What Spirit Are You?
Part 4 Do you have the Spirit?
JCC 09.05.10 am
Read 1 Cor 3:1-23
Paul is speaking not to the unbeliever, but to those in the Church who have made a commitment to follow Jesus
He acknowledges that they have Jesus has their saviour, but definitely not has their Lord
He calls them babes
These were Christians who have no victory over the flesh
They are carnal, immature and weak in the faith
Natural development and growth in physical and spiritual
Need to grow in maturity
As we grow, we come into maturity, a perfect man
The first words of a baby are exciting
Evidence of growth
Then they begin to sit up on their own, toddle, walk then run
Leading to independence
Communication is on a higher level when they are mature
If after 15, 20 years they are still in the baby stage, then something is wrong
The Christians at Corinth weren’t able to take the meat of the word
The evidence was in the manifestation of envy, strife and divisions
Are you not carnal?
It isn’t all about you
Or your opinions
If you refuse to recognise the whole body of Christ then you are shallow minded
You are carnal and thinking only of yourself and your own needs
Paul asked them, ‘who is Apollos?’ ‘Who is Paul?’
You shouldn’t identify with people but with God
Stop looking to certain people as though they are your sustenance
Look to the Lord
We are all supposed to be building here
Paul goes on to ask, ‘Why are you creating divisions?’
Division comes when people are carnal
We need to recognise that we are one of three natures:
PP1
Taken from Watchman Nee
• Outermost man
• Outer man
• Inner man where God dwells
The outermost or natural man is in darkness
Satan has blinded their eyes to the truth of God
God must open their eyes to the truth, this must be how we pray for such people
He is bound and blinded to the things of God
There is no harmony between the outer and inward man
They want opposite things
The outer doesn’t want to submit to the inner
This hinders him in his spirit
Distractions stop him moving in the Spirit
The outer must be broken
PP2
Soul = thoughts, emotions and will
Outermost = physical
The one who works for God should have had the inward man released
It must break through the outer man
So the difficulty is not others around you but you yourself
Are you not proud?
Are you not jealous?
These are of the carnal nature, the flesh
If we never break through, then we cannot serve affectively
John 12 except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit
Grain is surrounded by a shell and so are we, the carnal nature
We must break out
If the grain doesn’t break out there will be no wheat
He who loves his life shall lose it, he who hates his life shall find it
Which one are you?
Not which one do you think you are, but who you honestly know you are
So how do you allow this life to come to the forefront if you have it
Remember you cannot have it at the forefront if you don’t have it in the first place
Stop fooling yourself and examine your life
You may have a religious spirit
You feel quite at home in church and doing church things, but you are still in your darkness
If you don’t have the inner man ruling, then Jesus cannot break out of you as you have him trapped within by your own will
You tie his hands and imprison him
He will never impose himself over your will
If your will be done, then his will, will not be done
If we have a church majority of people who want their own will to be done, then God cannot flow through the church
According to Watchman Nee, ‘The Lord employs two different ways to destroy our outward man; one is gradual, the other sudden. ... It would seem the Lord usually spends several years upon is before he can accomplish this work of destruction. ...In some...(he) is able to accomplish this work after a few years...others...after ten or twenty...in others...the work still unfinished.’
He goes on to say how God wastes his time with some and how they hinder the work of the Lord
These are the ones who will not change
They are stubborn, proud and think they are right and everyone else is wrong
Watchman followed this by saying: ‘We can preach by using our mind, we can stir others but using our emotions, yet if we do not know how to use our spirit, the Spirit of God cannot touch people through us.’
He wasn’t just speaking about those who are pastors of the church, but everyone who professes to know Christ
It is not you or I who are the future for the church
It is not the youth who are the future of the church
It is the LORD who is the future of the church; he just needs us to die and Christ to live
We cannot see the Lord transform this church, if he first hasn’t transformed us!
For me to live is Christ, to die is gain
This is what Paul was saying
He knew what it was to die, not in the physical sense of the word, but the flesh must be put to death daily
Take up your cross daily Jesus said
Not take up your cross every Sunday
Or take up your cross when you feel like it
Or when you feel spiritual
If we wait until we feel like it, then we shall see very little of the move of God among us
You who are supposed to be mature are in greater judgement, than those who have been a short while in the faith
It’s about time we stood and took up our responsibility before the Lord
Acknowledge that you are still very much alive and that God is not Lord of your life; maybe he is in voice but not action
The real meaning of the cross is to break you and crucify you
Jesus has done his part
Now it’s your turn
The cross must destroy your opinions, your intellect, your self-love your desires
For the inner man to become strong, kill the outer man first or there will be a constant struggle for survival
Who is winning in your life?
Christ or YOU!
When you fellowship with the Lord you encounter a Spirit, a Holy one at that
God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth Jn 4
When you are walking and living in the inner man, the spirit side of you, then people encounter Him through that instead of just you
My life is hidden in Christ with God
Why would you want to cling to the old nature?
Why would you still want to allow people to smell the same fragrance they did 20 years ago?
He is to some a fragrance of death, to others a fragrance of life
Whose perfume are you wearing?
Yours or His?
The reason many never move on in God is that they have a forceful will, a strong opinion, one who says; ‘no one will tell me what to do!’
‘I will not change my lifestyle’
‘I can be a Christian and still have my own life’
Sorry, but that is a lie from the pit of hell
If you still have your life, then He doesn’t have it
Just think what God could do with a bunch of people who are dead to themselves and alive to him
If you are going through a painful time, is maybe the Lord’s hand trying to destroy the outer man
And remember, everything he does is for our good
Do you approach the cross and not want to hang there?
Do you want to drink the vinegar and the gall before you hang there to ease your suffering?
Or do you drink the cup of the Lord and follow his example by refusing the remedy to take the sting out of your death?
There is only cup, not two
If you take communion and still are very much alive, then beware because you take it unworthily
The Lord’s body is made up of people who are dead, then resurrected through his life to a new and glorious way; a way in the spirit
Are you broken by God yet?
For us to be effective then we must see that it is the Spirit that enables us
When we call others we must also remember it is the Spirit that quickens, only he can make them live
We decide whether the Spirit of God is active
We can have the Spirit, but he can remain inactive because the outer man keeps him there
Pp 3 & 4
What value is there in this?
What impact can we make in this state? Pp3
Illustration:
Electricity can be there in a circuit but if the bulb isn’t switched on then what use is that to those in darkness. The bulb lights up when the flow of the current is connected and allowed to enter and take over the bulb. A complete circuit is needed. The bulb and the electricity become one; Light is achieved by both working together. You don’t look at the bulb when you enter a dark room; you are too fixed on the light surrounding it; you are not aware of the circuit that makes the light, because you naturally expect it to be there. If either is broken from the other then the result is darkness. However, a bulb with no centre strobe can never bring light; so are they without Christ in their life.
Jesus prayed that as he was one with the Father and the Spirit, so he desired this for his followers too
The Holy Spirit put this prayer of Jesus into the scriptures for our benefit
This oneness is the key to moving in the Spirit
Our nature and emotions are not God’s nature, so we seem to drift in and out of the spirit realm
When we are happy, we mistake this for being in the Spirit
It is not dependent on our emotional state
Was Jesus happy on the cross?
Were the disciples happy to be flogged and imprisoned?
Of cause not, but they nevertheless had the Spirit to overcome those times
Who upholds you when you have lost a love one?
Are you happy then?
Of cause not
So it is not based on your emotional state
Yet many Christians go to church and get a quick fix of happiness and call it the Holy Spirit
Then there are those who assume his presence by activities
When activities stop, then his presence stops
They are left destitute
Yet emotions and thoughts are human energies and not the Holy Spirit
It is only the inner man that is the same nature as the Spirit of God
So to know and understand the presence of God, no matter what your circumstances, is by maintaining a daily walk in the inner man
By each day crucifying the old nature
By acknowledging that in me and you dwells nothing good
By asking to be filled every day to overflowing with His Spirit
By keeping the connection with the Holy Spirit in our spirit
The outward man responds to the outward worldly things and the inward man responds to the things of the Spirit and heavenly things
The inner man will remain unmoveable despite the circumstances going on on the outer
They have inner peace and their heart is stable
Nothing will move them because they know that Jesus is Lord over all
There might be turmoil around, but their inner communion is constant
This is the dividing of the soul and spirit
Heb 4:12 we have to separate the two
If we don’t, the outward man will cripple the inward if it’s not broken
So what spirit are you?
Jesus asked this same question of two of his disciples
He is asking us here today the same question
