Dead Spirits?

[Dedicated Mind]

Eph 2:1 says, "And you [hath he quickened], who were dead in trespasses and sins;

What happens when we receive the holy spirit? Do our spirits come to life and the holy spirit comes to dwell in us?

In what practical ways are our lives supposed to change? What kind of new power do we have and how do we access this new power?

[Sam]

It is my understanding that the human spirit is dead spiritually or dead to God at our first birth but is quickened or made alive at our second birth when Jesus comes in as the Holy Spirit and our human spirit is joined to His.

[mfblume]

Our human spirits are distinct from our souls. The soul has the faculties of thinking, emotions and will. The spirit, on the other hand, has spiritual faculties. It can hear from God, has spiritual conscience and is the part of us that communicates with God in heart. So, when a person is born again it is spirit that is born of His Spirit. We now have a WINDOW, I call it, that is our spirits that open our thoughts of soul to a new realm altogether.

The body is sort of like the window of the soul to the physical. The spirit is the window of the soul to the spiritual. With a dead spirit, we are useless to God and cannot know Him. All we are conscious of is the material world around us. But the newborn spirit is like a new set of senses that suddenly come alive. And these senses relate to the spiritual world.

The carnal mind is the soul that only is conscious of the physical world. The Spiritual mind is conscious of the spiritual realm. So it is a matter of which WINDOW we focus upon and lean towards -- body or spirit.

So all these benefits of Romans 8 come into play with a newborn spirit.

[Dedicated Mind]

Sam and Blume, how do we stay "living in the spirit" in order to access the power of the spirit? What do you think fasting does to help us live in the spirit?

[mfblume]

Originally Posted by Dedicated Mind

Sam and Blume, how do we stay "living in the spirit" in order to access the power of the spirit? What do you think fasting does to help us live in the spirit?

To live in the Spirit, I think, is what Paul mentioned about walking after the Spirit. We regularly keep ourselves focused on the spiritual realities that we are one with Christ and alive from the dead, and live like that is true.

Fasting primarily keeps the doubts and flesh from affecting our faith. Fasting does not make us spiritual, but actually only gets flesh out of the way for our spirits to be able to function more freely without our flesh frustrating it as much as normally.

The main thing I see as needed to remain "spiritual" is to simply learn what the Word says about who we are in Christ since salvation, and live like it is true. This requires consciously "taken" time -- we will not find the time, but have to make it -- to pray and study the word regularly.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Dedicated Mind

Sam and Blume, how do we stay "living in the spirit" in order to access the power of the spirit? What do you think fasting does to help us live in the spirit?

In Galatians 5:16-25 Paul speaks of walking in (or by means of) the Spirit versus fulfilling the desires of the flesh. He lists several things which are the fruit of the Spirit and contrasts them with the works of the flesh. It is my understanding that from the time Jesus comes in as the Holy Spirit until we lay aside this old flesh nature in death (or the rapture) there is a constant struggle between our spirit who has been joined to the Holy Spirit and our natural human fleshly desires. If we yield to the Spirit we overcome the flesh. If we yield to the flesh we grieve and quench the Spirit. In Romans chapter 6 Paul tells us that our old nature is dead but we realize that it is also very much alive. We are told to mortify/kill/put to death the flesh. Fasting is just a discipline of saying "no" to self. It does not "earn" special points with God. It is basically discipline.