1 Thessalonians 5:23... 23) Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Emphasis mine.)

The Spirit

The first mention of man in the Bible comes in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" The two things we find out about ourselves is that, we are made in the image of God and we are given dominion over the earth.

Many believe also, when God says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” He means that we look like Him. In other words, if you were to see God visibly, He would have two arms, two legs, a head, and a body. But, that belief is wrong— God doesn’t have a physical body. Sure, Jesus took on our physical body, but that was just temporary. The image that we are made in is that of the spirit. It cannot be our physical bodies, because God is not physical, He is Spirit (John 4:24 ). God is not limited to time and space.

People also reference, John 14:9, to make this same point that our physical look is like God, Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Now Jesus, of course, was in physical form when He spoke that verse, but that is not what we He was referring to— Jesus was referring to the nature of God. That’s what made Jesus special as a man, sure He looked like us— we read of a prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah 53:2, that, “There is no beauty that we should desire Him.” Physically Jesus wasn’t special. As a matter of fact, just by that statement in Isaiah, we get the impression that there were others, maybe many others, who were more attractive than Jesus. He was not one you would have noticed walking down the street. What made the physical man, Jesus, different was His likeness to God in His Spirit, that resulted in a very noticeable difference in His being as compared to mortal man.

The reason for this difference between any other man and Jesus was the fact that Jesus had the Holy Spirit within Him, and the ability to utilize every aspect of the Holy Spirit to its fullest power. Although man was created with a spirit which made him in the likeness of God, the spirit that man had, which the Bible calls the “spirit of man” (Zechariah 12:1 ) was corruptible (Romans 1:23 ). Since the very first day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles, as promised by Jesus, Christians, who have accepted Jesus as their Savior, have this same power and authority through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit available to them.

The Bible tells us that “there is none righteous, no, not one;” (Romans 3:10 , Psalm 143:2 ). Yet, after receiving the Holy Spirit we are made righteous (Romans 5:19 ) before God. This isn’t a contradiction, it is what is proclaimed throughout the Bible. This was God’s plan from the outset— there has been no deviation from His plan what-so-ever. Many believe that God is constantly changing His plan to accommodate the sins of man. His plan took everyone of man’s sins into consideration before-hand.

Now, it didn’t take long for our corruptible spirit to become corrupted. The Bible doesn’t tell us how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before Satan was able to deceive them, but I’m sure it was not difficult for Satan to do. When you think back in your life and think of how easy it was for you to justify a particular action that you knew may have been a little immoral, but yet you justified it based on a selfish attitude like, “I deserve it”— that’s Satan working in your thought life (temptation), because God would never condone a feeling such as that, it is not His nature.

There are some who believe that God wasn’t sure if Adam and Eve would succumb to temptation or that Lucifer would turn on God and become Satan and deceive them. I disagree— God is an all-knowing God. God knew that the possibility was there, He knew the spirit of man was corruptible and knew that Lucifer would betray Him. I liken it to Jesus knowing before-hand, that Judas Iscariot would betray Him. How did Jesus know that? The same way God knew about Lucifer, they are both God and all-knowing. The one thing you cannot do is fool God. God knows what’s truly in your heart. Psalm 44:21, says, “would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?”

So we understand, we are born with a “spirit of man”, who is in the likeness of God, yet, is corruptible. Upon our accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit of God, which is incorruptible (1 Peter 1:23 ). Once receiving this incorruptible Holy Spirit of God our work is not finished. I mentioned in the last paragraph how Jesus knew Judas Iscariot would betray Him. The immediate answer was that He is God and all-knowing. But, there is a much deeper answer to that question that can open up many doors to us in the spiritual realm.

Not only do we have a spirit of man, which is upgraded to the Holy Spirit of God at our born again experience, but we also have a physical body and soul that has to be dealt with. What I mean by that, is that we go through our carnal lives, developing habits of wrong thinking that become ingrained within our being and becomes a part of us. In Galatians 5:16-21, it calls this the works of the flesh, which are, “19) adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20) idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21) envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.” Now, I’m not saying we all develop these attributes of the flesh, but to some degree we absorb much of them. But, read in verse 21 of Galatians 5, “that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

If you were living your life according to the works of the flesh before you were born again, and you are still living that way after being born again— you are not truly born again! If your conscience is not convicting you of this wrong way of living, then you do not have the Holy Spirit of God within you. Now, I’m not saying you are not going to sin or slip-up from time-to-time, that can and will happen, no one is perfect but Jesus Christ.

But, if you sin and slip-up in a part of your former sinful lifestyle and your conscience does not convict you of it, and your OK with it, you have one of three potential problems. The first, may be that, as I stated above, you were never truly born again and didn’t receive the Holy Spirit— the second, is that you received the Holy Spirit, but it lies dormant within you— and the third, which is the worst case scenario, you are blaspheming the Holy Spirit after receiving it, by knowingly and willingly turning against it. Let’s breakdown each one of these and see how to correct them:

The first problem of not truly being born again, is a problem that can only be corrected if you are called to the truth by God. There are many instances that a person will go through the born again experience when they were not called to the truth. It could be a spouse has accepted Jesus, so why not? It could be family or friends that have accepted Jesus. Whatever the case, you cannot live the born again experience unless the yearning for Jesus is truly in your heart and you accept and receive the Holy Spirit of God.

This in-turn will bring a conviction to your soul (which we will find later includes your heart and mind) that leads you to a right way of living (the fruits of the spirit, Galatians 5:22-26 ) and despising the ways of the world (the works of the flesh, Galatians 5:16-21 ). Most likely if you are not experiencing any kind of conviction to change your lifestyle, you would not be reading this anyway, because without the Holy Spirit, you would not be searching for answers, because you would be comfortable with your life as is. So, if you are experiencing any of these symptoms of not being born again, you may breathe a sign of relief, because, something is making you read this and it could very well be the Holy Spirit prompting you to seek help and find some answers.

There was a time when I experienced exactly what I just described. I questioned whether I was truly born again, because things just didn’t seem to be working as they should. But, praise God, the Holy Spirit kept prompting me to push forward and not give up— of course, with the help and encouragement of my blessing from God— my wife. My problem was that even though I had received the Holy Spirit, it was lying dormant within me because of my hardness of heart.

I was filled with all the wrong teachings that Satan had subtly contaminated true Christianity with since the first century Church. Like a beautiful, well manicured lawn that goes unattended for a season, will suddenly be overtaken by weeds that chokes out the grass. These wrong teachings will develop a hardness of heart that will be difficult to overcome and it will choke out the truth.

Why? Because Satan bases all of these teachings on physical feelings. Even though the Body of Christ preaches faith, there’s really no faith at all, or there is faith but an unbelief that negates that faith and renders it useless. For example: you can get a doctors report that you are have cancer and are going to die. Naturally, that is alarming news to any mortal human being— but in all reality it shouldn’t be! If you are truly born again, by accepting Jesus as your Savior, then the promises of God should be as real as the cancer that has taken over your body.

Rather than crumbling at the news of having cancer, you should be taking God’s promise and applying it to your life. There are many Scriptures that I can use, but one of my favorites is Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (NIV).” Now, that does not sound like a God who is going to allow his people, who dedicated their lives to him, to suffer in that way. If you are a born again Christian and you are suffering, it is time to re-examine yourself (2 Corinthians 13:5 ) and find out where the problem lies, because God doesn’t lie.

The second reason for your conscience not convicting you, is that because of hardness of heart, the Holy Spirit may be lying dormant within you. Now, hardness of heart is a whole other study in itself, which I intend to write on, but to date have not. So, check the “Study Pages” area of this site to see if and when it may be added.

But, what I will say briefly here is that hardness of heart is anything that you focus more attention on than God. Whether it’s money, career, family, or anything else, if it is something that takes priority over God, in your life— than it creates a hardness of heart toward God’s truth that separates you from experiencing God’s best for you.

God designed us to perform in perfect harmony with Him. When we do perform in perfect harmony with Him, than all the promises of God that we read about throughout the Bible will be evident in our lives. So many times I see ministries try to explain, why does God allow suffering? This question is wrong, it should read, why does man allow suffering? God created us not to suffer— it was man who chose the in-road of suffering when he chose to disobey God.

Of course, God allows us to linger in our sufferings after we chose it, not because He enjoys it or that He is punishing us— He allows us to linger in our suffering because the suffering is a consequence of our actions, whether it is directly because of our own sins or indirectly because of other circumstances due to sin that effects us— and just living everyday in a fallen world. It is also a way for us to learn through experience. But, to say that God allows suffering, is like saying He puts suffering upon us, and that is just not God’s nature.

The sin that causes suffering or any other consequence, is caused by hardness of heart. God tells us in His Word that sin results in death. Well, you must be hardened to that fact or else you would not commit sin. Every time we sin, we are not seeing clearly the facts that God told us about sin. We are relating more to the temptations of Satan, that always seem more appealing to us, but in all reality are not good for us at all.

So, when you don’t see clearly the facts of God, the Holy Spirit is not fully effective in your life and your soulish realm, which includes your heart and mind, are clouding the truth— that is a good example of hardness of heart. This tends to happen to new Christians who are gung-ho for the truths of God at first, but as the novelty of learning these new truths begins to subside and the cares of this world come back into focus, many tend to slip into a state of dormancy as far as the Holy Spirit being active in their lives.

This type of hardness of heart can only be overcome by re-dedicating yourself to God’s Word and establishing it first and foremost in your life. You must recognize the need to put God back into first place in your life and not allow the cares of this world to creep back in before it.

This can also become a roller coaster effect in your life if you are not careful. You can find yourself on this roller coaster if you allow the cares of this world to constantly get in the way of your spiritual growth. And I assure you that the cares of this world will try hard to create this imbalance in your spiritual life, because while on the ups and downs of this roller coaster, you cannot be an effective Christian, your life will be powerless.

This is Satan’s attempt at derailing your walk with Christ. And although you keep making attempts to re-establish yourself spiritually and at times feel good about yourself— Satan will be satisfied with the results, because he knows that by just creating a little bit of havoc in your career, for example, it will take your focus off of God even for just a short time. And the results that he gets is that your life will be a powerless life in Christ.

The third reason for your conscience not convicting you is the most dangerous of all. And this is what we call the unpardonable sin. The term “unpardonable sin” is not biblical in itself, but we read about it in Matthew 12:31 and Mark 3:28-29. Matthews version in 12:31-32, reads, “31) Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32) Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Marks version in 3:28-29, is very similar, “28) Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29) but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation.”

What they are both referring to is receiving the Holy Spirit after being born again and knowingly and willingly turning away from it in rebellion against God and His Holy Spirit. The Scripture reads, that any blaspheme, even that against Jesus, is redeemable, except that against the Holy Spirit.

This is the plight of Satan and his demonic spirits— they knowingly and willingly turned against God thinking they could have dominion over God. Satan and his demonic spirits had created this so-called unpardonable sin— they no longer can be redeemed, because this sin was blaspheme against the Holy Spirit of God. They know that it is just a matter of time for them and they are angry and want to take as many of God’s chosen with them as they can.

DON’T LET IT BE YOU!

To Continue, Click Here... The Power Behind Your Spirit, Soul, and Body (Part Two)

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