ICS Daily Devotions
Our Spirit Man
Genesis 2:7 (NKJV) And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
We are made in God’s image. What was merely an earthen vessel came alive when God breathed His life into Adam, His creation. And God’s breath of life became the spirit of man. We are therefore a spirit being, with a soul and a body.
2 Corinthians 4:16(NKJV) Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
This scripture reveals to us that there is an outward man (the body) and an inward man (the spirit). The outward man will grow old physically, but the inward man will be renewed daily when he is fed with spiritual food, which is the Word of God. Much like how we are strengthened physically through exercise, we are also built up when we exercise our faith through following the leading and instruction of the Spirit.
God is Spirit. He connects with, speaks to and bears witness with our spirit. He is able to communicate with us at all times because we are connected to the Holy Spirit through our heart, which is another name for our inner man. References in the Bible to our heart can be metaphorical and do not necessarily refer to the physical organ.
We learn to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit more clearly when we increasingly yield to His prompting and leading. And we also learn to discern when the Holy Spirit is being grieved or quenched in our inner man as a result of our disobedience. As we meditate upon and apply the Word of God in our lives, we will develop and strengthen our inner man. And by allowing the spirit man, rather than our souls or our flesh to take the lead in our lives, we learn to yield to the Holy Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh.
John 7:38-39 (KJV) “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive…)
Where does the Holy Spirit reside within us? It is believed that our spirit/inward man/inner man is located at our belly area where the Holy Spirit resides and from where His presence flows outwards. Hence when we receive an intuitive or spontaneous thought, as when God is imparting wisdom to our spirit, we can feel it in our belly area.
Sermon Series: How to be Led by the Holy Spirit in your Daily Living (Part 2)
