SJF - Daily Worship, Spirit and Word - Apr. 12, 2024
We encounter God on three levels - Spirit, Soul and Body. To encounter God in Spirit, we must engage our hearts in faith. To encounter God in our Soul, we must engage our minds, wills and emotions. We yield our thinking. God’s thoughts and words get highest priority. We yield our decision making. We submit to God and follow the leading of His Spirit and Word. We yield our longings. We bring our desires and emotions into a place of rest, allowing God’s peace to exist in us. To encounter God in our body, we yield the members of our body to Him. We yield our eyes, ears, mouth, hands and feet. When the soul is yielded to God, God restores and heals the soul, which allows us to yield our body to God and stay yoked with Christ Jesus, spirit, soul and body.
The Spiritual Realm - Christ reigns in the Spiritual realm. When we are born again, we receive an infusion of eternal life into our spirit and our Spirit is united with God’s Spirit. Holy Spirit is Christ in us. Sin is removed from our spirit at rebirth.
The Me Realm - Soul - For Christ to reign in the Me Realm, we must receive His Spirit and Word. The Me realm connects the spirit realm to the natural realm. When we yoke with Christ in our soul, our natural realm changes around us. This is the area Paul calls renewing the mind in Romans 12:1-2. Sin consciousness is removed from our soul when it is sanctified.
The Natural Realm - Unless the body is a slave, it will be a master. We are growing up into Christ in all things. Just as we have read in 1 Thes. 5:23, there is sanctification of the body as well.