An Awakened Spirit

I was teaching the other night in the School of Discipleship, and I said something that I had not thought about or even planned saying. But needless to say, I taught myself something in saying it. I said something to the effect, "God does not want us to seek emotional experiences so we can glory in our experiences. True knowledge of God creates a desire to glory in God, not the experience." It has 'awakened' some thoughts in me. We need awakened spirits, not unstable emotions and feelings!

I love the preaching of the Word. It is grand. It is so necessary. However, great teaching becomes just "knowledge that puffs up" (1 Corinthians 8:1) in the minds of those whose spirits have fallen into slumber. I have been noticing over the last few weeks several people I am teaching God's Word to are not possessing awakened spirits. An awakened spirit is one that is free of the doping effects of the flesh and the carnal mind.

Who you are and what is yours now in Christ is nothing short of phenomenal! But the carnal mind (the sinful, fleshly mind that you lived with prior to conversion), cannot even begin to see this, let alone appreciate it. Neither can you grasp it if you are still controlled by your emotions and feelings. The reason is that when your emotions rule, your spirit slumbers. When you feel happy, you think you believe; but when you are sad, down, or depressed, the faith you thought you had seems to disappear. You are riding an emotional roller coaster - up then down, belief them doubt, trust then worry, and so on.

The solution is to live by your born-again spirit, an awakened spirit ruled by the Holy Spirit, and not your mind and emotions. But how do you do this?

As spiritual hunger grows, causing us to earnestly seek God in the Word and in prayer, our spirits break the shackles of the flesh and of the soul (the mind and emotions). We begin to live with an awakened spirit that lays hold of all the "exceedingly great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:4) of God. That, in turn, brings us into the realization of the power and authority that we actually have in Him! We begin to live on high.

Stop accepting anything less than God's best. Be filled with God. Hear those words. Be filled with God. Break the spirit of slumber (Romans 11:8) and live out of that awakened spirit!

Hungering together,

pcraig