We had earlier on established the fact that, we are born again by the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit who brings the conviction of sin to the spirit man inside of us, in leading us to be born again.
Jesus told Nicodemus:
“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
John 3:6 NIV
The Holy Spirit will never lead us in the brain or head, to make this kind of decision. But He leads us on the inner man of our spirit, through an intuition or inner witness (Romans 8:16). This inner witness is also often referred to as our inner conscience.
The spirit man inside of us does knows many things, which our brain does not know. And such things are often revealed to our spirit man, in the form of an intuition or an inner witness.
We had also established the fact that, the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of our spirit man. He leads us, guides us, strengthens us and directs our spirit man; from His place of residence inside of our spirit man.
He does this as we continually renew our mind with the Word of God. The renewal of mind is important for the spiritual development, of a born again believer in Christ. In the same manner as the spirit man inside of him, needs the Word of God for spiritual food to grow also. But in reality it is the prayer life of that believer, and his ability to live by faith, that causes him to grow faster in the Lord, so as to be able to perceive spiritual truth.
FEEDING THE SPIRIT MAN
A major problem of many born again, and Holy Spirit filled believers today, is that they spend so much time and resources, in educating the mind with the natural things of this world. This they often do to the detriment of the spirit man inside of them. They become more and more worldly educated; to the extent that some had actually become “spiritual illiterates”, even though they are still saved. They have become spiritual illiterates, concerning the things of God; and in particular concerning His written Word to us.
Their spirit man is not being fed by them on a regular basis; thereby blurring their spiritual eyes of understanding. This explains why their ability to perceive spiritual truth, through the conscience or an inner intuition is weak. They just find it hard to grasp spiritual truth, so as to apply it into their way of life and make spiritual advancement.
Our minds feeds off our senses – what it feels or sees. The brain is never designed by God, to see or perceive invisible things. The things of the spirit realm are invisible to our senses. We cannot see them coming, or see them happening with the naked eyes. They are things that can only be perceived, by the heart or the spirit of man.
This is why the spirit of man needs to feed off God’s Word, just as the mind feeds off our senses, even while being renewed with the Word of God. God’s Word helps our spirit man in perceiving the spiritual truth of God. We are able to perceive good and evil in this way, in order to make the right choices of life.
The Holy Spirit lives inside of our spirit man, to give us spiritual education into the things of God. And just as a student at school learns, by communicating with the teacher on a regular basis. We were created by God to commune and fellowship, with the Holy Spirit in like manner. He teaches our spirit man, the things that we do not know. He opens our spiritual eyes of understanding, into perceiving the things of God.
The easiest way for us to communicate with the Holy Spirit therefore, is by speaking in tongues on a regular basis (1 Corinthians 14:2). But unfortunately many are too accustomed to this world’s system, to the extent that the world begins to lead, teach and educate them; instead of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of their spirit man. They had stopped praying in the Holy Spirit, once their spirit man starts getting education, and information from the world’s system.
KING SOLOMON ON THE INNER WITNESS
King Solomon wrote in advising his son, on how to listen to the voice, coming from his spirit man as an inner witness. He wrote:
“My son, pay attention to my words— incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to their whole body. Guard your heart diligently, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Proverbs 4:20-23 TLV
Solomon was teaching his son here about spiritual perception. He told him to keep his godly advices at heart (inside the heart), and not to be distracted from them. Solomon’s son was to be paying particular attention to them, in order to get solutions to every life’s problems. Those solutions comes like a flow from the heart or the spirit man, in the form of an intuition or inner witness.
We need to see the similarity in Proverbs 4:23 and Romans 8:16. Paul in Romans 8:16 refers to our inner conscience, testifying to our spirit man that we belong to God. It is from the same inner conscience, that every solution to all spiritual problems flows from. Solomon and Paul are here in agreement, concerning the inner witness of the spirit man.
Why did Solomon not advise his son to keep his words in mind or in the head? This is because the head, memory or the mind is not where spiritual truths are stored inside of us. Spiritual truths are meant for the heart of man. Faith and truth comes from the heart (Romans 10:10).
King Solomon then went further to point out to his son, why it is important to guard his heart. The heart or the spirit of man, is where the solutions to all spiritual problems flows from.
Those gentle spiritual nudges from the heart or the spirit inside of us, are the flows or issues of life in us. They come from the spirit inside of us, leading us and guiding us, in making the wise decisions of life, based on the quality of the Word of God stored up in our heart.
We don’t need anyone to tell us, that we belong to God. Our spirit man testifies always to us about this. Apostle John wrote:
“If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.”
1 John 3:20-22 NIV
But many do not often perceive those spiritual nudges, because they are not paying attention to them, as they come flowing from their hearts. The reason for this is that, they are not inclining their hearts to the Word of God in their spirit man.
Others do often perceive those spiritual nudges, but they had already chosen to just ignore them. They will rather incline their spiritual ears to their feelings. They ignore those spiritual nudges, because they make no sense to them. They don’t understand that spiritual truth from God, are not meant to make sense to us. They are meant to be followed and obeyed. Only those who live and walk in the Spirit often grasp this truth.
When we get too comfortable with the world around us, rather than to the spirit man inside of us; the tendency is there for us to start leaning towards what consumes our time most. This is why many will often yield to those desires or voices of the world around them, rather than to the voice of their inner man.
But the more we pay attention to those nudges from the spirit man in us, the lesser we will be influenced by the voices of this world, in making godly and wise decisions in life.
For example there are many believers struggling with financial debts today, because they are listening more to those voices around them; rather than listening to the inner witness on their spirit man. Many are sick and living unhealthy lifestyle, because they are listening to the voice of their flesh, rather than that inner witness in their spirit man. Christian homes are being broken daily for the same reason, and the list goes on and on.
But rather than go through all of these, we do have the spirit man inside of us, to always speak to us and guide us in the form of an intuition. It is very important for us to learn, how to be lead and guided from the inner man.
LOVE AND FAITH WORKS IN THE SPIRIT MAN
As born again Christians we must understand that, we don’t necessarily need to be in the spirit, before our inner man leads us in knowing or perceiving spiritual truths.
The scripture says:
“For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
1 Corinthians 2:11-12 NIV
The spirit man in us knows us more, than the mind or the flesh knows us. We already have our spirit man redeemed and transformed by the Spirit of God, and separated from the spirit of this world. It therefore becomes part of our lifestyle, to follow the things of God, and shun the evils of this world. Our thought patterns has been transformed, by the Holy Spirit living inside of our spirit man.
We do not only have the ability to perceive spiritual truths around us; but we also have the ability to express the love of God, towards people around us. We are able to do this, in exercising our spiritual authority in all situations, because as Paul said:
“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:5 NIV
Our spirit man now has the capacity to love, just as God loves us. We are able to act just as Jesus acted while on earth. God’s love inside of our spirit man makes this possible, from that moment when we got born again.
When we are being led to perceive spiritual truths, we are led from our spirit man on the inner man. We therefore need to be paying attention, to the intuition from the inside of us, to lead and guide our spiritual life.
We must understand that spiritual perception has nothing to do at all with our feelings, senses or the state of our minds. The spirit man inside us actually is the one, who opens us up as we pray. We begin to see and perceive things, which cannot be seen with our natural eyes.
This becomes much more easier for us, when we are living a lifestyle of faith, instead of what we see going on in the natural world. Prayer changes things in the spiritual realm, before they are manifested in the natural. And if we are not living by faith, we are unable to see or perceive spiritual things as we pray.
Paul explained this to the Galatians, whom he had been travailing in prayer for. He said:
“Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.””
Galatians 3:11 NIV
The lifestyle of humans in this natural world, is based on the law of sin and death; but the lifestyle in the spiritual realm is based on the righteousness which comes through faith. The Spirit of Christ Jesus living inside of our spirit man, has set us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-4). Faith is now our ticket into the spirit realm.
BUILDING UPON FAITH
Now, let’s go back to the advice of Jude again on this:
“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”
Jude 1:20-21 NIV
We need to pay particular attention here, to what he advised us to do, for the development of our spirit man. He is advising us to build upon our faith on the inner man. Faith is of the heart or of the spirit man. It is in the most sacred place inside our body – the heart. He is telling us to build up on our most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit. Faith is of the heart, and therefore sacred and holy to the Lord.
We need to understand that before, we can even begin to pray in the Holy Spirit, or be led by the Holy Spirit into prayer; faith must already be present in our hearts. If we do not have faith in the heart already, we cannot pray effectively. We cannot build on what we do not have. He is telling us to build upon our faith inside of our hearts, by praying in the Holy Spirit. But thanks be to God, because the measure of faith that, we need to build upon had been given to us, when we got born again (Romans 12:3).
In other words, we must let the Holy Spirit guide us, as we pray in tongues. We need to let Him strengthen our spirit man, as our faith works in the love of God, to manifest the mercy or grace of the Lord; in leading us into the spiritual truths that brings eternal life.
Paul continued in his advice to us:
“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.”
Romans 8:5-8 NIV
The works of the flesh in us are put to death, as we build on our holy faith by praying in the Spirit. The flesh often hinders the spirit man inside us, from hearing the voice from inside of our hearts. When the flesh becomes weak, our spirit man becomes stronger and more sensitive, as we pray in this manner, so that we can listen to hear from our inner witness.
When we walk by faith and not by sight, our spirit man is energized to please God. Our right standing before God is revealed through our walk of faith. The ability to see and perceive spiritual things, becomes imputed to us as we walk before God by faith. It takes a lifestyle of faith to perceive spiritual things. Our faith and love walk before God, therefore empowers us into the spirit realm, as we engage in spiritual warfare.
As we keep burning the fire of faith and love, in our full devotion towards Jesus at the heart; the Spirit of Jesus begins to speak to our spirit man. He not only speaks to us, but He begins also to speak with us in a very intimate way. We begin to have fellowship with His Spirit inside of our spirit.
Jesus begins to talk to us, as He reveals Himself to us through the scriptures, even as we pray in the spirit. This is the moment that our spiritual development begins to grow deeper and higher with Him as we pray.
A lot of Christians miss out of this moment, because they just love to go around the spiritual things in circles, as they fellowship with Jesus. We’ll never grow up or ever be able to develop our spirit man, in perceiving the things of God around us in this way. We need to be bluntly honest with spiritual things, as we walk by faith. This is key to our ability to perceiving the truth, and being able to separate it from the lie of the enemy. Spiritual things can be a lie (of the evil one), or the truth (of the Spirit of God) who lives inside of our spirit.
When we are devoted in fellowship with Jesus, He ignites the fire of His love in us for the gospel. This is the moment of truth and reality in the Christian life.
EXAMPLE FROM JESUS
For example most of the healing miracles of Jesus took place, because of the power of perception in His inner man. But when He had to minister deliverance to people, the gifts of the Holy Spirit were always there to lead and guide Him.
We were created in the image of God, because our Heavenly Father wants us, to be able to use our spirit man in maximizing the potentials, that were imputed to us at creation. Our spirit man is enlightened by God’s Spirit, for us to recognize Him living on the inside of us.
The Bible says of Jesus (as an example) in healing a paralyzed man:
“Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.””
Matthew 9:2 NIV
In other words Jesus in healing this man, perceived that he had faith to be healed. How was Jesus able to see faith in this man? He had been able (as the Son of man) to train His spirit on the inner man to do this.
Jesus identified faith in the man through an intuition on the inner man. A witness on His inner man revealed faith in this man to Him.
As believers in Christ, we do have the same ability as was in Jesus, to perceive faith in people while we minister to them. We were born again into the kingdom of God, to do even more than Jesus did on earth (John 14:12).
REBEKAH PERCEIVED HER HUSBAND
A second example is Rebekah’s reaction on seeing her husband from afar. The Bible described what Rebekah did when she perceived her husband (Isaac), as she saw him for the very first time:
“Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?” “He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.”
Genesis 24:62-65 NIV
Rebekah was brought up in the same way as Isaac. They had spiritual things in common. Even though they grew up in different places, but they were spiritually connected.
There are a lot of single ladies in the body of Christ today, who have not trained their spirit man as Rebekah did, in perceiving the men that God brings across their paths daily. And because their power of perception is in their feelings, and in what they can see physically, they are missing out of their blessing.
A Pastor’s wife once shared her testimony about how she met her husband. She perceived him first in her spirit man, even when she was not yet saved. Her unsaved spirit man had a witness on the inner man, that they were meant for one another.
She therefore did everything that she could to get his attention, at that time with no response from him. But the moment that she got born again and filled in the Holy Spirit, the man started seeing things in her that he never saw before. The lady wasted two years of her life, trying to get the man’s attention, even though she was not born again in those two years.
There are many single ladies today, who goes to church, and are in this particular situation. When we get born of the Spirit of God, the blessings of God will always follow us (Deuteronomy 28:1-15).
In the same manner when we train our inner man to perceive things going on around us, healing and deliverance comes as our spirit man begins to see them coming. Faith is activated in the spirit of a believer, as we perceive the move of God.
PERCEIVING THE MOVE OF GOD
There are times when I had witnessed Holy Spirit filled believers, rejected the intuition or witness from their inner man to lay hands on the sick. They often reject the leads from their spirit man, because those intuitions does not make sense to their unrenewed mind. The truth is that spiritual truths are never meant to make sense to us, because they are only meant for the spirit man to perceive.
This is how some often miss out of the blessing of God, because their spirit man has not been well trained, to perceive these leadings from their inner man.
Elihu once said during his trial of Job:
“For I am full of words, and the spirit within me compels me;”
Job 32:18 NIV
Elihu was apparently trying to perceive the reasons for the troubles of Job. He was full of words based on what had been deposited in his heart all of his life (Job 32:10), and the spirit man inside him compelled him to speak.
As he spoke we can see that, he was not being led by the Holy Spirit, but out of a witness on the inner man. Yes, unsaved people can perceive spiritual truths also; but in most cases they often reject them (see Romans 1:18-22).
At the end of his statement, Elihu’s perception of Job’s situation was wrong. This was because he had not trained his spirit man to be able to perceive deeper into the things of God. The Holy Spirit was not in their innermost being in those days. But in most cases they had learnt to perceive God through the manifestation of His goodness and loving kindness around them. This explains why Elihu judged Job, based upon the predicaments of his life; and not based on the truth from God.
In the same way Laban was able to perceive the hand of God on his household because of Jacob:
“But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, stay with me; for I have learned [from the omens in divination and by experience] that the LORD has blessed me because of you.””
GENESIS 30:27 AMP
Since the Holy Spirit was not living in their innermost being, as He lives in us today; these men and women in the Old Testament had learnt to perceive the move of God, by looking for the omens around them. Their spirit man learnt to recognize and perceive the goodness and loving kindness of God. But God often spoke to them and with them, through angelic visitations and dreams.
Thank God for the ability to have the Holy Spirit living inside us today. We have something more powerful than what they had at that time. It is easier for us today to perceive the move of God in our lives, by listening and hearing our spirit on the inner man.
There are believers in Christ who had often missed the leads from their spirit man. Elihu missed it, because even though he was perceiving something, his spirit man had not been trained as much as is required. But Laban never missed it. He knew that he was blessed because of Jacob. Can you perceive the goodness and loving kindness of God around you, by paying careful attention to your inner witness as you pray? We need to be able to perceive them daily and thank Him for His many blessings around us. Our God is a good God.
