19

Living in the Spirit

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 (Romans
8:13-14).

In the beginning God created all things very good.

The Lord created all things holy unto Himself, in
Him, one with Him. The heavenly and earthly
realms were one realm in God because in Him there
is no division. God and Adam belonged to the same
realm of existence because Adam was created in
the image and likeness of God. By just being Adam,
he spontaneously lived with God in the realm of
Spirit, the realm of God’s eternal dwelling place. He
lived and moved and had his being in God. He
walked with God in the cool of the day, in the
garden where heaven and earth were one. Adam
was created the son of God (Luke 3:38), in God, one
with God. God knew Adam and Adam knew God.
Adam knew God as Father and God related to Him
as His son. God found fulfillment in Adam and Adam
found fulfillment in God.

God created Adam’s entire being (spirit, soul and

body) alive to Him. Because he was a living soul
he predominantly related to God with his soul. It
was no problem because his soul was perfect and
his perfect body of dust was the servant of his
perfect soul. Of cause he had a spirit but as he was
created a living soul he predominantly lived by the
dictates of his perfect soul.

When Adam fell from perfection in God his perfect

heart and soul that were filled with grace and truth
became incurably deceived, incapable of knowing
the truth. Truth is spiritual and belongs to the realm
of the Spirit. Flesh and blood does not have the
capacity to know the Truth, who is Jesus our Lord
that lives in heaven. Adam was no longer a living
soul but a dead soul because he was dead to God.
As sin entered Adam it delivered his entire being
(spirit, soul and body) over to death. Thus, he
became an enemy of God unable to please Him.
Adam could no longer relate to God through his
soul in holiness because sin marred it. Adam
brought man’s soul in enmity with God. Since that
tragic day the carnal mind could not subject itself
to the law of God, nor indeed can it be because sin
entered the heart of man. The heart of man is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked
(Hebrew: incurable); who can know it (Jeremiah
17:9).

Sin placed Adam outside of God’s inside. Adam’s

separation from God resulted in his and our
death, as he was a branch severed from the Vine.
Sin separated man from the presence of God.
Adam, through sin, tore the universe of God, which
was one realm, into two realms. Two symbolizes
separation. Man was casted into the natural or
lower realm of creation which is covered with a
cloud of doubt and fear because it is void of the
Spirit of God. It is broken because man had no
excess to God who lives in the Spirit (heaven). Man,
as a dead soul, found himself isolated from God,
dwelling in the natural realm while the living God
remained in His abode in the Spirit. God never
changed but when sin entered into man he was
casted out from life into death; fell from light into
darkness and was transformed from truth into
deception. Man changed from a living soul to a
dead soul. Since Adam’s body was dead to God he
could not observe Him with his natural senses. He
could not see God with his natural eyes, hear him
with his natural ears or touch him with the hands of
his body. Adam who belongs to the natural realm,
was not supposed to observe God or the things of
the Spirit with his natural senses. He could not
relate to God with his sinful body of flesh. Neither
could he relate to God with his soul because it was
filled with deception and it stands in enmity with
God. His sinful nature had no excess to God who
lives in the Spirit (heaven). Since the day of the
transgression it is deceptive and illusory to relate to
God or the earth with the feelings, desires and
emotions of a crooked heart and with carnal
reasoning and understanding that do not perceive
or understand eternal life in the Spirit. All life in
creation lost its power when Adam ceased to abide
in his Creator.

Since the transgression man began to call on the

name of the Lord in prayer because he yearned for
that which he has lost in Adam; a life with God in
the Spirit. Enoch (without the law) and Elijah
(under the law) are examples of men that pressed
on to know God and to walk with Him like Adam did
in the garden. They desired to live with God in the
Spirit. They achieved it through faith (Hebrews 11).
By faith, man had to break through the cloud of
doubt and fear that he may please God who lives in
the Spirit in an atmosphere of eternal life, light and
truth.

The Lord is from heaven and man is from the earth.

God is Spirit and His kingdom is in the realm of His
Spirit. It is the will of God that His household from
below should also dwell in the realm of His Spirit so
that where He is they may be also. The good news
is that Jesus, our Lord, made provision, two
thousand years ago, for everyone that is in Him to
live his or her live in His presence. It is not through
your own efforts but through faith in Him that you
receive His marvelous grace to live with Him in the
Spirit. When He lives His divine life through you,
you are more than an overcomer.

When you came to Christ your spirit was made alive

to God as you placed your faith in God and Jesus
Christ whom he sent. God’s Spirit has birthed you
as a life-giving spirit in Christ. The moment that
you were born-again, joined to the Lord, you
became one Spirit with Him, a life-giving spirit. You
were born-again into the image and likeness of the
second Adam who is a life-giving spirit (1
Corinthians 15:45). Since you are a life-giving spirit,
in Christ, you have the ability to express Jesus’
faith, hope and love because you are one with Him.
Being born through the Holy Spirit you are perfectly
fashioned a living spirit in Christ. However, you are
still dead to Him in your body because of sin and
your soul is still enmity with God because of the
transgression (Romans 8:10, 7).

You are alive to God in your spirit but dead to Him

in your flesh (soul and body). That causes a war
inside of you. It is a war between life and death;
light and darkness and truth and deception. Your
spirit is filled with life, light and truth while your
canal flesh houses death, darkness and deception.
For the flesh (carnal soul and body of death) lusts
against the Spirit (which is one Spirit with your
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 (or any other form
of legalism) (Galatians 5:17-18). All of us are still
walking a great deal according to the flesh. To live
according to the dictates of the flesh is to live your
life independently from God, which is death. This is
to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. Sin includes both evil and good and
it is deadly because it is void of the life that is in
Jesus Christ our Lord. Evil is lawlessness and good
is legalism that endeavors to justify oneself
because of self-righteousness, which reigns in the
members of sinful flesh. Legalism is void of life
because it is void of faith in Christ which is one of
the three doorways into the realm of Spirit or
heaven where God dwells; hope and love is the
other two. Man can only relate to God that is
Spirit and who lives in the realm of Spirit
(heaven) through His Word in faith, hope and
love (1 Corinthians 13:13). God never gave man a
choice between good and evil but between life and
death. To walk according to the dictates of the
fallen soul (lawlessness and religious flesh) is death
but to walk according to your life-giving spirit which
is one with the Spirit of Christ (Tree of life) in you,
are righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.

The members of your flesh manifest itself in

accordance to the desires of your heart, emotions
and feelings based on messages received from
your five bodily senses that were interpreted by a
deceptive heart and a carnal mind. How can truth
ever flow from your feelings or from impressions
received from your carnal mind? How can you use
this as a basis of faith as if it is a word from God?
Most often we are moved by our fallen souls
instead of the Word and Spirit of God. When you
are feeling good you have “faith”, you can manifest
“love” and you have “hope” for the future. When
you are down you are depressed, irritated and
swallowed up in hopelessness. How can the
feelings, emotions or wisdom of a broken soul ever
be a reliable barometer of the truth?

Your life-giving spirit responds toward the Word

(revelation) and witness of the Holy Spirit in you,
which is one with you. The Word and the Holy Spirit
is one and will never contradict each other. To walk
according to the Spirit is to operate with the faith,
hope and love of Christ in you because He is one
Spirit with you. He that is joined to the Lord is one
Spirit with Him. Thus, if you relate with your life-
giving spirit to God, with one another and the earth
you live no longer but Christ lives in you and He
manifests Himself to the world. This is the way of
the cross of Christ. To persevere in seeking the
mind of the Lord in all things is wisdom that keeps
you on the path of life. A lack of patience and
perseverance often leads to much folly, which is
death.
Your consciousness and awareness about heavenly
things is in the realm of the Spirit of God. Your self-
consciousness and awareness about earthly things
exist in the imperfect natural realm where
uncertainty, doubt and fear of death suffocate you.
The kingdom of this world and the lusts thereof will
pass away but the kingdom of our God is an eternal
kingdom, which cannot be shaken.

How shall you as a Christian live your life in your

mortal body of flesh? Present your natural (soulish)
body of death to God as if it is a spiritual
(resurrected) body that is alive to Him. Through
faith you present that which is dead to God as if it
is alive to Him and pleasing to Him – that which is
not as if it is. You need to present your soul, which
is enmity with God, as if it is alive to God, perfect
and one with Him, in hope for the redemption of
the whole man. Therefore you take every thought
in captivity to the obedience of Christ and you
present the members of your body as slaves unto
righteousness (Romans 12:1-2). Not that you have
attained bodily to the resurrection from the dead or
made perfect in your soul yet or see all things
subjected to Christ. But you present yourself in
hope that the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead
may quicken your mortal body so that you may
bodily attain to the resurrection from the dead and
be made perfect in your soul while living in this
mortal flesh. This was the hope that Enoch and
Elijah had. Hope does not disappoint. To live
forever you need to inhale the air of heaven, which
is His presence. To do so, you need to see your
natural (soulish) body as a spiritual body in an
atmosphere where heaven and earth has come
together. You live this earthy life as if you are in
heaven. It is easy.

If you share Jesus’ live with Him the pressure to

function in your own power is removed. It is easy if
you share Jesus’ life because He has already
attained to resurrection life and was perfected
trough His sufferings. He died for you that you may
replace all areas of your life with His, which is
divine perfection. You just flow with Him all the
time, sharing his faith, hope and love. Use your
imagination and visualize it. The more that you
focus on Jesus, meditate on sharing His life with
Him and you practice it, the easier it becomes. It is
too lonely to struggle with an imperfect prayer life
of your own. Share His exciting prayer life with Him.
This is true fellowship with Him. You should
abandon your imperfect relationships and share all
His perfect relationships with Him. Can you see how
easy it becomes now? Just remember that a faith-
life is exciting to your spirit but not comfortable to
the flesh. If you are faithful in practicing this
lifestyle you will discover what I mean.

Faith changes the status quo in the books of God.

Though you may not have attained to the
resurrection from the dead and not being made
perfect in your soul, faith is the substance of your
hopes and dreams, the evidence of unseen
realities. When God looks at man He sees man as
he thinks in his heart he is, for so He sees him
(Proverbs 23:7). Moreover, what you think in your
heart, good or evil, you have already committed
(Matthew 5:28). Through faith, and faith alone, you
procure substance in the Spirit for your own good
or own destruction. This is the righteousness of God
through faith. Enoch (without the law) and Elijah
(under the law) are living proof that since the
transgression man could attain to resurrection life
and perfection of the entire man if he or she
believes God for it.

If you see yourself alive to God, your faith brings to

life your entire being. Your spirit is already created
alive to God through new birth. Through faith you
brought to life your body of death and fallen soul as
if you have attained bodily to the resurrection from
the dead and as if your soul has been made
perfect. Through faith Jesus took bread, blessed
and broke it and gave it to His disciples and said,
“Take, eat this is My body.” He took the cup with
wine, gave thanks and gave it to them, saying,
“Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the
new covenant, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). What did
the disciples see? They saw bread and wine. What
was it in reality? It was the body and blood of the
Lamb of God, because Jesus believed it. Likewise, if
you present yourself a living sacrifice unto God
though, you do not see your perfection yet or you
do not see all things being subjected to Christ, your
perfection is what God sees. It happens according
to your faith. Your faith is an expression of your
hope to bodily attain to the resurrection from the
dead and to be made perfect in your soul because
you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.
You believe that you have died with Him and were
raised with Him. You cannot serve God in a Biblical
manner without involving your entire being, your
spirit, soul and body.

Do you know how simple faith is? Faith is expressed

all the time in your thoughts, attitudes, words,
works and daily walk. Your whole existence consists
of expressions of faith. Some expressions of faith
are vanity (unbelief), which is sin but living faith
leads to eternal life. It is all a matter with which
part of your being, you relate toward God, men and
the rest of creation. If you relate and live according
to the dictates of your dead soul (flesh) you will
surely die but to relate and live as a life-giving
spirit is the path of life. To believe to attain bodily
to the resurrection from the dead and to be made
perfect in your soul in this life, without a dedication
to live as a life-giving spirit, is wishful religious
thinking. 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 (Romans 8:13,
emphasis added).
If we sincerely set our hearts to walk with the Lord
and fall, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only but also for the
whole world (1 John 2:1-2). Take one minute to
repent by restoring your focus on Jesus. You fell
because you looked at yourself. It is not your
ability, but Christ’s ability in you. He is the only
hope of glory that the Father has given you. It is all
about His power and ability. Everything is about the
Fathers business; His family. His army, His city, His
family and His bride is the same. To love God and
His interests, is what we are living for, not
ourselves. When we love one another He anoints us
with the oil of gladness and the bond of peace in
Him prevails. Every manifestation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, in us, brings forth His eternal kingdom.

Now that you are flowing in His faith you create

with Him substance in the realm of spirit according
to the vision He has placed in your spirit, which is
according to the anointing that is working in you.
You share Jesus’ life with Him as you live no longer
but He lives in you. Not that you have already
attained, or already being made perfect but in hope
that you may attain to the resurrection from the
dead in the same manner as Enoch and Elijah did.

Paul lived a life filled with faith in God and Jesus

Christ. He said that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, which is in the realm of Spirit.
To illustrate: we know that Peter, James and John
witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain.
They observe the transfiguration in a vision with
the eyes of their spirits because flesh cannot see in
the realm of Spirit but natural senses are limited to
observance in the natural realm. Now as they came
down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them,
saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of
Man is risen from the dead” (Matthew 17:9,
emphasis added). How then did Paul testify about
him being caught up into the third heavens not
knowing if he was in heaven with his spirit or with
his body? If he knew flesh and blood cannot enter
into heaven or see heavenly things why did he
deem it not strange for his body to be caught up
into heaven. I know a man in Christ who fourteen
years ago – whether in the body I do not know, or
whether out of the body I do not know, God knows
– such a one was caught up to the third heaven (2
Corinthians 12:2, emphasis added). Paul saw
himself bodily attained to the resurrected from the
dead and he saw his soul made perfect in Christ. He
saw heaven and earth as one realm where all
things are subjected to Christ. That is how he lives
his life. Paul presented his body continuously a
living sacrifice to God as if he has attained to
resurrection life and be perfected in his soul in
hope that the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead
will quicken his mortal body. He brought every
thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ
that he may be renewed in the spirit of his mind in
hope that when his obedience is fulfilled all
disobedience in him will be punished. He was
determined that his carnal mind and emotions will
not govern his body but his spirit, which rule it from
the spirit of his mind. That is the part of him where
the light of the glory of the Word of God is seated,
which is the seed of God that cannot sin. Paul knew
that God saw him the way he believed in his heart
he is, hence the bold confession of his believes.

Your redeemed spirit which is one with the Spirit of

Christ is all the time in the realm of Spirit as its
substance is spirit and it is alive to God. That is the
part of your being that is open to God and His
kingdom; it is that part of you that cannot sin. Your
fleshly nature (fallen soul and mortal body of sin)
belongs to the natural realm. It is that part of you
that is aware of self (own feelings, emotions,
desires, personal views and subjective reasoning)
and the things that can be observed with the five
natural bodily senses. Your fleshly nature cannot
observe the things of the Spirit. These two natures
in you, the spirit and the carnal flesh, is constantly
in war with each other for the control of the
members of your body. If you are in the flesh you
can only observe that which is in the natural realm
where death, darkness and deception reign. To
observe and experience that which is in the Spirit,
where God dwells, you need to enter the realm of
Spirit through faith in God.

You live two lives in two different places at the

same time; with your spirit you live in heaven and
with your flesh in the natural. No one has ascended
to heaven but He who came down from heaven,
that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven (John
3:13, emphasis added). Jesus told Nicodemus that
He lived in heaven and earth at the same time. If
you are predominantly aware of the things of the
Lord – how you may please God, you live your life in
the Spirit. But, if you are predominantly aware of
the things of the world – how you may please
yourself, you live your life in the flesh.

To live in the Spirit your spirit constantly needs to

be open to God. It means that you primarily relate
to God and to the earth with your life-giving spirit.
It comes by practicing your spirit to be aware of the
things of the Spirit (kingdom of God). To exercise
and discipline your spirit is very real experiences.
Nothing come by itself, you need to exercise your
spirit in the ways of Godliness. To be aware of God
and the things of the Spirit is very real. It is through
knowing the Word of God and the power of the Holy
Spirit. Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you
not therefore mistaken, because you do not know
the Scriptures nor the power of God?” (Mark 12:24).
It is wisdom to constantly focus on the Lord
and to have a deep and tender relationship
with the Holy Spirit. This is the heart of a walk
with God. Pray much and give yourself to
meditation in the word. This is to put all your hope
and faith in the Lord. In a nutshell, living in the
Spirit means that the faith, hope and love of Christ
continuously flow through you. In all things it is
about the will of the Father to the glory of His
name. The character and power of the Lord
Jesus Christ, which is His glory, should
continually be the centre of your focus,
attention and meditation. A focus on Him
magnifies His glory in your heart resulted in you
seeing Him more clearly with the eyes of your
spirit. Where your treasure is there the focus of
your heart shall be also. It is all a matter of focus.

When you see Jesus with the eyes of your heart

your spirit opens up to the Holy Spirit so that you
may know the Lord in the power of His love. Pure
spiritual activity takes place in the realm of the
Spirit. It involves faith, hope and love which is the
doorways into the realm of Spirit where God dwells.
When you are predominantly aware of God (spirit is
open to God) you find yourself in the realm of His
Spirit.

Prayer and meditation on the word is of the most

important spiritual activities. But we will give
ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry
of the word (Acts 6:4). Prayer comes first than the
word. We should not reverse the order which the
apostles have established through the wisdom of
the Lord. Prayer and worship invites the presence
of God that set the platform for our hearts to be
receptive for His word. Pray without ceasing. Paul
prayed more than anybody else in tongues. I thank
my God I speak with tongues more than you all (1
Corinthians 14:18). First pray then give yourself to
the word (reading but specially meditation on the
word). I do not, at all, imply to neglect the word but
to follow the way of those who paved the way. In
our generation most saints are devoted to the word
but neglect prayer. The saints love to read the word
but also neglect meditation on the word. Meditation
of the Scriptures is the way to absorb the word into
your system. According to the Acts 6:4 first pray
then give yourself to the word. In all that you do, do
not become self-conscious and self-absorbed. It
causes you to turn from the truth in the Lord to the
deception that is in your fallen nature. You ask and
do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you
may spend it on your pleasures (James 4:3).
Everything you do is for the glory of God; it is to
give yourself for the homeless, widow, orphan and
the needy; for every one that calls on the name of
the Lord. Faith in God and compassion toward
others is the path of life. If you depart from the
truth, you are in deception. It is all about the
kingdom of God and not yourself.

Another key is to use your imagination to the

glory of God. Christ said if you look at a woman to
lust after her you have already committed adultery
with her in your heart. If you hate somebody you
have killed him. This is two of many examples in
Scripture on which I base the principal of using your
imagination. If there is a negative there must be a
positive also. As a man believes in his heart so is
he. Faith came by a revelation from God. We should
pray according to the will of God. So I do use my
imagination in meditation to search the mind of the
Lord, in prayer, in all areas of my life. It is wisdom
to know the Lord in all your ways and not to lean on
your own understanding. How do I do it? I focus on
the Lord and the issue of concern simultaneously
while praying or meditating on the Lord. Answers
seldom come instantly. Patience and perseverance
is the way of the Spirit. Never tense up for it is a
sign of doubt; just relax all the time, the Lord is
always on time. Naturally, you are going to make
mistakes, how else will you learn. Just relax your
body and mind and enjoy the Lord. I tell you, the
Lord is fun!

You may say I am at work how can I focus on the

Lord? It is wisdom to know the Lord in all of your
ways and not to lean on your own understanding.
You may be busy to solve a problem or you may
work on a project. Relate to Him as your superior. I
promise you, He is much more than an imaginary
friend – the Lord of glory is very real! Believe me,
He is full of humor, joy and laughter but at certain
times He can also be frightening awesome. It is
wisdom not to attempt to bring Christ into your
world but to ascend into His. Live your life where
He is. He went to prepare you a place so that where
He is you may be also. What a miserable existence
if you wait for heaven to live in the Spirit. By faith,
you can live heaven now!