SPIRITUAL LIFE
by Bill Burns
The purpose of this message is to bring us to a place where we can fully
comprehend kingdom life so that we can fully possess our inheritance in the
Kingdom of God.
We still have a natural life and that God is interested in it. He will preserve
it, provide for it, and perfect it. Our duty regarding our natural life is to
make God first and recognize that I am not my own.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service.
When we do this, then the Spirit of Life will use our natural life as a temple
to establish spiritual life according to God’s law so that we can fully possess
kingdom life as it is meant to be.
The source of our spiritual life is Jesus Christ who gives us the Holy Spirit.
John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go
away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart,
I will send Him to you.
It is the Holy Spirit who gives life and brings truth that sets us free to live
in the Spirit.
John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you
into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He
hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
And, if we are allowing the Holy spirit to “help” us, there will be evidence.
The Evidence of Spiritual Life
1. Growth -- begins at the new birth and feeds on the Word so that we can grow.
1 Peter 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may
grow thereby
2 Peter 1:
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,
to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self–control, to self–control perseverance, to perseverance
godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But, more than milk …
Hebrews 5:13-14 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word
of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of
full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil.
6:1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ,
let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works and of faith toward God
Move from milk to revelation:
Ephesians 1:17-18 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope
of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints
Ephesians 4:14-15 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the
cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may
grow up in all things into Him who is the head––Christ––
2. Love
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the
brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
3. Obedience
John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.
4. Victory over sin
Romans 6:11-13 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in
your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your
members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God
as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
to God.
Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the
Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
5. Spirit Mindedness
Romans 8:5-6 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the
things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of
the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is
life and peace.
1 Corinthians 2:14-16 But the natural man does not receive the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet
he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the LORD
that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
6. Abiding in Christ
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in
you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal
bodies
through His Spirit who dwells in you.
7. Witness of the Spirit
Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are
children of God, and if children, then heirs––heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
8. Fruit
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self–control.
Against such there is no law.
9. Walk in the Spirit
Galatians 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
10. We Will Become Overcomers
Revelation 21:7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God
and he shall be My son.
This is our quest – to inherit all the things that are promised to us in God’s
Word (decree). This will happen when we begin to live the spiritual life. And,
it is in the Spirit that we possess the kingdom!