We have been made unique in this universe.

In Genesis 1 we have a brief account of God's creation. Each of the creatures, God had created according to their own kind, and God saw that it was good. However, when God came to create man, He made Him in His image and according to His likeness. No wonder, He didn't just see it was good, but very good ! (Gen 1:31) Just as a glove is made in the image of a hand to contain a hand, so man was made the the image of God to contain God. Without the hand, the glove is lifeless, empty, without a proper expression, but when it is filled with the hand, it expresses the life of the hand. How much more, we were created in the image of God to contain God and to express God.

I praise and thank the Lord that God made us in such a way that we can receive Him and allow Him to be expressed through us. So we can see that man is intimately related to God's purpose, His heart's desire. The very divine scope of the revelation in the bible is to show us God's longing to be one with man.

Let us zoom out our divine scope and enjoy a panoramic view of the way God accomplishes this in His economy.

We get a first glimpse of God's desire in Genesis chapter 2 when God places man in the garden, and in the garden is the tree of life. The tree of life signifies God Himself as life to us "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love." - Song of Solomon 2:3-4

In the New Testament age, Christ Has come in the flesh to give life to man, as the tree of Life. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." - John 15:5

And this tree of life consummates as portrayed in the book of Relevation in the coming age as a divine and human incorporation of the Triune God with the predesitinated, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed and glorified church. No longer is the tree of life outside of man, but forever eternally, organically joined with man to be His life, life supply, and everything.

Now we zoom in once again with our divine scopes. We have already seen that man is the target of God's economy, and now we go to the very center of this target. Man is composed of three parts - Body, Soul, Spirit. The Body enjoys the physical life, which in Greek is Bios, where we get the word biology from. The Soul enjoys the soulish life, which in Greek is called Psuche. Birds, fish, beasts, they all have a body and a soul, but what makes man unique, is that He has a spirit. This spirit makes man unique among all creation in the universe.

How important is our spirit ? Zech 12:1 - "This is the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord, who stretches fourth the Heavens, lays the foundations of the Earth, and forms the spirit of man within Him."

In this passage we see three great things mentioned - The Heavens, the Earth, and the spirit of man ! Can you believe our spirit is as important as the heavens and the Earth ? We ought to jump for joy ! Hallelujah ! I have a spirit !

John 4:24 - "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness." Here we see that God Himself is Spirit, and the way for us to worship Him is in spirit and truthfulness. If we wish to listen to music, we use our ears. If we wish to look at a beautiful painting we use our eyes. We need to exercise the proper organ to enjoy God. Since God Himself is Spirit, we receive Him, contain Him, experience Him, and enjoy Him in our spirit !

In His economy, His desire is summed up as "The Spirit with our spirit". Oh may this be an eternal banner in the New Jerusalem ! It shall be our eternal song "The Spirit with our spirit !" 1 Corinthians 6:17 says "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit" In the past, we were far from God, separated from Him. He dwelt in unapproachable light, but now, hallelujah ! We can approach the very Triune God in our spirit !

And now we zoom out one final time as we enjoy a peaceful view of God's accomplishments to reach this very matter on His heart. He created us in His image, then due to the fall of man, He Himself became a man like us, in the likeness of the flesh of sin to nail it to the cross, and terminate every negative thing which had made God's kind mankind, nullifying it, destroying it on the cross that we could be made a new creation and receive at last, the very tree of life who is Christ Himself as life to us. Through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection He, as the Last Adam became the Life Giving Spirit. To what ? Try to improve our behaviour ? No, that belongs to the old creation, rather it is that we would receive and enjoy the very life of God which has been made so available, that we may grow in life and express the very Triune God in whose image we were created.

With all the brothers and sisters, we may enjoy the corporate fellowship and flow of divine life, building up the Body of Christ by this life, love, and fellowship, and this church, which is the fullness of the one who fills all in all (Eph 1:23) to express the Triune God for eternity.

The very Adam (clay), will become the enlarged, corporate city built of the precious stones, having the appearance of pure gold like transparent glass. No longer does the man express Himself, but His very creator, saviour and lover. We are not spending eternity in heaven, we become the very eternal dwelling place of God upon the Earth.

Revelation 21:2 - "And I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

Hallelujah !

-- Oliver Fischer (spicenut@excite.com), June 15, 2004

Answers

bump!

-- bump (bump@bump.bmp), June 16, 2004.

Here is a simple diagram showing the three parts of man - Body, soul, and spirit (1 Thes 5:23). As we can see the human spirit is the very center of man, and it is in our spirit that we may receive God through regeneration. By enjoying the growth of life He will spread from our spirit to our soul (mind, emotion, and will), that we may think, feel, and make decisions according to the divine life, this is the process of transformation, which is slow and gradual. Eventually, the hope of all believers is glorification, in which the Lord's life has even gained our mortal bodies, to fully express Him in our tri-partite being.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@::::::::::::::::::::::BODY:::::::::::::::::::::::@ <------- Glorification
@:::@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@:::@
@:::@:::::::::::::::::SOUL:::::::::::::::::@:::@ <------- Transformation
@:::@:::::::@@@@@@@@@::::::::@:::@
@:::@:::::::@::::::SPIRIT:::::@::::::::@:::@ <------- Regeneration
@:::@:::::::@@@@@@@@@::::::::@:::@
@:::@::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::@:::@
@:::@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@:::@
@::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::@
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

-- Oliver Fischer (spicenut@excite.com), June 16, 2004.

Amen brother! Great explanation!

-- Andy S ("aszmere@earthlink.net"), June 17, 2004.

Thanks for the encouraging words Andy. God bless you.

-- Oliver Fischer (spicenut@excite.com), June 18, 2004.

We can see the two lines throughout the bible, the line of life, and the line of good/evil.

The line of life issues in life, peace, joy, and hope, consummating as the eternal blessing - The Triune God Himself as everything to man.

The line of good/evil, issuing in sin, darkness, chaos, division, and death, and consummates in the lake of fire.

Christ therefore has come to supply life to all men, not merely as something just hoped for in the age to come, but something that can be experienced and enjoyed in this age. And we see that the spirit is the part of man that can enjoy this very Christ. Not only so but that His intention is not merely to stay locked in our spirit, but to be released into all three parts of our being.

In the creation of man. God made man upright, with a perfect body, soul and spirit. Due to the fall, the body became flesh, the soul became corrupted, and the spirit was deadened.

The tri-partite man can thus be typified by God's journey with His people, as well as the tabernacle of God.

In the journey of God's people in the Old Testament. We can see that the children of God were slaves in Egypt, under the tyranny of Pharaoh. In Biblical typology, Egypt signifies the world and the flesh. God's desire was to rescue His people out of this place and bring them into the good land (the spirit), where they could enjoy a land flowing of milk and honey, water-brooks, streams, grapes, pommegranates, wheat, barley. This signifies Christ as the all- inclusive spirit, to supply the spirit of man with all that He is for man's enjoyment and true satisfaction. The good land also contained iron, copper, for weapons for fighting, signifying the All- conquering Christ to be our strength and armour to fight the spiritual warfare against Satan, His enemy.

So we have the beginning, Egypt - the flesh, and we have a destination, the Good land - the Spirit with our spirit. Egypt issued in slavery, and the good land would issue in rest and enjoyment. How about in between ?

For a period of around 40 years, after God's people were rescued from Egypt, they were wandering around in the wilderness, which signifies the soul, still desiring the Egyptian food, still often doing things against God's heart.

On the one hand, they had been positionally sanctified, separated, cut off from the world, the flesh (typified by circumcision), yet on the other hand, they were still constituted like the Egyptians. Hence God needed to reconstitute them with Himself, by changing their diet, sending manna to them every morning.

This required a life of being crucified daily to the flesh, paying a price to gain God. Were they to rise up late, the waxing sun would melt the manna, so they had nothing to fill their hunger.

God seemed to speak many times about bringing His people to the good land (the mingled spirit), and yet there they were, helplessly wandering in the wilderness (soul) for 40 or so years. The good land was not actually so far away, it was just that they were soulish, always desiring things for themselves, rather than God's will.

This is the experience of us today. We have been rescued from the world, the flesh, passing through the separating waters of baptism (signified by the Red Sea), and yet now, today, where are we ? If we're to be honest, we'd have to admit that for most of the time, we are wandering around like the children of God. There are still so many things of the world that constitute us like the unbelievers, hardening our hearts towards God's working in us.

But praise the Lord ! We are in the body life, and we can encourage one another to take the way of the cross daily. It is more difficult to live a crucified life alone, but when you have spiritual companions it can help a lot. Praying together, reading the word together can help us to be reconstituted with the heavenly diet, to strengthen us and keep us fixed upon the spirit.

Because Christ has already passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, He is now the life-giving Spirit (1 cor 5:45), indwelling the believers (2 Cor 13:5), for us to enjoy Him as the reality of the good land.

Because Christ is the reality of the good land, and He indwells our spirit, we need not be like the children of God who took 40 years to learn the lesson. We may now come to our spirit and enjoy the measureless riches of the Triune God !

The three parts of man also correspond to the tabernacle. You have man's body, which God calls His temple (1 Cor 6:19) - corresponding with the outer-court. The Holy place corresponds to the soul, which is transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2), and the Holy of Holies is our regenerated spirit (1 Cor 6:17). Thus God does not merely live in a building formed with human hands, but within the very spirit of man !

When we realise that God right now is living within us. When we realise that the Holy of Holies is within our spirit, we will see ourselves in a different light. Yes we are still sinners, but we are born again. Not merely with a spirit of adoption, but rather with the spirit of sonship. We have been made God's genuine, true, real children. Because we are children of God's life, by God's life, and in God's life.

We may have boldness to reach the Holy of Holies through the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19)

Hallelujah for our bodies as the temple of God, our soul as the Holy place, and our spirit as the holy of holies, containing the most precious, most wonderful, tremendous and awesome God.

The Lord be with your spirit, grace be with you (2 tim 4:22)

Where is the Lord ? Is He in the heavens ? Yes. Is He in your spirit ? Yes ! Let us lay hold of Him, let us enjoy all His riches !

Praise Him !

-- Oliver Fischer (spicenut@excite.com), June 18, 2004.