In understanding and knowing the word of God and even the burden of the word of God we need to exercise and use not only our mind but even more, our human spirit.
In Zech. 12:1 we see that God created three equally important things: the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man. This is the burden of the word of Jehovah, which can be known only by exercising our human spirit, the organ created by God in man to touch Him, receive Him, contain Him, and worship Him.
There are three main things related to the prophecies in the Bible being properly understood by the spirit, and the importance of using our spirit to understand the prophecies of the Bible:
- The nature of all the prophecies in the Bible is the spirit – the prophets didn’t speak of their own, but they sought diligently, the Spirit of Christ making it clear to them and directing them (1 Pet. 1:11). Also, no prophecy is born of men but men spoke from God while being borne by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). We should not use our mind to interpret or untie the prophecies, but rather we should use our spirit. The nature of the prophecies in the Bible is different from things like the news, politics, reports, etc – the nature is of Spirit!
- The Person spoken of in all the prophecies is now the Spirit. All the prophecies are speaking about Christ, especially of His sufferings and the glories after these, and this Christ is now the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), even the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6). The subject of all the prophecies is a Person who is the Spirit today!
- We need to approach the prophecies with our spirit since they are in the nature of Spirit. The Apostle Paul encouraged us to interpret spiritual things by using spiritual words and by being a spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:13). Only a spiritual person can interpret spiritual things, and for us to understand prophecy we don’t just need to read them and try to understand them with our mind, but be exercised in our spirit!
The Importance of Our Spirit in Understanding God’s Word
Zechariah 12:1 says, “The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.”
In His creation, God made three crucial things which are equally important in His sight: the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man. The spirit of man is as important as the heavens and as the earth for God. This verse shows us that God created the heavens for the earth, the earth for man, and man was created with a spirit for God!
Man has a spirit so that he may contact God, receive God, worship God, live God, fulfill God’s purpose, and be one with God! Since God is Spirit, we as human beings with a human spirit need to use our spirit to worship Him in spirit and truthfulness (John 4:24).
The most important part of man is his spirit, which is different from his soul (see 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12).
In Zechariah specifically we see that God plans in His economy to have Christ as the centrality and universality of His move on earth for the rebuilding of God’s house, His temple. To see this and enter into this, we need to use our spirit, the right organ, and we need to pay our full attention to our spirit, so that we may receive the Christ who is revealed in this book and understand the revelation in Zechariah concerning Christ.
Scientists use their mind, and at most they see a two-dimensional world, the heavens and the earth. But when we exercise our spirit we get into the third dimension, the spiritual world, where Christ is everything to us!
All the problems and issues that Christian theologians have especially in their critical studies of the Bible are due to the fact that they exercise ONLY their mind.
To understand the word of God, to receive the burden of God in His word, and to see the invisible spiritual scene behind the visible scene, we need to use and exercise our spirit!
Paying Full Attention to our Human Spirit
God has an economy, and in His economy, He desires to have Christ as the centrality and universality of His move on the earth. For this, He created the spirit within man as a receiving organ, so that man may have the capacity to receive all that God has planned for Christ to be.
God intended that man would live a life in and according to his spirit – in fellowship with God, under the rule of God in his conscience, and having an inner intuition of the things of God.
The central government and the most prominent part of our being should be our spirit; a man who is ruled and controlled by his spirit is a spiritual man (see 1 Cor. 2:14-15; 3:1; 14:32).
But due to the over-exercise of man’s soul and flesh, man became the self (independent from God) and the flesh (opposing God). But we as believers are born of the Spirit to be spirit-men, spirit-focused and spirit-exercising people of God (John 3:6), and now Christ is making His home in our hearts by spreading from our spirit into every part of our heart (Eph. 3:16).
We need to be spiritual men, those who discern and know the things of God by using their human spirit (John 4:24). The wonderful Christ as the focus of all what God is and does can be received and contacted by us only when we exercise our spirit. We need to pay our full attention to our human spirit so that we may know the things of God, receive God, contact God, experience God, worship God, and fulfill God’s purpose.
God in Christ is today the Spirit, even the sevenfold intensified Spirit, who is with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). As the sevenfold intensified Spirit of grace, Christ is the topstone of grace to consummate the building of the church (Zech. 4:6-7, 12-14; 3:9; 12:1, 10; Rev. 4:5; 5:6).
For the building of God, for the building up of the church, we need to pay attention to and continually exercise our mingled spirit, where God in Christ as the Spirit dwells.
Lord, unveil us to see the vital importance of our human spirit. Save us from over-exercising our mind and forgetting about our spirit. Lord, make us spirit-exercising people, those who contact God the Spirit with their human spirit. Thank You for creating us with an organ to touch You and receive You. Lord, we want to be spiritual men discerning all things by living in their spirit all the time. May we not neglect our spirit but rather be in our spirit and do everything in our spirit!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Andrew Yu’s sharing in this message and portions in, Life-study of Zechariah (msg. 12), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 10 (entitled, A Word concerning the Human Spirit and Aspects of Christ Unveiled in Zechariah for His Move on Earth).
- Further reading:
# The Importance of the Human Spirit (via, Christians on Campus).
# The Definition of the Human Spirit (via, tripartiteman.org).
# The Difference between the Soul and the Spirit (via, holdingtotruth.com). - Hymns on this topic:
# Man was made, the first step God took / To achieve His final goal, / As a vessel, a container, / Three parts—body, spirit, soul.
# Have you found your human spirit? / It’s connected to your mouth! / “Hallelujah, O Lord Jesus!“ / That’s the way to let it out.
# God made me a three-part man— / Body, spirit, soul I am. / With my spirit is the way / To let God come in to stay. - Pictures credit: the first one via here, and the second via Joseph Barber.
About aGodMan
God in Christ is today a spirit. We need to pay our attention to continually exercise our mingled spirit.
In His economy, God planned to have Christ as the centrality and universality of His move on earth. As the very God, He has ruled over the entire human race, managing the world situation age after age for thousands of years… Christ is wonderful, but if we did not have a spirit, how could we receive Him? Today in every circle of society, people do not exercise their spirit. Even in religious circles, the matter of the human spirit is neglected or even opposed and denied. If we neglect our human spirit, there is no way for us to contact God, to live God and to fulfill God's purpose. God is Spirit, in order to discern, to know, the things of the Spirit of God, man must use the regenerated human spirit…Not everyone can know the Christ in Zechariah, only God’s chosen people who realize that they have a spirit can know Him and they exercise their spirit to pray, “I want to gain the Christ as unveiled in Zechariah…Lord, remind us to turn to our spirit, even remain in our spirit to be one with You…"
God is the light of the Heavens in the World.