Spin-up
1. You are 3-part being, exist
at 3 different levels.
a. What are 3 parts? spirit, mind, body
b. You are primarily a spiritual being with a psyche/soul,
temporarily living in a
physical body;
may be tired of hearing me say this, but I’m trying to change the
way you think.
c. Please understand:
i. Not talking about human beings having spiritual experience.
ii. You are a spiritual being having a human experience (life).
iii. Your spirit is the most important part of you.
2. At what level does God interact
with you? spirit-to-spirit
3. How does your mind become aware
of spiritual activity? Inputs from your spirit, in
form of thoughts, impressions, feelings, mental
images, words, dreams, visions, and so
on
4. “Spontaneous” vs “sequential.”
a. Spontaneous: not related to current train of thought
b. Sequential: one thought or experience leads to next thought
c. Are spiritual inputs normally spontaneous or sequential?
d. Usually spontaneous at first; with skill, become more sequential
Exercise
1. Pray in spirit. Prepares your
mind and spirit, helps you sense what God says through
your spirit and this class.
2. Meditate: Form mental image
of yourself with God. Think about importance of
dialoging with him.
Testing what you hear.
1. Intro
a. You cannot assume that everything coming from your spirit
is from God; may
originate with
your own spirit, from Satan/demons, even other people; may be
from your mind,
just think it’s from your spirit.
b. So, you don’t dare do everything that pops into your mind,
or follow every
whim. Ineffective,
even dangerous.
c. However, many of us have opposite problem: allowed mind
to remain
dominant; everything
must be understandable, or reasonable.
d. We must learn to follow our spirits, yet apply proper tests
to spiritual input.
e. First focus on hearing God speak, test afterward. If you
evaluate/test while
listening, will
stifle spiritual flow. With experience, may hear & test
simultaneously.
f. Are five tests; today will consider first two
2. When God speaks to you, always
biblical.
a. Bible is absolute standard; God will never violate his Word.
b. Ps 138:2 "for you have exalted above all things your
name and your word."
c. One of Holy Spirit's roles is to remind you of what Bible
says.
i. Jn 14:26 "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will
send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of
everything I have said to you."
ii. If you read Bible on regular basis, HS can remind you of what
you've
read. If you do not read Bible, HS cannot remind you of what you
haven’t read.
iii. If you have an impression or feel that God has spoken to you, HS can
remind you of verses that reinforce or counter what you thought.
d. Principle of supersession
i. At times, one biblical law or principle will supersede another
ii. Cannot violate spiritual law or principle; however, under certain
conditions, one may take precedence over another.
iii. I suggest: whenever God supersedes one spiritual law with another,
he
will make his intent even more clear, so will not appear that he is
violating his word.
iv. What God says will always, always be supported by a biblical
law,
principle or precedent.
e. Test #1: Is it biblical? Most important test.
3. When God speaks to you, always
peace in your spirit, regardless of mental state
a. Col 3:15 "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts."
i. “rule” in this verse refers to role of arbitrator, like
an umpire.
ii. When umpire make a call, it’s final.
iii. When labor dispute submitted to arbitration, decision of arbitrator
is
final.
iv. Spirit-peace is that important
(1) In general: must allow peace of Christ to dominate your spirit,
so
peace is typical state of your spirit
(2) Specifically: look for spirit peace about specific issues
b. Must distinguish between peace of mind and spirit peace
i. Mind may be confused or disturbed, yet spirit at peace.
ii. Likewise, spirit may be disturbed even if mind at peace.
iii. Something may seem to make sense, have answers to all your questions,
can make intelligent decision; yet deep inside, in spirit, something not
quite right. Uneasy, disturbed; may not know why (intellectually).
iv. Or may be faced with confusion, distress, intellectually decide
against
something, all data opposed; yet in spirit, confidence, certainty that
it
will work, “know” you must do it.
c. An internal assurance or conviction regardless of circumstances
or
mental/emotional
state
i. Realize: you can flourish regardless of your circumstances.
ii. Don’t make yourself a victim of your circumstances!
iii. Also can flourish regardless of mental/emotional state; tougher.
d. Mind can be skeptical, confused, afraid; yet you sense that
God will take care
of you, you
can trust what he said, he will work things out.
e. Point out: your mind often will be skeptical of what comes
from your spirit.
i. Your mind is supposed to evaluate inputs; a critical role
God gave your
mind
ii. Perversion of sin: mind critical of what comes from your spirit;
sin
inverted your nature, making your mind dominant over your spirit.
iii. 1 Co 2:14 “The man without the spirit does not accept the things that
come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he
cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
iv. “the man without the spirit” literally is “the psychikos (psyche-oriented)
man”
v. Person who is psyche-oriented honors his understanding,
knowledge,
feelings, emotions — emphasizes his own mental/emotional state
vi. Such a person considers things from Spirit of God foolish — cannot
understand them or accept them — because they are spiritually-
discerned; they don’t always make sense intellectually, or seem strange
vii. Likewise:
(1) your psyche (mind & emotions) will have difficulty accepting
what comes from your spirit;
(2) even greater difficulty accepting what comes from HS.
(3) your mind and spirit can be in different states (turmoil, peace)
viii. This is another reason we emphasize repentance,
changing the way you
think: making your mind conform to your spirit.
f. When God speaks to you, have peace in your spirit
i. peace is fruit of the spirit
ii. godly attribute
iii. increases with your spiritual maturity
g. Test #2: Is your spirit at peace?
Exercise [Prepare class to journal using the following statement as
a topic]
“Lord, help
me understand why spirit-peace is so important.”
Additional Notes
1. Spirit peace
a. An internal knowing, an inner witness; a right-ness (you
know it’s right).
b. Won’t always know how or why you know it.
c. This is HS bearing witness (confirming) with your own spirit
to give you
wisdom, guidance,
comfort, whatever you need at the time.
d. Any believer can be led by this inner witness.
e. Example: sometimes you hear something and you immediately
know it’s right
(or know it’s
wrong), even if you can’t explain why or how you know it.
f. Opposite of peace: disturbance, uncertainty, “red flag,”
“check.”