A Disciple's Spiritstyle

[HKHaugan]

Now we come to Spiritstyle. A disciple must realize and hold firmly to the reality that being an image of God is first spiritual. Spiritstyle is letting faith in Jesus open your heart to live by the Spirit (Gal.5:16). We have toured mindstyle (belief---restoration of the mind), skirted the environs of heartstyle (trust---restoration of the heart). Now it’s time for spirit to come center stage (faith---restoration of the spirit).

The place to start is with Gen.1:1. “In the beginning God created…” This is why Paul says in Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities---His eternal power and divine nature---have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Therefore, Gen.1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Then He follows that up with vs.27 “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Three times He repeats the word ‘image’ to make it clear that man is a spiritual being living in temporary ‘jars of clay (2Cor.4:7)’ called male and female. So we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. This is reality. This is truth. This is our nature and God’s own definition of us being images of Him.

But the devil brought the dark spiritual dimension of sin into creation, tempted Adam and Eve with the idea of being in control without God. They chose that option and lost their bearings, their consciousness of being God’s image, and fell into separation and alienation from God. From that point on only God could reclaim what the devil had corrupted.

So when Jesus, God the Son, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born in a human body He was our perfect spiritual God having a sinless human experience. “And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us (John 1:14).” He did this personally to be The Person among us to see what God had intended with Adam and Eve and then offer a relationship by faith in and with Him to bring us back into focus, into our true humanity and restore us to our true place in existence. We are God’s personal spiritual projects of rehabilitation, recovery and restoration from sin. We are in a three-step sin-neutralizing program having our mind, heart and spirit reborn and rebuilt by the Holy Spirit. Each step is intertwined with the other. We discuss them in a separate way in order to see how the image of God in us is out of balance. Then the Holy Spirit works though the Scripture to see Jesus as the Father’s plan to bring us back into balance.

The whole human process corrupted by sin is recovered in one physical/spiritual, visible/invisible, seismic/cataclysmic, death/life, event/sequence---the Crucifixion/Resurrection of Jesus. The inevitable spiritual clash between God and the devil, good and evil, moral and immoral, evil spirits and the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of darkness met on the battlefield of the Cross.

On the Cross it was up to Jesus to bear for each of us what only He alone could bear, the choice and decision necessary to bring all existence back into spiritual order. He knew the Word “For the life of the creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life (Lev.17:11).” He had to make the spiritual choice and decision in our Spiritless place, to be our substitute, to seek forgiveness for our sin through the shedding of His blood, the perfect blood of God the Son. That choice, decision and action involved the one spiritual factor that meant the salvation of all mankind and all creation. Jesus encapsulated in His birth, life, death and resurrection that one spiritual tie that God willed to turn defeat into victory and night into day---faith, the perfect faith of God the Son. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2Cor.5:21).”

It was Jesus’ perfect faith in His Father, in His Word and in His Spirit that won the day for all eternity and for all those who would believe in Him. It was faith that He showed at the most critical point in human existence, that point being death, that He as a perfect human being in faith, faced death and rose from it.

It was the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of faith, in the heart of Jesus that brought Him to the Cross and the Holy Spirit who raised Him through faith from the grave (Rom.8:11). It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to be conceived and born again spiritually (John 3:5-8). When we received Jesus something new happened, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come (2Cor.5:17)!” It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to wake up and take up our cross, which is faith, every next moment. This is why we are made right, justified and saved by grace through faith, not by good intentions, trying to be good or good works. They come only from faith in Jesus. The only ultimate good is God who directs us to good works that come through faith alone. “That which does not proceed from faith is sin (Rom.14:23).”

There was never a break in Jesus’ faith from moment to moment. But sin threw us out of balance. Disoriented by fear and pride, our minds, hearts and spirits didn’t work together. We were lost in our spiritual separation from Him. When we came to faith in Jesus He became our focus. We hungered for His balance. As we moved through His Word we struggled to bring our every next moment to Him. At first our moments of faith were few and far between but maturing in the Spirit they seem to be coming closer together. In Jesus, drawn and led by His Spirit, it’s like we are being nudged; the mind toward the Word for belief, the heart to trust our belief and our spirit to step out in faith. This is unity in Jesus.

Just as God is Three in One, a perfect unity, so we are born again to have a similar oneness in us with God. This is why Jesus prays “… also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one; I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:20-23).” This is the work of the Spirit.

Considering what you have just read I have three questions for you to ponder during Lent.

1. Where was I most affected by this reading, in the mind, the heart or the spirit?
2. What do I have to do to bring them into balance?
3. How open am I to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to be a conscious ‘take-up-my-cross-daily’ disciple and to make disciples?

A Study Guide as You Ponder

The Work of the Holy Spirit.

“God is Spirit and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. Jn.4:24”
This is the age of the Holy Spirit whose task it is to bring Jesus to mind; to
make and grow conscious disciples of and for Jesus.
a.Our mind finding belief through the Word
b.Our heart trusting to make Word choices and decisions
c.Our spirit to act in faith as the Word leads.

Who He is is what He does. Jn.14,15,16

He is the Counselor. 14:16
He is the Spirit of truth and guide to all truth. 14:17, 16:13
He lives with you and will be in you. 14:17
He is the Spirit of realization. 14:20
He is the spirit of obedience. 14:21
He is the Spirit of love. 14:21
He is a teacher and reminder of all Jesus has said 14:26
He is the Spirit of peace 14:27
He is the testifier to Jesus 15:26
He is the convicter (refutes, reproves) in regard to sin, righteousness and judgment. 16:8-11
He does not act on His own, He speaks only what He hears, He will tell what is yet to come 16:13
He brings glory to Jesus 16:14

Peter’s experience and preaching

Acts 2:32-39 (see Is.44:3, Joel 2:28, Ezek.39:29)

Paul’s experience and teaching

Rom.1:4 The Spirit of holiness, circumciser of the heart 2:29, the Spirit of grace and righteousness 5:17, Life through the Spirit Ch.8
Spiritual gift promoter Rom.12:3-8, 1Cor.12:1-31, Eph.4:7-16
Living by the Spirit in contrast to the sinful nature Gal.5:16-26