present one and of
that to come.
The word is faithful and worthy of all
acceptation.
We need to exercise our body because exercising
body is profitable.
A body without exercise not only will not
grow properly, but it will be so weakened
and very soon will lose its ability.
And in order to maintain a healthy body,
not only you need to eat right, rest
right, drink right, but you need to exercise
too.
Because bodily exercise is profitable.
But it is for a little.
Why?
Because it is just for a little time.
As long as you are in this physical
body.
But exercise, the Bible says, exercise thyself
unto godliness.
What does it mean?
It means exercise yourself to be like God.
And what is to be exercised?
Your spirit.
Your spirit needs to exercise.
And such exercise is profitable for all things.
Not only in this age, when you are
living, even in eternity.
That's the profit of spiritual exercise.
Now, brothers and sisters, are you exercising your
spirit?
Or you have never exercised it?
If you have never exercised your spirit, your
spirit is weak, weakened, feeble, and eventually will
go to sleep.
But if you exercise your spirit, it becomes
stronger, keener, sharper, more powerful, and
it is profitable.
Not only while you are living on this
earth, but the profit will go into eternity.
What I'm afraid is, many believers never exercise
their spirit.
Not to say some not even knowing they
have a spirit.
But the more you exercise your spirit, the
more you know your spirit.
Our communion needs to be exercised.
When you are first saved, you pray, Abba,
Father, thank God for that.
Your communication with God begins.
But don't stop there.
You have to cultivate your relationship with God.
And how do you cultivate your relationship?
To be with Him.
To be more familiar with Him.
So you'll find in the Bible there are
many different words being used.
Draw near to God.
Wait upon God.
Commune with God.
In 1 John 1, verse 7, God is
light.
If we walk in the light, as God
is in the light, we have fellowship with
one another.
And the blood of God's Son, Jesus Christ,
cleanses us from all our sins.
Fellowship.
Communion.
Sharing something in common.
And by sharing that union, relationship
with God becomes closer, more intimate, more complete.
God is spirit.
We must worship Him in spirit and truth.
You cannot worship God just with your soul.
You can pray a most beautiful prayer but
God has not heard it.
You may prostrate yourself on the floor but
God is not worshipped if He does not
come from your spirit.
Worship is the result of communion with God.
If in your daily life you are not
in touch with God and on the last
day you come to break the bread, there
is no worship there because you can only
worship Him in spirit and truth.
No matter how loud you sing, how elated
your feeling is, no matter how beautiful, well
organized is your prayer, there is no worship.
Just like God said to the Pharisees, you
worship me with your mouth but your heart
is not there.
Worship is a result of communion.
Even in the secular way, I mean in
this world, you and your father or your
mother, how do you get closer?
You try to be together.
You try to communicate, share your heart together
and the more you do that, the closer
the relationship, the stronger the relationship and the
same thing is true with our God.
In our daily life we need to cultivate
our friendship with God as it were.
Draw near to Him, closer to Him.
Now why do we pray?
Why do we read the Bible?
Why do we have so-called morning watch?
I wonder if you have morning watch.
Why?
These are only means.
These are not the thing.
The thing is through these means you communicate
with God.
You can pray without touching Him.
You can read the Bible without knowing Him.
When you have your morning watch, when you
get up in the morning, you are before
the Lord.
How do you draw near to Him?
I like a hymn by Evan Hopkins.
Evan Hopkins is well known as one of
the theologians of the Catholic Convention and he
wrote a hymn.
I can only tell you about the first
verse if I can repeat but the general
idea.
It's a beautiful hymn.
I often use it in my morning prayer.
Before I pray, nothing between, Lord, nothing between.
Let me Thy glory see.
Draw my soul near to Thee.
And hear Thy voice of love.
Nothing between, nothing between.
That's the preparation for communion.
When you begin to pray, do you just
start praying, Lord, bless me, bless my family,
bless my work.
Amen.
Or are you trying to draw near to
Him?
Let nothing be between you and Him.
You want to see His glory.
You want to hear His voice.
You just do not go Him and pour
out everything and after you finish, you say
goodbye.
You do not try to hear from Him.
There is no communion.
You are not exercising your spirit.
Brothers and sisters, we need to learn how
to exercise our spirit in communion.
Before you start to pray, draw near to
God.
Wait upon Him.
Be quiet.
You know the Bible uses all kinds of
words.
When you come to the presence of God,
soften your steps.
Be still.
Wait upon Him.
Lift up your spirit or if you cannot
distinguish, lift up your heart.
Draw near.
Lift up your heart before Him.
Ask Him to examine you whether there is
anything between you and the Lord, that there
be nothing between.
And then you begin to commune with Him.
The same way in reading the Word of
God.
You know, you just say today, every day
I want to read say four chapters.
If you read four chapters, you will cover
the Bible once again.
And you just read and after you read,
that's it.
You forget all that you have read.
But when you are reading the Word, are
you just reading it with your mind or
are you reading it with your heart?
Is your heart open to His speaking?
You know, to read the Word of God
is to let Him speak to your spirit.
To hear His voice and even to see
His face.
These are means.
But the important thing is you are in
communion with God.
So you remember that there is a term
called practice the presence of God.
Now actually what it means is you practice,
you exercise yourself.
So you learn how to be in His
presence all day long.
When you are free or even when you
are busy.
Maybe you stop for a few seconds.
Lift up your heart towards the Lord.
That's practicing the presence of God.
You know, helping you to know that you
are in His presence.
Now these are ways and means of exercising
your spirit.
And the more you exercise your spirit, the
more you know God.
The more you love Him.
The more you see His glory and the
more you worship Him.
How worthy He is.
You will put Him in the rightful place
and you will put yourself in your proper
place too.
Now that's worship.
That's communion.
And all our worship should come from the
spirit.
Marry the mother of Jesus.
Say, my soul magnifies the Lord.
But don't forget, He said, and my spirit
has rejoiced in Him.
It begins from the spirit.
And the spirit begins to overflow into our
soul.
And our soul begins to take it up.
And our whole being will be involved.
And then you'll find God is worshipped.
Communion.
We need to exercise it.
Intuition, the same thing.
I do not believe that any true believers,
the Holy Spirit who dwells in him or
in her, never open his mouth.
Never speak to you.
Sometimes people say, well, how does God speak
to me?
Do I hear it with my ear?
No.
You hear it with your inner ear.
A still, small voice.
This is the way.
Go you.
Hear it.
This is another way.
Don't go there.
Brothers and sisters, I believe every believer must
have experienced these things.
Sometimes you are speaking.
And probably before you believe the Lord, you
know, you like to boast.
You like to magnify your thing.
It's natural.
But after you believe in the Lord, when
you are beginning to boast, someone within you
says, you better stop.
Do you still go on?
Well, you may.
We all do because we have to learn.
But after you go on, what happens afterwards?
You feel uncomfortable.
You have to repent and claim the blood
of the Lord Jesus and then you are
able to go on.
So the important thing is learn to obey
the inner voice.
Learn to obey the inner teaching.
Don't neglect it.
And the more you learn to listen.
You know, sometimes we are all so busy.
We are all so loud.
You know, with our own thinking, with people's
opinions, that we cannot hear the still small
voice.
We are thinking like Elijah to hear the
thunder.
And there's a God here speaking.
Or the fire or the earthquake.
God is not there.
It is in a still small voice.
God says, what are you doing here?
Brothers and sisters, learn to exercise it.
Exercise your intuition.
The more you exercise it, the keener it
will become.
And that is where spiritual discernment will come.
You know, God's people today lack spiritual discernment.
It is because you do not exercise your
intuitive power.
Same thing with our conscience.
Listen to your conscience.
Obey it.
And if you do, what will happen?
Let me put it this way to help
you to remember.
Communing leads to worship.
Intuition leads to walk.
Conscience leads to testimony.
If you return to 2 Corinthians 1.
2 Corinthians 1.
Verse 12.
For our boasting is this, the testimony of
our conscience that in simplicity and sincerity before
God, not in fleshly wisdom, but in God's
grace, we have had our conversation, that is
our life, our walk, in the world and
more abundantly towards you.
Our conscience leads us to testimony that we
may have a good testimony before God and
man, that we are really not living according
to fleshly wisdom, but in God's grace.
So, brothers and sisters, a believer's conscience is
very important.
When your conscience is lost, your faith leaks
out.
It's a shipwreck.
So, a believer's conscience is very important.
And the standard of our conscience, of course,
is God himself.
He is the standard of our conscience.
That is the first thing.
Exercise your spirit.
The second thing you'll find in the Word
of God concerning our spirit is we need
the strengthening of our spirit.
Ephesians chapter 3.
In Paul's prayer for the believers, he said
in verse 16, chapter 3, verse 16, in
order that he may give you according to
the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with power by his Spirit in the inner
man that the Christ may dwell through faith
in your hearts, being rooted and founded in
love in order that you may be fully
able to apprehend with all the things what
is the breadth and length and depth and
height and to know the love of the
Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be
filled even to all the fullness of God.
In other words, our spirit needs strengthening.
We need the Holy Spirit who dwells in
us to strengthen our spirit.
And why?
Because this is the only way that you
can convert a vision to evocation.
Convert your inner knowledge, the knowledge that you
receive by intuition into your daily experience.
How do we apprehend?
Not only know, but apprehend.
In other words, not only you have the
spiritual knowledge, but you have the spiritual power
to really apprehend it, possess it, experience
it.
It is through the strengthening of your inner
man.
The inner man speaks of our spirit.
It needs to be strengthened.
Why?
Because our outer man, the soul, that soul
life is so strong.
Oftentimes you'll find your soul life is so
strong that your spirit is not only subdued,
but sometimes quenched by your soul.
To put it another way, our spirit in
the past was in captivity by our soul.
So when our spirit is renewed, it is
still young, it is still weak.
It cannot overcome that old Adam life in
us.
You have the knowledge, you are willing, just
like Romans 7.
In Romans 7, his mind is renewed.
He knew the will of God.
He even had the will to do it,
but he does not have the power because
his flesh is so strong.
You remember Luther said, I do not afraid
of the poops, but I'm afraid of the
poop within me.
And how are you going to overcome your
self life?
How are you going to dethrone yourself from
the throne of your soul and let Christ
be enthroned in your soul?
That is what he said.
When you are strengthened in your spirit that
Christ may dwell in your heart.
In other words, Christ will come out of
your spirit and displace self from your soul
and he instead sits on the throne and
begins to direct all the functions of the
soul to express himself instead of expressing self.
You need that strengthening.
Brothers and sisters, do you feel, do you
sense the weakness of your spirit?
Do you cry out to the Lord?
Oh, wretched man that I am, who can
deliver me from this body of death.
You need spiritual power and spiritual power is
when your spirit is energized by the Holy
Spirit and all your visions will be translated
into vocation to apprehend.
You begin to experience what you know inwardly.
So we need to pray this prayer that
our spirit may be strengthened by the power
of the Holy Spirit to overcome the opposition,
the tyranny of our self-life and let
Christ be enthroned Let Christ be enthroned in
our soul so our soul will express him
not express ourselves.
Strengthening of our spirit.
And then the third thing is our spirit
needs to be purified.
2 Corinthians 7 Having
therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves
from every pollution of flesh and spirit perfecting
holiness in God's fear.
Probably we think that our flesh can be
polluted and our flesh has been polluted and
corrupted.
We may never think that our spirit can
be defiled.
You know, there is something very, very dangerous
going on in the Christian world.
Some people have the wrong idea.
Whatever comes from the spirit must be of
God.
That's not true.
It is true that it has to come
from the spirit.
But not everything that comes out of your
spirit is right.
Because our spirit can be polluted can be
defiled.
So the Bible said we need to purify
even our spirit and then we will perfect
holiness.
Otherwise it is not completely separated unto God.
Let me use some illustration.
You remember Moses?
The meekest of men.
But once his spirit was provoked and when
his spirit was provoked he got into anger.
You remember that story in Numbers?
The people cried for water and God said
take the staff before the ark.
Take it with you and then speak to
the rock and water will flow.
He was so provoked in his spirit, so
angry he lost his temper.
He told the people, you rebels I give
you water and he struck that rock twice.
Now that is Aaron's rock that budded.
So when he struck the rock he spoiled
it.
But God is faithful.
Water still came out but God said you
cannot enter into Canaan.
No matter how he cried to the Lord,
the Lord said don't ask me again because
you misrepresent me.
His spirit was polluted.
You remember Elijah?
How God used him?
Fire came down from heaven burned up the
sacrifices and all these priests of the idols
were killed.
Such a victory and the people said God
Jehovah is God, Jehovah is God such a
victory.
But when Jezebel said tomorrow I will have
you he fled.
His spirit was overheated so overheated that he
became self pitiful.
When God said what are you doing here
he said they kill everybody and they want
to kill me.
I'm not better than my ancestors.
Pride.
Self pity.
His spirit was polluted.
You remember Jonah?
His spirit was so prejudiced that even though
he had to obey God but he wanted
God to do differently.
And he told God everything I do is
right.
You have to go to the book of
Jonah I don't have the time to do
it.
And you remember in the New Testament in
Luke chapter 9 our Lord was on his
way to Jerusalem to be crucified.
He passed through Samaria but the village would
not receive him.
So James and John came to the Lord
and said Lord do you want us to
call fire from heaven to burn that up?
How dare they not to receive you.
Zealous for the Lord.
Lord.
You remember what the Lord said you do
not know what kind of spirit you have.
Our Lord's spirit is the spirit of the
land going to be sacrificed and the disciples
spirit is a spirit of arrogance.
In other words our spirit can be polluted.
Our flesh can invade into our spirit and
take control.
Ourself can come in and overpower our spirit.
Even the world is able to come in
and so tempted and cheated that even Demas
at the last minute loved the world and
went back to Thessalonica.
And also the evil spirit can oppress our
spirit to such an extent that it can
hardly breathe hardly function.
You remember our Lord said my spirit was
oppressed.
When he came to the garden his spirit
was oppressed.
The power of darkness was oppressed upon his
spirit.
And the only way is to pray otherwise
we'll fall into temptation.
So dear brothers and sisters we need to
be careful.
If it is from the Holy Spirit it's
always right.
But if it's only from our own spirit
be careful.
We need to humble ourselves before the Lord
all the time.
We need to ask the Lord to examine
us, search us, shine your light upon us
that we may have our spirit purified perfecting
holiness in the fear of God.
That will help us to be humble.
You know some greatly used by the Lord
have very tragic end because their spirit began
to be polluted.
Pride.
Popularity.
All these things, power can pollute our soul,
our spirit.
Not only our soul, our spirit.
So this is a warning that we have
to take and be careful.
Now this morning we just go over the
spirit in a very general and basic way.
And hopefully that will start us on the
journey towards the spiritual.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we confess there is so much
that we need to learn.
Pray that we may be humble enough to
come to thee and allow thee to work
out thy full salvation.
That our spirit may be wholly sanctified and
be preserved blameless by thy grace at the
coming of our Lord Jesus.
We give thee glory in thy name.