Flesh or Spirit ?
"That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
(John 3:6 NKJV)
"But the hour is coming, and
now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and
truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. "God is
Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
(John 4:23-24 NKJV)
Click here to read one of our lessons on
SELF CONTROL.
"It is the Spirit who
gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you
are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63 NKJV)
The Spirit of
Truth
"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper,
that He may abide with you forever---- "the Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him;
but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. (John
14:16-17 NKJV)
"But when the Helper comes,
whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who
proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. (John 15:26 NKJV)
"However, when He, the
Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He
will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will
speak; and He will tell you things to come. (John 16:13 NKJV)
"And we are His witnesses to
these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God
has given to those who obey Him." (Acts 5:32 NKJV)
The Newness of
the Spirit
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured
out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5
NKJV)
But now we have been delivered
from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve
in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the
letter. (Romans 7:6 NKJV)
Spiritually
Minded
There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did
by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin:
He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law
might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh
set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live
according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be
carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is
life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for
it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who
are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in
the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if
Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit
is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of
Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ
from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His
Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors----not
to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to
the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the
deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of
bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by
whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (Romans 8:1-16 NKJV)
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.
For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself
makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He
who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is,
because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of
God. (Romans 8:26-27 NKJV)
for the kingdom of God is not
eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit. (Romans 14:17 NKJV)
The Temple
of The Holy Spirit
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the
Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16 NKJV)
Do you not know that your bodies
are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them
members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is
joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two,"
He says, "shall become one flesh." But he who is joined to the
Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that
a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins
against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple
of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and
you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify
God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians
6:15-20 NKJV)
And so it is written, "The
first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a
life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45 NKJV)
The Spirit
Gives Life
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being
from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us
sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the
Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the
ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so
that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses
because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing
away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? (2
Corinthians 3:5-8 NKJV)
Now the Lord is the Spirit;
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just
as by the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore, since we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have
renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But
even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the
Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God
who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that
the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. (2 Corinthians
3:17-4:7 NKJV)
But I fear, lest somehow, as the
serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches
another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a
different spirit which you have not received, or a different
gospel which you have not accepted----you may well put up with it! (2
Corinthians 11:3-4 NKJV)
And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out,
"Abba, Father!" (Galatians 4:6 NKJV)
The Fruit of
the Spirit
 I
say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do
not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you
are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident,
which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry,
sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish
ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries,
and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you
in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the
kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16-25 NKJV)
Do not be deceived, God is not
mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows
to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the
Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (Galatians 6:7-8 NKJV)
Our Guarantee
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the
Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
(Ephesians 1:13-14 NKJV)
For through Him we both [JEWS
& GENTILES] have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now,
therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined
together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being
built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
(Ephesians 2:18-22 NKJV)
A Spiritual
Prayer
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would
grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in
love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
width and length and depth and height---- to know the love of Christ which
passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
(Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV)
Words That
Hurt Each Other, NOT FROM SPIRIT
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for
necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do
not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for
the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil
speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ
forgave you. (Ephesians 4:29-32 NKJV)
Do not quench the
Spirit. (1
Thessalonians 5:19 NKJV)
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