The Preciousness of the Human Spirit
Man has been given wonderful powers over the human body and the human soul, but the human spirit can be beautified by no one but God. The human spirit is His breath, a part of Himself given to every living person, but the sin nature has put out its light. That human spirit is like a sleeping garden, dormant and without bloom, until Jesus Christ is invited for a human resurrection of that spirit. That’s what the resurrection of Jesus Christ was all about. He said, “…because I live, ye shall live also.” (John 14:19b) His words to Lazarus’ sister, Martha, was the heartthrob of His Gospel. “…I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25b-26)
The only source of spiritual life for each of us is within our spirit when the Father has renewed us by His Spirit in the inner man. You will never meet a true saint that has experienced the baptism of His resurrection life that is not bubbling with the joy of the Lord. It is absolutely impossible not to be like an artesian well of living waters when your spirit has been renewed and flooded with Him. You will not need to try to manufacture joy when you have His source. One of His greatest proclamations was spoken at the Feast of Tabernacles, an Old Testament shadow of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth. He said, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)” (John 7:37-39)
There is a limited amount of satisfaction of life in man’s flesh and soul, but it is all tied to the rise and fall of human emotions. Our world is more and more a roller coaster of experiences and difficulties. We all tend to move with these waves, and believe or doubt, depending on circumstances. But this is not to be true in the deep inner spirit of His saints that have rested all in Him and who live by the faith of our Lord. An abiding principle for His blood-bought saints is, “…the just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17b) We are part of a Kingdom within this world system who have learned, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:28-29)
To walk in this invisible Kingdom demands a Spirit-filled life. The Scripture warned and promised us, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” (Romans 8:14-17) This is a breathtaking life that I fear so few are experiencing and enjoying. Your human spirit can never be satisfied by what is provided by the flesh or soul. So much of religion is nothing but flesh or soul, and it leaves the individual forever searching for another emotional fix or some intellectual idea; some new theology, or someone’s wild, religious imagination.
Our religious world is being driven by fads because the human spirit is dead. The human spirit cannot be beautified and spiritually magnanimous until it is saturated with His resurrection life. Many religious systems warn against experiences because they are so easily affected by fleshly emotions. But this is true only in the lives of religious people that have never been renewed in their spirit by the Holy Spirit. The Bible calls this being “converted” and Jesus Himself called it being “born again.” It is in the human spirit when it is fully alive by His resurrection life that we know the voice of our Lord. A “fully converted” Christian will quickly learn the voice of his Master. Jesus Christ said, “To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” (John 10:3-5)
There is nothing in our world as beautiful as a saint of God that has allowed the Holy Spirit to “beautify them with salvation.” Apostle Paul said, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30) You can beautify the body, and you can beautify the soul, but it is all surface beauty until He beautifies the human spirit.