My Spirit 19th November 2006 0647 AGC

A few weeks ago I preached on the Holy Spirit and His ministry to us.
I shared scripture to answer this question. In what ways does the Holy Spirit minister to us?
I preached on John 16:8-11
8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

I want to follow this up by looking at the spirit of man.
I want us to be sure that our own spirit, which comes alive to God when we receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour, is fully a functioning.
We all know that man is a spirit being. We are a spirit, have a soul; mind, will and emotions, and live in a body.
The natural man’s spirit is dead to God and the things of God. When you are born again the Holy Spirit of God himself comes and lives in you and your spirit comes alive to God. The Holy Spirit’s ministry to you is by and through your spirit man inside you.

One of the first results of being born again and receiving the Holy Spirit affects your conscience. This important function of man’s spirit comes alive – or rather wakes up and is there to guide you into right and wrong. The natural man’s conscience is comatose –pretty well asleep – needing very strong circumstances to get it to work. In some it is stronger than in others due to upbringing, culture and Godly influences.
The Holy Spirit is not convicting the believer of sin. The conscience of the born again spirit of man convicts born again man. The Holy Spirit convicts the world, the unsaved, of their sin nature as part of the process of bringing them to faith in Jesus. [John 16:8-11]
The sleepy conscience of a natural man is easily overcome because man’s desire to do something is often so much stronger than the week protestations of his conscience.
For us the leading of the Holy Spirit should be natural – he leads us and guides us through our Holy Spirit empowered human spirit. This is called ‘walking in the spirit’ rather than ‘walking in the flesh’. The conscience corrects, reprimands or makes us feel uneasy. There is now guilt where there once was acceptance (as inevitable) and excuses for conduct, words said, and attitudes. Our spirit too has another function – listening to the Holy Spirit. He assures of the truth that we are forgiven, that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. There is now no condemnation. Jesus took our guilt on himself when he took our sin at Calvary. Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
There is a condition here!
That we ‘walk according to the Spirit’.

This walk will lead us to repentance and to confession. Repentance means ‘to change direction’. I.e., walk in a new direction, not in the same old sin led direction. Confession means ‘to say the same as another’. In this case it means saying the same about our sin, failing, stinking attitudes etc. as God Himself says – agreeing with Him. This implies that we feel the same abhorrence as He feels.
• Romans 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

SO • Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
I am at odds with some translations which capitalise Spirit indicating the Holy Spirit. In these scriptures it could equally refer to the Holy Spirit indwelt spirit of man
• Galatians 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
If we are Born Again then we are expected to take advantage of all that is ours in this new life in Jesus, such as, the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives through our Born Again spirit. That is “walking in the spirit”.
Galatians 3: 1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

So what is it like to Walk in the Spirit or walk in the spirit?
‘In the spirit’ is described by John
• Revelation 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,
In context this must mean a very close communion with the Holy Spirit, so close that we become aware of the spiritual world and spiritual things; the things of the natural world fade away.
This is a supernatural event which any may feel in prayer, in worship, in our quite times and is a natural ability of our spirit - communion with God.
Such spirit to Spirit and Holy Spirit to our spirit communion is a function of the re-born spirit of man.
We worship through our spirit.
• John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
We pray through our spirit.
• Ephesians 6:18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
These are spirit to Spirit communication. We get there by becoming more and more aware that we are spirit not just flesh. Without this awareness we are only touching the fringes of the new life that belongs to us.
God wants us to be aware of His Father Heart towards us. He is Spirit and we can only respond to Him, His love and His power in the spirit. He talks to us- in the Spirit too, Holy Spirit to our spirit. We hear Him in the spirit.
Let’s explore by being aware of our Life in the Spirit and walking in the spirit.
As we will become more aware we will see the difference between walking in the flesh and how he wants us to walk.
• Galatians 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

[Some time I will explore with you the Spirit-Soul Connection. What does,“the lover of my soul” mean?]