After one has received the Holy Spirit, what next? What makes a person who has the Holy Spirit any different from a person living without the Holy Spirit? And does a person have to do anything else after receiving the Holy Spirit? Should you expect significant changes in your life after receiving the Holy Spirit and what does it mean to live by the Spirit? I am no authority on this subject but I have learnt a number of things on this topic therefore I hope we can be able to answer some of these questions as we learn together.
Firstly, In Christian theology, the tripartite view (trichotomy) holds that humankind is a composite of three distinct components: body, spirit, and soul. As such as humans we are not just made up of our physical being, which is what we see outwardly when we look in the mirror but also our soul which represents our mental and emotional part, and our spirit which is very hard to explain but can be said to represent our innermost part.
In Andrew Wommack’s book- Spirit, Soul, and Body he helps to distinguish these three parts of our being with some interesting points. He says” You can feel both your body and your soul. If I put my hand on your shoulder, you’d know that I touched you. I can also touch you whether I’m physically near or not. By speaking to your soul, I can make you glad, sad, or mad. Through my words, I can even hurt you without physically touching your body. It’s easy to know how you feel in your body and soul because you’re constantly in touch with them. That is not so for your spirit because it can’t be accessed in any natural way. Jesus declared, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit (John 3:6). He meant that there’s no direct connection between the two. They are interrelated but spirit is spirit and flesh is flesh. You simply cannot contact your spirit through your emotions or your physical body.”
I found these to be insightful and at the same time confusing. If I have three parts-spirit, soul, and body, how do I get access to my spirit from where I have access to all the power I need for life if it can’t be assessed through my physical and emotional parts? The very simple but not-so-straightforward answer I saw from the bible was from John 6:63 which says, the Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Since we cannot see the spirit realm naturally and with just our eyes, in Andrew Wommack’s words, “the only way to accurately perceive spiritual truth is through the Bible. Simply take God’s word and believe it”. I also found in Romans 8:9 that the Holy Spirit inside of us leads us to the realm of the spirit. Romans 8:9 says, ‘You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ’, These answers may seem straightforward to others or still very confusing to others but thank God that we have the Holy Spirit to enlighten us more and more about these things.
My next question after this was that if I have my own spirit, and I receive the Holy Spirit, what happens to my own spirit? How does the Holy Spirit lead me to live a life worthy of Christ? How does my spirit follow or how is my spirit joined to the Holy Spirit? It was all very confusing to me but again I was directed to the word of God, Romans 8 where I learned so much about this. Now Romans 8: 15-16 says that “the Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him, we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Therefore to answer some of the questions above, this scripture led me to understand that receiving the Holy Spirit brought about my adoption to sonship because the Holy Spirit with my spirit witnesses to me being a child of God, an heir of God, and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). Just like with many legal things, witnesses are needed to validate the transaction, the Holy Spirit inside of me validates my position and authority as God’s child and heir, once He comes inside my life, He joins with my spirit to say that YES! I am a child of God and change my identity from being a mere person walking on this earth to God’s Heir. That is powerful. Therefore if we didn’t know before, this is something powerful to note and meditate on, with the Holy Spirit living inside of you have an identity change. Your authority, position, level, and status in life have changed for the better. You are no longer a mere person and should never live as a coward or orphan. You are the child of God, an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ and belong to Christ.
Again, Romans 8;5-6 also says, ‘Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires’. This teaches me that the Holy Spirit leads us to a life worthy of Christ by setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. In our physical state, we actually have no business thinking about spiritual things because our focus is on what we see, feel, hear, taste, and touch but the spirit of God leads our minds to think, meditate and ponder on spiritual things, on pleasing God with our actions and in-actions and on being true children and heirs of God. Having the Holy Spirit means we don’t necessarily force ourselves to think about the things of God, the Holy Spirit in us, especially when we give Him room to, fills our minds with such automatically.
The Holy Spirit always speaks to us, about the biggest things, about the littlest things but if we don’t train our ears to listen and obey, it will be very difficult for us to hear and obey him. If we do not quiet the noise and other seemingly loud voices, it will seem like the Holy Spirit does not speak to us but He has been given to us to help us therefore He is always speaking, always ready to help, always ready to teach and always ready to lead. Why don’t we lean into Him by quieting the noise, consciously involving Him in every aspect of our lives, and seeking to listen and obey Him even in the littlest, most silly things?
I also learned about living according to the flesh and living according to the spirit from Romans 8:5-9, which says, ‘Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.’ This scripture clearly differentiates and gives a simple explanation of what it means to live according to the flesh. It characterizes this as Hostility to God and a lack of submission to God’s law. These may sound almost harsh but that is the simple truth. Disobedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit really means we do not submit to God’s authority. Being hostile in simple terms means showing strong dislike or being unfriendly and when we critically look at it, this is us toward the things of God when we fail to do the things that please God. We may not think of it like this but in truth, this is what we say by our actions. Thank God, we have a loving and forgiving Father in God because too many times we fall short but he forgives us and calls us back to Himself.
This paragraph was not meant to highlight our weaknesses or show us in a bad light, it was meant to bring our attention to the fact that as we live our lives, we could constantly be living in the flesh by our way of thinking, actions or in-actions or be living in the spirit as we set our minds on the things of the spirit and as we obey God. Which do we choose as children of God? Yes, the Holy Spirit is there to help us but if we constantly show dislike for the things of God and are unfriendly to His will and ways, we are leaning towards life in the flesh consciously or unconsciously and this the scriptures say cannot please God and leads to death. Romans 8:12-13, ‘Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.’ Our humanness can not be denied, we are tempted day in and out, faced with troubles and challenges of different sizes and magnitude which make it almost impossible to constantly and consistently focus on life in the spirit but gradually I have come to realize that it is in these moments of trouble and temptation that that Holy Spirit becomes more real to us should we lean on Him. When our minds are plagued with the option to lean into the negative, to allow the problems and doubts to consume us, when we lean into the Holy Spirit and ask for His help, that is when we get to encounter and experience Him like never before and that is when we get to experience the true definition of sonship, being children and heirs of God. God richly Bless you.
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