This has been a puzzling question to myself. Perhaps, most of us, though we’ve been in the church life for quite some time and have some growth and experience of the Lord, at some point we’re brought to a place of wondering in our being asking ourselves, “Am I in the flesh or in my spirit?”
Recently, I stumbled upon the Ministry Magazine on the Crystallization study of the Gospel in God in Romans. Divine light started to illuminate in my being regarding this matter of being in our spirit. As I was reading a few pages through chapter 11 of the book, words came forth as trickles of living water supplying life and light, “For the mind set on the flesh is death and the mind set on the spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).
Life, referring to the zoe life, is the uncreated, indestructible divine life of God which is represented by the tree of life is the life that is referred to in this verse. Whenever we enjoy this life, there is the sense of life, a sense characterized by a feeling of satisfaction, strengthening, refreshment, being watered, enlightenment, anointing and flowing.
There is also the sense of peace, comfort, harmony, rest, joy and liberty. In contrast, whenever we are out of our spirit, there is a sense within us that is totally opposite of life, a sense of death. We simply sense dissatisfaction, emptiness, weakness, oldness, dryness, darkness, depression, strife, discord, discomfort, restlessness, pain, bondage and grief.
So, how do we know whether we are in the flesh or in the spirit? We know by realizing and knowing this sense of life within us by broadening and deepening our fellowship with the Lord.
The more we fellowship with the Lord and contact Him, His life will grow within us and the sense of life will also increase. The more His life increases, the Lord will start to touch every avenue of our thoughts, feelings and even to the extent of touching our motives, intentions and decisions.
We may be in some crossroads of our lives where we have to decide what university to go to, what way to take after the training, or probably which job to take. It’s so easy for us to decide based on pros and cons, right or wrong or choose the better or lesser evil. Yet, while deciding or choosing the seemingly best choice, we might not have the sense of life and peace.
But once we stop for a moment and take some time to contact the Lord and just open to Him in prayer, “Lord what is your perfect will for me?” Then as we are setting our mind on our spirit through our prayer and contact with the Lord, we will have an inner sense of either satisfaction or dissatisfaction when we are considering to go to a certain university, choose a particular job or go towards a specific direction.
At that point, we realize what is of the flesh and what is of the spirit. Whenever we sense an inner sense of dissatisfaction, emptiness, weakness, oldness, and dryness, we should realize that we should not go that way. Rather, we should go in the pathway that imparts an inner sense of satisfaction, strengthening, refreshment, watering, enlightenment, anointing and flowing. [guest post, bro. Renesis]
This is our daily experience in our Christian life – learning to follow the sense of life and peace within. We don’t do things or decide things based on what the pros and cons are, what the environment says, or what the advantages are. We fellowship with the Lord, enjoy Him, and then there is a sense within – peace… or dissatisfaction.
This is the Lord Himself within us speaking to us in a very subjective way. This is the way to discern where are we, in the flesh or in the spirit – by following the inner sense of life within.
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