FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH
God is Spirit
* God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)
* That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)
* But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
* Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John 14:17)
The above Scriptures confirm that one MUST understand the things of God ONLY by His Spirit because He is Spirit and we too are spirit beings that need to grow to learn how to be spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:42-49). It is not the spiritual that came first, but the natural (Christ, God in the flesh, 1 Timothy 3:14-16), to reveal to us how to walk on earth as in heaven (Matthew 6:10). It was not ever God’s will just to take His people to heaven, when they literally die and THAN learn the things of heaven and His kingdom; in fact, just the opposite. Ideally, He created all things, including the earth, to live in His order of understanding, His Truth, Wisdom, in agreement with Him, in submitted obedience to Him or under His Truth (His Spirit, John 14:15-17; John 15:26;John 16:13; 1John 3:24; John 4:6) or laws (Genesis 1). This IS how Adam and Eve began with Him, until sin crept in, or disobedience. So, what the enemy tried to downplay (disobedience to God, rebellion), they were deceived into believing that the reason why God told them not to do certain things was because God didn’t want them to be like Him, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:5). The whole reason why God didn’t want them to know good and evil is because they weren’t prepared yet to understand how good and evil work. It was all for their own good that He told them not to eat of the tree of knowledge because they did not yet have the understanding necessary to safely walk their life out for good. God wanted to teach them. God wanted to show them. In other words, God wanted to be their Life. He wanted to show Himself or love to them (1 John 4:8). He knew that once they would mature in Him, in love, they would be able to discern properly good and evil and be able to approach the tree of life appropriately, allowing God to be the One who gets the glory for Life and the things that come about from it (Genesis 3:22; Ephesians 4:6; 1 Corinthians 15:28; Colossians 1:17; John 1:3; Ecclesiastes 8:17). God saw that man could do real damage in seeing the good and the evil but not understanding it, according to God’s goodness (by His leading) and instead apply what he thought was right in his own way, or his own understanding without God (putting himself in a position from not agreeing with Him, and out of His order or submission to Him). By doing it his way, he would try to ‘stretch out his hand’ (Genesis 3:22) or his power against God’s, causing unrest (lack of peace) within God’s garden or presence. And, since God is a God of peace; He couldn’t stand for that because man would always be at enmity with what God was and stood for. He sent him out to ‘cultivate’ or ‘raise’ the ground. In other words, God had to send him out to learn how to raise himself up from the dust (Psalm 113:7; Psalm 107:41; 1 Samuel 2:8); and he had to learn it from Jesus, God in the flesh or like man (Philippians 2:8; Romans 5:19; 2 Corinthians 8:9), to teach him how to come out of the place he was in (casted out from the land of the living, God’s presence, His garden, Luke 19:10).
And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Until mankind, without God, comes into the understanding that they did not cause things to come into being by their own efforts than they will continue to walk in darkness because without God man can do nothing (John 15:5; Proverbs 16:9). But God the Father gave a way through His Son Jesus Christ, to come out from the dust (the flesh, Genesis 2:7) and into the Spirit, by and through His teachings and demonstration of being led by the Holy Spirit always (John 5:19; John 5:30;John 6:38; John 8:28; John 12:49-50; John 14:10).
The Lord once said to me, “Can you say that you know a person entirely when you read a biography about him? Could you really sit down with them and claim you know them in and out in every way?” I answered, “No Lord.” And He replied, “This is how My people claim they know Me and this is how they teach others as well as to how to know Me entirely, by just reading the Scriptures. They try to follow My Scriptures by their own doing (or stretch out their hand) against My leading by My Holy Spirit. They leave My Spirit out entirely. The One Who knows ALL things and can teach them ALL things of Me. They read the Scriptures without My Wisdom, without Me alongside them, showing them the Way of Me.”
This struck me. And this is when God began to reveal how to truly be led by His Spirit in ALL areas of my life—no exceptions or leaving Him out of even what we may consider the little things. If God knew every hair on my head, then He surely wanted to be acknowledged or considered in every decision or judgment in my life (Luke 12:7; Proverbs 3:5-6). After all, if it’s His life anyway because I have accepted Him in my heart, then I must ‘hand over the reigns’ so to say, and allow Him to lead me out of this dry, dead life (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ezekiel 37:1-14). Because at that point, I was cut off (John 15:1-11) and had no real hope (Romans 11:17-27) or no way of Life eternal with God in His goodness and love but instead left to eternal damnation away from God. I realized that if God and Jesus are One with the Spirit then if I left out the Spirit’s leading then I was also fooling myself into believing that I was abiding or truly one with God and a Christian. I was actually in danger of denying the Son and the Father because you cannot say you have Them both if you’re not even including the third part of His identity. It was a great deception to come to a conclusion of.
I also realized I cannot be saved by anyone (as much as they’d like to think), other than by God alone. I had to learn to hear by His Spirit for myself, to discern by His Spirit myself, and not to rely on others to do it for me (my pastors, my parents, friends, family, etc.). When you consistently walk by the leading of the Spirit, you’ll gradually begin to see as God sees, from a spiritual understanding alone. If you do not walk by the Spirit’s leading then you have the chance of walking in the fleshly nature (out of your own understanding with the wrong motives of your heart) guiding you (Colossians 2:8). And this is how one can fall into a place of mixing worldly mindsets with God’s mindsets, therefore perverting or twisting His Truth. In order to truly get spiritual understanding led by Wisdom (God’s Wisdom), we must seek Him when referring to the Scriptures for reference. The Scriptures are continuous prophecy being laid out. And God is not limited by time like mankind is on the earth, the Scriptures continue to stand for today. The question is how do you apply the Scriptures to today’s time in the world? It can only be done by His Holy Spirit’s navigation from a spiritual standpoint. There are many that continue to apply Scripture based on the worldly understanding along with some spiritual understanding mixed (Galatians 4:9). If you do that than you will not fully comprehend what God is saying and it will appear as if there are contradictions throughout the Scriptures. This causes their witness or testimony to be defiled. Their case doesn’t stand in Truth, but in the false. Truth combined with His Scriptures will not prove to be contradictory. When you are fully led by the Spirit, the Spirit will guide you through and build upon them with a complete spiritual mindset (1 Corinthians 2:15-16). To be fully led is the maturity that God is trying to attain in His people so that they may comprehend fully who He is and what He is trying to accomplish through them for His purposes (His will). This is why it’s crucial to grasp this process of walking by the Spirit in all things. It is essential to coming to the full understanding of God’s will and ways in the kingdom. If you refer back to the Scriptures at the beginning of this study, it is pointed out that God is Spirit and we are to be spirit also fully by abiding in Him, in order to comprehend the things of God. It is explained why throughout the context of this entire teaching.
Review:
* God is Spirit and you must worship Him in spirit and in Truth. That is, you must worship him all in your spirit man, led by His Holy Spirit of Truth.
* That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Meaning, what is from a worldly viewpoint will produce worldly results and understanding which is limited compared to God’s nature which is a higher understanding based on spiritual Truth (His Spirit—Wisdom, Proverbs 3:13-18; Colossians 3:16; Job 12:12-13—the aged is the matured in spirit; Luke 21:15; Proverbs 4:6-7 ). If you completely follow by the Holy Spirit’s leading you will be of spirit with Him.
* The nonspiritual man is incapable of understanding the revelations of the Spirit of God. The reason for this is they have not submitted their entire being unto the Holy Spirit’s direction. Any flesh still arising in them will contradict and reject what is spiritual and holy unto the Lord.
* Even the Spirit of Truth; Who the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not. When you do not walk by the Spirit, you will not see as God sees (Isaiah 55:8-9). Therefore, you will not see Him for Who He truly is (1 Corinthians 13:12-13).
When you fully walk by the Spirit, you will be free to rise (soar) above the things of this world and have the Wisdom you need to conquer its challenges. And whoever the Son sets free is free indeed, by His Spirit of Truth.
Isaiah 40:28-31
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will make you free.
So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.