In His Image
The triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, made man in His "own image":
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The triune God made man triune: body, spirit, soul. The body is our outer man, the soul (or our heart) is our inner man (mind, will, and emotion), and the spirit is our most-inner man. We "feel" our body easily, we experience our soul, or heart, a little less easily (kind of in our chest and our head), and our spirit we relate to at a "gut" level. When something moves in your spirit, you feel it, but it is hard to put your finger on it...you feel it in your gut, but it is usually hard to express.
When we accept Jesus as our savior, He sends the Holy Spirit to live in our spirit...our spirit becomes the dwelling place of the same God that spoke light into being and decided the depths of the ocean:
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
The instant you trust Jesus for salvation, He sends the Holy Spirit to live in your spirit. That moment, your spirit becomes fully "justified." The Bible says your spirit will never be more righteous than it is right now if you trust in Jesus for salvation. Your spirit is literally the Holy of Holies, or the place where God dwells. You might not have felt any different, but this really happened.
Having a fully justified spirit will do wonderful things for you at the moment you meet God, you will certainly see the power of it on that day, but in the meantime, it won't do much good for you now, unless you start to interact with God, who lives in your spirit.
Because we were made triune, salvation also happens in three stages, you were saved (your spirit), you are being saved (your soul), and you will someday be saved (your body). This is the meaning of "justification," "sanctification," and "glorification". Your spirit was justified instantly, it is possible to sanctify your soul, and your body will someday be glorified. This is the process of salvation, but you get "a say" in how this process goes for you.
Because of free will, God always leaves us with a choice. Everything we need to fully undergo all three stages of being "made new" are freely available to us, but God doesn't force it on anyone, because of love. We have to choose to subject ourselves to this because He, in His sovereignty, has committed Himself to free will for the objects of His love: you and me!
Just like there is a point in time you choose salvation (or reject it) there is also a choice in sanctification, or "forming Jesus in your heart".
Jesus lives inside all believers by the presence of the Holy Spirit, but you will not feel the full power of God's presence inside you unless you start inviting the power of God to move from your spirit into your heart, where you, (and everyone else who gets to interact with you), can relate to Him.
The Bible says that to the extent you do this, living by the Spirit, that will be the extent of forming Jesus' life in your heart. Jesus called this obedience, and He said it resulted from you loving Him, or experiencing His presence in your heart.
Before we were saved, we lived by our souls. Our emotions dictated how we responded to people: nice people get nice responses, anger produced angry responses, if our mind, will, or emotions wanted something, that is what we let drive us. But when we get saved, we have a new option: we can live by the spirit, instead of the soul. The Holy Spirit is ready and waiting for us to invite Him into the driver's seat. Before, we had to live by the soul, living by the spirit wasn't an option. But now, the glorious uncreated God who owns everything lives right inside our spirit, but He is so committed to our dignity...to our free will...to love...He waits for us to choose to let Him lead!
I heard someone once say that having the Holy Spirit within you is like having a million billion dollars in the bank and having a checkbook to get access to the money. If you never wrote a check, the money would just sit there, doing you no good. You could literally starve to death with all that money if you never took the time to write a check and move that money from the bank into your hands, where you could use it!
You move the presence of the Holy Spirit, or the power of God in you, from your spirit to your heart (mind, will, and emotions) with your words to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said "abide in me, and I will abide in you." This means "talk to me, and I will talk to you."
When you feel anxiety, you talk to the Spirit in your spirit, and you thank Him for perfect peace. If you will press into this, you will feel your emotions take a back seat to your spirit, which is full of the power of God. This takes faith at first, like writing your first checks take faith that they actually will get you money at the bank. But the more you talk to the Spirit, the more confidence you have in withdrawing His presence from your spirit and depositing it in your heart, where it will literally change your whole experience of life, and the lives of those around you. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, healing power, the deep things of God, wisdom, revelation...these are just some of the things that the Holy Spirit has in full measure in your spirit...waiting to be drawn upon.!
The Holy Spirit is God, and when you invite Him into your heart, choice by choice, step by step, fear by fear, anxiety attack by anxiety attack, depression attack by depression attack...pretty soon you realize your are training your heart to be subject to your spirit. When this starts to happen, you are allowing Jesus to form His life in your heart. Like anything you practice, it gets easier and easier, more natural, to do. This is powerful.
A spirit of religion tells you that you become more holy by doing more holy looking things, but the Bible says you become more holy by talking to the Holy Spirit who lives in you, experiencing God, and listening to what He is saying. You put to death the old life of being led by your soul, and begin to experience life led by your spirit. As you draw on (talk to) Him, you behold His power to change your feelings, His kindness, His beauty, and His joy in being with you, and you let those very things into your heart...you behold God and become more like Him. This is all that fancy word sanctification means! Experiencing this will change everything about your life. When Jesus comes into your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, He brings life in full!
This is one the many ways Paul said it:
Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The triune God made man triune: body, spirit, soul. The body is our outer man, the soul (or our heart) is our inner man (mind, will, and emotion), and the spirit is our most-inner man. We "feel" our body easily, we experience our soul, or heart, a little less easily (kind of in our chest and our head), and our spirit we relate to at a "gut" level. When something moves in your spirit, you feel it, but it is hard to put your finger on it...you feel it in your gut, but it is usually hard to express.
When we accept Jesus as our savior, He sends the Holy Spirit to live in our spirit...our spirit becomes the dwelling place of the same God that spoke light into being and decided the depths of the ocean:
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
The instant you trust Jesus for salvation, He sends the Holy Spirit to live in your spirit. That moment, your spirit becomes fully "justified." The Bible says your spirit will never be more righteous than it is right now if you trust in Jesus for salvation. Your spirit is literally the Holy of Holies, or the place where God dwells. You might not have felt any different, but this really happened.
Having a fully justified spirit will do wonderful things for you at the moment you meet God, you will certainly see the power of it on that day, but in the meantime, it won't do much good for you now, unless you start to interact with God, who lives in your spirit.
Because we were made triune, salvation also happens in three stages, you were saved (your spirit), you are being saved (your soul), and you will someday be saved (your body). This is the meaning of "justification," "sanctification," and "glorification". Your spirit was justified instantly, it is possible to sanctify your soul, and your body will someday be glorified. This is the process of salvation, but you get "a say" in how this process goes for you.
Because of free will, God always leaves us with a choice. Everything we need to fully undergo all three stages of being "made new" are freely available to us, but God doesn't force it on anyone, because of love. We have to choose to subject ourselves to this because He, in His sovereignty, has committed Himself to free will for the objects of His love: you and me!
Just like there is a point in time you choose salvation (or reject it) there is also a choice in sanctification, or "forming Jesus in your heart".
Jesus lives inside all believers by the presence of the Holy Spirit, but you will not feel the full power of God's presence inside you unless you start inviting the power of God to move from your spirit into your heart, where you, (and everyone else who gets to interact with you), can relate to Him.
The Bible says that to the extent you do this, living by the Spirit, that will be the extent of forming Jesus' life in your heart. Jesus called this obedience, and He said it resulted from you loving Him, or experiencing His presence in your heart.
Before we were saved, we lived by our souls. Our emotions dictated how we responded to people: nice people get nice responses, anger produced angry responses, if our mind, will, or emotions wanted something, that is what we let drive us. But when we get saved, we have a new option: we can live by the spirit, instead of the soul. The Holy Spirit is ready and waiting for us to invite Him into the driver's seat. Before, we had to live by the soul, living by the spirit wasn't an option. But now, the glorious uncreated God who owns everything lives right inside our spirit, but He is so committed to our dignity...to our free will...to love...He waits for us to choose to let Him lead!
I heard someone once say that having the Holy Spirit within you is like having a million billion dollars in the bank and having a checkbook to get access to the money. If you never wrote a check, the money would just sit there, doing you no good. You could literally starve to death with all that money if you never took the time to write a check and move that money from the bank into your hands, where you could use it!
You move the presence of the Holy Spirit, or the power of God in you, from your spirit to your heart (mind, will, and emotions) with your words to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said "abide in me, and I will abide in you." This means "talk to me, and I will talk to you."
When you feel anxiety, you talk to the Spirit in your spirit, and you thank Him for perfect peace. If you will press into this, you will feel your emotions take a back seat to your spirit, which is full of the power of God. This takes faith at first, like writing your first checks take faith that they actually will get you money at the bank. But the more you talk to the Spirit, the more confidence you have in withdrawing His presence from your spirit and depositing it in your heart, where it will literally change your whole experience of life, and the lives of those around you. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, healing power, the deep things of God, wisdom, revelation...these are just some of the things that the Holy Spirit has in full measure in your spirit...waiting to be drawn upon.!
The Holy Spirit is God, and when you invite Him into your heart, choice by choice, step by step, fear by fear, anxiety attack by anxiety attack, depression attack by depression attack...pretty soon you realize your are training your heart to be subject to your spirit. When this starts to happen, you are allowing Jesus to form His life in your heart. Like anything you practice, it gets easier and easier, more natural, to do. This is powerful.
A spirit of religion tells you that you become more holy by doing more holy looking things, but the Bible says you become more holy by talking to the Holy Spirit who lives in you, experiencing God, and listening to what He is saying. You put to death the old life of being led by your soul, and begin to experience life led by your spirit. As you draw on (talk to) Him, you behold His power to change your feelings, His kindness, His beauty, and His joy in being with you, and you let those very things into your heart...you behold God and become more like Him. This is all that fancy word sanctification means! Experiencing this will change everything about your life. When Jesus comes into your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, He brings life in full!
This is one the many ways Paul said it:
Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
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