In Part 1 of The Architecture of Man we looked at the heart, mind, and soul. I recommend you read that first if you have not already. It includes introductory material that provides a helpful framework for better understanding the spirit of man.
A new and unique human spirit comes directly from God at inception. Solomon alluded to this being a mysterious process:
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. (Ecclesiastes 11:5)
Through the prophet Isaiah, God declared:
Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it ... (42:5)
James paraphrased the jealously of God in the Law over the human spirit that He has made:
Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? (James 4:5)
God is jealous over our spirit because true worship of Him comes from our spirit. A beautiful voice is appealing, but it is worthless if it does not emanate from a spirit in the truth in Jesus Christ. In other words, true worship is that which comes from a believer positioned in Christ whose spirit is infused with the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus declared:
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23-24)
God originally gave man (Adam and Eve) perfect spirits tuned to Him and without sin. The fall of man to sin originated in the desires of the heart. The sin in the heart effected the condition of the spirit, changing its very nature. Adam and Eve died spiritually after they sinned which caused them to ultimately die physically. This not only reveals the sensitive connection between the spirit and the heart—the actions of the heart impacting the spirit—but the effect on the integrated whole—spirit, soul, and body.
Let us think about what happens to the rest of us at birth. When God gave us our spirit at inception it was pure. It had to have been because there is no sin with God. However, the integrated connection of the spirit, soul, and body must instantly corrupt the spirit since the physical body of man, inherited by the parents, has been genetically corrupted by sin. The exception to this was Jesus. Since His father was God, His physical body was not genetically corrupted by sin. This qualified Him to be the spotless lamb of God, a man without blemish who could serve as the perfect sacrifice for sin. I can only conclude that God designed the physical condition of the father (genetically pure or corrupted by sin) to be an overriding determiner of the physical condition of the children. Following this logic, if Adam would not have sinned, then Eve could have never been redeemed since their offspring would have been without sin. (This may be the hidden explanation behind 1 Timothy 2:13-15.)
Throughout the Old Testament, the spirit is described in spiritually sensitive and reactive ways. The spirits of individuals are described as being alarmed, angry, anguished, anxious, bitter, broken, cool, crushed, fainting, failing, fervent, grieved, hardened, provoked, refreshed, rejoicing, sighing, strong, troubled, moved, longing for something, stirred or stirred up, and willing. The spirit is never mentioned making decisions or learning. That is where the heart and the mind come into play. This reveals that the spirit is integrated with the heart and the mind and is affected by them. Psalm 77 demonstrates this:
To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph. I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah
You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, "Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart." Then my spirit made a diligent search: "Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?" Selah (Psalm 77:6-9)
Jesus did not tell us to love God with all our spirit because we cannot. Our spirit functions involuntarily. It was designed to instinctively know and process spiritual information (under the influence of the Holy Spirit for believers). Our heart is the driver for loving and obeying God.
Our spirit is our nonmaterial, essential core that activates the information processing and output of our life. It is sort of a living battery that contains the coding God designed for each of us individually. Coming directly from God it powers our intelligence, creativity, and various skills handcrafted uniquely for us by the Creator. The book of Job provides insight into this:
But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. (32:8)
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (33:4)
Jesus did tell us to worship God in spirit and truth. This means that if we lead a Spirit-filled life according to the truth that is in Jesus Christ, the life that He has truly coded us for we be released and will resound to His worship.
Spiritual Union and Identity
The spirit that Adam received from the breath of the Almighty was united with God's Spirit. The human spirit was designed to be one with and function in tandem with God's Spirit. This was lost when man fell to sin, but restored through the resurrection of Jesus Christ for all those who call upon His name. After the resurrection, God regenerates the spirit of a new believer by uniting it with His own. This is what Paul meant when he wrote that "he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (1 Corinthians 6:17). Jesus exemplified God's design of unified spiritual function as both the Son of God and Son of Man and confirmed it with declarations such as the following:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (John 5:19)
The nature of the spirit defines the individual. God recreates the spirit of the believer in Jesus Christ for eternity and this gives him a new spiritual identity as a child of God. The following verses explain this:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (Romans 8:14-16)
The unbeliever's spirit remains in sin nature and he is a son of the devil. The unbeliever's spiritual identity is eternally knit with the devil. John explained:
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:4-10)
Every person on earth is either a child of the devil or a child of God. Every one of us either has a corrupted spirit of sin or a pure spirit regenerated by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ. This spiritual identity drives the lifestyle of the individual and, conversely, the lifestyle reveals the spiritual identity of the individual. John covered this thoroughly in his first epistle:
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or know him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:1-10)
The nature of the spirit is projected into the soul. Looked at the opposite way, the fruits of the soul emanate from the spirit. Jesus taught this fundamental, yet hidden, concept using nature—designed by the same Creator but visible and easily relatable for his audience. Assuming a pure spirit is one that has been regenerated and united with the Holy Spirit and a polluted spirit is one with the nature of sin, not regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and also a Spirit-filled soul is one filled with the Holy Spirit and a sin-filled soul is one flooded by the spiritual sin nature, I broke down His following teaching to make this clear:
For no good tree [pure spirit] bears bad fruit [sin-filled soul], nor again does a bad tree [polluted spirit] bear good fruit [Spirit-filled soul], for each tree [spirit] is known by its own fruit [soul]. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person [pure spirit] out of the good treasure of his heart [Spirit-filled soul] produces good, and the evil person [polluted spirit] out of his evil treasure [sin-filled soul] produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart [soul] his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:43-45)
Keep in mind that fruit bearing is an ideal comparison here because it points to the overall character of the crop produced and not any one piece of fruit from the crop. A successful fruit crop will always have at least a few individual bruised or rotten pieces—often a great many more—but these will not ruin the reputation of the overall harvest. Here is the salient point: Jesus' depiction allows room for the Spirit-filled believer to make mistakes (sins) but these are forgiven and he will ultimately be known by the overarching product of his soul over time. However, a so-called believer who never bears good fruit is a deceptive rotten tree which is to say, one who has truly never been spiritually regenerated. Faith without works is dead. It is interesting that the entire verse actually says, "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:26). It can be said that faith is the transmission of what God has said from the heart of the believer—spiritually interpreted through the connection to the spirit—through the soul, ultimately revealed in the outward actions of the individual (the body).
The believer is literally possessed by God. His spirit is united with the Holy Spirit. If he yields to God's Spirit, he can be controlled by God. This is what God wants for His church. He wants us to be controlled by His Spirit so that Jesus Christ can live through us.
Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. (1 John 3:24)
Satan has access to the spirits of unbelievers through the deceitfulness of sin. If an unbeliever yields to a demonic spirit, he can even become possessed by a demon. This is what Satan wants for his kingdom of darkness. He wants people under the sway of his systems , deceived and enslaved by the power of sin, and controlled by demonic spirits.
A believer can be influenced in his soul by a demonic spirit, but he cannot be possessed by a demon because his spirit is already possessed by God's Spirit. The spirit of a new believer is instantaneously "sealed" by the Holy Spirit as Paul covered in his letter to the Ephesian church:
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee [down payment] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
The Greek word, sphragizo , translated here in English as sealed, means "to set a seal upon, mark with a seal, to seal." The picture is of stamping a mark upon something by the impress of a seal. When a person first believes they are spiritually baptized into the life (name) of Jesus Christ through the inseparable union of their spirit with the Spirit of Christ. This is God impressing His seal upon those who are His, signifying an eternal, irreversible transformation. These are hidden in the Rock and Satan no longer has spiritual access to their lives. This is the whole point of the elegant and powerful, Psalm 91:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
"Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation." (1-16)
Once I was praying and I saw through the Spirit a castle that I was standing outside of. I could look through a removed stone to see inside of the castle. I could see an evil rider on a grey horse in preparation for something. The drawbridge came down and he rode forth. He rode right by me but did not see me. I asked the Lord why He could not see me and He replied, "Because you are hidden in the Rock."
The born-again believer undergoes a spiritual transformation and his new lifestyle also serves to protect him from the evil one, as John explained:
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. (1 John 5:18-19)
It is unclear whether the second phrase in verse 18 implies that Jesus Christ protects the born-again believer from the evil one or that the born-again believer protects himself from the evil one by not keeping on sinning. Other quality English Bible translations lean both ways, as can be seen here:
We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18; New King James Version)
We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. (1 John 5:18; New International Version)
Either way, John's point was that the born-again believer does not continue to proactively sin and this protects him from the evil one. It is not just that he is protected because he is a believer, but he literally undergoes a spiritual identity change. Paul explained this to the Galatian church:
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:25-28)
The believer's baptism into the name (person or life) of Jesus Christ means they take on a new spiritual identity as a son of God. There is an aspect of this in the spiritual realm where the enemy does not see the believer but instead sees Jesus Christ. Proverbs declares:
The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. (18:10)
and Paul wrote:
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ Jesus have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:25-26)
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)
Herein lies an interesting revelation: no one has ever or will ever have a human spirit that is entirely separated from another spiritual influence. This is an element of the foundational concept of Segmentation in the architecture of man. Part of my definition of Segmentation stated:
"Man does not have his own separate spirit, in the sense that his spirit is somehow his own, did not come from God, and he has control over it."
It is critical to understand that this is in no way a loss of individuality for the believer in exchange for taking on some sort of generic religiosity—far from it. Rather, God designed the individuals' uniqueness in Christ to blossom through the image of God. That is to say, the perfect you has been designed to live and thrive through the nature of God. This reiterates the last part of my definition of Segmentation which stated:
"Man does have his own unique soul, in the sense that he has the free will to steer his own course (in the body) by the desires of his heart and mind, yet it must be activated by his spirit which comes exclusively from God."
This is what the Jesus meant when He said, "whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25b). The Lord told us to lay down our lives and by this He meant our souls. He told us this so that our souls may be filled with His Spirit, unlocking our real, God-given identity in Christ. The architecture of man was designed to function only one way. It was designed to be fueled by God. This design was originally corrupted and co-opted by Satan for him to fuel the architecture but God Himself came as a man and took it back for Himself.
Communication Through Spiritual Union
When it comes to communication with God we must first understand that God the Father is spirit, as Jesus explained:
"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:23-24)
It is not out of the question for God to speak to us audibly, but by and large, God communicates to people in the spiritual realm because He is spirit. He does this through the third person of His Triunity, the Holy Spirit. This reality makes the fact that the second person of the Triunity, the Son of God, came down from heaven and lived in the flesh for 34 years such an awesome reality. John clearly understood this deeply when he wrote:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ... No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. (John 1:14, 18)
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life [should be Word of life] he life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ...
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:1-3, 5-7)
Communication is inherent to fellowship with someone. The Greek word, koinōnia , translated here in English as "fellowship," means "fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, and intercourse." Believers walking in the light should expect communication with God. Some Christians have been deceived by a naturalistic perspective and they do not expect to hear God's voice. They talk of what it will be like to meet Jesus in heaven because they have never had real communication with him here. The "eternal life" that John mentioned begins immediately for those who have been spiritually reborn.
The obstacle to communication with God is not walking in the light. If we walk in the light the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin which is the barrier to communication with God. Faith in the person of Jesus Christ and the subsequent empowerment of the Spirit brings disciples who walk in the light into spiritual fellowship with God and one another. This is the architectural design of God behind man with a spirit at his core. It is both Biblical and just plain common sense. What kind of father has children and does not communicate with them? False naturalistic viewpoints in the church denigrate the character of our heavenly Father.
God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). Jesus expressed the love of the Father for caring for, instructing, and leading His children when He taught the following:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."
... I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd." ...
... "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." (John 10:1-6, 14-16, 27-30)
Three times Jesus said that He speaks to His followers and that they hear or listen to His voice. There is no question that God speaks to His people and notice, in particular, that there is no question that His followers hear his voice. There is no question because of the spiritual unity of the believer between God's Spirit and the human spirit that puts the Spirit in the heart of the believer. The believer cannot not hear His voice. Jesus gave us the pattern for this with His own relationship with the Father. Furthermore, "no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand" because of the eternal spiritual unity reinforced by Jesus' promised seal of surety in the statement that He is God: "I and the Father are one."
It is imperative for the believer to know that the Holy Spirit is united with his spirit, the Spirit is put into his heart, and that through this spiritual union he can hear God's voice. This is the design of God. The following verse explains this:
And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee [down payment]. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
The heart connects the spirit and the soul, so the union of the believer's spirit with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit being put into the heart is an integrated function. I will cover this integration in more detail later.
Upon preparing His disciples for His departure, Jesus taught:
"In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going." (John 14:2-3)
The Greek word monē , translated here in English as "rooms," means "a staying, abiding, dwelling, or abode." The New American Standard Bible (NASB) translates this as "dwelling places" and that is a better translation. Monē appears one other time in the New Testament, twenty-one verses later when Jesus answered a valuable question from Judas (not Iscariot):
Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home [mone] with him. (John 14:22-23)
Jesus was preparing His disciples for their forthcoming baptism (spiritual immersion) into His name, whereby each of them would be spiritually reborn, the spirit of each would be eternally and inseparably united with the Holy Spirit, and they would subsequently be empowered by the Holy Spirit. This union or dwelling place for God and the believer together fulfills what Jesus said:
"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." (John 14:3)
and
"If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (John 14:23b)
This spiritual union is the mechanism through which the believer is "seated ... with him [God] in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) and likewise how God now makes His home in us.
Jesus' death and resurrection restored God's original architectural design to man for all those who call upon the name of the Lord. Man has a spirit, soul, and body, yet the believer in Jesus is unique because he has a spirit unified with the Holy Spirit that extends into having the Spirit in the heart, a subsection of the soul, and a body. The latter is God's original design. Jesus gave us the example—in word and deed—of how to operate and serve God in this design. Consider His response to Philip:
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells [meno] in me does his works. (John 14:10)
The Greek menō, translated here in English as "dwells," means "to remain, abide" and is essentially the verb from of monē. Because God is Triunity , Jesus is literally God but He subjected Himself to God the Father during His life on earth (see Philippians 2:1-11) providing the pattern for how His disciples should subsequently abide in Him and allow God to live through them.
In the next chapter of John's gospel, we find Jesus continuing to teach His disciples about this spiritual union with God using nature as the model:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide [meno] in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. (John 15:1-6)
God created the vine to grow and bear fruit for man and animals and He gave His Son to give life to all those who, by faith, abide in Him. This is an elegant description of how God's natural design reflects His spiritual design. The individual who does not abide in Christ lacks the saving faith required to obtain the spiritual union with Him. He dies with a spirit that remains in sin and the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:36).
The picture of Jesus as the True Vine and the believer as the branch helps us envision that this spiritual union is like a battery designed to hold and transmit the empowerment of the Holy Spirit through the soul and body of the believer. The integrated tripartite structure of man has been designed to emanate the life of Jesus Christ or to reveal God as a man. This is what the Bible means when it says: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). I covered this in detail in the Essentials teaching Six Days .
Finally, in the next chapter of John, Jesus explained to His disciples that the Holy Spirit would speak and reveal to them what is in Jesus Christ:
"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-15)
God is now revealing to His church the resurrected life of Jesus Christ and directing us abiding in Him so that we can bear fruit and make His life known upon the earth. By extension, we can then understand that because each believer is spiritually united with Christ, the entire church is thus spiritually united in Christ. This unity is what Paul was referring to when he wrote:
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:1-3)
We can thus see that the God's masterful design of the architecture of man not only includes spiritual union with Him but an element of a spiritual union with the entire family of God.
How God Speaks To His Children
The spirit of the believer is united with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit also resides in the heart of the believer. The spirit of the believer is connected to his heart and there is an integrated information flow between the two. With this frame of reference, let us examine the two primary ways that God speaks to believers.
One main way is that the Spirit speaks to the heart in which case the voice of God is literally heard by the individual in an earthly language that they understand (e.g., English or French). This is not an audible voice so that only the person that God is speaking to can hear it. Earlier in this teaching, I provided an example of this from my own life.
The other main way is that the Spirit will simply influence the spirit of an individual to instantly know or discern something or to move them in a certain way. In this case, the person will not hear some specific statement; they will just discern, know, or move under the influence of the Spirit in their spiritual union because they are spiritually sensitive. What Jesus said here, says it all:
"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes form or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)
The "wind" example from nature is the perfect natural parallel for this type of communication from God. The Spirit blows through our spirit and communicates with us or moves us without specific words being spoken. It just happens. Furthermore, like a breeze before a rainstorm, often times the Spirit will move like this before He does speak to our heart (in recognizable words that can be written down).
I am reminded of a "wind" example from my own life. One time after briefly talking with an individual and observing her manner I was immediately moved to go no further in dealing with her myself over a certain trivial issue. I later found out that she was very dangerous to the well being of my family. I later understood that the Spirit moved me in a somewhat counter-intuitive manner at the time to protect my family and I.
Praying From The Spirit
The authority of the spirit over the intellect of the mind becomes more apparent when the believer is empowered by the Holy Spirit and prays in tongues. Praying and singing in tongues comes from the spirit as Paul described:
Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding. (1 Corinthians 14:13-15; NKJV)
This explanation reveals that Spiritual wisdom originates from the spirit and not the intellect of the mind. The believer praying in tongues who seeks to understand must quiet his own thoughts and listen to the interpretation that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Jesus declared:
"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."" (John 7:38)
The Greek word, koilia, poorly translated here in English as "heart," actually means "the innermost part of a man" and, depending upon the version, is generally only elsewhere translated as "belly" or "womb" in the New Testament. The best translation of this verse is that of the New American Standard Bible:
"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" (NASB)
This distinction is actually very important because it confirms what other Scriptures (covered elsewhere in this teaching) make known: (1) the Holy Spirit operates out of a union with the believers spirit, (2) praying in tongues comes from the spirit, and (3) the spirit is distinct from the soul. Jesus did not say that the living water would come from your soul (heart). Tongues are a stumbling block to some because they are waiting to speak it using their intellect. It does not work that way. Tongues come from the spirit.
Some will argue that Jesus was not referring to tongues with this declaration, but this only comes from those who have not prayed in tongues and are ignorant of it. Jesus specifically said, "will flow rivers." A river never stops flowing and the plural, rivers, implies multiple tongues. This is a perfect description of praying in tongues. The personal prayer language in tongues never stops. A believer can always pray in tongues. In fact, a believer can pray in tongues without uttering a sound. The believers spirit keeps praying in tongues and he can choose to keep his mouth shut and just hear it in his heart (soul). Moreover, as the believer continues to pray in tongues it will evolve into not just praying in angelic tongues but various earthly languages. Then there is singing in tongues—a beautiful but almost lost spiritual art in the modern Christian era.
Everything I have so far described has not even touch on the spiritual gift of tongues. The spiritual gift is different from the personal prayer language available to any believer at any time. It is a distinct, louder utterance that should be interpreted and, in practice, functions much like the spiritual gift of prophecy. (Spiritual gifts will be covered in a separate Essentials teaching.)
Jude aptly called the personal prayer language in tongues as "praying in the Holy Spirit":
But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (Jude 1:20-21)
Praying in tongues comes from the believer's spirit which is in union with the Holy Spirit. God designed the architecture of man so that he could pray in the Holy Spirit, thus giving the Holy Spirit leadership direction in prayer. Praying in the Spirit also strengthens the spiritual sensitivity of the believer to live by faith which is exactly what Jude meant by "building yourselves up in your most holy faith."
Jesus' declaration that out of the belly or innermost being of the believer shall flow rivers of living water implies that the spirit is literally located in the innermost part of the belly, womb (female), or middle area of a person. There is an Old Testament precedent for this in the description of Elihu when the Holy Spirit came upon him and filled his spirit:
For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me. Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst. I must speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer. (Job 32: 18-20)
The believer being given words to speak from the Lord in his spirit (empowered by the Spirit) should expect this to come from or flow from the innermost part of his being which is physically oriented in the midsection.
This concludes Part 2. In Part 3 we will pull it all together to see how God has designed the architecture of man to be integrated for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
