Living in Prophetic Consciousness – Part 7
To the glorious Bride of our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you will stand strong and not be moved away in your devotion to the Lord, but fervently abide in His love, soaking in His presence and being renewed daily in your spirit, so that you are continuously ready for His glorious appearing, when He comes again.
This series is called Living in Prophetic Consciousness because for the Bride to fulfil her mandate upon the earth before the return of her Bridegroom, requires that she is fully aware of both the visible and invisible realms. There is a maturity coming to the Bride to enable her to operate as a warrior with a prophetic mantle. But spiritual growth does not take place in a vacuum away from our body and soul, but is integral with all parts of who we are, because that’s how God made us. We’ve been taking some time to unpack a Biblical framework so we can understand how we are made and put together, otherwise we will not grow healthy but unbalanced. We cannot neglect our bodies and think it will not impair our spiritual growth, neither can we neglect our soul and think it will make no difference – it will make a big difference. If we neglect our bodies, we are neglecting our spirit and the Holy Spirit, since it is our body which has become a Holy Habitation. Rather we should “glorify (honour) God in our bodies” 1 Cor 6:20. We cannot dishonour God in our body and expect to be honoured by Him in our spirit. Similarly, if we neglect our souls, we harm our spirit, since the relationship between our spirit and soul are very closely related as we shall see.
“And you He made alive (quickened), who were dead in trespasses and sins” Eph 2:1
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;” Col 2:13
In the way that our bodies were dead because of sin, the same is true also of our soul. Being “dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh”, is a reference to your soul. Your soul was dead because of sin (it did not have spirit life). Before salvation it was only born of the flesh and not yet of the Spirit. But now, like my body, it too is quickened by the Holy Spirit to have spirit life. Once I was dead, but now I am alive because of the change that has taken place in my body and soul.
When we think of our souls being separate from our spirit the natural conclusion is that we are two separate persons. But I want to suggest we are the same person but with two very different personalities! Just as with Nicodemus, it was still the same person, still Nicodemus, but he needed to be born again. This didn’t mean Nicodemus would have two bodies, but that the body he already had (the one which had been born of the flesh) needed to undergo a further process of being born of the Spirit. In the same way, he didn’t require another soul, but the soul needed to be saved and spirit life quickened in his inner man. When you are born again you are still you in the sense that you have the body and the soul you were born with, but you are not you in the same way anymore because you have been changed by the power of God! Both your body and soul have been quickened by the Spirit of life. The facets of your body and soul have been increased, there are added dimensions that weren’t there before, not in the natural realm but in the spiritual realm. Your body has spiritual capacity (though it is still mortal until the resurrection) and your soul has spiritual capacity. You don’t have two separate minds, it is the same mind, but it can operate in two different ways. It can be occupied and focussed on the things of the flesh, or it can be occupied and focussed on the things of the Spirit. But either way it is the same mind, the emphasis is upon the believer and how they choose to use their mind, whether to fulfil the lusts of the flesh, or desires of the spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Rom 8:5
When the apostle Paul says “be renewed in the spirit of your mind” Eph 4:23 he indicates the spirit as part of our mind, which is what we have been discussing, the part of our mind (soul we understand as mind, emotions and will) which was dead through sin but quickened to have spirit. Before salvation my mind could not discern the Spirit, it was enslaved because of the sinful nature and was “enmity against God” Rom 8:7, but when I was born again there was a radical shift that took place in my inner man. My soul (mind, emotions and will) no longer had to be dominated by the carnal nature, but through the Spirit, was transferred, migrated and moved into an entirely different place, like coming out from darkness into glorious new light. Now my mind is free because the spirit of my mind has been renewed by the Holy Spirit, “and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” 2 Cor 3:17 My mind has been given spiritual capacity and is free to encounter the unseen spiritual realm, with a redeemed imagination and thought life, not limited by human reasoning and rationale but inspired and intuitive where creative thought abounds. So you see how closely integrated our spirit, soul and body are. As we leant previously – we need to see ourselves as a diversified whole.
I have explained how the body and soul now have spirit, what then of our spirit? Does that mean that our spirit only exists as an extension to our body and soul? Or that my spirit is subservient in some way? Certainly not! We could equally say that when our spirit was quickened and brought into life, it was given a prepared body and soul to occupy. From the perspective of our spirit, the body and soul belongs to it, and the body and soul are given to serve the purposes of our spirit, because it is our spirit that is the new creation, our spirit which is one with the Holy Spirit and therefore it is our spirit which should have dominion and authority over our body and soul. The apostle Paul not only wrote we should “be renewed in the spirit of our mind” Eph 4:23, but he also wrote that since we are one in Spirit with the Lord 1 Cor 6:17 we also have the mind of Christ 1 Cor 2:16. By being renewed in the spirit of our minds, gives us union with “the mind of Christ”. Our mind has spirit life, and now we see our spirit has a mind! Not just our renewed mind, but ascension into the mind of Christ, the mind of the Spirit, so that we can know the things freely given to us by God. 1 Cor 2:12. With the mind of my spirit I am able to peer through the veil of the unknown to the known, and see into the unseen spiritual realm. To gaze upon mysteries, not in words taught with human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit.
We are moving closer to understanding “Living in Prophetic Consciousness”.
Until next time, shalom.
Mike @Call2Come
