Living Inside Out (5)
One day I made a casual remark to my three year-old daughter that Jesus was inside her. Bemused, she asked, ‘Jesus in my stomach ah?’
What’s inside us? This is an interesting question.
Man is made up of body, soul and spirit. One good definition goes like this: man is a spirit, he has a soul and he lives in a body. It is important to understand that man is a spirit being, it is his spirit that defines what he is and who he is, not the soul or the body. The soul is made up of mind, emotion and will – the thinker, feeler and chooser. The body houses the soul and the spirit; it is what others see us from the outside and it comprises all the physical senses.
In the beginning, man had uninhibited communion with God through man’s spirit, for God is a spirit. He was alive unto God. But after man sinned – Adam ate from the forbidden tree - his spirit became dead to God. At the same time he also became alive to sin. Instead of being joined to God, his spirit is now joined to sin and sin became his master. So after the Fall, man’s nature took on that of his master, bent to do sin’s bidding – to sin is now natural to him. More than that, sin’s dominion brought about everything bad and evil to his life: curse, strife, sickness, poverty, physical death and all forms of darkness.
How could man get out of this miserable condition? Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again (John 3:3).
It’s a spiritual birth, not a natural one. The result is that man’s spirit becomes alive unto God again. In fact God’s spirit – the Holy Spirit – comes to dwell in man’s spirit. The Holy Spirit is in you, so long as you have Christ. You are a new creation joined to God.
The Holy Spirit lives in the believer, and He wants out! Not that He doesn’t like to be with us, but His nature is like a river that flows. On two separate occasions Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit in such manner, you can read about it here: John 7:37-39, John 4:13-14. But to me the most vivid picture of the Holy Spirit as a river is given by Ezekiel 47.
Ezekiel was shown a vision of the River of Life that flows from the temple towards the east ending at the Dead Sea. The prophet recorded an astonishing sight. Through the course of the River it became very wide and very deep and brought life to everything it touches. Fishermen’s business flourished because the Dead Sea’s water, once couldn’t sustain life, was healed and become filled with fish. Fruit trees grew in abundance along the River and bumper crops were harvested every month. Leaves from the trees became medicine for healing. You have healing, and you have prosperity. The last sentence of Verse 9 pretty much sums it up: everything will live wherever the river goes (NKJV).
You have the River inside you. When it flows out, it will touch your spirit, soul, body, your family, your relationships, your finance, your job, your business, your study and the world around you. It doesn’t take much to be blessed and be a blessing, just be aware of the River of Life and let it flow.
Everything will live wherever the river goes.
Everything will live wherever the river goes.
Scripture Link: BibleGateway.com
