LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Importance of Man's Spirit
The human spirit was designed as an appropriate organ for entering into contact with the divine Spirit.
Gino Iafrancesco
Man's spirit, the special objective of God
Man is made up of many parts; he has a mind, he has emotions, he has a will, he has a conscience; he is endowed with a body, he has organs, bones, muscles, senses, a heart; but of all man's being, there is one part that is special to God. It is the spirit. It is possible that for the Church this part isn't so important; perhaps what is more important is its hair, eyelashes, figure, or silhouette. We sometimes do not even distinguish the spirit from the soul, so how will we be spiritual if we do not even know our own spirit, its operation, and its functions, as being something important to God?
God could have said: I am Jehovah, I set forth the heavens, I made the earth, and I created man's eyes. But He didn't say eyes or silhouette. God said, spirit. The spirit is the Holiest Place of the temple, and the Spirit of God comes to man's spirit to live. The Spirit of God settles in man's spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27). It is in man's spirit where the Spirit of God communicates what he is, what he wants, what he approves, what he reproves. We could say that the earth is the capital of the universe, that man is the capital of the earth and that the spirit is the capital of man.
The spirit is very important to God. There are several passages in the Bible where it speaks of it worshipping God, of serving God, of singing to God, etc. But when we read those passages we forget some details, some important phrases. We read in Romans 1:8-9: "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers."
This is a curious phrase. Paul could say: " ...God is my witness, whom I love with all my heart, whom I praise every day...", but he says: " ...whom I serve in my spirit...." He doesn't only say "whom I serve", but "whom I serve in my spirit." To serve is not the same thing as to serve in spirit. God wants us to exercise our spirit. Man's spirit is the most important part to God, so that's why we need to know what it is and what its functions are; to know it doctrinally through the Bible, and also experimentally. We have to distinguish the moving of the Spirit of God in our spirit, because if we don't walk in the spirit, but rather we allow ourselves to be led by our carnal nature, our service to God will be a natural, carnal service, and not like Paul's, as he says, in spirit. In chapter 4 of John's gospel we find a classic example where we can observe this difference.
The Samaritan woman, after discovering that the man who she spoke with was of God, began to discuss religious matters and doctrines, as we human beings usually do. We enter into discussions about doctrines and religious things, because we inherit denominational traditions, and we create fruitless discussions, comparing one doctrine with other, entering into a religion atmosphere of controversy, of criticism, and the Samaritan was on this level. She wanted to draw the Lord Jesus into her unstable atmosphere, but the Lord stayed put and he didn't allow himself to be drawn into that controversial atmosphere. In verse 20 of that chapter, the Samaritan woman says to the Lord: "Our fathers worshipped on this mount, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where he should be worshipped."
The Samaritan woman is indicating here that "you Jews, instead of thinking like our fathers (the Samaritans), have another idea." She is arguing, clarifying that their position is different to that of the prophet, but she doesn't still know who He is. The Samaritan woman shows her merely religious condition by saying to him: "Our fathers, our ancestors worshipped on this mount (Gerizim) for many centuries, so it is necessary to worship here; on the other hand you Jews now say that it is in Jerusalem where one has to worship", so as to draw Jesus into that argument between the Samaritans and the Jews. That's why the Jews didn't like Samaritans, and that was the reason why the Jews got angry when the Lord Jesus spoke well of the Samaritan who assisted a wounded Jew, in the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35); and the Samaritans didn't like the Jews either.
Worshipping in the spirit
In verse 21, the Lord Jesus tells the Samaritan woman: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father." She argued over external issues, of the natural world; is it here or is it there; it is in this religion or it is in that one; some say that it is here, others say that it is there. But the Lord tells her (verses 22-23): "Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers."
The Father was waiting and seeking. There are things that God remains silent about; because in the Bible there are things that are not revealed, that are secret and are not told. In Deuteronomy 29:29 it says: "The secret things belong unto Jehovah our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us...." But God revealed that He seeks after that class of worshipers, and the hour is coming for them to do that; that hour has almost arrived. God had been served via religious means for long enough; "on this mount, on another mount, in that sanctuary, in that way, which has to be done like this, that has to be like that; that has these borders and these measurements"; always trying to serve God in external things. God must be served, but with faith.
What had the Father been waiting for? The Father had been waiting for the hour in which the Lord Jesus came to produce true service to God. The feast of the tabernacles figured amongst the main Jewish feasts, which lasted seven days, and Jews from many different places attended, and it was the last of a great circle of feasts.
The Lord Jesus, being in Jerusalem for this feast, we read in John 7:37-39 that: "Now on the last day, the 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, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified."
Jesus manifested himself to them when the feast was finishing, because it was the last day, as though saying: "You already celebrated all the feasts, and this it is the last day of the last feast, and everybody already came to Jerusalem and sang, and did lots of religious things, but now God invites you; if the religious rites have not satiated your thirst, they have not filled that emptiness that comes from drinking of the Son." "If anyone comes to me... he that believes on me, from within...." Which is this part of man within? The spirit. "He who is connected to me, from within life will begin to flow"; and that was said about the Spirit of God. That meant that from the Spirit of God living water must flow from the inner most part of man, from man's interior, that is to say, from the human spirit.
The human spirit is nothing other than the channel, first of the Spirit of God. The woman who discussed religious matters didn't look to anything but the external. Israel had its circle of feasts: that of the Passover and the unleavened bread, then the first fruits of the harvest, later that of Pentecost, the feast of the trumpets, the day of atonement, and finally the feast of the tabernacles, the great feast of the harvest. Everyone came away tired by so many activities and many were unsatisfied, because external things don't satisfy, they don't satiate spiritual thirst, that's why the Lord enters in directly to deal with the spirit.
That's why the Lord also tells the Samaritan woman: "Woman, believe me the hour cometh... and now is." It is the hour that the Father had waited for, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit; which means that worship is of the spirit; unbeknown, and ignored by some. Worship which is not in the spirit is not true, it is like training, but it is not authentic. There is worship of the religious type that can be like training; like the boy who thinks that when he grows up he will be an architect, and begins to play with sand and to make castles or highways. He is simply playing, he is happy, but it is playing; that is not a true highway; that is not the true castle.
We play this way at praising God, serving God, doing things, but the Lord distinguishes between that which is true worship, done in spirit and truth, and that which is not, because the opposite of true is false. False worship exists. When it says that the Lord entered into the true sanctuary, does it mean that the other was false? No, it was merely a symbol of the true sanctuary. Moses brought the symbols. "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). The word truth here is aletheia in the Greek, which means reality.
The reality of things. It is not only to worship, but worshipping in spirit; not only serving, but serving in spirit. Paul also says that: "I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray also with the understanding; I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the understanding" (1 Corinthians 14:15). The Bible also says: "... in spirit fervent" (Romans 12:11). Many times we speak of the divine Spirit, but we forget that the divine Spirit made a human spirit in man. That is the burden of the present article: the importance of the human spirit.
The Spirit of God speaks to our spirit
In Romans 8:16 it says: "The Spirit (with a capital letter, of God) testifies (to who?) to our spirit (with a small letter), that we are children of God." That is the place in which God, who forms it, is to live in man. The Spirit of God is eternal; man's is created, formed by God, but the human spirit is that which is designed to contact the divine Spirit. It is not the mind, nor emotions, nor even the will, much less the physical senses. It is the human spirit, which was designed as appropriate organ for entering into contact with the divine Spirit.
We should keep in mind that each part of our being, each organ, as much the body as the spirit, is designed to enter into direct contact with a portion of reality. There is a reality that consists of colours, fruits, tones, light, warnings, and forms. Sight enters into direct contact with light, with colours; hearing enters into direct contact with sounds; smell enters into direct contact with scents; taste enters into direct contact with flavours; tact enters into direct contact with textures; the mind enters into direct contact with thoughts; emotions enter into direct contact with feelings; the will is to exercise decisions. But, which is the organ designed by God, in the likeness of God, which can have an intimate relationship with God? That organ is man's spirit, the human spirit. That's why it says that the "Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God." It could say to our hearing, or to our mind; but no, it is to our spirit.
The organ designed to receive the light of God is the spirit. It is through the spirit that you sense the presence of God; that's why Jesus says He is to be worshipped in spirit; that's why He is served in spirit, and He is prayed to in spirit. The spirit has several functions; intuition, communion and conscience. Through communion, for example, one worships God in spirit.
When you are really in the spirit, you perceive the Lord. You perceive if he is happy, you perceive if he is sad, you perceive if he is angry, if he is still, if he is reproving, if he is approving; you perceive if you have still not received the certainty of being forgiven; you perceive if he is happy with what you have done; you perceive he is satisfied, if he receives the praise, or if it was for this reason or that. How do you know? It is not with the mind; it is with intuition. That word is found in the Bible and is also called perception.
In the Word it says that Jesus perceived in his spirit. It also says that the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14a). Sometimes believers perceive things in their spirit, but they are not accustomed to giving due attention to them, because we have lived in the external man, and the external man likes strong, psychedelic emotions. The Lord's voice is softer; it penetrates deeper than the agitation of our soul; and afterwards, we say that we perceived something but we didn't pay much attention to it. We have not discovered the importance of man's spirit. It is necessary to know about this important topic, so that God may help us to wake up to the importance that our spirit has for him; so that we become aware of His movements in our spirit, because the children of God are Christians. To whom does the Spirit of God testify? To our spirit.
Some are hoping an angel, or a light, or a thunder bolt will appear to them and to say something in a psychedelic style, something touching, something external. The prophet Elijah was a very mature man, and during a certain crisis that he suffered, he went away and entered a cave in the desert, and a wind passed by, then an earthquake and fire, and Elijah was very calm. He could have shown a great deal of emotion, made a lot of noise, but he remained calm. A wind blew, but God was not in the wind, then an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake, then fire, and God was not in the fire; but then it says that a gentle and delicate whisper passed by, perhaps a soft breeze, a breath of air, and that word is pneuma in the Greek (1 Kings 19:9-13).
I am glad to know that Elijah was a man who didn't allow anything to swallow him up, because what the devil wants is to engulf you in agitations. Sometimes they want to drag you off in one direction, others in a different direction, up here, down there, saying that the Lord is moving from the above to down below, this way or another. But what the Lord wants is to lead you, to guide you; that the peace of God governs our hearts (Colossians 3:15a). What does it mean to govern us? When you are going to do something and you lose your peace, don't allow external agitation to engulf you; look to within, because from within is where the message of God flows from, from the most intimate part of your being, where the Spirit is. The Bible says that the tabernacle had three parts, and those three parts are joined and have a relationship to one another. The brass altar in the atrium, with many other things; then the Holy Place with the candlestick, the altar of the incense, the table of the showbread and other things; and the ark was in the Holiest Place, and the ark had two cherubs.
The ark was like a box with a cover called propitiatory, and on each end of the propitiatory there was a cherub with extended wings. And the Lord in His Word says: "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." (Exodus 25:22). Let us bear in mind the place from which the Lord spoke. It was not outside the tabernacle, nor in the atrium inside the tabernacle; not even in the Holy Place, but in the Holiest Place, in the most inner-part of the tabernacle; that was where He spoke. We sometimes want to look for things from the outside, or we seek to be guided by external things, from here and there. No; "there between the wings of the cherubs I will speak to you."
How often we say: "Brothers and sisters, what must we do here? Should we fast for long or short periods, or not fast at all? Could it be determined by whether we are tithing, or whether the women wear trousers or not"? All those questions arise and you go to such and such a vicar or reverend, and you go from one reverend to another seeking that type of orientation; but the Lord says: "...There I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee." If you try to serve God by putting everything in a box: "don't touch here, don't look here, don't go up here", from outside, you are not serving God in spirit. But if you call on the Lord...remember what he says: "Whosoever cometh unto me..., whosoever believeth in me...", and the anointing will teach you all things, from the most intimate part of your being, even though you want to make your point in external things and want your opinion to prevail; and you are sometimes tricky, and manipulate situations to get what you want; but inside you there is a small voice that says: "cheat". Because the Spirit of God testifies to your spirit. Your spirit is the one that perceives the voice of God; He is declared there. Man's spirit is the most important thing for Him; the central part.
We sometimes walk in the great mistake of waiting to hear what man will say, what so-and-so will say. Undoubtedly they can give an opinion, because the Spirit testifies through other brothers and sisters, but it is the Spirit who informs you if God is satisfied with this or with that. And one can say: "There are so many opinions." What will this person say? What will they say if you do it in the spirit? If you do the correct thing, that interior traffic light will give you green light.
Do you know which the green light is? The spirit of peace. The Bible says that if we are in the flesh and we sow in the flesh, we will inherit the corruption of the flesh; but if we do it in the Spirit, we will have life and peace from the Spirit (Galatians 6:8; Romans 8:6, 13). How do we know if we are in spirit or not? If there is a source of life, if there is no blockade, if there is peace, if you are not doing being foolish, saying: "But it's just that...." Every one of us is given to going round and round in circles, but if the Lord is present: "Greater is he who is in you..." (1 John 4:4). He is in you, within you. The Lord says: "...deny thyself ...and follow me" (Mat. 16:24); How will you follow him? Because inwardly he is in Spirit, and the external voice of the Spirit is the Word. So you need to listen to the spirit within, in accordance with the Word which concords with the feeling of the spirit, with the spiritual brothers and sisters, the Body; that is the correct path.
It is necessary to keep three things in mind: The Spirit, the Word and the consent of the Body in spirit, since consensus in a democracy is in the flesh. We have an example: It is decided that it will be voted upon whether to commit adultery or not. Out of a hundred brothers and sisters, 95 choose adultery; 5 don't want adultery. The 95 win, and adultery is accepted. That is an example of how consensus in the flesh, without keeping in mind the Spirit and the Word, is not of God. It may be a majority in the Church, but it is not the voice of God. Consensus should be in the spirit, albeit between two or three, but in spirit; that is the voice of God. The Lord says: "...deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow me." That self is the soul. Paul says: "Don't you know that Christ is in you"? And he tells Timothy: "Timothy, the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." He who is your spirit, the Spirit of God, gives testimony to your spirit.
Man's spirit is of great importance to God. We sometimes live psychedelically, shaken by the external world, without realising the importance of learning what our own spirit, the most intimate of our being is, and spend so much time wondering what to do, being upset, dragged away by this and that. We should not allow ourselves to be dragged anywhere.
A useful example is that of divers, those who put on a diving suit. They take a kind of tube through which to breathe. Placed in that atmosphere under the water, they don't breathe in the water, because the air is received from above through the tube, even though they remain under the water. We too, for the time being are here in this world, as though at the bottom of the sea, but there is a clean spirit; breathing the Lord. Brothers and sisters, the Lord is the God who stretched forth the heavens, and set the earth in its place and has created a spirit in us that it is very important to Him, because it is with the spirit that he communicates with us; it is from our spirit that the Spirit of God flows. "... will flow from within...", meaning from within toward the outside; from our conscience and intuition to our understanding; and that's why we sometimes pray in spirit and we don't understand, because the flow is in the spirit but hasn't reached our mind.
That is the reason why we often don't understand; so we need to pray to be able to interpret the spirit. It is the Spirit who says something there within, in our inner man. He says something, but you don't know how explain it; you sense it, there it is, like a baby kicking in a pregnant woman, we too sometimes receive kicks from the Holy Spirit. But all that happens inside first, and that's where we should perceive it, because it is a perception, or what is also called intuition. It is an intimate perception; it is not a natural deduction, because our natural deductions are not reliable. " Now the natural man receiveth (perceiveth) not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know (discern) them, because they are spiritually judged (discerned)" (1 Corinthians 2:14), that is to say, using the spirit of people.
If it is not perceived in the spirit, it is judged in the flesh
On many occasions we begin to judge people with our natural mind, if they are similar to us, and we say things like: "What a dear person! but oh he/she is different!" or "I don't like her because she resembles my mother-in-law." But let us note what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16: "Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, (because he lived in a generation who knew him externally, not internally) yet now we know him so no more." So, there are two ways to know someone: a natural knowledge, through a natural opinion, of the flesh, by tradition, by customs, by prejudices; the other knowledge is based on denying oneself to depend directly on the guidance of God, on the revelation of God, receiving a testimony from the Spirit in our spirit; so as to known someone not in the flesh but in the spirit, being guided by the truth. If it is not by the spirit, people cannot perceive the life and the peace that is as soft as the breeze that Elijah perceived, who passed through that testing unaffected, and whose external agitation which surrounded him disappeared. That whole heap of external problems did not affect him because he perceived what was of the spirit.
We should not judge by appearances, because they are deceiving, and drag you off toward thinking like them and them like you. No, it is by the Spirit in the spirit, by Jesus Christ, to guide you to himself. Where is the throne? Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and the Spirit is in your spirit, and the voice of His Spirit springs from you, and all that is of God must concord with the Word. On the inside; the Spirit, and on the outside; the Word, and in between; the communion of the Body and the consensus of the spirit of the other spiritual brothers and sisters.
Paul says: "If then ye have to judge things pertaining to this life, do ye set them to judge who are of no account in the church?" (1 Corinthians 6:4). He isn't referring to those that want to vote over your sin; those that will be sympathetic to your feelings, to your gossiping, or your other issues. They really have to be people who deny themselves and don't represent their own taste or preference, nor are frightened of the preferences and opposition of others, but rather they represent God's feeling, to the point that the world comes against them; that are faithful representatives of God, of God's feeling, and say what needs to be said and emanate the Spirit in the spirit and that which is according to the Word.
Extracts of a message shared in Fontibón, Colombia.