“I who started a good work in you, will complete it.” He told me last week as I was pondering in my heart if I ever will “measure up” to the fullness He has set for me.
That settled it. He gently pulled me back in to His love before I went away trying to produce the fruit of the Spirit with my own works! And again, He reminded me, “Focus on being, not doing.” What He meant by that is I need to focus more about being His daughter, to let Him love me unconditionally – that needs to come first. Only from there living and acceptable works will come out.
He continued to teach me. Through His prophet, He spoke to me:
“Fish brings forth fishes. Orange tree brings forth oranges. God brings forth gods.”
Wait, are you saying we are gods? – you might be asking.
Well, that’s what Jesus Himself says.
The seed of God is in us
In John 10:34, when the Jews pick up stones to stone Jesus, accusing Him of blasphemy, Jesus answers them, "Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods?" quoting Psalms 82:6.
We are of the same "species" as God Himself because He created us in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). When Adam committed high treason against God and fell into sin, his spirit and his descendants died. But when we receive Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we are born again in our spirit, not of corruptible seed (Greek word: sperma), but of incorruptible seed, by the word of God that lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23). What that simply means is God's own seed, which has the fullness of His DNA and character is now has been planted in your spirit!
Now, let’s talk about seed. If you plant an orange seed, you will get oranges, right? So if God plant His seed in us, when the seed grows and comes to full maturity, He will get a perfect ‘clone’ of Himself in us. That’s what happened to Jesus. Mary received the Seed of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and became pregnant with Jesus. And because this Seed was not mixed with anything of man’s seed, Jesus is 100% blameless and sinless.
God has planted His seed in our spirit through Christ – we are perfect and blameless in our spirit! That’s why we can come to His throne of grace boldly, because our spirit man is without sin and cannot sin (Romans 6:11).
Live by the spirit man
Our spirit man is who we really are! That’s our real identity, we need to know and be conscious of this truth. If we don’t know our real identity, we’ll end up wearing masks and unknowingly, we’re putting ourselves under bondage because we put ourselves under what people want us to be, instead of being who we really are.
However, our soul is a different thing. Remember we are made of spirit, soul, and body. When we’re saved, we’re born again in our spirit. Our soul (our mind, wills, and emotions) will eventually catch up if we fill ourselves in more and more of Him. When we sin, we sin in our soul, not our spirit. That’s why we often experience a war between our soul and spirit – what Paul wrote in Romans 7. And until we bring our soul under the control of our spirit man, we will continue to experience this waging war in our lives.
This is where sanctification and holiness come in, to bring our soul and body into alignment with our spirit man – remember that our spirit man is already perfect and holy.
Breaking through and with love
Often God will allow and use problems and trials to break the shell of our spirit, which is our soul. Another way He will use is through the baptism of fire – something I will discuss more in the future blog. But for now let’s talk about the first way.
One good analogy here is the breaking of an alabaster box. Did you know that an alabaster box is designed in such a way that it doesn’t have any opening or a lid? The only way to access the precious oil inside it is by breaking the box. We have precious oil inside of us He wants to let out, but sometimes our own minds, wills, carnality come in a way that God has to let us go through difficulties to break our box!
While problems and trials often get our attention and bring us back to God, I truly believe it is His goodness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). We are changed from glory to glory by beholding Him. We simply cannot change ourselves. Christianity is all about developing an intimate relationship with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, it’s not about doing good or doing right so we’ll get accepted. A thousand times no!
When we know that we are loved, perfectly and completely by a perfect and good Father, we will receive that love that will cause us to want to spend more and more time with the One who’s perfect goodness. Throughout time, as we spend more time with Him, whether in worship, devotion, reading the Word, our spirit man gets stronger and bigger – His seed started to grow in us and subdue our soul! We will be more and more like Him, and soon we will find we no longer want to do the things that grieve Him. We will find it easier to give up things that will come in the way of our developing greater intimacy with Him.
It’s important that we get this, beloved. Time is running out, let us redeem the time and prepare ourselves to be a worthy vessel in whom God will be glorified. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1).
In the next blog, I will talk about feeding our spirit man - stay tuned!
The Spirit has spoken, let them who have ears to listen, listen to what the Spirit is saying.
Amen, amen.