Spiritually Discerned

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:14-16 ESV)

What is a good description of the “natural person”? Someone might say, “A person who does not believe in Jesus Christ.” That would be correct, but yet it needs to be explained, for not everyone is knowledgeable of what the Scriptures teach regarding what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. For true belief comes from God, is persuaded of God, is gifted to us by God, and is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of man.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44]

For example, Jesus Christ said that if anyone would come after him, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for the flesh, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and walk in obedience to his commands, by the grace of God, in the power of God, then we have eternal life with God (Luke 9:23-26).

The natural person isn’t just someone who does not make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The natural person is someone who has NOT been crucified with Christ in death to sin and who has not been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as a slave to sin but now as a slave to God and to his righteousness. The natural person is still living for self and in deliberate and habitual sin against God (Romans 6:1-23).

And that really is the dividing point between the natural person and the spiritual person, which is also the dividing point between the unsaved and the saved. For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God. For he said that many will stand before him claiming what they did in his name, and he will say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” 

[Matt 7:21-23; Luke 9:26; Galatians 5:16-21; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

And the spiritual person, thus, is anyone who has denied self, is dying daily to sin, by the Spirit, and who is walking in obedience to the Lord in holy living, in the power of God. This is a person who has the Holy Spirit living within him (or her), giving them guidance, direction, encouragement, counsel, wisdom, discernment and teaching them all things pertaining to Christ and to his will for our lives. And we can hear the Spirit speaking.

For we have the mind of Christ within us, because God/Christ is living within us in the person of the Spirit. And this is the way in which Jesus now speaks to his followers, through his written word, but also through the witness of the Spirit living within us giving us wisdom and guidance and direction in the ways in which the Lord would have us to go collectively, as well as individually. For he has individual callings on our lives, too.

[Jeremiah 1:4-19; Psalms 139:13-16; Acts 26:18; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31]

So those who are still of the flesh, whose minds are set on the things of the flesh, who have worldly and fleshly ways of thinking and responding to situations, are not going to understand the things which are Spiritual and are of God and that cannot be explained in any other way. And they are not going to understand us if we are walking in close fellowship with the Lord and if we are being led by the Spirit daily in what he wants us to do.

And so we are going to get a lot of rejection and persecution, even from many who profess faith in Jesus Christ but who still have worldly and fleshly thinking that is not of the Spirit of God. So some of them could be pastors, elders, deacons, missionaries and/or evangelists within institutional church gatherings who are just going through the motions of religious practice but whose lives are not surrendered to Jesus Christ, so they don’t get Christ.

And they may fight against us because they are not thinking with spiritual minds, of the Spirit of God, but they are thinking with fleshly minds, worldly minds, which are of the world, and not of God. But if we are following the Lord with our lives, he is with us, and he will not forsake us, and he will lead us in the ways in which he wants us to go, and he will empower us to do his work and he will give us courage to obey him in the face of much rejection.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Video Talk

https://youtu.be/207nXpvKf9E

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Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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