God is spirit and the Spirit of God
What I will attempt to share now is perhaps one of the most important things I have attempted to write about since joining this site. Please stick with this blog for it takes awhile to paint the picture.
Please look closely at John 4:24:
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
Of all the major translations, only the King James inserts the word a” in this verse. God is not a” Spirit, He IS” Spirit. Because God is Spirit, those who worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Please look at Genesis 2:7:
And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
When it came time for God to make man, He scooped up some dust and formed him into the shape and form we recognize today. God then breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. Notice there is no mention of God creating” anything in this verse. That is because the word create implies bringing into existence something that had not been there before. Our bodies and souls are made up of components God already had created when he made the fish, birds and other animals. So, the question which begs to be answered is; how does a man of body and soul worship God in spirit and in truth?
When God created our world as we know it in Genesis chapter one; after He had put everything in place, the last thing He created was man. Genesis 1:27 says:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
What is the image of God? We saw from John that God is Spirit. Thus, when God created man in His own image, God created in Adam His Spirit. Adam had a body formed of the dust of the ground. Adam had a soul which was the very breath of life God breathed into him. Adam had a spirit which was God’s spirit created in him by God Himself. Adam was complete in every way.
What was the purpose of God creating in Adam His Spirit? Since God is Spirit and those that worship Him must do so in spirit and truth; we are to assume that the predominant reason was WORSHIP. How Adam and Eve worshiped God before the fall we do not know, but that they did is correctly can be assumed.
It is interesting that directly after Genesis says God created man in His image (Spirit), Genesis 1:28 states:
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
God blessed Adam and Eve and told them to:
1. Be fruitful—the multiplication of offspring, or to increase, to be fertile
2. Multiply—to become many, multiply
3. Replentish the earth—to FILL the earth, not replentish
4. Subdue the earth—to bring into subjection, to be master of
5. Have dominion over—to rule, exercise domain over those under one’s control
God’s original plan was for Adam and Eve to increase, multiply and fill the earth not just with humans, but humans with the Spirit of God in them who would bring into subjection and rule over all other living things. Unlike some popular current teachings imply, Adam and Eve were going to have to work to bring the earth into subjection and they were going to have to consciously exercise domain over all various animals.
Well, we know the story; before this could all take place the serpent beguiled Adam and Eve and they broke the commandment of God thus sinning. God had said specifically in Genesis 2:16, 17:
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Considering Adam lived almost another thousand years; what does it mean that he would surely die? Some say it means the seed of death was planted in him which is a logical explanation but one I do not think agrees with the whole Word of God. I believe what died the day Adam and Eve sinned was the Spirit God had created in them. I believe from the moment they sinned, they were spiritually dead and the consequences of spiritual death were quickly revealed by God in Genesis 3:16-19:
All the pain, sickness, suffering, death, tiresome hard work etc in this life is a direct result of the sin of Adam and the corresponding loss of the Spirit of God. The worship in spirit and in truth was replaced with offerings, sacrifices and other outward forms of piety. This all continued until Jesus gave His life to once and forever pay the price for Adam’s sin. Once paid for, the door was opened for God to begin repairing the consequences of Adam’s sin.
On the Day of Pentecost God poured out HIS Spirit and the promise Jesus had given of a Comforter” coming was fulfilled. Now, when a person gets born again he receives the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) and thus becomes whole just as Adam was in Genesis one and two. Once a person has the Spirit of God they can worship God in spirit and begin to appropriate God’s promises in their life.
Once a person has the Spirit of God they have a truckload of God’s promises laid before them. These promises are exceeding great and precious. These promises are unique to this day and time and are different than those given in the Old Testament. They are promises just for us, the church of Jesus Christ. Where do we find these promises? Logically we find them in the New Testament addressed to those who lived after the Day of Pentecost.
Yes, I truly do believe that the promises of God directly relating to US are found in Acts through Jude. I believe that the pinnacle of those promises is found in the Book of Ephesians where we find the greatest truths in all of God’s Word specifically addressed to the church. I believe that if a person is able to grow up in Christ and understand what is spiritually available as children of God, then we can SPIRITUALLY see what God wanted for Adam and Eve.
Thank you for allowing me to write this long post to express from a different perspective why I believe the Book of Ephesians is so important. Thank you for joining me in the ongoing journey into Ephesians that may not occupy every blog I write, but I promise will occupy many of them. I have longed for and prayed to know what I could do to help and bless those of you who read my blogs more, and this is God’s answer; to share, teach and preach the great truths of Ephesians.
|
|
Author: blessings2you
Location: Warrenton Missouri USA
Gender: Male
Age: 57
Blog Entries: 828 (archive)
Blog Comments: 1357
god called me to serve him when i was 16 years old while on a church work trip in new mexico in 1969. in the 40 years since; i attended bible school/leadership training, been ordained to the christian ministry and worked full time for a non-denominational ministry for nearly ten...
view full biography
in 1969 god stepped in and transformed my life as a sixteen year old teenager. after a couple of years of intense emotional ups and downs, i decided i needed a firm foundation in my life that went beyond emotional experiences. it was the decision to become involved with a...
view full testimony
An answer to that legitim...
Putting Washington's ...
Entitlement mentality--fr...
A very legitimate questio...
The need for separation o...
What is the REAL news...
I can do ...(with a littl...
The mystery of me...
I STILL have a dream...
Is gambling really just e...
|
Log Into Chatroom 
I truly enjoy reading what you have to say and hopefully soon will read more of your older posts. 
