There are people who think they can talk to the dead.\u00a0 There are people who think they can leave their bodies and enter the spirit world on demand.\u00a0 There are people who think they can access spirits of various kinds.\u00a0 Some people even think they can control these spirits.\u00a0 Just about everybody I can think of\u2014even some atheists\u2014want to know more about the spiritual side of life.\u00a0 So what does it mean to have a spirit, to live by the spirit, to be spiritual?<\/p>\n
It’s probably smart for all Christians to understand, because it’s how we are called to live.\u00a0 After all, God himself is spirit\u2026<\/p>\n
John 4:24<\/strong> For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”<\/em><\/p>\n And you and I, underneath this coating of skin and bones, we are spirit.<\/p>\n Romans 8:16<\/strong> For his Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit and tells us that we are God’s children.<\/em><\/p>\n What a wild thought!\u00a0 Have you ever really stopped to consider what that means?\u00a0 That you have a spirit\u2014that you ultimately are spirit.<\/p>\n I know it\u2019s much easier to think of things in their physical sense.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we\u2019re used to.\u00a0 We breathe and walk and bleed when we are cut.\u00a0 Our life is sustained by food and drink.\u00a0 We exercise for better health.\u00a0 We wear coats when we\u2019re cold and shorts when it\u2019s hot out.\u00a0 We can get sick and worn out.\u00a0 Understanding things as physical is second nature to us\u2026or maybe it feels more like first nature to you.<\/p>\n But the truth is that the spiritual part of us is in a sense far more real than the physical.\u00a0 Our physical bodies wear out over time.\u00a0 They can develop sicknesses and sore spots.\u00a0 They get old and eventually die.\u00a0 After that they go right back to dust.\u00a0 In fact, the bodies that we\u2019re used to have to die for us to continue.\u00a0 Like a seed that goes into the ground, we have to shed our outer shell in order to continue as spirit.<\/p>\n Now the average person might last a good 70 or 80 years these days.\u00a0 And to you and I that can seem like a good long time.<\/p>\n But our spirits last a whole lot longer than that.\u00a0 It might be difficult to comprehend, but even if we live well over 100 years, the time that our spirit goes on and on makes this physical life seem like the tiniest speck of insignificance.<\/p>\n 1 Cor. 15:45-54 <\/strong>The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam\u2014that is, Christ\u2014is a life-giving Spirit.\u00a0 What came first was the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.\u00a0 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven.\u00a0 Every human being has an earthly body just like Adam’s, but our heavenly bodies will be just like Christ’s.\u00a0 Just as we are now like Adam, the man of the earth, so we will someday be like Christ, the man from heaven.<\/em><\/p>\n What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These perishable bodies of ours are not able to live forever. <\/em><\/p>\n But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed.<\/em> It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die.\u00a0 For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. <\/em><\/p>\n When this happens\u2014when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die\u2014then at last the Scriptures will come true: “Death is swallowed up in victory. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n So we can grasp the basics of this concept.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to say sure I\u2019m a spirit.\u00a0 But how do you really relate to that idea\u2014that you exist in a realm of nonphysical.\u00a0 Because when it comes down to it, it can be an amazing thing to really try to grasp.<\/p>\n Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a> (Duration: 25:24 — 11.6MB)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are people who think they can talk to the dead.\u00a0 There are people who think they can leave their bodies and enter the spirit world on demand.\u00a0 There are people who think they can access spirits of various kinds.\u00a0 Some people even think they can control these spirits.\u00a0 Just about everybody I can think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[99,90,158,173],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-eternity","tag-opinion-vs-reality","tag-spirit","tag-spiritual-armor"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastorfrog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}