This past Sunday we looked at how we are both biological and spiritual beings. When we come into this world as a little baby we are dependent on our parents to provide everything we need to grow and develop so that we can live in this world. We know nothing! We can’t feed our self, we can’t change our own clothes, we cannot speak, we cannot even move around much without help. Our little bodies and minds aren’t developed enough to negotiate in this crazy complex world. Over time we begin to learn things and begin growing in strength and ability. We are fed food and drink and we get stronger and eventually become independent. The bible says that we are created in God’s own image which means we have a Spirit since God is Spirit. Our spirit is a vital part of our being. However, this Spirit needs to be nourished and developed just like our bodies. We feed and exercise our bodies to grow strong. We must also feed and exercise our Spirit.
It is possible to live your entire life as a biological being without ever developing your Spirit. I think there are many people living like this in the world today. When you live strictly as a biological being, your entire life focus revolves around pleasing your 5 senses: what you see, what you feel, what you taste, what you smell, and what you hear. Pleasing those 5 things will be your priority and focus in life. However, if you develop your Spirit, your life focus and priorities will begin changing to the things of God. The bible says that as we feed our spirits with the word of God, prayer, and fellowship with other Christians, we will eventually produce fruits of the Spirit. Our lives will begin reflecting Jesus to the world. We will become different than those who live for the flesh. We will live to serve, we will be humble and full of grace and full of compassion. We will be generous to others in need and we will learn to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. And, as we develop these traits, we will find a peace and joy and fulfillment that our biological selves could never experience. John 3:6 . “Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life”.
The apostle Paul tells us that even though we strengthen our spiritual selves, we will always have an inward battle with our flesh, that part of us that wants to please our 5 senses. We won’t be totally free from this battle until our biological bodies die and release our Spirit back to God. When we die, we will live in a place Jesus called paradise until the final resurrection when God will give us a Glorified body that will not have the sinful desires of the flesh that we now have to live with. It is a body that will never wear out nor ever get sick.
It’s a grand plan that we need to be teaching others starting with our smallest children. But no matter what your age, it’s never too late to go to Jesus and ask him with a sincere heart to come into your life and help you to grow your spirit self. Your life will never be the same when you begin to feed and nourish your starved Spirit and most of us have spirits that have been starving to death most of our life. They are too weak to be able to fight our flesh. I know because I have lived that way in my past. 1 John 2:15-17 . “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.” Our inner spirit needs the power and teaching of the Holy Spirit.
I want all people to know what living a spiritual life can be. It will take effort on your part and it starts by desiring to have Jesus come into your heart as your trainer and coach (the Holy Spirit) and then joining a church family and becoming an active member in the church so that your spirit can grow and develop strong with the help of other believers.
So much to learn. So much to think about. But when we are talking about eternity, it’s all about having a strong spirit because our bodies will perish. Ask God to help you grow in spirit. He will come to you. There is no time like right now to make a positive change.
See you 10:30am Sunday! Love, pastor kent . Praise Community Fellowship is a non-denominational Christian Church and we meet at 10:30am Sunday mornings at the Immanuel Methodist Church at 800 North Main Street, Edwardsville. We are an all volunteer church.