God is Spirit
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:24
As western Greek thinkers (European Thinking and Worldview), we do not understand “spirit” correctly. We see “spirit” as is an attitude or a vibe. Unbelievers also talk about being “spiritual” but in reality they are still unspiritual and spiritually dead by Biblical standards. The death we inherited from Adam is spiritual death and because of this, we cannot and do not understand or perceive “spirit”.
Sadly many Christians also talk about SPIRIT and yet are trying to be holy, and conformed to the image of Christ, through self-control and good intentions.
Religion
Many, if not most, “born-again” people think about dead ritualism often seen in the Roman Catholic Church as religion, and yet religion sets into all our hearts much quicker that we think.
As soon we plan good works and holiness from sincere intentions we become candidates to “begin in the Spirit and continue in the flesh”. Pastors are under immense pressure to make things look good and in the process the seduction of “continuing in the flesh” is extremely common. If the pastors exhortation is towards any form of “good work”, or away from “sin” then the BEWITCHING has occurred. Good intentions does not save us.
The only correct admonition is to “abide in the vine” to “be diligent to enter the rest” and “continue in the Spirit and in faith.
Continue in the same way you started!
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?2. This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?3. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
Galatians 3
You must be born again
The worship that the Father is seeking is “in Spirit”.
Only those who are “born again”, “begotten again” and “born of the Spirit “can begin comprehend and dwell with God on the terms described in John 3 and 4. Adam and his descendants don’t understand this. Some people engage in witchcraft or spiritualism but this is still not “Spirit” or “spiritual “ as the Bible speaks of it.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”4. Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”5. Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.6. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.7. “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’8. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John 3:3-8
Renewing the spirit of your Mind
In order to be able to comprehend spiritual things we need to have our minds renewed.
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
Ephesians 4:23a
Becoming and remaining “spiritual”
Being “spiritual” and judging spiritually is only available to those who have been baptized into Christ Jesus and have been crucified and buried with Him. The resurrection we experience in Christ is the “new birth” and that alone opens us to “God as Spirit”. Only once we are crucified, dead and buried and resurrected with Christ do we know and comprehend what spiritual is and begin to understand spiritual things. Unbelievers and carnal Christians do not understand this. They make attempts at “being holy”, “tithing”, “worshiping” but it is not “spiritual”. It is unacceptable to the Father.
Please note: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8
The Cross is a portal that takes us into the Spirit
The cross is a singularity were all the laws break down and change. There is a good reason why it is the central event in earth history and the central message of the Bible especially the Apostle Paul, to whom it was revealed more clearly than anybody else.
Romans 6
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?4. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.5. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,6. knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Romans 6:3-6
Romans 8
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,4. that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.5. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.6. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.8. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.9. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.10. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.11. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:1-11
Judging & Understanding Spiritually
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.2. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.3. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.4. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,5. that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.7. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,8. which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.9. But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.11. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.13. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.15. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.16. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and SPIRITUAL understanding;10. that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Colossians 1:9-10
Christian often start in the Spirit but continue in the flesh
Hanging around in church, “tithing”, “singing songs”, trying to “overcome sin”, “going on missions” etc etc does not automatically mean you are ”in the Spirit”
Unfortunately getting “bewitched” is very common among born again believers.
Religion is simply trying to complete in the good intentions of your flesh what only the Spirit can do inside of you.
This is a mystery and many don’t see it!!
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?2. This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?3. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?4. Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?5. Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—6. just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”7. Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.8. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”9. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”11. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”12. Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
Galatians 3:1-12
This was foreseen in the Old Testament by the Prophets
“And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there.19. “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,20. “that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.21. “But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God.
Ezekiel 11:18-21
The Consummated - One Spirit with God
16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
” (1 Corinthians 6:16–17, NKJV)