Three Laws Of Spiritual Life

Laws of spiritual life

3/19/95

I. Importance of Spiritual life

A. Flesh vs. spirit

1. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16, KJV).

a. Flesh includes the natural part of man apart from God.

b. Soul--mind,will, emotion

c. Flesh--reproduction, hunger, self-preservation

2. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (Romans 8:7, KJV).

B. 1 Cor. 2:9-3:2

1. 2:9, what God has prepared for us is not received outwardly or discovered in our natural minds. So he who desires to know and commune with god can rely upon his own intellect and mind

2. 2:10, God reveals. It is a gift of revelation, not an exercise of the flesh. The next two verses tell us HOW God reveals things to us.

a. The Holy Spirit alone knows the things of God and gives us revelation by HS (must be born again). Verse 11 tells us that it is in our spirit that we can understand the things of God.

1) It is very important that our spirit be quickened by the HS. Those not experiencing the new birth cannot perceive the things of the kingdom (John 3).

3. 2:13, Paul seeks not just to inform with his words, but to IMPART truth to anothers spirit, not just give information to the minds of others.

a. We need to ask God to give us utterance, not just try to explain or argue truths with natural arguments,

4. 2:14, The NATURAL man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God.

a. natural, HEB. is psuche or soulical. In other words, a man who is governed by the soul realm cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God.

b. These soulish people are those who have not received the life of the Spirit of God in their spirits and have only natural endowment because they are dead to God.

c. A regenerated man, if he attempts to communicate with God using his mind and observation (like the unsaved) instead of exercising his renewed spirit is powerless to perceive the realities of God. HE THINKS THE THINGS OF GOD ARE FOLLY!

d. They are spiritually discerned. The HS repeatedly stresses the fact that man’s spirit is the place of communion with God. The mind is very importatn, but must keep soulish facilities in secondary importance to spirits.

5. 2:15, a spiritual man is one whose spirit dominates and who has a highly sensitive intuition. The quiet voice of the spirit is undisturbed by emotion, mind and will of the soul, but actually assisted by it.

a. Spiritual man can judge because he leans on intuition of the Holy Spirit.

6. 2:16, But we…indicates we are different from people governed by the soul. We who have been regenerated posses the mind of Christ and need to listen

7. 3:1-3, Though all christians posses a regenerated spirit, not all Christians are spiritual. Many are still fleshly!

a. just as a man’s senses are not born with a matured awareness, so a believer’s intuition is not born highly sensitive.

b. Eph 1:17, we need to pray for increased revelation, discernment and intuition.

c. Too often we do not wait on the Lord for his wisdom and revelation because we are so preoccupied with our natural life…our lives are too dominated by the 3 desires of the body or soul.

II. Laws of spiritual life.

A. WEIGHTS

1. These are employed by the enemy to harass and deprive of joy and lightness and to disable one’s spirit from cooperating with the Holy Spirit. If we do not recognize the source of this heaviness and meaning of the oppression, we cannot instantly deal with it and restore our spirit to normalcy

a. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1, KJV).

2. A believer may be puzzled over it, interpreting it as something natural and allow his spirit to be suppressed. When one is then to do the work of God, he i powerless to accomplish God’s work because he has this weight. The consciousness of the spirit gets dull and the believer is unaware that the source is satanic OR he may be aware and not resist the attack.

1) Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

3. With this load, the christian is bound to suffer defeat. A free spirit is the basis for victory. When our spirit is oppressed, we lose discernment and miss God’s true guidance and spiritual progress halts.