Born Again

Before we became Christians, and born again, we were controlled by the soul (our mind, will, and emotions). Now, if you are a Christian you can be (and should be) controlled by the Spirit. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit infuses our spirits with life. There is a quickening of our spirits when we are “born again.” Our spirits were not dead before this, they were simply…non-livingJ (hibernation?). It’s important to realize that there is a difference between our spirit and our soul and our flesh. These three aspects make up who we are. The soul, as noted above, is our mind, will and emotions. The flesh is our physical being. Our spirit is wisdom, conscience, (and probably much more that I do not yet understand). If we are born again, we have new life. The Holy Spirit comes and intermingles with our spirit. We are all adults here (maybe) so let me use this illustration. When a baby is conceived, the sperm enters into the egg, and they become one. That is how it is with us and the Holy Spirit. Our spirit is like the egg and the Holy Spirit is the sperm. When the “seed” enters into our “hearts”, we experience what the Bible refers to as “new life.” The actual Greek term for the “seed” which refers to the Holy Spirit in this context is the word “sperma.” I think it’s beautiful how life is made in both the physical and in the spiritual.

We still live our lives out of our souls because that’s what we are used to. But we don’t need to! We can live our lives being led and empowered by the Spirit living within us! Our flesh is not evil (unless you are a Gnostic), nor are our souls. We often say, “He must become more, and I must become less.” The actual quote is, “He must increase, I must decrease.” There is a slight difference, but I will save that for another time. The main point to remember is that our souls and our flesh are not evil and they are a part of what makes us who we were uniquely created to be. We can have our own desires, emotions and thoughts. It’s OK. Our souls are not bad, we just shouldn’t be controlled by them. The main problem is that we have things out of order. When things are out of order, then there is a problem. Think of it as “direction of flow.” The Spirit is to be the source, which flows into our souls and flows into our flesh so that the source for all of our strength, and everything we rely upon no longer is within our own natural power (soul, flesh). I heard it said that faith is spelled R-I-S-K. We can’t live lives of faith and of risk if we are always doing things that we can control in our own power.

When we live our lives under the power of our souls and our flesh, then we contaminate our spirit. In the Spirit is life, but we seldom draw on the life giving power of the Spirit. Instead we continue to be guided and directed by our own thoughts and desires. As such, we seek unhealthy ways to satisfy the cravings we possess. We have lived our lives CONTROLLED by our mind, will, emotions, and our desires. To surrender our lives to God, is not to stifle all our desires, nor is it to stamp out all our thoughts and emotions. It is to be free in who He uniquely created and called you to be AND living our lives CONTROLLED by the Spirit instead of our souls. We are not to become less (diminished), but we are to be clean vessels. By this I do not mean we are to be holy and never sin. Again, we get contaminated when we live our lives under the power of our souls and our flesh. Life drawn from the Spirit will infuse all areas of our life with light. The more we rely on and draw from the Spirit, the more He will shine through us! All that God created us to be, flesh, soul and spirit will all work together in harmony to glorify our Creator! How often do the sins of our souls and the sins of our flesh contaminate our vessels? It clouds us up, so that our new born spirit cannot shine forth the glory of God living within us! We sin because we seek unhealthy ways to satisfy our longings and our desires. We are unhealthy when we live under the power of our souls and flesh and not the Spirit.

[The Lord starves our soul to feed our spirit. Picture an onion. He is taking off the top layers (of sin, hurt, filth) to get to the core. Our soul (outer layers) are being peeled away so that our spirit shines through. This happens through times in the desert and struggles. It happens as we “wait on the Lord and trust Him.” Even while everything we consider our strengths runs dry.] --from this anonymous guy

I like the quote and agree with it wholeheartedly, except it makes the soul out to be bad. I think the thing is that we have come to trust in our souls, and as such, God is peeling those aspects of our souls away (the unhealthy parts) so that our spirit can shine forth without contamination.

I am learning, slowly but surely, how to live a life under the direction and influence of the Spirit. I will share what information I have here on my blog when it comes up. Pray that I may take part in this process and not allow myself to get distracted by meaningless things or by just being lazy!