The Spirit of Man

MAN IS A SPIRIT

Friend, Paul said, "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless..." (1 Thess. 5:23). These three—spirit, soul, and body—constitute the creature known as man. But man is essentially a spirit. 2 Cor. 4:16 the Apostle Paul said, "Though our outward man perish (decay), yet the inward man is renewed day by day". He distinguishes between the spirit and the body.

Because we know that our body gets old (decays), it must be the spirit that he refers to as the inward man. Peter refers to this inward man as the "hidden man" (1 Pet. 3:4). 'Hidden' refers to what we cannot see. But notice that both the outward and the inward are referred to as 'man,' meaning that the spirit and the body have the same structure because only a being with the structure of a man is referred to as a man. James said, "...the body without the spirit is dead..." (James 2:26). This implies that it is the spirit that gives life to the body.

Paul in Phil. 1:22-24 said, "But if 'I' live in the flesh..." Who is he referring to when he says 'I'? His spirit. Then in verse 24, he said, "I am in-between two decisions. I want to leave my body and be with Christ." Notice that whether he is in the body or not, he still lives. Without the spirit, the body is dead, but without the body, the spirit still lives.

Friend, man is a spirit!

THE SPIRIT AND THE BODY

Friend, man is made up of three components: the spirit, soul, and body. And the word of God distinguishes between them (Heb. 4:12), but man is essentially a spirit. Paul in 1 Cor. 6:17 called the body of man the temple or house of the Holy Ghost which is in you (the inward man).

Jesus said when an unclean spirit is gone out of a man, it goes about looking for rest, and if it does not find it, it says, "I will return into my house from whence I came out..." (Matt. 12:43-45), referring to the body of that man as a house. The spirit of man lives inside the house (body). Jesus met a man with an evil spirit in his body, and this man would display extraordinary strength. It was said that no man could tame him. This spirit talked through this man's mouth and even declared its name, 'Legion' (Mk. 5:3-15). Jesus cast the evil spirit out of the man's body, and the spirit of the man took control of his own body again. Because the demons, being many, had taken full custody of the man's body and imprisoned his spirit in his own body.

This implies that the body is just a house; even demons can live inside and express their personality. The body is not the real man. The spirit is the real man. Friend, man is a spirit being that has a soul and lives in a body.

THE BORN AGAIN SPIRIT

Friend, during Jesus' teaching on new birth (Jn. 3:3-6), Nicodemus asked him, saying, "How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Thinking that Jesus was referring to the body of a man being born again.

But Jesus replied, saying, "That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is spirit." This implies that it is the spirit of man that is born again, not the body (flesh). 2 Cor. 5:17 says if any man is born again, he is a new creature; that is, his spirit man is a new creature, one that has never existed before.

Verse 18 says, "All things are of God." That is, in this new creation, all things are of God. Or you can put it this way: all things in him are exactly like God. 1 Pet. 1:23 says that the spirit is born again by the word of God, and the word of God carries the Spirit and the life of God in it.

So, right in the born again spirit is the very life force of God. We call this eternal life. It's the same force that created this universe, right in your spirit. You are not part God and part Satan. All things about you are of God!

THE FOOD OF THE SPIRIT

Friend, the key to developing a strong spirit man is by feeding your spirit. Jesus, teaching along these lines, said, "...man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God." Here, he points out the food of the body and of the spirit. The body lives on bread, but the spirit lives on the word of God. No wonder Rom. 1:17 says, "The just shall live by faith," and faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom. 10:17).

The word of God is the food of the spirit. The word of God nourishes the spirit of man. So, now we know the tool; how do we feed the spirit with the word? Well, it's the same way you get faith: by hearing the word of God. The word of God is spirit and life (Jn. 6:63), so the more you hear it, the more spirit and life you have on the inside of you. The spirit man lives on the word of God. Someone said, we feed our bodies three times a day, but we feed our spirit one cold snack a week. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" (Prov. 18:14). It takes a strong spirit to sustain you in times of weakness. The Bible says, if you faint in the time of battle, your strength is small.

Developing a strong spirit is not optional, and your spirit cannot receive strength without the constant feeding by the word of God. Feed your spirit with the word; the word of God is the food of the spirit of man. From today, I see you developing a strong spirit as you commit to feeding your spirit daily with the word!

Jesus is Lord!

Min. Roi