 Once the recording comes, okay, the recording is on. Let's take a moment to pray together. And then we will get started. Could I ask somebody to please pray with a class today and we will start. Anybody wants to pray? So can I pray? Go ahead. Go ahead. So let's pray. Our Grace's Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Thank you, God, your Majesty. Thank you, Lord, that you are omnipresent. You are omniscient and you are omnipotent God. We serve the God who is everything. We serve the God who is enthroned. Lord Jesus, we pray this time, Father God. As we are learning about this session, Father God, we commit ourselves to you, Father God. We humble ourselves and we come into your throne, Father God. We ask you the more of your revelation. We ask you more of your grace. We ask you the more of your understanding, Father God. Help us to understand the things, Father God. We pray, Pastor, we submit, Pastor, ask this to your mighty hand and we all, our student, Father God, we come to you, Father God. And Lord Jesus, we give you all the praise and honor to you, Father God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for this time, Lord. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. So, we will, we are on this course on Developing the Human Spirit. And we hope to ramp up things today. I might take a little extra time. If it's okay with all of you, you could stay on a little longer. It just depends on our interactions, how much time that goes into that. But hopefully we'll cover the ground that we need to finish and complete things. So, we were talking about faculties of the human spirit and the last two classes. We covered, we talked a little bit about these, the five faculties of the human spirit that we can see in scripture. We talked about seeing, hearing, feeling, or sometimes we use the word sensing, but this is not to be mixed up with physical sensing, right? So, we're talking about sensing or feeling in the spirit. And then we talked also about the sense of smell and taste or taste and smell, which sometimes does happen. And it's not very common, but we must become very familiar with the first three, seeing, hearing, and feeling. Now, what we have stressed in the earlier classes is that we need to develop these faculties. So, all of us have these faculties in our spirit, the human spirit. God has given us the ability, these faculties, but we need to develop them, the spirit faculties. So, I want to just share a little thought here on where God's prerogative versus our development meet. That means there are times God just moves sovereignly on his own accord and he causes our eyes. And he enables, he says, look, I want to show you the vision here it is. And regardless of the spiritual development, the person is undergone, I was gone through. They may have a wonderful spiritual encounter and experience where they see, hear, and feel one amazing things. Take, for example, the Apostle Paul, or at that time he was Saul. He was totally against the Christian faith at that time and he was going to actually, he was on his mission to persecute Christians, but he has such a powerful spiritual encounter. He sees, he hears, he experiences everything. So, that was completely God's prerogative. That means that is something God did sovereignly. He just moved and Saul had a powerful encounter. Or there are times like John and some of the prophets in the Old Testament where, you know, they're caught up in the spirit and they have wonderful spiritual experiences. And you could say, you know, there are times God sovereignly moves and he causes people or enables people to have these kinds of experiences because he wants to get something across. But at the same time, we must understand that we have a responsibility to develop our spirit faculty. So, you know, we can't just sit down and say, okay, if God wants to get something across to me, you know, he'll just get it across and I don't have to worry. Well, it is true God is sovereign and he can move that way, but he has called us to grow, right, to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, to grow in our inner man. You know, Paul writes about it. He says, be strengthened in your inner man by his spirit. So the inner man needs to be developed, inner man needs to be strengthened and part of it is developing our spirit faculties. So that means there is the normal communication that God has with us by his spirit. On a day-to-day basis, the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with our spirit. That means he is communicating to us on a day-to-day basis. That day-to-day communication, communion with God and receiving from God, our spirit faculties need to be awakened and sharpened so that we can receive those day-to-day communications from God. And if God wants to give any one of us something very spectacular, like, you know, being caught up into heaven or some angelic visitation or that's completely God's decision, you know, that's a sovereign decision. But from our side, we should be spiritually alert, spiritually awakened and our faculties should be spiritually shocked so that on a day-to-day basis, you know, we need to make so many decisions. We need to, and some decisions could be very important. You know, they may have long-term impact on our life here on earth, you know, where to live, what to do, should I say yes or no to an opportunity, so on and so forth. So, in all of these things, we want to hear from God. Will God speak to us? Of course. But he's not going to speak to us in a spectacular way, like send an angel and talk to us or, you know, take us up in the third, the third heaven. That's not the norm. The norm is the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit. And in order to receive that, the guidance from God and whatever he wants to, on a day-to-day basis, our Spirit faculties we need to keep on developing. So, I want us to understand, you know, on both sides. We are not ruling out either, you know, so in talking about developing the human spirit, we are not saying it solely depends on us. No, God is speaking. We need to learn to hear. But it is God, who at times can go beyond where we are spiritually. But that's completely his decision, okay? So, I want to just pick up from where we paused last class, last week. I'm going to share the PDF. So, we started talking about training our spiritual senses. And we said that, you know, having understood that our Spirit has these five faculties, it's up to us to train our spiritual faculties. And one of the ways by which our senses, our spiritual faculties are trained is by engaging meaningfully and, you know, with the word of God, right? So, Hebrews 5, 13, 14, the writer of Hebrews is emphasizing, you know, solid food in contrast to milk, right? And he's saying that if we engage with solid food, we have, of course, mature and it helps train our senses to discern good and evil, to discern things. They know what God is saying, to know what's not of God, all of those things. So, the word of God, by just engaging with the word, our spiritual faculties, right? And then Hebrews 4 and verse 12, it tells us that the word of God penetrates to the division of soul and spirit. That means, and it's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So, it's the word of God that goes way down and helps us distinguish. It draws a distinction, but what is soul what is spirit, right? So, the more we engage with the word of God, the more we are going to be able to differentiate what is the voice of the spirit versus the voice of the soul. Where do we draw the distinction and how to be separate the two. So, that's one very important way by which we train our spirit faculties. It is to engage with the word, meditate in the word, receive revelation from the word as we are engaging our spiritual faculties are being trained and we're able to differentiate, right? Now, a big challenge I think I did mention this last time a big challenge for all of us is how do I know that what I'm seeing or hearing or think I'm hearing or think I'm feeling or sensing in my spirit is actually from the Holy Spirit versus my own soul, my own emotions at work, right? How do I draw the distinction, right? So, it is a learning process or a training process, right? That means we are going to learn how to do this, right? We are going to learn how to recognize what's coming from the Holy Spirit what is our own soul or emotions, imaginations at work, right? We are going to learn how to differentiate this. So, part of the learning process, like I said, is to spend a lot of time in the word of God meditate in the word, feed yourself with the word and that's going to help in the soul development The second is for us to learn from our mistakes, right? So, we will make mistakes, okay? And remember, mistakes is something from our side. It's not that the Holy Spirit is making the mistake or God is making the mistake. That's not no, it's not God is making the mistake. It's from our side because we are learning as born again believers. We are learning how to recognize what God is saying and how to differentiate that from our soul. So, it is okay to make mistakes. We own up to our mistakes. We recognize our mistakes. We learn from our mistakes. So, example is if you made a decision and if you made a decision and the you subsequently find out that, hey, I made a wrong decision. Then you go back in your own mind and you review where did I go wrong? What went wrong? Maybe I didn't check sufficiently if what I thought I was feeling was really from God or was it my own soul? My own personal imaginations and feelings. So, you go back, you review, you understand and that's how you learn how to make you differentiate what's happening just a minute. I need to pause here one minute. Just one minute. Okay, sorry for that interrupt since somebody came here and looked. Okay, let's go back to yeah. So, we said that we also have this challenge of learning to distinguish the voice of the spirit the Holy Spirit versus feelings that come from our own soul. We said one very important way is to spend time in the word. Second is to learn from mistakes. Right? So, you know, don't be afraid of the mistakes. Understand we're all going through a learning process and you learn from those mistakes and there's just a recommendation that's not a commandment that usually when we start something small. So, instead of trying to ask God to speak to you about something very big or something very major start with listening to God in small things and then you will learn to okay, disturbing me again one minute. Okay. All right, so sorry for these interruptions today. We will we we start with something small. We start with things that we can manage. An example in the swimming pool if somebody is going to learn swimming they don't go and jump at the deep end they start off with a small shallow end at the shallow end and then they develop the skill and then move on to the deep end. So, what we would encourage is as we learn to develop our spirit faculties learn to exercise this in simple things things even if you make a mistake it's not going to be huge in its impact on your life. You learn to listen to God, learn to check whether you validate okay, yes I did hear correctly that is God speaking I'm listening to the Holy Spirit and so through that you and I will come to a place where we can be very comfortable to discern the voice of God to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit and versus what is from our own emotions and if you make mistakes forgive yourself take ownership, learn from the mistakes forgive yourself understand you're going through a learning process a training process and keep going forward. The same when you're ministering to people because the same thing happens when we're ministering in the gift of the Spirit and so on the giver of the gift is perfect and the gift itself is perfect but we the human vessels through which the gift is expressed we are being trained we are not perfect yet and so sometimes in our ability to hear or maybe even in our ability to express and communicate what we are correctly hearing but we may communicate that in some incorrect way we may use wrong words or we may do something incorrect while communicating it and so there's nothing wrong with the gift there's nothing wrong with the giver of the gift it's just that the vessel through whom God is working is still being trained still learning how to minister and so even there you flow with the Holy Spirit but if you do make mistakes accept it acknowledge it learn from it connect yourself and keep moving forward a couple other things I want to share here in this whole section on training the faculties is some practical things and please don't take this as rules these are more like practical guidelines which I personally and a lot of other people also would share these are some practical things we can do but these are not commandments of God or anything it's just guidelines one is quiet in your soul and listen to the Holy Spirit so that's very important is to be able to be in a place where your emotions are quiet right so now you can be in a very noisy environment but still be emotionally quiet or you can be in a very quiet environment but there could be a storm inside you emotionally both are possible the key is emotionally to be calm so that is I'm talking about your inside your inner person your emotions are calm are not disturbed it's so much easier to listen to the Holy Spirit right and there could be a lot of noise going around you but if you and I can learn to be calm on the inside it makes it easy for us you know and that's why many times when I'm going to a service or when I'm preparing for a service I don't like to be disturbed and distracted like for example now I tell some of my staff like I tell our accountant I tell our events manager please don't disturb me on Saturday that's why because Saturday is I like to keep the day quiet because I'm preparing for Sunday I mean of course I am you know I may have to speak to a few people but generally I like to keep you know I don't want you know some something that's disturbing that agitate my mind of my emotions so that my mind and emotions get preoccupied with that matter instead of focusing on preparing for the time of ministry up ahead on Sunday so they know that unless it's an emergency you know they don't call or message me on Saturday because they know okay unless it's an emergency so there's certain thing you just to quieten yourself before God that you can listen to the Holy Spirit now that does not mean you cannot listen to God when you're in a when you're in a say a busy place no you can't the keys inside your mind your emotions should be still be calm the Bible tells us be still and know that I am God right so part of knowing is be before you knowing comes that being still so that's very important second thing is again this is not a rule the practical thing is the first voice is God's voice now why do we say that many times you know when you're listening to God when you say God please tell me what should I say or speak or do or so on the first voice the thing that comes to you immediately at that moment is God usually what happens is when you take that and you start processing with your mind many other ideas come in so on and so forth and sometimes contrary ideas come in contrary you're kind of reason reason and many times we reason ourselves out of what God has actually spoken so you must learn to go with the first voice but of course there are qualifiers to it but the first voice is God's voice you know this example is a simple example for this last one two weeks maybe last two weeks every day at eight o'clock in the morning at eight o'clock in the morning I have to make a call I'm calling somebody I want to pray with that person you know one minute somebody is disturbing me right now I need to one minute sorry so last two weeks every morning at eight o'clock I need to call somebody somebody is just going to getting ready for a medical procedure and so on and so you set up this time that I call them I'll share the word of God with them pray with them just to encourage their faith and just believe God for healing and so on here's some very simple time this is a very simple thing we believe in God for healing we want to encourage the faith for healing at eight o'clock every morning I have to do that now every day I just say God what should I speak to this person and I just kind of put my spiritual antennas up and the first word that comes to my spirit that's what I go with because I know the first voice so I don't try to reason myself out of that you know and of course this is a husband wife couple that I call every morning at eight o'clock so I think it was yesterday I just okay God just reminded me of the scripture so then at eight o'clock when I call I said okay we're going to read the scripture today and then after I finish sharing then the wife the one who's going to ministering healing for her she said this word is so encouraging this just reminded her of certain things that God had done in her life etc so there's always this confirmation that you share a word it ministers to them and they're encouraged but then how do you receive that? there's so many scriptures, so many things you can do and of course you can take anything and share it but then you want to know what am I supposed to share today? well put your antennas out ask God what do you want me to share the first word that comes the first voice is God's voice just take it lock into it and don't reason yourself out of it now here I'm not talking about you know some major decision because in some situations you need to validate those things but here I'm talking about what do I say to this person or what am I supposed to do so in those situations the simple guideline helps a lot the first voice is God's voice so the moment something comes into your spirit you know you go with it or something you're praying or something the moment you're praying and you put your antennas out that means you're ready to see hear or feel that God may speak to you through any one of these channels you're ready to see hear or feel what comes into your spirit you take it and you go with it okay so the first voice is God's voice let me just cover this and then I will take up the questions that come up right and then then just some other guidelines get out of your mind to flow with the spirit so obviously God has given us our mind we must use our mind but we must also be willing to go out of our mind that means there are times when you don't kind of understand everything but you just step out because you know you've heard from God in your spirit and even if your mind cannot it doesn't sound logical so on you're stepping out of your mind your spirit is overriding your mind now I'm not saying we should be like this all the time now we are using our mind our intellect because God gave it to us but remember that God is bigger than our mind and that some of the things God may instruct us to do or speak to us cannot be fully explained with the information that we have that is with our own ability and intellect it should be willing to step out of your mind in order to flow with the Holy Spirit and another guideline we can use is if you're unsure about something you share or you discuss it with some people you validate it so you can ask this is what I feel do you think it's alright so you have a conversation with one or two people who can help you discern whether what you're hearing is from God or you validate it with the scriptures what does God say about this is it right or is it wrong so you're validating it so everything we hear from God of course has to be validated with the scriptures we don't want to do anything that contradicts the scriptures but whatever I've said earlier it's like the first voice is God's voice or you go beyond your mind all of that is within the parameters of the written scriptures we are not going to violate God's written scriptures that's our guideline the last thing is to keep in mind that God can touch our soul and body so while we are talking about training our spirit faculties what we see here in fear in our spirit remember that sometimes this God can communicate through our soul and body so sometimes it can become through your emotions with your body to be tested and validated so I'm not ruling out the fact that God could touch our body directly or emotions that can happen but in this course we are intensely focusing on our human spirit and that's the primary way that God is going to be the primary area where God is going to be speaking to us so I'm going to pause here for now and see just take up some questions before we go into the next chapter alright did somebody put up their hand or I heard a ping so any questions so far everybody's with me I have one doubt when we were talking about how do we initially train ourselves how do we we have now seen five points on how we can identify whether God is speaking and how to go ahead and test it but initially when we are trying for it how do we understand whether we asked or whether we haven't asked we are waiting in front of God and we are receiving something how do we validate it within ourselves is it what I actually wanted to hear or is it God speaking I am speaking or anything else so okay so good question so let's take an example that we have to make a decision about something and you're going before God first thing is to come to a neutral place right emotionally come to a neutral place if to make this decision let's say there are three options okay I am just creating a scenario to give us an example so let's say I have to make a decision and I have three options in front of me A, B and C and my personal preference is B my option is I like B but I don't know but I want God's guidance B but I don't know what would be the future what would be the outcome or is that what God wants what if God wants A for me or if he wants me to choose C so in this decision so the first thing is to come to a place where I am neutral that means I say God I need to make this decision I have these three options in front of me I personally like B but I really want to know what you would like me to choose or what do you want me to do which way do you want me to go and I am ready to go with whatever you tell me so you are acknowledging to God that yeah I like B but more important than my liking is I want your guidance I want your wisdom in this decision because I know that when God leads us that law leads work out good so the first thing I need to bring myself to a neutral place where I am ready and for me the priority is I want to hear from God I want God's guidance now if possible there may be some situations where I can get counsel I can get input I can get information about the right decision so I go through that process because God may use that to help me and God has given us the opportunity to do that he has given us our mind and some situations that will not be available you have to make a decision there is no information available nobody can give you any counsel in some situations there will be and if for example there is that opportunity to get some information get some input you do that that is being responsible I have thought through this I have also spoken to some people I have got this information and according to this information I should choose B both my personal liking is to choose B according to whatever information I have gathered the recommendation is I should choose B but Lord I want your guidance I have done my part I am not being an irresponsible person I have done my part but I am coming before God for guidance and that is where the Bible tells us Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him he will direct your parts so you are saying God I have done my work and processed things but I need I want your guidance you know you are praying and God could speak to us so many different ways it could come through what you see, what you hear, what you feel sometimes he can speak to you through the written scriptures so you are just praying about it sometimes the moment you pray a clear answer is there you feel in your heart I need to choose A and I need to go that way or sometimes you may have to pray over it a few days until there is a clear indication now what are some of the factors one is you know that God has clearly indicated to you choose A that could be one thing or there could be a peace about it that means when you think about B you don't feel very disturbed even though all the indications and your personal preference is B but you don't feel peace about it you think about C and again you don't feel peace about it when you think about A there is the sense of God's peace so that's the feeling we are talking about the feeling of peace it's okay I feel peaceful so God's peace is there concerning this so I should go with A so sometimes God could just put a word in your spirit choose A it could be come through that feeling of peace or God could you know give you a vision a picture of what will happen if you choose A or B or C it could come in so many different ways but then you feel finally there's this understanding and there's this peace this is the way to go about A now then what you do you go and validate it you go and I feel I should go for A let me explore, let me test the waters so you validate it can I proceed with A then you see the doors opening up things are falling in place so then it's like you're confirming what you've heard and then you begin to move like that so that's just a scenario I'm not saying the scenario addresses every kind of scenario we face but we go before God we learn to listen to him and he can communicate to us through many different ways sometimes you're reading the scripture and through the scriptures God can speak to you direct your paths and so on and then you look for the peace of God in your heart you may look for more information or guidance and so on and then you proceed is that okay? I try to put it together it did give me clarity and I also had another doubt there are something that we call from Bible that we need to walk by faith there are times that you don't hear or God is silent or I don't know how to explain that but then there are times that you have to take a step of boldness and faith and then because sometimes God will not reveal everything he will just he will just want you to walk by faith so how do we identify if at all I haven't heard from God I should wait or should I step out by faith the the answer is quite simple faith can only be had when you have the word faith comes by hearing the word if you haven't heard the word we can't have faith so to walk by faith you first have to hear the word so if God wants you to step out and faith the first thing he gives is the word otherwise you can't take the step of faith because faith comes by hearing the word so if you haven't heard a word don't take any step because you can't step out by faith so the first thing is you have to hear the word what does God want you to do right so you pray or you read the scriptures receive the word then take the step of faith if you haven't had the word don't take any step thank you pastor that's wonderful okay okay Kennedy please kindly give direction but listening to the still voice how you can validate it to know that it is not of the devil alright so the still voice is just the inner witness of the Holy Spirit in our spirit the spirit bears witness with our spirit so it's what you're hearing in your spirit through what you see, feel or hear so that's a still small voice it's the Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit through your spirit faculties now like we said you validate it with the written scriptures so if the Holy Spirit speaking he will never contradict the written scriptures second, the peace of God right so whatever you're hearing, sensing, feeling there must be the accompanying peace because the peace of God rules your heart right the third is we can do other kinds of validation like I mentioned you can always do this but when you have the opportunity then do it which is talk to somebody else you know get the input of somebody's spiritual I say look this is what I'm feeling in my spirit what do you think then somebody else is looking at that and telling you, speaking to you based on the word of course they have to be godly spiritual people and they can validate the Bible says in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established so you're having somebody else bear witness to what you feel you're receiving as a witness to the Holy Spirit now the reason I say in some situations you cannot do it is maybe there is nobody else that you can talk to or who would be able to relate to what you're saying so then you just have to depend on what God is saying but if you have the chance and now most of us are part of local churches and we have God's brothers around us people we know who are joining with us and we can always share and ask them for their counsel and so that's a good thing to do to have somebody else in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established so those are some quick ways by which we can discern or validate whether what we are receiving as an inner witness is of God or not the word the peace and the confirmation through other people is that okay Kennedy? fine okay I've been asked you have a question go ahead please yes pastor thank you so pastor my question is like sometime I used to see some reality source like let's say AGT American God Talent and I see the good things but sometime I see the magicians like they does some unusual and soaking things so I just want to know from where they get strength and which spirit they carry to do such things so that's my question pastor hmm okay I mean I'm not a magician and I don't know too much about magic but I'm just sharing my thoughts okay and my thoughts maybe at a baby level I'm not an expert on this um my thinking is one is some of them some of the quote and quote magic things are just tricks right so they can do the tricks and they do it well so that's one side and second of course is these there could be demonic powers that seemingly demonstrates super that demonstrates supernatural things so some of the magic would just be playing tricks that people play and then there is some part of the magic which is or some things that people do which would be of course demonic or supernatural but in the dark sense so these would broadly speaking to categories now I'm not I mean at you know because these are just general guidelines so when you when you're seeing something you know either it falls in this category of okay it's a nice trick and there's a way to do it or when somebody demonstrates something supernatural that's not from God then obviously it's empowered by spirits demonic powers that are working lying signs and wonders so that's how we will look at those things thank you thank you pastor alright so now we're going to go into the next section which I want to talk about which is kind of overlaps with what I've just shared it is the seven functions of the human spirit that means God has put the human spirit God has created the human spirit and it is part of our makeup we are spirit soul and body the body has certain functions the soul has its functions soul so the human spirit being inside you has certain functions and I've put them down as seven functions I will I'll share it as as a quick note here and then I will give you the the PDF in an expanded form in the notes so I just want to go with these seven functions here so what are the seven functions that we can see in scripture of the human spirit and I'm specifically talking about the born again human spirit that means I'm talking about in a believer now remember even an unsaved person unbeliever has the human spirit but it would be in a different condition his spirit is in a different condition it's not regenerated it's not born again it doesn't have a life of God it doesn't have the the Holy Spirit in dwelling so the condition of the human spirit in an unsaved person is different but here we are talking about that of a believer in connection to the functions of the human spirit in a believer first one is conscience conscience is telling us what is right and what's wrong so the human spirit is like an inbuilt or a built in judge sitting there or inside us telling us this is right this is wrong right and how is that possible because the Bible tells us that God has programmed the human spirit with the law of God that's Romans chapter 2 verse 15 I think it is that the human spirit has been pre-programmed with the law of God now of course over time the conscience can the Bible talks about it as being seared with a hot iron that means it's been destroyed that means its ability to tell you right and wrong is either distorted or completely damaged which is true in the case of many unsaved people and sometimes sadly becomes true in believers that means they are not living with a good conscience or a clear conscience we are talking about believers that even believers have damaged their own conscience or suppressed their own conscience example you see a believer he loves Jesus he was wonderful he can brain tongues and all of that God is using him he is anointed everything wonderful suppose he gets tempted to do something wrong it could be in any area it could be in money it could be in wrong relationships it could be in whatever any area he feels tempted to do something wrong now he is a wonderful believer God is working in his life everything but he is feeling tempted because his conscience tells him that is wrong even before he can pray about it or even before anything his conscience is telling him that is wrong he should not do that maybe he is ill treating somebody maybe he is stealing money from whatever he is doing something wrong whatever his conscience is telling him don't do it what happens he excuses his own conscience he makes excuse and sometimes excuse could be very spiritual an example of an excuse could be after all I am doing so much good for the kingdom of God if I do a little wrong it is okay my good outdoes all these mistakes or I deserve the luxury of doing this wrong thing or it is not that big of a deal whatever he is excusing his own conscience but his conscience is telling him it is wrong and the normal thing is the Holy Spirit the voice of the Spirit accompanies the conscience not only is the conscience telling him it is wrong the Holy Spirit is telling him wrong but he is choosing to excuse his conscience and not listen to the Holy Spirit and so he continues that way what happens he damages his own conscience and if he continues doing this he will soon live with a damaged conscience to the point where a believer can do things which you are looking at and you are saying how did he even bring himself to do this how did he bring himself to do something like why over time he damaged his own conscience there was nothing inside him to guide to be a judge inside him telling him don't do it he had suppressed the voice of his own conscience but the conscience is a built-in function of the human spirit and for the voice of the conscience to be to be always there we need to maintain a clear conscience don't let anything you know don't let anything cloud the voice of your conscience keep it clean before God listen to your conscience Apostle Paul, you know, he said I have lived in all good conscience before God and man this is Acts 22 when he is standing for King Agrippa he says I lived in all good conscience so conscience is very important the second function of the human spirit is knowledge or growing in knowledge or growing in knowing it's acquiring spiritual knowledge or growing in knowledge, you know it says about Jesus this is in Luke chapter 2 it's talking about Jesus and the child grew in wisdom and in stature so Jesus he grew in his spirit he grew in wisdom think about it that means this is the omniscient God when he became man he didn't bring his omniscience with him he laid his omniscience aside that means he started from zero the all knowing God started from zero so it's hard for our minds to think about it he knew everything but when he became a human he had to grow in wisdom in the spirit spiritual of course naturally he grew in stature he also grew naturally we don't have much spirit spirit and like Jesus we have to grow in spirit so the bible talks about the triune God God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit so God the Father was in heaven deity God the Spirit deity but he got the eternal word when he became a man he laid his eyes omniscience so God was always there in heaven don't mistake me God never sees being God but God the eternal word when he took on humanity he didn't sees being deity he laid aside his powers of deity so the bible is very clear the bible presents a triune God Godhead Romans chapter 1 so Jesus grew in wisdom that means in his humanity he had to grow spiritually in wisdom chapter 50 verse 4 says God the Father woke him up morning by morning and he taught him he opened his ear to hear as he learned in Isaiah chapter 50 verse 4, 5 and 6 that means God the Father was teaching God the Son that's why in John chapter 8 in the gospel of John Jesus says whatever I've heard of the Father I'm speaking what I've been taught by the Father I'm speaking so you imagine this it's so hard for our minds to grasp that the omniscient God in his humanity had to increase in knowledge and he was taught by the Father and the omnipotent God in his humanity had to walk under the anointing of the Holy Spirit God the Spirit this is something we need to understand Christology or understanding Trinity but getting back to the point our human spirit must grow in knowledge it's designed to increase the best example is Jesus Christ when he walked on the earth he increased in knowledge so you also you and I must also increase in knowledge, spiritual knowledge in our spirit that's the second function of the human spirit are you all with me so far? yes master now I am going to take extra time today if it's okay with you to finish this is it okay if I take a little bit of extra time do you want to break and come back or should we continue I'm open with both options do you want a 10 minute break or a 5 minute break I'll just take maybe another 20-30 minutes or if you cannot stay you can always listen to the recording at a later time the recording will be on the classroom if you need to leave you can leave and you can always listen to the recording you won't get upset or anything I'll just continue and then thank you for your feedback I will continue so we can finish the course today if anybody needs to leave if you have something else planned please feel free to leave you can listen to the recording and that will be available second function of the human spirit is knowing so our spirit must grow in spiritual knowledge and that I was just pointing to the Lord Jesus as our example the third function of the human spirit I'm talking about again the believer is communion with God how do we commune with God that is fellowship with God our spirit the Bible tells us that we are called to fellowship with the Father with the Son with the Holy Spirit 1st John chapter 1 verse 1, 2 and 3 we are fellowship with the Father and with the Son 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14 we are fellowship with the Holy Spirit that word fellowship in the Greek is communion so as a believer you and I must fellowship with the Father the Son the Holy Spirit with the Triune God I have given you some scriptures on that now how can we fellowship with God God is spirit your human spirit one of the functions is to fellowship with God our spirit we don't fellowship with God with our bodies right because I can't see God I can't have a cup of tea now when we have fellowship in church we can sit we can talk we can see each other physically we have conversation but we can't do that with God God is spirit so how do you commune with God spirit must commune with spirit so your human spirit one of the functions of your human spirit is communion with God spirit to spirit so in our spirit we worship we commune to share everything how do I share everything with God spirit to spirit now that sharing of course is express the words through song through prayer even through your thoughts so God knows our thoughts so even through your thoughts you're communing with God but that constant communion is something we must maintain in our spirit spirit to spirit communion with God fellowship with our Father the Son and the Holy Spirit through your thoughts through your words through your feelings communion with God and in that communion God also shares communion is not a one way thing it's two way so God shares himself with you so you receive his strength you receive his wisdom you receive revelation and so on but God is sharing with you you are sharing with him spirit to spirit communion happens by just waiting in his presence you just spend time in his presence communion happens so you can think about two people who are trying to build friendship they sit together, they talk they share their ideas they may do some things together they may plan some things together what are they doing, they're building relationships communion in the spiritual is building relationship with God in a similar manner the fourth function of your human spirit it's a container so the Bible uses the word vessel earthen vessel clay vessel vessel it's a container that means God fills it up and it contains and of course the container then is used to pour out it is used to release it is used to give out but the spirit is the human spirit is the container it's a container of the life of God the grace of God, the power of God all who God is he puts himself into you but where in your human spirit so that from there you can release Jesus said it like this in John 7 he said out of your innermost being that is your human spirit it's a slow reverse of living water so the picture is like a channel but the idea is this God pours himself into your spirit and then from your spirit he flows to others our second Timothy Paul uses just the language he says whoever will cleanse himself from whatever is unclean or dishonorable he will be a vessel of honor so using the word vessel the vessel of honor sanctified and fit for the masters used and ready for every good work being a vessel second Corinthians 4 Paul says we have this treasure in earthen vessels so God's treasure in earthen vessels earthen vessels of course part of the indication is we are earthen vessels we are mortal but the real vessel which part of us is the spirit human spirit that's the container that God pours himself and then through us he releases out so think about this if the container is filled with junk other kinds of things there's not too much space for what God wants to put in okay so let me put it in a positive way we need to keep our vessel clean and full with God that's why in Paul's writings he says I pray that you may be filled with the fullness of God the term fullness of God is something very unique to Paul's writings he says I want you to pray that you will be filled with the fullness of God what part of us is going to be filled with the fullness of God our spirit and out of that fullness like Jesus he said out of his fullness we have all received grace for grace that means Jesus came full of God and out of his fullness he gave we our spirit must be filled with God so that out of that fullness he can give and he can never give what you don't have so your human spirit is a container it is up to you and me to make sure that we are filled with the fullness of God the virtues of God, the grace of God the love of God so as we commune with God God fills us up with himself that we are able to dispense that to others so there's this flow number five the human spirit carries identity as part of the function that means this is who you really are your identity and that identity is granted to you and me in the spirit it's given to us by God the moment we are born again because God placed us in Christ the challenge is to grow in spiritual knowing of our identity so that we can live out of that identity that identity is given to the human spirit but the human spirit needs to grow in its knowing of its identity now you can think about it in the natural when I am born in this country my identity is given to me my natural identity you are an Indian it's given by birth and everything about being Indian is available to me by birth I was born in this country I need to grow in my understanding what does it mean to be a citizen of this country what must I do what must I not do I must learn the knowing is a growing process but identity who you are in Christ is given to your spirit and it's a complete identity you are born here you are given the full citizenship you are born again you are given a full identity in Christ but you need to know it and live out of it but your spirit carries identity and we have to learn to live out of that spiritual identity and that's a function of the human spirit identity in the spiritual world belongs to your human spirit and it's been given by God number 6 is action that means your human spirit can take action just like in the physical my body can do things in the natural realm so your body has strength you can do things take action you have to think about your human spirit with that same function that can take action in things in the spiritual realm by believing by serving interceding fighting or speaking words from your spirit words of faith those are actions that your spirit is taking that will cause things to happen in the spiritual realm and also impact the natural realm so your human spirit can do things in the spiritual world and what you affect in the spiritual world will have its repercussions in the natural world but taking action by your human spirit in the spiritual realm happens through words you speak through believing the declaring, through interceding to engaging in the spiritual realm but that's your human spirit taking action that's what Paul said in Romans 1 he says we serve God in the spirit so ministry is really a spiritual thing it's a work of your human spirit we serve God in the spirit and of course we take action in the natural but remember it's first and foremost a spiritual work the last one the seventh function ultimately your human spirit is a person it's you the real person and that person is becoming like Jesus you and I are being conformed to the image of his son and this conformance is not external it's not like you know my facial face is being changed to be like Jesus that's not it the human spirit the real person on the inside is growing the growth is happening and that growth is measured by how much more like Jesus is becoming and that's happening to the human spirit so these are the seven functions of your human spirit so we talk about the faculties but then it's all working towards this your human spirit is serving as your conscience it's growing in spiritual knowledge it's communing with the Father it's the container of the things of God through which it's released here on earth it has carried your real identity it is what can do things in the spiritual realm and it is also being changed into the image of Jesus Christ those are the functions and in one of the earlier chapters we talked about developing the spirit what can we do so everything we do we mentioned seven things there everything you're doing in developing your spirit to help sharpen those five faculties and it's going to build you in these seven functions what your human spirit is really supposed to do inside you in these seven functions so as we practice those things on developing the spirit our faculties are being trained and we are growing in these seven functions we are growing stronger so I hope you're seeing the connection between the seven things we do to develop the spirit and the faculties being sharpened or trained and what your human spirit will be strengthened to express in you the functions of the spirit but if you don't do that which is feeding ourselves on the word and praying in the spirit and so on then we'll be weak the human's functions, the human spirit will be weak he'll still be a believer he's still going to heaven, he's still saved but this human spirit is not strong the spirit is not strong because the functions are not being developed and the faculties are not being trained inside him and the last thought I want to leave with us is that we can impart spirit to spirit that means what God gives to you spiritually you can pass on to others imparting just like in the natural if you have something you can give it so if you have a little money you can give some money to somebody if you have five fruits you can give four fruits to others and eat one yourself whatever what you have you can give and it's true of the spirit if your human spirit is developed you're trained and your functions are being built that what you have you can give to others you can pass it on you can share with them and the process of impartation happens usually through training you train them you explain to others you train others it happens through association as you spend time with people they catch what you have and then there are times God does the impartation that means God takes from you and puts it on them that's called impartation but it also happens through training and association but the point is this as you develop yourself spiritually give it to other people just like in the natural if God gives you something what do you do of course you enjoy but you also think okay I can give some to some other people that's in the natural same thing in the spiritual as God gives you in the spiritual as you're developing in the spirit think about giving imparting or passing it on or sharing it or transferring it to other people then you strengthen other people spiritually so with this we will finish this course I'm going to answer we'll take up some questions I see Kennedy's question at what point do we quench the spirit good question so the Bible tells us first Thessalonians 5 do not despise prophecies test all things hold fast to what is good and in that context he says do not quench the spirit Ephesians 4 he says do not grieve the Holy Spirit Acts 7 he talks about fighting with the spirit so what happens is the Holy Spirit is communicating communicating to our human spirit when it communicates to our spirit if we shut him down if we suppress him that's quenching when he's communicating to our spirit if he disobeys him we grieve him or we do something that displeases him we grieve him and hopefully we don't do this but the Holy Spirit is speaking and we fight back fight back that is we strive against the Holy Spirit so we don't want to quench we don't want to grieve we don't want to be striving against the Holy Spirit so what must we do we must learn to be sensitive to the spirit as he speaks even the smallest prompting do it yield to it we will make sure that we don't quench we don't grieve and we don't strive against the Holy Spirit so Max's question how to reinstall when the conscience is destroyed so very good question so we said the conscience has been pre-programmed with the law of God and usually because of all that we go through in life our conscience is seared so the way we re-program re-program or get it fixed is by the word of God so in Hebrew chapter 10 God says, I will write my word upon their hearts and on their minds so the writing of the word of God into our hearts is really re-establishing strengthening the conscience the voice of the spirit okay so that's an important that's why even the word of God just filling our spirit with the word of God it's like you're strengthening your conscience it's like you're feeding your conscience with the right things for reprogramming it making it clear getting out all the clutter and all the wrong things that they have damaged it so that now this is right, this is wrong and even the the faintest thing your conscience will awaken and say this is right, this is wrong but it's God writing his word into our hearts alright everyone with me so far you followed I know I've compressed a lot of information today but I will just put out the PDF notes and you think about it feed on it chew on it strengthen yourself hopefully we'll have this whole thing out as a complete book so you can read it in an expanded form and continue to grow in this okay we're going to close so with this we conclude this course on developing the human spirit I will put out a simple assignment for you and you can work on it submit it in multiple choice questions it's an open book, open bible, open notes and everything except that you can't do it as a group just do it individually and just for you to review the content and get a grade okay so we'll do that and we'll conclude the course with that but I hope to be able to put all these things down in a good book in an expanded way so that you can read the book, we'll send you an email available and it'll be a tool that you can study the subject further and of course I myself am learning, searching, understanding and so I'm sure we will keep learning more things in this area okay thanks for being on the course and thanks for all the questions you ask every question you ask kind of helps me as well it helps me think and see what what we should need to explain what we need to clarify so you asking questions is a good thing and it's going to it helps the course we got to close in prayer I'm just going to ask anyone to please pray with us under that we will close the course I want to say thank you also for giving this extra time today so that we could finish up we please pray for the whole class and please close the course for all of us Father God, we thank you for all these days that we have been able to learn from pastor as you guided him, as your spirit enabled him how we have to develop our human spirit so that Lord we are able to receive from you the perfect guidance you know your perfect will and to also Lord as we have received as we have understood today Lord that we will be all the functions that we are able to do because our human spirit has developed Lord that we will do it so that we will be a channel of your blessing to everyone around and every place that we go thank you Lord, Lord we pray that all of us will be able to develop our human spirit each day of our life for every day for every face of our growing from glory to glory I pray Lord that we will all be able to be root bearers in your kingdom and we thank you Lord for pastor, for all the efforts that he and everyone in the Bible college puts into help each one of us to grow spiritually as your children as your ministers so that your kingdom is established in this earth wherever we are pleased and planted in Jesus mighty name, amen amen, amen thank you everyone enjoy your rest of the day rest of the week the summer break that you will have after the finish and look forward to seeing you all next semester it starts August 1st look forward to a great time look forward to a great time together God bless, thank you see you again, bye thank you pastor thank you, thank you everyone God bless you, thank you