The Spirit Me

Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.


Let me then approach the throne of grace with confidence because:


1. I am worthy, I am a sinner.
2. I choose to do it. It’s my choice, not my amount of faith.
3. Mercy and grace received will help further the kingdom of God.
4. Jesus is waiting there for me, and I honor his sacrifice for me.
5. So that I may receive mercy and find grace to help me in my time of need.


We approach the throne of grace for many reasons: help, our love for God, worship, adoration, thanksgiving, comfort, peace, assurance, and many others. Approaching the throne of grace is prayer. Praying is approaching God. And where is God? He is at the throne, the throne of grace.


Now that we have broken down many things that could have prohibited us from approaching the throne of grace with confidence, let’s move forward to the throne itself. We do approach the throne of grace confidently so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need. It is okay to approach the throne to find help. Do you have any idea how much your Creator adores you? Why He created your inmost being and knit you together in your mother’s womb (from Psalm 139:13.) God love you. He wants to bless you. He wants you to receive His mercy and find His grace to help you in your time of need. God knows we have needs, and He wants to meet them all. Therefore we will proceed ahead. We will obey the scripture. We will follow the Word of God, and we will approach the throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy and find grace.


All aboard? Let’s go.


Last week we visited Apostle John’s description of Jesus as seen while John was in the “Spirit.” Look at Revelation 1:10.


Revelation 1:10
On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,


John says that he was “in the Spirit.” This could mean he received a vision. What does it mean to be in the Spirit? “The Spirit” in upper case letters refers to “the Spirit of God,” or “the Holy Spirit,” and “the Spirit of Christ.” “The Spirit” is from God. “The Spirit” is given to all believers.


John wrote these words describing himself as “in the Spirit.” Was it a vision or was it something else? I don’t want us to just automatically assume that it was a vision. Stay with me, and you will see what I mean.


John, one of the 12 disciples, wrote 5 New Testament books. John knew Jesus personally. John heard Jesus speak and teach on “the Spirit.” John 6:62-63 quotes Jesus saying this: “What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”


What Spirit gives life? The Holy Spirit gives life. Jesus told his disciples that they would receive the Holy Spirit after he ascended to heaven. Also in John 3:6 Jesus says in the presence of John, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” John writes about the Holy Spirit when he says “the Spirit.”


One last reference please. John 1:32 is John the apostle writing about the words of John the Baptist when he encountered Jesus baptism.


John 1:32-33
Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”


The Spirit came down from heaven and remained on Jesus. All four gospels tell the story of how the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism. The Spirit is from God. The Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is a part of God that lives in believers. The Spirit lives in us. So how can one be in the Spirit? If we are both physical flesh and bone (body) and Spirit, then we have more than one component to our existence. Are we only a physical being walking about with mere physical reactions to the outside world? No. And as Christians we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.


In John 14:15-17 Jesus says:


If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.


John 14:26 says:

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.


When John writes Revelation and his view of God, Jesus, and heaven – John says he was in the Spirit. Did he say “I saw a vision” in that verse. Think about it.


Go back to John 14: 15-17. Notice John quotes Jesus telling us point blank that the world – non-believers, cannot accept the Holy Spirit because it cannot see him and does not know him. Does the world understand the Holy Spirit? The world is the unbelieving of Jesus. They don’t even believe in Jesus, so surely they don’t understand the Spirit of God living inside us. Don’t expect them to understand it. That’s why they are called the unbelievers, they do not believe. They don’t see the Holy Spirit and they don’t know him.


Jesus says that “the world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.” He goes on to say that you, the believer, “know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” “Him” is of course the Holy Spirit in this context.


Two very important things to learn here are


1. They (non-believers) neither see him (the Holy Spirit) nor know him.


2. We (the believers) know him (the Holy Spirit) and he lives with us and will be in us.

John 14: 15-17
If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.


Jesus says that the world (we will continue to use that term to describe the non-believers of Christ) does not see the Holy Spirit. Jesus does not say that believers do not see the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that the world does not know the Holy Spirit. Jesus says we believers do know him, the Holy Spirit.


#1. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him.
#2. We (I will use this term “we” to describe believers at this time) know the Holy Spirit, for he lives with you and be in you.


Again.


# 1.The world does not see the Holy Spirit and does not know him.
# 2.We know the Holy Spirit, he lives with us and in us.


Then could it be possible that we could see him, the Spirit. We are made up of mind, body and Spirit. As believers we also have the Holy Spirit in us just as this scripture tells. If we live only as physical beings with no spiritual self, then we certainly could never hope or dream to see anything in the spiritual realm or through our Spirit (with the Holy Spirit inside us.) However we are not without Spirit. In fact God created us as spirit and physical being.


Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.


See Genesis 1:26
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness


Who was God speaking of when He said, “Let us make?” Who is “us” here? God is made up of God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus his Son. Let us make man in our image. “Us” is God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus. Are we made in the image of God? Yes, if you believe his Word. Does God possess the Spirit? Yes, if you believe his Word. Then we can deduce man and woman are made in their image. We are made in the image of God with Spirit like that of God.


Have I given you a convincing case? You have Spirit. You also have the Holy Spirit as a born again believer of Jesus. Jesus promised to ask God to send us the Holy Spirit. Therefore with all this Biblical information, can you at least consider that John had the ability to be in the Spirit, not just seeing a vision? John like us was created in the image of God with Spirit. John was filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Spirit lives with you and will be in you (when Jesus leaves earth.) John was more than a shell, a mere physical body. John followed Jesus, learned from him, received the Holy Spirit fully at Pentecost and went out preaching the gospel. John was not just a physical being. John was not a body in motion in response to earthly circumstances. Are you?


John was made up of a physical body, a mind, a soul and of a Spirit. John was not just matter and material occupying space. He was not only physical occupation on earth with a mind and some intellect. John was not a body on earth with a psyche. He was not just a physical body housing his mind, will and emotions – a soul. John did not simply walk the earth in a physical body of matter, carrying in it a brain and some sort of soul. Do you believe that is our makeup?


If you are born again you know that you have the Holy Spirit in you promised to you by Jesus. But you should also plainly know you were born with Spirit in addition to that Spirit holder for earth called your body. Does is often feel as if you are a pure physical being when temptation comes and your body has needs? Oh yea! Does it sometimes feel like your body and mind are ruling the rest of you? Of course. That is Satan’s place of work, and he is going to use it. But despite our physical temptations and our physical strong presence on earth, you know if you go and sit quietly alone – you are far more than that. You have Spirit. You were made in the likeness of God and the image of God, who holds Spirit. Remember Genesis 1:2. It says, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Who was there in the beginning creating with the Creator God? The Spirit of God was there. God has Spirit. We are made in his image, we have Spirit.


John had Spirit. We are sticking to Revelation chapter one for now so that you can open your mind to a new way of thinking and possibly experience true spiritual vision, not just visualization. Visualization of the throne of God, Jesus and heaven are admirable and pleasing to God. But visualization forms a mental image. We want to be more open to our actual spiritual vision, the vision available through our Spirit self.


Next week we are going to take a good look at John in the Spirit to better understand spiritual vision made available to us. John is going to walk us through the act of spiritual vision. Thank you John. This week take time to consider yourself more than just physical.


Look at two people that walked the earth just like you and me. John walked the earth and lived in a fleshly body. Jesus walked the earth and lived in a fleshly body. Both were much more than just physical beings. Both had Spirit. Meditate on these 2 verses this week so you can see that we are made up of much more than a physical self, we have a spiritual self. We have Spirit.


Johns says in Revelation 1:10


On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit.


John the Baptist said this about Jesus in John 1:32


Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.”


We are more than physical. We are also Spirit. Think about John’s words, “I was in the Spirit.” John was a man living on earth no different than us. He said he was in the Spirit.