He Has You

When you were first born, you were born in your flesh. It was a natural birth, and it was the beginning of your natural life. Not everything in the natural life is wrong, but everything in your natural life is tainted by the sin nature you were born with.

Until you are born again in the Spirit, you only have your natural life. The limit of your natural life is always yourself, what you can do, what you can accomplish. It is the natural limitations by which most people live, including those who call themselves Christians.

There are some Christians who have only bones but no spiritual life. “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you…I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live…’” (Ezekiel 37:5,14 NKJV).

If you are born again in the Spirit, then you have a new life, a spiritual life. You still have a natural life, and this natural life will always be at war with your spiritual life. The natural life always looks inward, whereas the spiritual life always looks upward.

The only way that you can put on the new man and put away the old man is if you have the new man. And you won’t have this new man until you’re born again in the Spirit because the new man is your inner spirit that must first be born, so you can then live a spiritual life.

There are some things that, if you don’t put them down, they will put you down. “Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24 NKJV).

People say they want to become spiritual, but they don’t really know what being spiritual is all about. They may have a notion as to what it means, but they just can’t get their arms around it. The problem is they are trying to grasp the spiritual with their natural.

People ask me how they can become spiritual. The first question should be, “What does it mean to have a spiritual life?” You should know the destination before you begin the journey. “Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the [Holy] Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants.” (Romans 8:5 GNT).

Your natural life is controlled by your flesh, whereas your spiritual life is controlled by the Holy Spirit. The life that you feed the most is the one that will be the strongest in you. Just because you are born again doesn’t mean your inner spirit is growing stronger.

The natural life is always about what you can do and how it’s going to please your flesh. It relies upon yourself, and it justifies whatever actions you take, whatever words you say, just so long as you are the beneficiary of whatever you are justifying needs to be done.

The spiritual life is always about what the Holy Spirit can do in you and then through you. It has as its focus pleasing the Spirit of God. In the spiritual life, it never says, “the end justifies the means,” instead, it says, “the means justify the end.”

How we are practically reflects who we are spiritually. “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10 NKJV).

The natural life focuses on what can be seen and what the temporary outcomes are. The spiritual life focuses on what cannot be seen but what can be trusted, which is God in heaven who is always with us. This life is focused on eternal outcomes.

The problem we have is that the natural life rules over us, and we listen to our flesh more than we listen to the Spirit of God. The proof of this is in how much we worry and how frustrated we are with the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

The proof of the Holy Spirit in you is the Holy Spirit through you. The waters are not still, but flowing. The Lord Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38 NKJV).

The quickest way to find out you’re not as spiritual as you thought you were is to have something come up against you in the natural. And that’s exactly what God will do. He doesn’t do it to ruin you, but to build you up into all that He wants you to be.

It takes the Holy Spirit to take a natural man and turn him into a spiritual man. “…[God] saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us. God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:4-6 GNT).

Growing spiritually always requires shrinking naturally, allowing the Spirit of God to strengthen your spirit to have more authority than your flesh does. The greatest battle in your life is not against others but against yourself, your spirit against your flesh.

The reason you’re not growing spiritually is not your lack of strength but your lack of yielding to God that He would be your strength. As a plant yields to the Sun and grows, so you must yield to God. “…let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you…” (Romans 12:2 ERV).

If you are born again, you have a spirit. This spirit can either be built up or held back, and the difference will be whether or not you mature spiritually. The only way to build up your spirit is to put down your natural, to put your flesh in its place.

This is why fasting is so powerful, because in the fast we’re telling our flesh to be quiet and we’re allowing our spirit to take control over our life. The way our spirit will have control over our life is by the quickening and the strengthening of our spirit by the Holy Spirit.

When you starve the flesh, you feed the spirit. “‘Even now,’ says the Lord, ‘Turn and come to Me with all your heart [in genuine repentance], with fasting and weeping and mourning [until every barrier is removed and the broken fellowship is restored]’” (Joel 2:12 AMP).

You can’t be spiritual for two seconds without the Holy Spirit. We must realize the Holy Spirit came upon us to strengthen our spirit so that our spirit would be pleasing to God. You may be born again, but are you growing in that new life?

You cannot be spiritual without the Spirit. “If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts [gifts that are to their advantage] to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him!” (Luke 11:13 AMPC).

We hear the words “praying in the spirit,” which implies that many of us are praying in the natural. When we pray in the natural, we pray based on natural limitations, being inwardly focused to get something more for ourselves in the natural realm.

When we pray in the spirit, there are no natural limitations because we’re reaching into the supernatural of heaven. We’re interceding for others with what God might do to help them. Our prayers go further because they are fueled by the Spirit of God.

You can only pray in the Spirit if first the Spirit is in you. “Pray in the Spirit at all times. Pray with all kinds of prayers, and ask for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready. Never give up. Always pray for all of God’s people” (Ephesians 6:18 ERV).

Make it your desire to grow spiritually. Make the decision to start fasting. You have to take the first step before God will show you the second step. You have to trust that He will help you before He will help you. Trust Him, He will never let you down.

To change the world around you, there must first be a change within you. “Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy” (Ephesians 4:22-24 NLT).

Blessings to you always,

Paul Balius