Service Notes
Today we're looking at the life of the Spirit or the life in the Spirit. The life by the spirit. You see, when one gets born again, it is the spirit that has a new life, and receives the new life of Christ. And being a Christian simply means the life of God now is superimposed on the human life or now supplants the human life. And the human life is no longer relevant in the affairs of things as to determining what the man does. God's life now supplants your life and like Paul says, the life I now live, I live by the power of the spirit. He says I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, not I, not the human person living in me, not the human life. I have the life of God now. See, the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the power of God. But it makes us understand in that Galatians 2:20 that as we are living, it is Christ now living in us. So Christianity is actually Christ in you. Christ living himself out in you. You living the Christ life. So when one says I am a Christian, he's actually saying I am a Christ. The life of Christ living itself out in me and through me. I no longer live by my human senses. I'm no longer living as a human being will live.
As human, human beings have a way of seeing things, interpreting things, hearing things. So the things they hear, the things they see, the things they feel, determine their responses and how they live out their lives. So when a human being sees a body of water for instance, a river, or a stream, in his mind it is either he is able to swim across if he wants to cross it or he has to use a boat to cross it. Because he understands that the water cannot hold him up. He cannot walk upon the water. He can only swim across or be held by a vehicle or boat or maybe or or canoe or anything that floats on the water to be able to cross it. So that becomes his suspension through it. So the first reasoning that he has is "I can only swim or get a substance that can hold me up across this water." He reasoned his actions from his own mindset.
But when you are born again, it's not as though you have lost your sense of reasoning. It's not as though you no longer have your mind with you. But being born again means that the life of God has been superimposed on your life. God has now become the essence of your being. You have a life different from the ordinary life. It's called the God life. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ said. For anyone that is born again, he said if you believe in him, you get born again. He said you will no longer be susceptible to things of this world because you are no longer a human person. You are now a God person. You've born into the family of God. You have the life of God. But like I said, it's not as though your senses are removed from you. So what I'm going to talk about this evening is, you now knowing that you are born again, you ought to start yielding to the influence of the spirit instead of yielding to the senses, yielding to your mind. Because one can get born again, have the life of God, but not experience or enjoy or live or manifest the life of the spirit that God expects you to.
And so, first let's look at Romans 8:5. It says for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. So when the scripture mentions the flesh here, it's not just talking about your bones, your muscles, your flesh, your tendons, your ligaments. No, he's talking about the senses. Those who live according to their five senses only. They just live only by their senses. He said they set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. They are mindful of the things of the spirit. So which means there are two ways of living for a Christian. We're talking about Christians now. For those who were born again, there are two ways they live or two ways they manifest their life. It's either they are still manifesting or living by their mind: they are still being influenced by their mind (they arestill allowing their minds to control them) or through the knowledge of the word of God that they have received. For those living according to the spirit, they know that they have a different life and they are living in the consciousness of that life that they have in Christ. And now they are allowing their life to be controlled and led by that spirit. God leads us through the spirit. It's our spirit that is united with the spirit of God. And so we become one with God. When you get born again, you become one with God. And so God expects you to yield to the promptings of the spirit as given to us by the word of God.
When you study the word of God, the word becomes deposit in your spirit. And so every time you want to take an action outwardly, such actions are supposed to be influenced by your spirit mind, by the word of God in your spirit. And so depending on how much of the word of God that you have, depending on how much influence or impact that word of God has had in your spirit, depending on how much you've meditated on that word, that will now determine the actions that you take. Your responses to life are based on your senses or the spirit. But the scripture makes us understand that when your responses to life, your actions in life, your outward manifestation of who you are are only based on the senses, He said you are short changing yourself. Why? Because there are lot of goodies, good things, beautiful things that God expects to be your experiences in life that you can only receive by the Spirit. And you will not be able to bring them out or experience them except you start yielding to what the word of God says.
For instance, if you look at something that your mind is telling you that you cannot overcome. For instance, let's just talk about weight in terms of physical strength versus your human strength. You know your capabilities and the weight that you can lift. So let’s assume the maximum weight that you can physically lift is about 70 kg. And you've tried several times to lift beyond 70 kg, yet you've not been able to do so. But today, you get to hear the word of God and understand that because the word is at work in you, you can lift beyond 70 kg according to your spirit. Now, let’s assume you try lift a weight of say 85 kg and your spirit begins telling you: "lift it. You can do this. You can lift this." But every time you remember that you have tried several times to lift such a weight, or to even lift 71 kg, you've not been able do so. And so, it has registered in your human sense that "I can only lift 70 kg." You will not even try to lift that 85 kg. Why? Because you will just tell yourself "no, I can't do that. I can't go beyond 70 kg. I don't want to break my spine. I don't want this to happen to me." So you are judging your physical abilities at that point in time based on the information that you received over time in your mind.
But when you're walking with God, the Bible makes us understand that there are no impossibilities with God. And when you're walking in the spirit as a spirit man, there is nothing that we cannot do. Let that register in your mind. When you yield to the flesh, you'll be led by the limitations of the flesh. But when you are led by the spirit, you'll be able to accomplish beyond the flesh. Why? Because the spirit overrules whatever information that the flesh may have gotten over time. The power of God works through our spirit. If you read through scripture, you will discover men and women that did extraordinary things. It's not because in their own physical features they were physically made to do that. No, they yielded themselves to the power of the Holy Spirit. You remember the story of Samson. The Bible says how Samson did such extraordinary things beyond human senses. And the Bible says whenever he wanted to do such a thing he will shake himself. But when eventually that connection was removed from him, from his head, when he was head was shaven, the Bible say he couldn't do anything. Why? He was still Samson, he was still his physical self, but the spirit had departed from him. But when you become a Christian the spirit does not depart from us. He is with us all the time. So your consciousness of his presence with you and what he is capable of doing in and through you will make you a superhuman. And God wants us to live in that state of superhuman. God doesn't want you to see yourself in the light of only the things that you know by your senses. That's why God doesn't want us to say "I cannot do this." The scripture says "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."
You must also remember that as far as God is concerned, the spirit in the inside of us is not just supposed to remain only in our spirit. It is supposed to impact every part of us. The spirit of God did not come to reside in a small quarter of our lives or just only in the core of our being, that is, our spirit. He is there in us to influence everything about us. God wants to influence your thoughts. The spirit of God wants to influence your thoughts. He want to influence your actions. He want to influence your muscles. He want to influence your health. He wants to influence your works. I want to influence your home, your peace. Everything about you. Once you are born again, everything about you has been bought by Christ. And so when the spirit comes into you, he influences every area of your being. So first you must understand that you do not live by the dictates of the flesh, but you live from the spirit that has been renewed in the inside.
So you let yourself know "I'm no longer living by the dictates of my flesh. I no longer see the world only from the perspective of my senses. No, I see the world from the lens of the Holy Spirit. I see myself the way God sees me. If God says I can, I can. If God says I have, I have. If God says nothing is able to overwhelm me, I'm no longer under the influence of any power outside of his Holy Spirit. I just let myself understand that I can never be under the influence of any power except the power of the Holy Spirit."
The Holy Spirit has become my present reality. He's become the one that is living in me and living himself out through me. God wants you to be successful. But you see, it's not just about what God desires for you. It's about your knowledge of who God has made you and living as such; seeing yourself the way God sees you and living as such; saying the same thing that God has said concerning you and living as such. The scriptures say “he has said so that we will boldly say”. But if you are still saying the things the world has said concerning you to yourself, you will only reap the results of the things that you say. You see, the word of God, no matter how divergent it might look from our experiences, and yes, it is definitely divergent, but you know what the scripture also says in John 3:6-8
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
If you are only born, you're born of the flesh. You're led by your senses. A man that is born after the flesh is led or lives by his blood, lives by his senses. But when you are born of the spirit, you become a spirit being. Jesus Christ said, "Anyone that is born of the flesh, lives by his flesh ". But God expects us not to live by the flesh anymore when we’re born again. There are things that the flesh or the human person as a human being is susceptible to. A human person can get sick because of his environment, because of the kind of things that he eats, or because of the things that are prevailing around him. He can become weak. He can become limited in different areas, but not the one that is born of the spirit. Let's look at John 3:8.
The Lord Jesus Christ says, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit."
Can you imagine? That's the way God want you to live. To be unlimited by any circumstance, to be unhindered by any circumstance. Wherever you want to be, whatever thing you want to become, you can become. It's just like the wind. It blows through any direction. How can you have this in the word of God and you are still limited in life? It says you are like the wind. It blows in any direction. No door can be closed against you. It is what you desire that becomes. It is not what others say about you, but the life that God has given to you. That's the life that God wants us to live. That is spirit life. And this spirit life is empowered by your knowledge of the word of God. Remember Jesus Christ says "the word I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life." The word of God is spirit. It's what God wants you to live by. If God says you are whole, you are complete. If God says you can do it, believe you can do it and run by the word of God. That is living by the spirit. To live by the spirit simply means living by the word of God. And to be carnally minded or to live by the flesh is living by what the senses tell you. It's not as though the senses, are not facts,. They are, but they are not the truth. They are not the reality of who God says you are.
So instead of talking what your body is feeling, you talk what the word of God says. Instead of saying "I am weak," the scripture says don't say "I am weak." Say "I am strong." Don't say "although I am feeling weak, I just know I'm strong." No, that's still a negative confession. It's a negative confession of the weakness that you feel. It's not by our feelings. We don't live by our feelings. We live by what the word of God says. The Bible says he has said so that we will boldly say. Be confident of what the word of God says about you and you will discover how you will just move from one level of fulfillment, of joy, of vitality to the next. Now the Bible says if the spirit of Christ that raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in the inside of you, that same spirit vitalizes our body. God understands that this body is subject to weakness. But he does not want us to live in weakness. So what do we do? We take the strength from our spirit and use it to vitalize our body.
So declare strength to yourself all the time. Declare health to yourself all the time. Declare prosperity to yourself all the time. Because God has brought you into Christ. And in Christ is the life of God manifest in a human person. So you see, with this treasure, be more conscious of what is inside than what the world is trying to give unto you. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ! Hallelujah!
And if you're not yet born again, I call you call you to give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ this time. Say this words after me and mean every one of it from the bottom of your heart.
Say, "Oh Lord God, I believe with all my heart in Jesus Christ, your son. I believe he died for me and you raised him from the dead. I believe he is alive today. I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life from this day. Through him and in his name I have eternal life. I am born again. Thank you Lord for saving my soul. I am now a child of God. Hallelujah."
You're now a child of God and call us back. Let us know where you are receiving this this teaching from and we also have you have an opportunity to receive a book from our man of God, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome. Now that you are born again, it will help you to have a better understanding of who you are as a child of God and the steps that you must take to help you develop and mature quickly in the things of God, so that you will enjoy this life. Jesus Christ says, "I have come that you will have life and enjoy it in full." God wants you to have life and enjoy it in full. And we'll let you know the steps you must take to be able to enjoy life even as God has given you his life today. God bless you. I'll be with you this time again next week. Have a beautiful, beautiful week.