Why Knowing Your Spirit is Vital to Your Christian Life

Do you ever feel like there is something missing in your Christian life?  You know you’re on the “highway” through your faith in Christ. Yet, you’re missing the key to make the “car” of your Christian life drive toward its destination. That missing key is your spirit!

But what is your spirit and how can you know it? I hope that  by reading this post you’ll realize what your spirit is, how knowing your spirit is vital to your Christian life, and begin to use or exercise your spirit in a daily way.

What is your spirit?

Part of a footnote from the Holy Bible Recovery Version gives the following definition of the human spirit:

 Man’s spirit is his inward organ for him to contact God, receive God, contain God, and assimilate God into his entire being as his life and his everything. It was specifically formed by God and is ranked in importance with the heavens and the earth in God’s holy Word (Zech. 12:1). The spirit of man is for man to worship God (John 4:24), to be regenerated by God (John 3:6b), and to be joined to God (1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22) that man may walk and live in an organic union with God (Rom. 8:4b) to fulfill God’s purpose. (Footnote 5, on Gen. 2:7)

Your spirit is your deepest part–the part created by God for you to contact Him, receive Him, contain Him, and assimilate Him into your being.

Your spirit is deeper than your soul, and hidden within it. It’s so hidden that many Christians don’t practically realize that they have a spirit, or how to use it.

Here is a post to give you a fuller appreciation for the difference between your soul and your spirit and how to discern one from the other.

Why is knowing your spirit so vital to your Christian life?

1. Being born again is a matter of receiving God’s Spirit into your spirit.

 First, your spirit is where you’re born of God or born again. It’s where the divine birth, regeneration, takes place. Being born again is not just an outward change in your belief, but a divine conception of God’s Spirit in your spirit. In John 3:6 Jesus said,

 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

So if your salvation was merely something mental—an acknowledgement that you’re a sinner in need of God, then it’s not complete. Yes, repentance is the beginning. But it needs to be followed with believing into Christ, that  is receiving Him.

John 1:12 says,

 “But as many as received Him to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name.”

If you’re reading this post and have never received the Lord Jesus into your spirit, take a moment to pray,

“Lord Jesus! Oh Lord, I receive You! Thank you for dying for my sins and rising victoriously from the grave to be my Savior and life. Thank you that in Your resurrection, You became a life-giving Spirit so that You could breathe Yourself into me. Come into my spirit and live in me. I need You and I love You.”

When you declare by faith–“Lord Jesus! or Jesus is Lord!”–your spirit contacts His Spirit and His Spirit enters your spirit. You’re joined to the Lord and become one spirit with Him. In 1 Corinthians 6:17 Paul said,

 “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”

From the moment that you’re joined to Lord as one spirit, His Spirit comes to witness with your spirit that you are a child of God (Rom. 8:16). This witness of His Spirit with your spirit assures you that you are really  saved.

 2. True worship to God depends on your spirit contacting God’s Spirit.

After receiving the Lord, we need to continue to worship Him. But how?  Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4:24,

 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.”

The true worship God is seeking is in our spirit. So we need to learn how to use our spirit to contact Him.

He is no longer just a far away God in heaven. After you get saved, He becomes so near to you. He’s in your spirit.  As 2 Timothy 4:22 says,

 “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.”

Since the Lord is in your spirit. You just need to turn to your spirit, your deepest part, and call on His name—Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus!

From my experience, calling on the Lord is like taking a deep breath or a big drink. It quenches your inner thirst and supplies you with God’s life. But don’t stop there…

Continue to pray with your spirit, from your deepest part. Speak to the Lord all that is on your heart. Tell the Lord Jesus everything.

Pray with simple, genuine, and sincere words…so your spirit touches His Spirit. No pretense. No eloquence. Just pray short prayers that you really mean like:

 “Lord Jesus, I need you. I turn my heart to you. Forgive me of all my sins. Cleanse me with Your blood. I love You. I open my whole being to You right now. Fill me today. Lead me in Your way.”

Here are more short prayers that you can pray with your spirit.

 3. Spiritual feeding comes from your spirit contacting God’s Spirit as the essence of God’s living Word.

Do you want to be spiritually nourished to grow in Christ each day? Pray over a few Bible verses with your spirit. We call this practice pray-reading the Word. Ephesians 6:17-17 say,

“And receive…the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.”

We need to receive God’s Word by praying with our spirit or pray-reading. By pray-reading God’s word with your spirit, you’ll contact God’s Spirit as the life essence in the Scriptures. This kind of praying with your spirit enables you to receive daily nourishment from God’s Word for your growth in Christ.

Here’s a post that will show you how to receive more spiritual nourishment by pray-reading God’s Word with your spirit.

4. Following the Lord depends on using your spirit to discern the feeling of His Spirit.

Do you ever wonder how you can know what the Lord Jesus would have you to say or do?  Some people try to think of what Jesus would do in a certain situation. But that is just the exercise of your mind. Following Him is a matter going along with the feeling in your spirit.

Romans 8:6 says,

 “The mind set on the spirit is life and peace.”

Simply by turning your mind to your spirit (where the Lord lives) through prayer you’ll touch the sense of His Spirit.  If His indwelling Spirit is happy with what you’re thinking, speaking or doing, you’ll sense inner peace, rest, liveliness, comfort, and refreshment. Then you can proceed with confidence with what you’re thinking, saying or doing.

However, if the Lord is displeased with your thoughts, words, or deeds, you’ll find yourself inwardly uneasy, restless, deadened, bothered, and dry. This is the Lord in your spirit telling you to stop what you’re doing and turn back to Him.

By following the sense of God’s life in your spirit, you’ll be led by His Spirit and grow up in God’s life to a mature son of God. As Romans 8:14 says,

 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

Here is an article to give you a further appreciation for the sense of life.

If you’ve been helped by this post to see the importance of knowing your spirit, I hope you’d make it a conversation by commenting on our facebook or Google+ Page and subscribing to the Holding to Truth blog.

References:

• For a further appreciation of the points  in this post, I’d highly recommend reading Basic Elements of the Christian Life by Witness Lee, Volume 1 and 3, especially the chapters on the Key to Experiencing Christ–the Human Spirit, Calling on the Name of the Lord, and Pray-reading the Word. You can get your free copy from Bibles for America (in the USA), read them online at Ministrybooks.org, or download a free PDF.
• All verses and quoted footnotes in this post are from the Holy Bible Recovery Version, published by Living Stream Ministry. Bibles for America gives away free copies of the New Testament Recovery Version. You can order yours here.
• Photo Credit: Ignition by Bill Selak (Creative Commons license)