God is Spirit  March 10, 2010  (1.7.4)

By Larry M. Jaynes:

For so many, God is simply an intangible being for whom they may have a vague concept to go along with each of several lofty titles, such as the Almighty God. People sometimes refer to God as the man upstairs or the great I AM or the spirit in the sky. While others speculate and say, "I know that there is something (or someone) out there (or up there) because I can see the order and perfection of life all around, but whatever power it is or wherever that power may originate, I just cannot grasp its real source." Some of us may have thought of God in such like terms before knowing Jesus Christ who is "the way, the truth and the life" and as he said, "no man cometh to the Father but by me" (John 14:16), and it is he who introduces our searching hearts to His Majesty's loving embrace and eternal purpose for our lives.

One could see all the works of man and easily believe that there is no God, but how can one look up into the starry heavens or view the perfection of life all around and still believe there is no God? The more we understand God via knowing Jesus Christ, the greater our spiritual lives grow as our union with the heavenly Father and with nature itself begins harmonizing with tranquility.

The more we understand God via His Word, the greater our spiritual lives inevitably will blossom. God has purpose to everything He does and the blessed joy of man is to walk into the spiritual understanding of the ways of God. Our God reveals to us the more abundant life as we come to know and understand Him through His revealed Word and will.

In the Gospel of John 4:24 we read, "God is a Spirit." He also is omnipresent, dwelling in and throughout all of eternity (II chronicles 6:18). In the Book of Acts 17:28 we learn, "For in him {God} we live, and move, and have our being." God is present everywhere, yet without understanding His Scriptures He appears to be only as an enigma for so many. The truth is we can find God anywhere, and miss Him everywhere, yet finding Him is as simple as picking up our Bibles, for the Bible is the very heart and breath of God Almighty (II Timothy 3:16). Romans 10:9-10 (see below) reveals the "how to" of receiving our salvation, and the beginning of our grasping the Creator's Spirit, life, and eternal presence.

John 14:17:
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye {Jesus' disciples} know him; for he dwelleth {present tense} with you, and shall {future tense} be in you.

The believers were beginning to know God Who is Spirit because they were continuing in the words of God, the words that are "spirit and life" (John 6:63) and these spiritually uplifting words were what Jesus was teaching them. Through Jesus' words, the Spirit of truth was currently dwelling with them - for Jesus came to make this known, and further, that in a future time God's Spirit of truth would literally be in them. Notice the two tenses used by Jesus in John 14:17 above (1) for he {God, by way of the Spirit} dwelleth with you. This was an active present tense because the Apostles already had spirit among (or upon) them. And then (2) Jesus said that the spirit shall be in you, and is an absolute future tense. After Jesus gave his life for us, ascended up into heaven, and the day of Pentecost came (Acts 2:1-4), the believers received the spirit of truth into their hearts as Romans 8:9 reveals that the Spirit of God now dwells in you. Today, believers become the sons and daughters of God for eternity through, or by way of, a new spiritual birth (I Peter 1:23).

Galatians 5:16:
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

John 4:24 stated that, "God is a Spirit," this is the very essence of God Himself, and now Galatians says to Walk in the Spirit. The reason that we can walk in the spirit is that spirit of God now dwells within our hearts (Romans 5:5). To walk in the spirit is to be spiritually connected with God, Who is Spirit, so that we can enjoy the life and peace of God and Christ within us (Romans 8:6; and 9). God creates our spirit within at the very moment we confess and believe in Romans 10:9-10, and this spirit is eternal (Hebrews 9:14). To start walking in this spirit we simply need to begin walking in knowledge of the truth, and truth is revealed from the Word of God, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17), and the truth reveals the spiritual realities of the spirit within.

Romans 10:9-10:
-9: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
-10: For with the heart man believeth unto {God's} righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto {your} salvation.

I Timothy 2:4:
Who {God} will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Romans 8:14:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons {and daughters} of God.

Well thank God! To be led by the Spirit of God is to be genuinely walking in the true spirit of the Scriptures, for "the words that I {Jesus} speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). And as an extra bonus (so-to-speak), we are the sons and daughters of God. The word "sons" is an all-inclusive noun for men and women, boys and girls, because every believer has received the spirit of God and becomes a son or daughter of the living God. Spirit is our connecting point to our heavenly Father, Who is Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Matthew 3:17), and the Bible further states that we are sons and daughters of God, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God" (I John 3:2). Could we be in better company? God is Spirit. We are encouraged to walk in the spirit, for when and where we do, we will walk into the fullness of God and begin enjoying the "fellowship of the Spirit" (Philippians 2:1), and the "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-23) that our heavenly Father enjoys with His children as they walk in the spirit.

Have a wonderful week enjoying your heavenly position as a child of God, and know that when you walk with God you are walking with Him Who is Spirit.

Romans 8:15-16:
-15: For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
-16: The Spirit itself {God} beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

I Corinthians 2:9-14:
-9: But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
-10: But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
-11: For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
-12: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
-13: Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost {Holy Spirit} teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
-14: But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Galatians 6:18:
Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.