SJF - Daily Worship, Word and Spirit - Nov. 3, 2023

Paul speaks of the natural first and then the spiritual when he speaks of Adam and Jesus. Is there a principle involved in this statement that applies to an individual’s spiritual growth? I believe the answer is, Yes.” Galatians speaks of children being under tutors who discipline the flesh until they are of age to receive their liberty and their inheritance. When a person submits to authority, they are eventually trusted with authority. We are natural living beings who upon being born again become spiritual beings and at some point receive spiritual bodies as the resurrected Jesus received. Let me boil it down to what I sincerely believe. As a person yields to the spirit and denies the flesh, he grows more powerful in spirit. Or, another might say, as a person becomes more powerful in spirit, he yields to the spirit and denies the flesh. But don’t get so caught up in either statement that your focus moves away from a faith relationship with Jesus through Holy Spirit.

“However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” (1 Corinthians 15:46–49, NKJV)