The word is spirit because God is Spirit

[Stunnedbygrace]

The remark that all would starve to death if all kept everyday holy is seeing things humanly. It is seeing humanly to see the law for the outside of a man. The law is spiritual and good. It is for the spirit of a man.

In a similar way, the sacraments of the church are outward displays of spiritual things that God does for us.

(I'm not saying this to argue with anyone who can't bear it yet. I'm saying it for anyone who is ready for moving on in the Spirit.)

Water baptism is a sacrament men perform, and have performed on them, by another man. Its a picture of a spiritual reality that God performs, the true Baptism with the Holy Spirit. A man is neither harmed nor helped to do it just as a man is neither harmed nor helped by circumcision in the flesh, which is a picture of a spiritual reality that is Circumcision of the heart by God.

The sacrament of communion is the same. It is a picture of a spiritual reality, which is God in you and the wonderful way He comes and shares a meal with you inside of you.

The sacraments are important in that they are physical things that help us to understand spiritual things. They are not the thing in themselves, but are like...a parable in a way, using the temporal to explain or help a man grasp a spiritual reality he has experienced or is experiencing.

The law can be looked at humanly and it can be understood in spirit and truth. There is no law against the spirit of things and no law against obedience in spirit and truth. But a man who hasn't begun to firmly walk in the Spirit can be pulled back and held back by other men who don't walk in the Spirit at all and who only see things humanly and for the outside of the cup.

I say this all for anyone who is ready to move on. The Spirit will help you begin to grasp these things and will tell you that I have spoken truly if you are ready for the meat.​

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

Jesus began to preach about the law being for the inside of man. He said the outside can look clean but the inside can be filled with filth. This can be seen in what He taught about murder. It is possible for a man to never have shot and killed anyone but to have done so in their heart. In this way he is outwardly clean-looking to others but inside full of filth. And conversely, if a man trusts (has faith) God to clean his heart and to make him lawabiding inwardly, the inside is made clean and the outside just will be as well (he won't shoot anyone because he has no anger inside at them that could lead to it).

And He also taught the law for the inside of the cup concerning adultery. It is possible for a man to be clean-looking on the outside but to have inwardly committed adultery. But if he trusts God to clean his heart, God will, and when the inside of his cup is clean, the outside just will be as well.

This is accomplished (the inward cleaning) only through trust in Him to do it. It cannot be accomplished by all of a mans working to accomplish it. In fact, the harder he tries to clean his inside, the worse it will become for him.

He has to send away the child of his own working and make room for the child that God has promised. (The spirit of this can be seen in how Abraham had to send away the child he tried to make to receive Gods' blessing, in order to receive the child of Gods' making and promise. The child of Abrahams works was not allowed to remain in the house and receive Gods' blessing. )

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

The law for Sabbath rest can also be seen humanly, for outward performance, or in spirit and truth.

It was a day to rest from your work.
Today, we rest from our work, but it is not for the outside of a man but for his inside.

We have reams and reams of arguments on works versus grace. But true Sabbath Rest is to cease from your labors to be holy by outward performance and to send that child of your own hands away and rest from that working and wait for the promised child, the one for whom the blessings are.

 

[Gabriel2020]

That spiritual rest that was talked about when Jesus said come unto me all that labour, and i will give you rest is referring to all those who are WORKERS OF INIQUITY.

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

You will get no arguing from me Gabriel. If you cannot see what I am saying, then it isn't for you at this time. No amount of arguing will get a man to see spiritual things. God must show him.

 

[Johnny_B]

Ephesians 6:14-17 “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”

I do not know about “The word is spirit because God is Spirit” the Word of God says that, "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" But here is how the Trinity is part of our spiritual warfare.

Isaiah 59:17-18 speaking of Jesus. “For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.18 According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; the coastlands He will fully repay.”

Preparing our feet with the Gospel or good news Isaiah 52:7 “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Genesis 15:1b “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”

Psalm 91:4c “his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” a rampart is a defense.

I Peter 1:4c-5 “This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,5 who through faith are shielded by God’s
power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Firey darts or arrows, Psalm 7:13 “He also prepares for Himself instruments of death; he makes His arrows into fiery shafts.”

Psalm 11:2 “For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.”

Psalm 64:3 “They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows.”

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

Good post johnny.

John 4:24 and 6:63 are Jesus saying the words I give you are spirit and truth, (the words are spirit) and are explaining how the spirit of the word is life and the letter is death (the spirit of the word brings wholeness and soundness of mind but the letter of the word always has brought death). Gods complaint always was that men did not open their heart to Him but kept it from Him.

 

[Stunnedbygrace]

Since it's my thread, I'm going to throw whatever in that I feel might help someone.

It is possible to become a foolish Galatian and not even know it has happened. We're very accustomed to works of the law meaning trying to keep the ceremonial laws, and since we have been taught not to keep them, we don't worry about whether we are yoked to the law again rather than trust (faith).

I'll share how I became a foolish Galatian for many years and didn't even know it. By the way, Paul in his letter to them was not speaking to men who had not been born again with the Holy Spirit. He said to them, how is it that you have left what I taught you so quickly? Did you receive the Spirit by obeying the law, or did you receive the Spirit by trusting (faith)? So these were men that he knew had received the Spirit.

So, I received the Spirit and God began to show me some of the spirit of the word, like the earlier example I gave about murder being anger in my heart and men murdering even when they do not physically take a life.

So I had this new knowledge of the spirit of the law about murder, and I loved my Lord very much and wanted to please Him. So I set about facing the angers in my heart at how people treated me sometimes. I sought to be very good regarding this and I was upset when I would get angry and fume over what someone had done to me. I would try to talk myself out of the anger or tell myself I wasn't really angry, just slightly annoyed. I tried all kinds of things to convince myself to not be angry. And the harder I tried, the worse it got for me.

I had left my trust in Him to finish the work He began. I was trying very hard in my own strength. I loved Him and felt I owed Him my obedience in the matter. I struggled in it for many years.

I had become a foolish Galatian and had no idea. I was trying to finish in the flesh (my strength) what had begun in the Spirit. I had received the Spirit through trust, not by anything I did. And I was meant to keep trusting Him to finish me, but got caught in trying to finish my own self by trying really hard to keep the law to not murder. So I had got caught in works of the law rather than continuing in trust and reliance on His working what He had said He would work in me.

 

[Johnny_B]

Good post johnny.

John 4:24 and 6:63 are Jesus saying the words I give you are spirit and truth, (the words are spirit) and are explaining how the spirit of the word is life and the letter is death (the spirit of the word brings wholeness and soundness of mind but the letter of the word always has brought death). Gods complaint always was that men did not open their heart to Him but kept it from Him.

Thanks, yes that word spirit in the Greek is "PNEUMA" Thayer's Lexicon translates it as "the rational spirit, the power by which a human being feels, thinks, wills, decides; soul" BAGD Lexicon translates it as "breath, (life-)spirit, soul, that which gives life to the body"

As you said these words of Jesus give life where the letter of the Law brought death. I had a pastor that taught that the words that we speak become spirits and give life to what we speak. That pastor had some other bad teaching too, I was so glad that he was going to kick me out of the church because I had a different doctrine.

I know the WoF guys teach the same thing that we can speak things into existence, that our words become living entities negitive or positive. All this by twisting Jesus' words, that He spoke about Himself, had nothing to do with us, except that those spiritual words that He speaks give us life.