6. Can be Hardened

Deut 2:30  - “But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day.”   (The Lord God hardened his spirit by causing him to set his mind and will against helping the Israelites.)

7. Can be Sorrowful

1 Sam 1:15  - “But Hannah answered and said, "No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.”  (In her sorrow, she set her mind to give the son back to the Lord if she had one given to her.)

8. Can be stirred up

2 Chron 36:22  - “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom,”  (The Lord caused such inspiration to come upon the king Cyrus. The king was inspired and he set his mind to make such proclamation. His mind was stirred up to exalt God.)

9. Can be committed to God

Ps 31:5  - “Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.” (This spirit has to do with that of his mind and thought in terms of confidence and trust)

10. Can be guiltless

Ps 32:2  - “Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”   (This speaks of the knowledge of forgiveness, where in one's mind, one find the blessedness of knowing that God does not hold us against our sins no more.)

11. Can be contrite

Ps 34:18  - “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”   (This Psalm again speaks of the blessedness of trusting in the Lord and that God delivered such person out of all his trouble that is associated with the area of the mind and thought of the inner being.)

12. Can be Broken

Ps 51:17  - “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart —

These, O God, You will not despise.”   (The words 'broken' spirit here in Hebrew means 'to shiver', 'break in pieces' or 'reduce to splinters'.  This refers to one's mind so shattered by the evils around him. The Lord wiii not despise such a person coming to repentance.)

13. Can be overwhelmed

Ps 77:3  - “I remembered God, and was troubled; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.”  (This 'spirit overwhelmed' has to do with one, whose will and mind being so pre‑occupied with self and getting into the ever‑deepening despair.)

14. Can be steadfast

Ps 78:8  - “And may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.”  (This Psalm speaks of the establishing of law and the teaching of the law to the people so that they might 'set their hope in God', vs 7, and keep his commandments. Their others did not set such hope in God as their will and mind was not steadfast with God.)

15. Can be provoked, rebelled

Ps 106:33  - “Because they rebelled against His Spirit, so that he spoke rashly with his lips.”  (Moses was angered because of the provocation of the people. His will, mind and intent was provoked to anger.)

16. Can be hasty

Prov 14:29  - “He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.”  (This verse speaks of patience and hot‑headedness; lack of self‑control in the area of mind and will.)

17. Can be Haughty

Prov 16:18  - “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  (Haughty spirit has to do with 'pride' and therefore in relation to the area of the mind and will.)

18. Can be Humble

Prov 16:19  - “Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.”   (Humility relates to attitude and therefore the mind and will of a person.)

19. Can be Ruled

Prov 16:32  - “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.”  (This speaks of disciplining the mind of a person, a self‑controlled mind.)

20. Can be wounded or hurt

Prov 18:14  - “The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?”  (This means that there is a distinctive difference between the suffering in the flesh and the suffering in the mental faculty of a man. The will of man can sustain his physical infirmity, but when the will of man is injured, the physical man cannot otherwise sustain.)

21. Can be Patient

Eccl 7:8  - “The end of a thing is better than its beginning; the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” (Patience relates to the area of our will.)

22. Can Search

Ps 77:6  - “I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search.”   (This speaks of the thinking power of a man.)

23. Can be made to keep secrets

Prov 11:13  -  “A talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.” (A faithful spirit relates to trustworthiness, steadfastness of the mind to do something without wavering.)

24. Can be in error

Isa 29:24  - “These also who erred in spirit will come to understanding, and those who complained will learn doctrine."  (This error refers to error in understanding, therefore in the mind, i.e., the spirit of a man.)

25. Can increase in knowledge

1 Cor 2:11  “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” (This 'spirit' speaks clearly of the mind of a man.)

26. Can turn against God

Job 15:13  - “That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?”  (This means setting his mind against God.)

27. Is in man

Job 32:8 - “But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.”  (The mind of a man is in the man.)

Ps 51:10  - “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” 

(God renews the mind within a man.)

28. Can Be faithful

Prov 11:13  - “A talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.”  (This speaks of the steadfastness of the mind, once it is set to do something, it will not waver.)

29. Can Be rebellious

Isa 63:10  -  “But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; so He turned Himself against them as an enemy, and He fought against them.”  (As it was the Holy Spirit that was being rebelled against, obviously, it was not the physical man that rebelled, but the spiritual being of the man that rebelled; whose mind was set to disobey God.)

THE WEAKNESS OF THE SPIRIT OF MAN, as from the beginning.

The fall of Adam wrecked the “living being” in Adam when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. In Genesis 2:17, God said to Adam that “...in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  The in Genesis 3:17-21, we read the following judgment of God and His merciful saving grace in pardoning Adam and Eve:

“Then to Adam He said,"Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

“And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” (NKJV)

One thing for sure, in Genesis 3:23, God sent Adam and Eve “...out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man”.

What was Adam and Eve like before they sinned?  We knew what Jesus was like after His resurrection.  Thus in Romans 8:20-24, we read, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labours with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” (NKJV)  There is therefore a hope in every Christian of the redemption of this earth body with an incorruptible, immortal spiritual glorious body, like that of the resurrected Jesus as stated in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 (I recommend you to meditate on this glorious chapter of His word). 

That’s in respect of the Body!  But what about the spirit of the man?  As from the beginning, this is what we know:

Gen 6:5  -  “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (.    

Isa 65:2  - “I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts”.

From the beginning, the spirit of man, his mind, his thought, his mental attitude has always been weakened by this decaying corruptible, mortal physical body.  And this weakness of the spirit of man remains until today. We read in Mark 7:20-23  - “And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,  thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man." 

And in Matthew 24:36-40  - “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,  and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” 

And in 2 Timothy 3:1-5  - “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

GOD’S SOLUTION FOR THE REVIVAL OF THE DEAD “LIVING BEING” IN ADAM

God’s desire – to make new or renew man’s spirit

Ezek 18:31 – “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?”  Ezek 36:26  - “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

These promises of a new spirit relates to the New Covenant of God with His people. The New Covenant was accomplished and completed by Jesus dying on the cross. The putting within His people of a new spirit involved the process of being born again in the Spirit through faith in Christ. 

Thus, Rom 8:6-9, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” 

And in Eph 4:22-24,  “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness”.  Therefore, a new spirit means a new mind or a renewed mind.

God promises the giving of a new spirit, our response is the asking of a new spirit. It is our part of the bargain to be willing to allow our mind to be changed, renewed. (see Ps 51:10  - “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.)

We read in 1 Corinthians 15:22-23, “For as in Adam  all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.” (NKJV)

Hallelujah, we can trust God’s promise in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.  It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.  It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”

But most important truth we must know now is this, in 1 Corinthians 15:45 the Bible tells us that:

“And so it is written, "The first man Adam  became a living being." The last Adam  became a life-giving spirit.” (NKJV)

This is the mystery of every one of us who has received the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who has been baptised in water and in His Holy Spirit, through the process which we called, “born again”.  In John 1: John 1:13, we know that this being born again is “...not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (NKJV)

There is a new “spiritual living being” born again within each one of us, the “spiritual man” within each one of us.

Let us return to where we started off in the beginning:

In Proverb 25:28, “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit, is like a city broken down, without walls.”  (NKJV).  Here we are asked to “rule over our own spirit”. How can I rule over my own spirit?  Who is that “I” who exercise that power to rule over my own spirit?

It is that new spiritual man within me who now controls my ‘spirit of man’. 

Only when there was a born again of the ‘spiritual man’, that ‘spiritual living being’ within me, that Romans 8:5-8, can become a reality within me, to live to please God:

 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.  So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (NKJV)

 

Ronny Cham
SIB Metro Church Leadership Training Class No. 10
rcham@sibmetro.com