Bible Study with the Cincotti's - So What is Spirit - 07/18/2021

 Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 07/18/2021

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So What is Spirit

 

Last week we looked at the verse, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

                              For theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Matt. 5:3

 

And tried to cast some understanding upon the word and its dimension.

 

This morning I would like to seek to apply more truth to this very mysterious realm.

 

Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

 

The trouble with defining the spirit is that we are conformed to use

         1) our soul, as in our intellect (fallen intellect) and

          2) our flesh, as in our five senses, (likewise fallen)

 

Our best source is to draw from the inferences in Scripture

 

1. The spiritual realm is an unseen realm

         Jn. 4:24 says, “God is Spirit” and Jn. 1:18 declares, “No one        has seen God at any time.”

2. Yet it is all around us. Heb. 12:1, “...we are surrounded by so        great a cloud of witnesses”. “God is in your midst” Hos.         11:9; Zec. 2:10; Zec. 14:1

3. We periodically get glimpses as God sovereignlly wills

         Gen. 32:30, “Jacob...For I have seen God face to face…”

         Jdg. 13:22, “And Manoah said to his wife, ‘We shallsurely                   die, because we have seen God”

         II Kn. 6:17, “Elisha prayed...’LORD open his eyes’”

4. There are most certainly opposing forces in the spiritual realm.

         Eph. 6:12, “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly…”

Spiritual forces apposed to God include. “evil spirit” Acts 19:15

“spirit of this world” Eph.2:2; “spirit of jealousy” Num. 5:14; “spirit of ill will” Jdg. 9:23; “distressing spirit” I Sam. 16:16 (came upon Saul from God); “a lying spirit” II Ch 18:22 (also from God); “a haughty spirit” Pro. 16:18; “unclean spirit” Mar. 1:26

 

So, what does it mean to be spiritual

 

Two interesting verses bear consideration

         Ecc. 12:7, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,

                           And the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

         Zec. 12:1, “Thus say the LORD, who...forms the spirit of a                        man within him.”

 

I believe that we can derive that the spirit is transcendent, and enters from outside of us, whereas the soul is a fabrication of experiences, learning, and even abstract thought.

 

Eze. 18:31 promises a, “new heart and a new spirit”

         The word “heart” is interesting – St. 3820 leb;

         “used (figuratively) very widely for the feelings and will and the will and even the intellect; likewise for the center of anything – care for, comfortably, consent…”

 

The spiritual self is the only aspect of self that can fellowship with God, and then, to emphasize, only the spiritual self reborn of God.

Mat. 16:17 “flesh and blood has not revealed this…”

 

When the spirit (the new creation man) and the soul (the old woman) are in conflict, the flesh reeks havoc.

In Scriptural typology, when ever the woman instructs or exercises authority over the man, Eve fed Adam, Sarai tells Abram to, “go in to my maid”

I Ti. 2:12, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man…” also see Gen.3:16