Man in God’s Likeness
You are an embodied spirit, live in both the spiritual and natural worlds.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26a NKJV).
God is Spirit (see John 4:24) and He has created us in His own likeness—as spiritual beings like Him. He housed the human spirit in a natural body (see also Zechariah 12:1b).
1. Be spiritually conscious You are a spirit-soul-body person, capable to operate in the spiritual, intellectual, and natural realms. Now may God himself, the God of peace, make you pure, belonging only to him. May your whole self—spirit, soul, and body—be kept safe and without fault when our Lord Jesus Christ comes (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NCV).
You are a spirit (Gk. pneuma), have a soul (Gk. psuche), and live in a body (Gk. soma). ‘Spirit’ is the supernatural (non-material), God-conscious, and eternal part of your life. Your spirit is as supernatural as other spirits. Pneuma, the Greek word for ‘spirit’ describes the spirit of man (see Luke 1:47), the Spirit of God (see John 4:24; 1 Corinthians 3:16), angelic
spirit (see Hebrews 1:7, 14), and demonic spirit (see Matthew 8:16). By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth (Psalm 33:6 NKJV).
‘Host’ (literally means ‘army’) refers to the angelic spirits that God has created to be His heavenly soldiers. God made them by ‘the breath of His mouth’.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7 NKJV).
God also made the spirit of man by His breath—‘the breath of life’. ‘The breath of His mouth’ or ‘the breath of life’ is not the atmospheric air. For God is Spirit, and He does not depend on air to live. ‘Breath’ in Hebrew language can mean ‘spirit’. Both
angel and the spirit of man are made of God’s Spirit. So the human spirit is God-conscious just like an angelic spirit does.
Your soul is an intellectual and psychological self with the functions of mind, will, and emotion. ‘Body’ is the material and perishable part of life (see 1 Corinthians 15:53). ‘Spirit, soul, and
body’ indicates your spirit drives the soul and the body. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection (1 Corinthians 9:27a NKJV).
Paul calls his spirit as ‘I’ and his body, ‘it’.
I was caught up into the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether my body was there or just my spirit, I don’t know; only God knows (2 Corinthians 12:2-3 NLT).
‘I’ or ‘my spirit’ can exist apart from ‘my body’. But ‘the body without the spirit is dead’ (see also James 2:26a). For the spirit gives life to the body (see also Luke 8:55).
Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16b NKJV).
Our regenerated spirit is the ‘inward man’ and our body, the ‘outward man’. ‘Man’ in Greek is anthropos, means a ‘person’. Your inward man is a person just as your outward man is
conscious of its being. You have a spiritual self and a natural self. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17 NKJV).
When you are born-again in Christ, your embodied spirit is joined with the Spirit of God. You became His temple or dwelling place (see also 1 Corinthians 3:16).
2. Be spiritually competent Your regenerated spirit—the inward being—is able to do the following:
Worship in the spirit (see John 4:24; Philippians 3:3), Pray in the spirit (see 1 Corinthians 14:14), Sing in the spirit (see 1 Corinthians 14:15), Bless in the spirit (see 1 Corinthians 14:16), Sigh in the spirit (see Mark 7:33-34), Groan in the spirit (see John 11:33), Be troubled in the spirit (see John 13:21), Be provoked in the spirit (see Acts 17:16-17), Be constrained in the spirit (see Acts 18:5), See in the spirit (see Ephesians 1:18; Revelation 3:18), Purpose in the spirit (see Acts 19:21), Be contrite in the spirit (see Psalm 34:18), Be patient in the spirit (see Ecclesiastes 7:8), Be fervent in the spirit (see Romans 12:11), Be meek in the spirit (see 1 Corinthians 4:21), Be quiet in the spirit (see 1 Peter 3:4), Be faithful in the spirit (see Psalm 78:8), and Walk in the Spirit (see Galatians 5:16). You operate your spiritual senses at your own will, like you use your hands.
And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets (1 Corinthians 14:32 NKJV).
Prophets need to allow their spirits or heart to flow with the Holy Spirit. Your effectiveness in operating your spiritual senses comes by frequent practice (see also Hebrews 5:12-14). Your spirit is God-conscious and capable of working with the Spirit of God.
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers (Romans 1:9 NKJV).
You serve God in preaching the gospel and making intercession by your spirit, through your soul and the body. By setting your mind on the Holy Spirit, your spirit is activated to work with Him (see Romans 8:5).
3. Be spiritually motivated People’s eternal destiny should be your supreme concern. 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).
The spirit of man has a beginning but no ending. While ‘the dust’ (the mortal body) will return to earth (see also Genesis 1:7, 3:19) the spirit will return to God.
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgement (Hebrews 9:27 NKJV).
Judgment will certainly take place after a person has lived his life on earth.
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18 NKJV).
Without Christ, the spirit of man is ‘condemned already’ and it will not return to where God is.
Live your life to alter such spiritual condition by preaching the gospel to the person to believe in the Savior. Your spiritual mission of preaching salvation on earth will be rewarded.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58 NKJV). ‘Always abounding in the work of the Lord’ by winning people to Christ, training them to live as strong Christians, and send them to repeat what you have done on their lives. ‘Be steadfast, immovable’ implies pursuing eternal rewards requires strong commitment. The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away (1 Peter 5:1-4 NKJV).
Ministering to people with love, overseeing their spiritual progress, serving with the pure motive of love, and being a good spiritual example will entitle you ‘the crown of glory that does not
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