Guarding and preserving the life of God within.

Over the last ten months I have become increasingly aware of the necessity of defining what being spiritual really means rather than what peoples thoughts and ideas concerning being spiritual is.
People are sometimes accused of being overly emotional or flaky or unstable or superstitious or simply naive all under the supposed guise of being spiritual.
And these concerns are most often expressed by those who would consider themselves as stable consistent and biblically governed.
I am sure that anyone who has been a christian for any length of time at all will have seen first hand or heard of situations where all of the above descriptions of flaky or unstable Christians could be aptly applied
However I also am convinced that most of that which purports to be biblical and sound Christianity is no more spiritual than the former. For in reality both of these are what I would call soulish christianity, that is they are largely emanating from the mind or will or from the emotions.

On the one hand there is zeal aplenty and passion and a sincere desire to please God. Likewise in the other there is a thoughtful reasoned approach, no less a desire to glorify God, but the human intellect is king and anything that cannot be filtered through the natural understanding is rejected.(this is one reason that tongues is such a powerful gift to the church because we can pray in the spirit but our mind is unfruitful.
That is we can pray in the spirit realm and not be limited or governed by our natural understanding.)
In the latter instance the kind of Christianity described is primarily about cultivating the mind and living by the determination of the human will, thus christianity is reduced to a series of decisions and to learning the right kind of theology.
Does that sound like an over simplification?
I wish that that was true.
To be spiritual is to walk consistently in the spirit, and to walk in the spirit is by definition to be truly spiritual.
And to walk in the spirit is to let your spirit man have the ascendancy in your life above your natural reason and above your emotions.
The bible says the it is the spirit of a man that is the lamp of the Lord searching all his inner parts.
That is that it is in our spirit that the Lord searches us out and it is from there that he communicates with us.
When you and I were born again our spirits were reborn.Our souls were not reborn.And our bodies certainly were not.We may have felt a flurry of emotion as the love of God was released into our spirits but our soul was not instantly changed.
It is our spirit that was changed.
Our soul which consists of our mind and our will and our emotions now must be brought under authority to the word of God.
Our minds need to be renewed.
This would not be necessary if our souls were instantly changed at the new birth, because then it would be submitted to God to begin with.
But as you and I know all to well our minds and our emotions can constantly try to mislead us and to side in with our flesh if we do not learn to walk in the spirit and renew our thought life to agree with what the word of God says.
Christians who let their unregenerate thought patterns largely govern them or their human fleshly emotions dominate never grow out of spiritual babyhood.
And sadly the church is all to full of individuals who have never developed spiritually as they ought.
The truth is that when you and I were born again our spirit was made brand new.We became a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Old things passed away and all things became new.
In that moment of time that we made Jesus the Lord of our lives and believed that God raised him from the dead God connected us to Jesus and we became one spirit with the Lord.
The life of God in the greek it is called zoe was injected into our spirits and we became spiritually alive to God and to the things of God.
We passed from death that is spiritual death into spiritual life.
This is the definition of what it means to become a christian.
If that be so and it is so then it surely follows that the highest priority of our lives should be to safeguard and to cultivate the zoe life of Jesus Christ that is abiding and residing in our reborn human spirits.
Christianity is really the preservation of and increase of the life of God within.
There is a scripture in the book of proverbs that to me encapsulates the heart of christian discipleship and it is proverbs chapter 4 v20 27

"My son,attend to my words;incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not depart from your eyes;keep them in the midst of your heart.
For they are life to those that find them,and health to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all diligence;for out of it are the issues of life.
Put away from you a deceitful mouth ,and perverse lips put far from you.
Let your eyes look right ahead and let your eyelids look straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet,and let all your ways be established.
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left:remove your foot from evil."
This is such a rich passage of scripture that I could take up the entire blog delving into it, however notice how in verse 23 it says Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life

Jesus said in Johns gospel chapter 7 v 38 that "Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
It is in our heart that the issues of life are sourced;and it is out of our innermost being that those living waters flow.
The book of proverbs tells us that we must guard diligently our hearts for this very reason and it specifies two primary activities that will ensure that the flow of life in our hearts is guarded firstly the diligence with which we keep Gods word before our eyes and in our hearts, and secondly the diligence with which we guard everything that proceeds out of our mouths.
And both of these are vitally important.
1John 3 v 9 says the following "Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin;for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin because he is born of God.
When we became a christian a new life was imparted to us that gave to us a brand new nature,and that nature causes us to walk in love and to practice righteousness.
We are not nonchalant about sinning anymore,when we are living out of that new nature.
This new nature is described here in this passage in 1 john as 'the seed of God'
Some versions are more specific. They translate 1John 3v9 as the divine sperm dwelling in us.
Gods life was imparted into us as a seed, and that seed was the living word of the living God.
It therefore is perfectly logical that in being exhorted to protect and guard this divine life or nature of God that dwells within our hearts the first priority mentioned is diligence to keep the word of God in our hearts.
Notice that proverbs 4 21 says to keep (Gods word)in the midst of our hearts.
That is the challenge to us.
Many many Christians do not do this this because if they did what comes out of their mouths would be so different.
Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouths speaks.
When we have got the word of God from being in our minds only down into our spirits then we begin to be very diligent about that which comes out of our mouths.
Why? Because we want to safeguard that source of life flow from within.
Remember that Jesus said that his words to us "they are spirit and they are life(john 6 63)
The word of God is living and powerful and is the primary container of Gods life to us so the more we get that word into our hearts the greater the measure of Gods life is released in and through us.
Remember how in the parable of the sower Jesus identifies that all four of the different categories of those people who listen to the word of God heard it, but only one out of the four where determined to keep that word in their hearts so that it would bear fruit.
How do we get the word of God into our spirit? Simply by keeping it before our eyes and keeping it constantly in our mouths.
In other words by rediscovering the lost art of biblical meditation.
The Hebrew word for meditate includes elements in it that speak of muttering or repeating something over and again to yourself. It certainly includes a vocal element.
It may be quietly under our breath but we should incorporate some element of saying the word of God to ourselves in order to get into down into our spirits.
Even in the world of theatre an actor can memorize an entire play by rehearsing his lines over and again.
Once he is into the production run the lines are kept alive by the fact that he is saying them every night and sometimes twice a day.
Once the run come to an end he may retain a knowledge of some of the lines but the words will not freely flow as they once did.
In the same way if we desire to keep the word of God in the centre of our hearts than we must speak them out often and repeatedly.
I usually begin my morning devotionals by amongst other things speaking out loud certain verses of scripture to myself.
I do this to build myself up but also to keep the word active within my heart and I am almost always conscious of the invigorating effects to my heart of this kind of discipline.
Consider today how much time and energy and money is spent upon the development of the mind and of the body.
Truly our society is saturated with materials geared to preserving youthfulness and keeping trim, additionally think of the money spent on university degrees and higher education to train peoples minds in a particular academic discipline.
By contrast how much time is given to the training and to the development of the human spirit?
I have seen some students who are completely immoral and poor in social skills,yet are funded to study a given subject through higher education.
Yet as to the development of the whole person ie spirit soul and body they are sadly lacking.
They may be very knowledgeable in a given field but very ignorant in a basic grasp of general knowledge,and may possess no moral character at all.
If anything the trend is fast moving into a descent today amongst the students of higher education, and believe me I know in this matter what I am saying is the truth.
Partly this is because of the decline in our society of its moral foundations that is merely mirrored by the young adults of today but also it is stark to see how being well educated can affect nothing more than the mind of an individual, not touching their spirit, and not affecting their character at all.
How much more as Christians should we be developing our whole sense of person hood and I believe that there is a glaring imbalance in western Christianity between how much we have over developed our intellects at the expense of developing our hearts and becoming like John the baptist those who are strong in spirit.
But keeping the word of God ever before our eyes and in the midst of our hearts is only part of that which cultivates this life of God within, there is also the place of praying in the spirit which can charge us up and make us more conscious of spiritual things.
The gift of tongues is a precious and powerful gift to the church and one that we should earnestly desire to receive if we are a christian.
How sad that small wars have been fought over this area of biblical truth when all the time the Lord has provided us with this precious gift that can edify us and strengthen us in our spirits.
I am totally convinced that tongues is available and residual within the spirit of every born again child of God who has been subsequently filled with the Spirit of God.
I do not believe that this greater fullness or baptism of the Holy Spirit has been received by every christian, but it is available.
And to those who have received this gift the gift of tongues is present within their spirits if they will learn how to release it;that does not mean that every Spirit filled believer will automatically speak in new tongues but they can if they are taught how.
I simply cannot imagine trying to maintain my prayer life or to keep my spirit strengthened without exercising this precious gift within my life.
Within the scriptures tongues has many facets and different operations however one of those is to edify us.
The word for edify in the Greek is similar to our English word for charge, like one would charge up a battery.
This is precisely what praying in other tongues will do.
There is a scripture in Isa that prophesies the bestowing of this gift to the new testament church and which describes the fruit of it in a believers life.
Isa 28 v11 12 "For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, To whom he said,This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest," And,"This is the refreshing".
Many in the ministry today are becoming burned out and worn out and yet the Lord has provided us with this wonderful gift the can keep our hearts charged up and can cause us to rest in the refreshing presence of God that dwells within us.
Lastly the passage in proverbs 4 mentions the imperative of guarding that which comes out of our mouths in relation to guarding that river of Gods indwelling presence within us.
"Guard your heart diligently for out of it flow the issues of life"
Put away perversity from your lips and keep corrupt talk far from your mouth"
What does being diligent in this matter entail?
It means that we screen out any unbelief or doubt or scepticism or slander because we reconize that these things can actually dissipate the sense of Gods presence overflowing in our hearts
This is not legalism in reality rather it is freedom, freedom to select our words carefully and wisely the freedom to speak words that minister the grace of God to ourselves and to others.
All of these things can strengthen and nurture the life of God within our hearts and surely there is an imperative need in these days for more of the life that is within to come flowing without to a world that is largely heading for hell.
We who are in the west are not living as we should we are by and large not living as spiritual men and as spiritual women;that is putting the things of the spirit first and learning to walk in the spirit consistently.
But in these days God is shaking everything that can be shaken and a host and army of the people of God will arise,shaking off their soulish stupor they will be alive in the spirit and trained to be sensitive to the Spirit of God, and through them the Glory of the Lord shall be made manifest as never before.