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Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. Class is in session. We continue our teaching on getting to know the Holy Spirit. I hope you are being enriched and helped by it. If you are enjoying this, listen to the podcast, post a review, let folks know, share it with others. Just a great way to help get the message out. If you are not getting our monthly Frontline newsletter, it is digital, it is beautifully produced, great lead article, great testimonies, Hebrew word study, book excerpts, quotes. Please, by all means, take a moment and let us be a blessing to you with this free digital subscription.
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Let us be a blessing to you. We have been talking about the difference between body, soul, and spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5.23 gives that description. The Bible is not a theology textbook, just like you are going to organize it systematically and hear all the verses on this subject or this subject.
It is not laid out like that. There are many different descriptions of the human being. Even the Hebrew descriptions can be different than Greek descriptions because the words carry different nuances in those languages. We are focusing on what is called the tripartite, the threefold division of humanity. Again, it is for dissecting purposes so we can understand how these aspects of humanity work. The body, the physical, that is our connection to the physical realm. The soul, that is our connection to the mind, intellect, and emotions.
Again, our spirit. The spirit contacts the spiritual world. The physical body does not contact the spiritual world. The soul, the mind, the intellect, the emotions does not contact the spiritual world. It is spirit that contacts the spiritual world.
If being fleshly and soulish are both negative, what does Paul mean when he uses the term spiritual? What is the Greek word for spirit? It is pneuma. What is the Greek word for spiritual? It is pneumaticos.
1 Corinthians 2. The pneumaticos person judges all things. The person who is spiritual is characterized by the spirit and one who is in touch with the spirit. The person who is pneumaticos is spiritual.
They are in touch with the pneuma. The person who is spiritual is characterized by the spirit and one who is in touch with the spirit. If we are to be connected to the Holy Spirit, this will produce qualities like love, joy, peace, but the definition of being spiritual is not simply having love, joy, peace.
Let me say this again. The fruit of the Spirit, Galatians, the fifth chapter, the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, 22 and 23, love, joy, goodness, peace, these things. As the Holy Spirit lives in our lives and we walk and live in the Spirit, it produces these things. If you see people who are filled with hatred, if you see people who are dominated by lust, if you see people who are dominated by anger and carnality, they are obviously not walking and living in the Spirit. You see someone that used to be a gangster or a gang leader or a wife beater or an alcoholic or whatever it is, if you see someone like that and then six months later they are kind hearted and gentle and gracious.
Who are you? I got radically born again six months ago. Jesus changed me.
I have just been spending time in his word and prayer and honoring him. I am becoming like a different person because the Holy Spirit is naturally bearing fruit in our lives. So the person who is spiritual is characterized by the Spirit. It is impossible to be walking in the flesh and full of the Spirit at the same time. If you are dominated by the flesh and living by the flesh, you are not walking in the Spirit.
It is possible to be a sincere believer who reads the Bible, is a good family person, witnesses, etc. but not truly spiritual in terms of understanding the moving and working of the Spirit of God. So we can have good qualities of the Spirit without fully being spiritual people. You know people, they are good people but they are not spiritually minded.
They are always trying to figure out everything in the natural and there is no spiritual perspective or faith perspective. So we must ask ourselves and I have been asking myself this question and I have been seeking to press in more with the Lord and see how my mind can race. Are we a Spirit dominated person or a soul dominated person or a flesh dominated person? How do you think God sees you or me?
How would you score yourself there before the Lord? Am I more spiritually minded, more soulish or more carnal? What are we feeding and building? What is the source of our strength and what do we rely on?
You use that as a way to measure. What are we feeding and building? Is it just the flesh? Is it just our mind and emotions?
Or is it the Spirit? We must learn to deny the lusts and desires of the flesh. It is a lifelong battle saying no to the flesh, yes to the Lord, but we can have grace and victory in it.
We have to stay away from the pollution of the world. We can so dominate our thinking, what we see and take in with our eyes so the physical body is the gate and the stuff gets into our soul, into our mind and then it can bring further bondage. We have to build up the inner being and learn to distinguish between soul and spirit. Remember the Word of God, Hebrews 4.12, divides between joints and marrow, so different parts of the physical body, and between soul and spirit, between these different aspects of our humanity. It takes knowing the Lord and walking in the Lord to grow.
Don't be frustrated if you say, I don't even understand this, what do you even mean? We're God's children. He's working with us. If we will give ourselves to Him and make effort with His help, we'll see change come.
We can grow. I was talking to some tremendously gifted counselors in their 80s. Tremendously gifted counselors in their 80s. They were praying with me. I was just under some intense attack and just these fears were hitting and I thought, okay, something is not right here. As we prayed, the Lord just did some beautiful things and reminded me of His love and His goodness and His kindness and showed me some areas where I needed to grow and mature and be more spiritually minded and change some mindsets and attitudes. I said, I'm almost 70. I thought I would have learned these things already. They said, we're in our 80s. God's still working on us.
That's going to be the reality until we see Him face to face. Many times we excuse ourselves and we give ourselves a pass when God doesn't, but many other times we're harder on ourselves than God is. One step at a time. When God radically changed my life over 10 years ago and helped me make radical lifestyle changes with my diet. I went from 275 pounds to 175 in less than 8 months. Not by dieting, but by healthy eating.
I've just stayed there a little lower. Now, 10 plus years later, that's 100 pounds is a lot to lose. You've got 300 pounds to lose, some 20 pounds, but either way, it always feels like a lot.
You'll never get there. But every day I was losing weight. Every day. Initially losing 12 pounds in a month was not unusual. 14 pounds early on. But every second, how much weight are you losing per second?
You can't measure it like that. Just take a step. Take a step to get to know God better.
Take a step to spend more time with Him. Take a step to turn this off, this off, this off. Take a step, take a step, take a step, take a step. And then before you know it, wow, praise God, I'm growing. I'm changing.
My physical analogy, the weights go, I can wear these old pants I haven't worn in a while. Wow, I can see a difference in my face in the mirror. Little by little, the change will come.
We're all growing. All of us are works in progress, receiving cleansing by the blood of Jesus every single day. So how do we build up the inner being? How do we build up the inner being?
Let's see if I can get through the rest of this in this class. How do we build up the inner being? So in the natural, we exercise spiritual, physical muscles.
Confusing it. In the natural, we build up physical muscles so they'll strengthen and grow. So how do we build up our spiritual muscles?
Right? You do curls, you do curls, you're going to build up your biceps. How do I build up my spirit? So we feed our spirit the word of God.
We start there with the obvious. We feed our spirit the word of God. We must take it in, meditate on it, and make it real to us.
In a sense, we must digest it and make it part of us. Jeremiah 15, 16. Your words were found and I ate them. The word of God, the teaching of the Lord. Psalm 1, the godly man, the godly woman that they meditate on, they recite, they repeat the word of God day and night. Colossians 3, 16, that the word of Christ dwells in you richly. Yes, this beautiful word, your heart, your mind. Joshua, don't let the book of the Torah, the book of teaching, depart from your mouth.
But what? Meditate on it, recite it day and night, day and night, day and night. Proverbs 4, 20 to 22. Proverbs 4, 20 to 22. Don't let the word out of your sight.
So you say, well how do I do it? John 15, 7, if Jesus said if my words remain in you and you remain in me, ask what you will and be given. So you get the word of God in your heart and your mind. The word of God in your heart and your mind. The word of God in your heart and your mind. The word of God in your heart and your mind.
You just take it in. When our girls were little and Nancy's running around with the kids and many of you moms, you know, I never can forget how you juggle what you do. But she just, she's like, what's the room I pass through the most? The kitchen.
And just kids are playing over here. So she just had the Bible open during the day. And when she stopped walking, she just stopped and looked at some of the verses. Meditate on it. You have to get what you can.
Some of you have hours a day, some minutes, but get what you can. Get the word in your heart and mind. Maybe put a verse God's really laying on your heart. Put it in front of you wherever you go. There it is. Have it in the car.
Have it come up on your phone. Just whatever. The reminder.
There it is. You have the bird's eye view of the Bible. Just read through it.
Just go through it. A few chapters a day. So you read through the Bible once in a year. This bird's eye view.
And then the worm's eye view. Man, I'm studying the same passage for the last three months. And then take it in. You say I don't memorize well. Well, have it in front of you. Read it. Say it. Speak it out. Get in your heart.
Get in your mind. This is the food. This is the food we feed ourselves.
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If you're there, there's a code BROWN25 that you can use. So this is how we build up our spiritual muscles, our inner being. So by feeding on the word, it's not just take it in, digest it. Even if it's one verse a week, take it in, digest it. If you're reading the Bible, going through it, you say, how do I digest it? You look at it, you think about it, you say it, you pray over it. If you have the tools, you dig into the Hebrew, the Greek, but you don't want to get sidetracked with all the commentary.
There's a place for that. Of course, I've written commentaries. But digest it, get it in your heart, get it in your mind. Sometimes I've gone over the same passage, like through a very intense season of attack once.
I memorized Psalm 91 in Hebrew because I'd only memorized different verses in it before. And every day, sometimes multiple times a day, I'd go through it. And then I'd take each word and say it until my mind calmed.
That's the place where I live. So, bird's eye, you read through just regularly, worm's eye, dig in, go deeper, go deeper. And then as we plant the word in our heart, it will give nourishment and strength.
It will start to change who we are, just like you eat a healthy diet, it starts to change your body. So there's no substitute. You cannot be spiritual without the word of God.
You cannot be spiritual without the word of God in your heart and mind. And again, it doesn't matter how good your memory is to memorize verses. What did you have for breakfast three weeks ago? Well, most people don't remember. I remember because I have the same overnight oats in the morning. Most people don't remember.
What did you eat for lunch two weeks ago? I don't know, but your body knew. So your spirit knows. Your spirit knows. Take it in, digest it.
If you're struggling in an area of your life, feed on what the word of God says in that area every day until it changes you. Sometimes you have to do it for months. Literally for months until, okay, I got this now. Something happened to me.
It changed me. Sometimes the change is instantaneous. Sometimes it is gradual. We are bound by our own limitations and beliefs. So if we don't believe laying hands on the sick will bring healing, then we'll never have faith to pray for the sick. If we believe that the word of God says that and the prayer effort and faith makes the sick person well, then we meditate on what the Bible says about healing. We meditate on his promises. We meditate on his nature and character. And then we listen to testimonies of healing. And then our faith, which is in our spirit and our inner being, our faith grows. Our faith grows. Our faith grows. The more we take in the word, the more we will be led by God. Here's something else we do. We pray in the spirit.
Jude 20. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. So we build ourselves up. This is part of being built up, praying in the Holy Spirit. So that can refer to, in the New Testament context, when Paul says pray in the spirit, praying in tongues. Praying in tongues.
I know some of you are not charismatic, Pentecostal. But I've been praying in tongues since January 24th of 1972. And sometimes extended periods of time, praying in tongues. There was a time, late 70s, early 80s, I tried to distance myself from the things of the Spirit. I questioned whether it was really for today, and pray in tongues as much back then. But the word of God was too clear.
When I tried to deny these things were for today, I couldn't because the word was too clear. And when I would really start to commune with God and pray in the Spirit, I felt that witness rising. So as you pray in the Spirit, so for those of you that pray in tongues, as you do over a period of time, something begins to build up on the inside of you. Something begins to build up.
And that's, oh, okay. Just like, you know, someone's trying to get you to exercise a certain way. No, you're not using your bicep with those curls. You're pulling. You're using your whole body. Okay, so stay stationary. Use a curling machine. Oh, now you're stationary.
Okay, that isolates that muscle. So as you feed the word of God, build your spirit. As you pray in the Spirit, it's like, oh, I'm building that spiritual muscle.
I'm building up my inner being by praying in the Holy Spirit. Yes, it's happening. It's happening.
It's happening. Yes, it is supernatural. It is beautiful. And there are other ways we can pray in the Spirit. Ephesians 6 says, Praying in the Spirit with all kinds of requests.
As the Holy Spirit leads you and empowers you in English, you can pray in the Spirit. But we build up our spiritual being. We're talking about how to build up the inner being, the inner man on today's show. 1 Corinthians 14, 15.
So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding. I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. So singing in tongues, praying in tongues, or with our understanding, we do both. And we can do them in the Holy Spirit.
So 1 Corinthians 13, 1. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I'm only resounding gong or clanging cymbal. Now, tongues of angels can just be a hyperbolic way of speaking, like with any kind of languages. Or you could actually be speaking about angelic languages, how angels communicate with each other. If you're from America, well, angels speak English.
China, well, they speak Chinese. Obviously, you speak all languages, but they probably have their own angelic communication. He could be referring to tongues there as tongues of angels.
There's debate about that. But this is without love. It's nothing. The same way, without faith, these things produce nothing. Lord, I'm joining myself in faith to you as I pray in the Spirit, as I take in your word. So praying in tongues apart from faith and love will not accomplish anything good. There's nothing that's ritual. It's not just push a button and make it happen. I will speak in tongues for three hours.
No, no. It's out of communion with God, love, and faith. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 2. Hebrews 4, 2. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. So even the word of God does not profit us if not mixed with faith. There are scholars who know the Bible inside out. There are scholars who've memorized large parts of the Hebrew Bible or the Greek New Testament completely, but they don't know God at all.
They can quote it to you, but they don't know God. So whatever we do, we join with faith. When we pray in the Spirit, we join with faith. When we read the word, we join with faith.
And this builds up our innermost being. Jesus says this in John 15, 15. I no longer call you servants to his apostles because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from the Father I have made known to you. So he didn't say this the first day he called them.
He said this after spending three years with them. So we must also spend time with God and come closer to God to know him better, to hear his heart more so he will share more with us. And if we pray in the Spirit, out of a personal relationship with God, we'll be building ourselves up on the inside. We'll grow in the Spirit. We'll become more sensitive to the Lord. Whatever we do, reading the word, praying, we do it in the context of our relationship with God.
I hope this is making sense to you. I'm sure there are many things God would have called me to do years earlier in my life if I was more mature. I'm sure there are many things he would have spoken to me over the years that I would have been able to hear if I was more mature. Jesus says to his disciples at one point, there's more I want to tell you, but you're not ready to hear it. I'm sure if God could trust my mouth, if he could trust my actions better, he would show me more things and speak more. But if I'm going to speak them prematurely or understand them incorrectly, he won't.
The same thing. You don't share things with a friend that you don't share with a spouse. You don't share things with a distant friend that you share with a close friend. So we want to be close friends with the Lord. And it's going to be Spirit to Spirit as we're close friends with the Lord. Obedience, pliability, and softness of heart are important. Do we obey an act when we know it's God? This is a way that we build up our spirit. We obey him. We submit to him. We honor his conviction. Faithful in little, faithful in much. Luke 16, 10. If we do not obey the Spirit's leading, his voice will become distant.
So he's convicting us. You need to forgive that person. They're cruel to you, but you need to forgive them.
No, no. You were nasty to this one. You need to apologize. You harden your heart. You harden your heart. You're going to become more and more insensitive to the Spirit. You humble yourself before God.
You respond to conviction. You make things right with people. There's a flood of the Spirit. Do not put walls up between you and the Holy Spirit. Avoid judgment, pride.
Avoid the constant trying to analyze introspection. Avoid giving yourself to the lusts and desires of the flesh. And then, and then, out of that, the Lord will do beautiful things. Take in the Word. So let's say it again. Build up the inner being. Exercise that muscle of your inner being.
By digesting the Word, by taking in the Word, by meditating on the Word, and by praying in the Spirit as you do, whether it's in English or tongues, as you do, you'll find yourself growing in God. It's beautiful. This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener-supported. If we have been a blessing to you, if you're being enriched in the Word, in prayer, in your own walk with God through this broadcast, then stand with us so that we can reach many, many more and bless many, many more. Together, friends, we're making a difference. So go to TheLineOfFire.org. TheLineOfFire.org and click Donate.
