Our Spiritual Responsibility Unfolded

To understand our spiritual responsibility, we have to first understand the contrast between the spiritual and the natural. John 4:24 reads: “God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Recognizing the vast difference between the spiritual and the natural is paramount for the believer. As we worship God in our spirit, he responds to us in the natural. Seems backward? It’s not. Creation itself was a spiritual act. When God created mankind, He created a spirit just like Him, and they communicated perfectly. Everything on the earth was first created spiritually by God, (using the spoken word only) and then made by God, which is natural (using something tangible from the earth) that He had prior made. We are also speaking spirits that were created in God’s image and after His likeness. (Gen.1:26) When we speak from our born again spirit, we can create what we say, as God did. We are spirit beings with great capabilities! Our natural lives were intended to be subject to our spirit man, which would, in turn, keep our minds sound, and our bodies healthy and strong. That is a good reason in itself for the human being to submit to the born again process by receiving Christ Jesus. It causes the spirit man to be made new and reconnected to the life source, which is God’s Holy Spirit, whom God sent to live here on the earth with mankind. Without being born again one is simply existing like a tree that has been cut down. The tree will no longer be able to bloom and blossom as intended however, remains alive, yet uneventful until all the life runs out of it. Psalms 139:14 says, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” Human beings are brilliantly made and able! A unique being, consisting of spirit, soul, and body. However, when these differences are not recognized, it becomes possible to misunderstand one’s entire make up, and as a result, one will stay stuck in the same place with no root stimulation from the spirit man, therefore, no real growth. Once becoming born again, change and growth should take place in a believer's life. Just like planting a seed into the ground, if planted properly that seed will change and it will grow. Many times the roots will grow deep down into the earth well before there are any signs of it on top of the soil. After our spirit is born again a similar process will occur. Just as the seed has to be planted properly, we have to be planted properly in the Word of God, for our spirit to take root into the Holy Spirit, and start to produce a well-rounded and fulfilled life. In that process, we will begin to recognize the contrast between our spirit man and our natural body, thus enabling us to speak life from our spirit to our body. According to First Thessalonians 5:23, we are three parts consisting of spirit, soul, and body. Each of the three parts has a unique purpose. The spirit part of the three-part man was created first and given a responsibility by God at his creation, and that responsibility has to be affirmed by mankind. In so doing, once we have responded to God from our spirit, it gives way to our natural needs being met, as far as the keeping of our bodies is concerned. That initial God and spirit-man connection contained man’s total natural provision because of God’s love for His creation, which he restored through Jesus Christ, after the fall of the first man Adam. Let’s look at how that works.