When you are born again by the Holy Spirit, your inner spirit is born into an eternal relationship as God’s child. Your inner spirit is then strengthened and taught by the Holy Spirit, helping you to grow in your spiritual life.
You’d be surprised what God can do in your life if only you’d let Him. “May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality]” (Ephesians 3:16 AMPC).
There are many Christians who have no spiritual life because they have never been born again by the Holy Spirit. They are not yet a child of God, no matter how much they think they are. Test yourselves in this, as your eternal life depends on it.
You cannot be spiritual without the Spirit. “God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16 GNT).
Your spirit self is not a separate self, in a separate place, at a separate time; it is here and now. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6 NKJV).
For those Christians who are born again, they have a spirit within them that has the potential to grow and mature. But growth is not guaranteed. How much you grow depends entirely on how much you let the Holy Spirit help you.
The Holy Spirit will change you as much as you’re willing to let Him. “…be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 12:2 TPT).
The greatest enemy in your spiritual life is your natural life. It will be the cravings of your sinful nature that will cause your inner spirit to remain weak and powerless within you. Until you surrender to the Holy Spirit, you’re in bondage to your sinful nature.
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…” (Titus 3:4-6 GNT).
In our Christian teaching, we place a great emphasis on being filled with the Holy Spirit, and rightly so, as it’s the Holy Spirit that can change us. But what does the Holy Spirit change in us? He strengthens and teaches our inner spirit so we will grow spiritually.
The Lord can only do a work in you when you are completely undone. “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord…” (Proverbs 20:27 NKJV).
We hear the words “spiritual growth” and don’t consider what they really mean. The growth is what happens to our inner spirit when we allow the Holy Spirit to begin doing a work in us. The growth is not only in strength but in spiritual wisdom.
The ladder of intellectualism leads to a greater intellect. But it is by the ladder of the Spirit that your spirit can be greater. “But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding” (Job 32:8 NKJV).
The spirit of a man is supposed to reign in a man over his soul and his body. You may have been born by the Spirit, but what is the condition of your spirit in relation to your soul and your flesh? Which of the voices inside of you that you listen to the most?
So long as your flesh rules you, then your spirit will sit on the bench. “…Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh… ” (Galatians 5:16 NKJV).
The spirit of a man was born out of heaven and built for heaven to last into all of eternity. You will get a new body in heaven, but the spirit you have now will go on forever. Your spirit will always be growing, even when you get to heaven.
More people say they’ve been born again than there are people who exhibit a spiritual life that would be the evidence of being born again in the Spirit. Jesus taught, “I tell you for certain that before you can get into God’s kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit. Humans give life to their children. Yet only God’s Spirit can change you into a child of God” (John 3:5-6 CEV).
“Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7 NKJV).
“And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’” (Acts 7:59 NKJV).
If you want to reach the deepest parts of a man or a woman, you must reach deep into their spirit. Many preachers preach to the flesh because it’s the flesh that most people are operating in. But when you preach to the spirit, you bypass the flesh.
You can touch the soul of a man by your soul, but the spirit of a man can only be touched by your spirit. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 NKJV).
Preach to flesh, and when the flesh fails, the message dies with the man. Preach to emotions, and when the feelings are hurt, the message is wounded, and the saint falls away. But preach to the spirit of a man, then a word is born, and the message is established in him for all of eternity. “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13 NKJV).
If you want to grow spiritually, then you need to nourish your spirit and exercise it so that it will become stronger. There is no better way to nourish your spirit than to starve your flesh and to fill your spirit with the Word of God as you get into His presence.
When you starve the flesh, you feed the spirit. “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Galatians 6:8 NKJV).
You need to acknowledge your spirit and be sensitive to your spirit so that you can grow in spiritual matters. As an athlete must be tuned into their body to excel athletically, so the believer needs to be tuned into their spirit to excel spiritually.
It’s in our innermost being that we find our outermost purpose in life. “…glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV).
Pray that the Holy Spirit will grow your spirit and help you realize your spirit within you. Just as your thoughts cannot be seen but are as real as what you can touch, so it is with the spirit of a man or a woman.
You have to be one with God before you can be the one for God. “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17 NKJV).
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
The statement you made “It’s in our innermost being that we find our outermost purpose if life”. How absolutely true and well said! You placed 1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV in direct context. “Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s”. I have known only a few Joseph types in my life. Genesis 39:6 Potiphar left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge or care as some translations read. The end of Genesis 39 verse 6 reads as follows in NASB. “Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearence” That is precisely why potiphars wife lusted after Joseph. But Joseph lived from his innermost being, therefore he had the spiritual strength to bring his body under the control of the Spirit of God. I have met a few Joseph’s and a few female Joseph types. They shine like the stars amongst an evil and corrupt generation. I believe those gifted with beauty and form as Joseph was have to determine all the more to starve the flesh and feed the Spirit within.