 Okay, good morning, everyone. Welcome to the class. Welcome those of you online to BC 214, Developing the Human Spirit. Let's take a moment to pray. We will start. I think this is the other mic that has to go around. Could somebody please pray and then we will start. Father God, we thank you for this time. We thank you for this day as we came before you're shown. You give us grace. You give us wisdom and knowledge, God. And when pastor will teach us from your word, you give us the new revelation, God, from your word. We surrender every student, every faculty, it's in your hand. We surrender this class into your hand. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right. Let me share the PDF. So last week we covered, I mean, we spent quite a bit of time talking about the stage of innocence that's on page four. We also talked about the condition of the human spirit before being born again. That's we are without the life of God. We don't have the life of God. We are without the life of God. And then we said the human spirit can grow. That means the human spirit can, just like in the natural, the body or the physical body, you feed the body, the body grows, the body becomes strong. Similarly, the human spirit can grow. You can feed it with the knowledge of the Word of God. It can increase in revelation how much it knows about God. It can know God's will. It can become stronger and many other areas that we can grow. So we're going to talk more about that in the weeks to come. Let me talk about the functions of the human spirit. Just to emphasize the revelation knowledge that means it is knowledge the spirit doesn't know, but God reveals to the human spirit. And we receive understanding over there in the spirit. So when we want to know the will of God, it takes place first in our spirit. We'll just go to 1st Corinthians chapter 2. It's not in the notes, but in 1st Corinthians chapter 2, let's read verses 14 to 16. 1st Corinthians 2, 14 to 16, please. 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 to 16. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for their 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. So actually I just want to read verse 11 as well. I'll just move back. Verse 11. For what man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him? 1st Corinthians 2, 11. What man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of man which is in him? That means the best person to know you, I mean other than God, the best person to know you is the Spirit within you. So what man knows the things of a man? Can I know everything about you? No. For what man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of man which is in him? That means your Spirit is the best to know about you. So what man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of man which is in him? And it is in the Spirit that God is going to reveal to us his plans, his purposes, his will. As we read verse 14, the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. So natural man, we are not receiving the things of the Spirit of God through our minds. The natural man does not, verse 14, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. That means they must be understood by the Spirit first. So we want to receive the things of the Holy Spirit. We don't receive it first in our mind, we receive it first in our spirit. Then it comes to our mind. Our mind begins to understand and then we can say it, we can speak it, we can express it. But it first is spiritually discerned or spiritually understood by the Spirit. And verse 15, he was spiritual, he examines everything, but he himself is rightly judged by no one. So a spiritual person, a person living by the Spirit, he discerns everything, but somebody from the outside cannot understand them fully. Why? Because you don't judge in the natural, you cannot understand spiritual things in the natural. So he himself is not judged by anyone. Then he says, who has known the mind of the Lord that we may instruct him, we have the mind of Christ. That is, God reveals his mind to us in the Spirit. So we come to this, but what I wanted to emphasize is that our human spirit is a place where we are going to receive revelation of spiritual things. Our human spirit is a place where we are also going to understand the will of God, the mind of God. It is first made known to us in our spirit. Then the soul of the mind begins to understand. There's some side notes here, this one page five about the human soul. The main thing to understand is in the Old Testament, the word heart and soul are sometimes used in a very interchangeable way in the Old Testament. So you just have to read the context and then see, okay, is that referring to only the Spirit or is it referring to the emotions? Because it's kind of used interchangeably. Whereas in the New Testament, it's very distinct, very clear, heart, spirit, to talk about the human spirit, soul, mind, to talk about the soul of the mind. And it uses a combined term, inner man, to talk about both spirit and soul. Okay, so when you're studying the New Testament, keep that in mind. And there are some, I'll just give a list here of things, of how the word soul is used in the New Testament. And I've just taken this from the dictionary, that's all. Other questions that have come up in the past. So I made a note of these questions on page six. In the spiritual realm, will people feel emotions? Yes, we can feel because Beers talks about hell, he said there will be no more, in hell, there will be beeping, gnashing of teeth. In new heavens and new earth, there will be no more tears, no more sorrow. So the emotions are there in the spiritual realm. Another question is recognition, can we recognize people? Answers, yes. 1 Corinthians 13, it says, we shall know, verse 12, 1 Corinthians 13, 12. But now we see in Amirah-dimly, but then face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know, just as I also am known. So when Jesus comes, he says, will we recognize? Yeah, you will know, you'll know others, you will recognize others, you will know just as you are known, like we know each other and be able to understand each other. Can we remember things from the earth's realm? That's interesting questions, you know, like after you leave this world, can you remember about this world? It's an interesting question because we can go back to Luke 16, where Jesus spoke about the rich man and Lazarus, and the rich man being in hell, he was crying out, and there he says, you know, remember when you were living on the earth, you had everything, but Lazarus had nothing. And from there he remembers, oh, my father and my brothers are there, please send somebody to tell them, so they don't end up here. That means, I'm just going by that story, I'm going by that story, that based on that, maybe there is some remembrance of what happened here on earth, but in heaven, so that's what will happen when we, but in heaven, we know it's a place of joy, which means we are not going to remember our sins and our failures. So God says, as far as the east is from the west, so far I will remove your transgressions, your sins, I buried your sins in the depths of the sea. So obviously in heaven, we're not going to be remembering all the mistakes we made, because then it'll be very sorrowful. So that is, just based on that, it's okay. Most likely, so in heaven, we're not going to remember those things, but God will reward us for the works we've done on earth. So maybe there may be a recall of the good things, I'm not sure. The other question that's related is, when we go to heaven, can we see earth from heaven? So that means my mother, father, grandfather, whoever has gone, are they watching me now from heaven? I don't know. Now many people quote Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, you know, seeing, so we have such a big cloud of witnesses that has run with endurance. So the picture there in the Greek is that of a big stadium full of people, people have died and gone. We are the runners who are now living, we are the runners, and they are looking at us. It's as a picture, like, you know, seeing them, we have such so many witnesses that has run with endurance, the race that is set before us. That's the picture he's having in mind. So while that's the picture of Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, that doesn't mean that it implies that everybody from heaven is looking down at you, watching. They are probably busy worshiping Jesus and enjoying God's presence, not wasting time looking at us here on earth. Right? So my thought, again, I'm just sharing this, my thought is they're not looking at us. They won't be able to see us, otherwise they'll be so sad all the time. But maybe if God allows, you know, because there's some people who say, I went to heaven, then I saw what was happening here on earth. So maybe God allows them to see for that individual case, maybe. But generally I don't think that's going to be the way it is, that they are always watching us here on earth because they're busy, they're probably busy looking at Jesus. That's much more better than looking at us. So these are some questions people generally ask. So I just put them here. Let's go to chapter 2. In chapter 2, page 7, yeah. That's a continuation for this question, what will they can people who are in heaven, since even we are studying that God reveals his plans towards in our spirit, it is relating to us who are here. So people who are in heaven, will they also know the full plan of God for humanity or what God is going to do next? Or for our lives, they will have the revelation of what is the plan of God. So your question is, all the people who have gone to heaven, because they are in heaven, will they understand everything about God's plan and will they know everything about everything that God is going to do? Because they are already in spirit and they are in God. So we just read 1 Corinthians 13. I'm just thinking about that verse. 1 Corinthians 13 says, now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also know. So it says, now we know only little, little, little part. But then the implications, then I will know everything. But does that everything make us omniscient? Say God is omniscient. God knows everything. So Paul is saying, of course, I know he's saying in verse 12, now we know in part, then we will know fully. But the question is when he says we will know fully, does it mean we'll know everything? I don't think so, because the only person who knows everything is God. And that's what omniscience is. It is a part of deity. That means only deity, only God is omniscient. Only God knows everything. We are still, we are in heaven, but we're still human beings, humans. Maybe with God, but we're still spirits that he created. So will we know everything? So does Paul mean here, now I know in part, but then I shall know just I also have known. Does he mean we will know everything? I don't think that's the extent, because that is omniscience, that is God. Only God has that. So I think my answer to this will be, whatever God allows us to know reveals to us, even in heaven, that's what we will know. So for example, even when Jesus will exactly return, even we won't know. It'll only be known to the Father. And the Father says, okay, now, then others we might tell everybody, just joking. So my answer to the question is, no, we won't know everything, but we will know much more. Because to know everything is omniscience and that's only God's attribute. So do we have free will there also, like after going to heaven? The answer is yes. So then you say, will somebody again sin in heaven? I hope not. So will we have free will in heaven? God created us, that's just one of our attributes and also of angels. Angels are not robots. Angels also have a will. That's how Lucifer sinned. He said, I will ascend. He also exercised his will. So angels and humans, we are created with a free will and we will have that free will. But those who are allowed in heaven are those who have demonstrated that they're using their free will to worship God. They've demonstrated, they've made a choice. Now that does open up the question, can somebody do something wrong out of free will? I mean, theoretically, yes, because can some other angels sin theoretically? Yes. But would God have taken some measure to prevent that? I think so. That some way he has, he will make sure that, I don't know how, but he will make sure that there's, we don't have to go through this whole thing again. So in theory, I'm just theorizing, because we are free model beings and he's not going to take it away. And that's the whole point that we should, as free model beings, choose to worship God. So the spirit and body. So when this was actually, it was in mother's womb, when cells are getting prepared and to, I mean, about to form a body, then only the spirit will form or else the spirit is there from some eternity or these many souls are there in eternity because God knows everything, how many people will be involved. So my understanding is that God is the creator of the human spirit. And as human beings, we all had a starting point. We had a point in time before which we didn't exist, after which we existed, God created us. So the question you're asking is, let's say, there are going to be 13 billion, so many, so many spirits, human beings, whatever the number is. The question is, were all these spirits created beforehand and kept somewhere and then zing, zing, and they come into the earth, like they come in and then they are born on the earth. Or are these spirits created at different points in time? So my thought is it's happening at different points in time. That means we, when conception takes place in the body, I feel that's the time, that's the time the spirit created by God is given to the body and the human spirit is created and given to the body. Now we can't prove it by chapter and verse, I'm just thinking, the only thing we can say is that God is the Father of spirits, like we read in Hebrews 12. And we are born, like says Psalm 113, we may be created in the womb. So I'm thinking that's the time the spirit comes in and the body is formed around the spirit. So maybe that's the time God creates that person, is what I'm thinking. But we don't have a clear chapter and verse on, okay, this is exactly how it takes place, whether it's like, okay, God already created everything and one by one is releasing into the earth or it's happening in time. I'm thinking it's happening in time. So let's go to chapter two, where we focus a little bit more on the human spirit. The main point that we want to understand in this chapter is that the human spirit is the real person with personality, faculties and functions. So what I want us to understand is the real you is your spirit. See outside body will change, we grow old, soul also is changing. I mean, mind and emotions changing. The real person is the human spirit and your spirit has personality, it has faculties, things it can do are faculties and functions. So you can imagine the human spirit just like how we imagine the or we understand the human body. So example body, the human body has faculties, there we say five senses, five faculties, mainly what you see here, smell, touch, taste, all that, five faculties, human body and it is through that we feed information to our soul, mind, emotions. So you can imagine the human spirit to be a complete person, a human spirit to be a complete person with personality, faculties and functions, things that you can do. Like the human body has functions, you can stand, you can talk, you can walk, all those things you can do. So similarly, the person, the spirit must be understood, the spirit must be understood to be like a full real person with personality, faculties and functions and we want to see this. Let us go to 2nd Peter chapter 1, 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 13 to 15, somebody could read it. 1st Peter, 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 13 to 15. Yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my disease. So say how Peter is talking, as long as I am in this tent, so he is calling his body tent, but the real person is inside the tent as long as I am in this tent and then he says, I must put off my tent. That means the real person is inside this house, I come inside the house, I mean I am in the house, I might go out of the house, this is only a house, it is a body. But the real person, I Peter said, I, the real person, I will put off this tent and obviously go to be with the Lord. So the real person, the real you is living inside this body, the spirit and that spirit is the real person. So even if this body decays, the real person continues to live, you are going to continue to live and that spirit has personality, faculties and functions. So let's go back to 1st Peter chapter 3, we spent some time here on this verse in the beginning, we will review all of that one more time. 1st Peter chapter 3, let's read verses 3 and 4, 1st Peter 3, 3 and 4 please somebody can read it. 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 4, 3 and 4 pastor. 3 and 4. Knowing the first, that scoffers will come in the last days. That is 1st Timothy, let's go 1st Peter. Do not let your adornment be merely outward arranging the hair, wearing gold or putting on fine apparel, rather let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a zentile and quite spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. So 1st Peter 3, 3 and 4, Peter saying is of course speaking directly to the ladies, he's saying okay don't focus on all your outward wearing, but verse 4, rather let it be the hidden person. Who's he referring to as a hidden person, your heart, your spirit. So the real person is a hidden person, it's hidden inside, that's the real person and that's the heart. And it has incorruptible beauty, so we said this hidden person has this glory or a beauty or a personality which will not fade away and he mentioned some things, a gentle and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is very precious. So 1st to make some statements here, page 7, the hidden person has its own traits and characteristics that define the individual's personality. So your spirit, every human spirit has certain characteristics. Sometimes you will see some people, oh that person is very bold, that person is very adventurous, that person is very quiet, that personality of the spirit comes out in the person, that person is very strong or that person is very determined. So in Luke 9.51, actually that whole passage and we're just picking out one verse 55, Jesus turns around to his disciples, James and John. He says, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of, that means what kind, so James and John, so the incident there in Luke 9 is, they come to a village, Jesus and his disciples, they're all traveling, they come to this village, they don't want to receive Jesus. So James and John says, let us call fire on them like how Elijah called fire down, we'll finish them and show them. Jesus rebukes them, says, you don't know what manner of spirit, that means you're understanding your own spirit. Your own spirit is so aggressive and at that particular moment it was very angry, short tempered, that kind of expression, let's finish them, they're not receiving us. So you don't know what manner of spirit you are, you understand how your spirit is reacting in the situation and you've got to temper that. And so and there was a big difference between how they wanted to do, what they wanted to do and what Elijah wanted to do. Elijah was seeking to glorify God, here they're saying, let's do it out of revenge and anger and so on. But anyway, the point is your human spirit has characteristics, it has traits and if we can build the right traits or character in our spirit, then that will be revealed in our behavior. So example, I'm saying, okay, let's think about, you know, the fruit of the spirit, say meekness, how can you have meekness or English word humility? It's not something in the mind, oh, just put yourself down, make yourself good for nothing. No, meekness is developed in your spirit. It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit developed in your spirit. So when your spirit has that quality, then it will show up in your life. So every other thing, you know, how we say love, joy, peace, kindness, meekness, gentleness or self-control. So all those qualities, where is it going to be developed? Not in our mind, it is developed in our spirit. The Holy Spirit is developing that in our spirit, then it will come. If that is the character of your spirit, the trait of your spirit, then it will come, it will be in your personality. People will say, oh, it's a very loving person, kind person, gentle, all the fruit of the spirit will be seen. Okay, page eight, otherwise Jesus said, you know, out of the heart, all these other things, bad things will come, evil thoughts, murders, other things. That means from the heart, this is all happening. So understand that the human spirit, what you build into your human spirit, right, that will define your personality, that will define who you are as a person. We also want to talk about five faculties of the human spirit and functions of the human spirit. I will just mention this, we're going to study each of these in detail and you may have seen some of this in the book on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, because it's connected there. So the human spirit, what we can see in the scriptures is the human spirit has at least five faculties. That means just as the body has the faculty of sight, you can see the human spirit also has eyes. So we know these scriptures, you know, in the Old Testament, Psalmist says, open down my eyes that I may be whole wonderful things out of your word. So what does it mean? What opened my eyes? I want to see wonderful things from your word. He's not talking about naturalized, naturalized, you can read, but he's not about spiritualized. I want to see wonderful things. So our spirit has eyes and it can see and therefore we can have, you know, what we call is vision. That means our spirit is seeing, perceiving. Similarly, we can hear, that means words come in. We were going to study these five faculties. You can hear, that means just here right now, you're hearing me. I am communicating words to you and all these words put together are making sentences. Sentences put together is giving some meaning. It's imparting some information, knowledge. But you're hearing because of sound in the spiritual realm. Similarly, we can receive word, sentences, knowledge, information, we can hear, but God doesn't use sound. It just comes into our spirit. We can feel, so sense, sensation. Now you feel cold, feel warm, all of our emotions. So we can have those senses, sensations or senses in our spirit. Similarly, we can smell and taste spiritually. Spiritually in heaven, for example, we are in heaven. Bible says the prayers of the saints are like incense. Incense has smell. So in heaven, there is that, I know that must be this, I don't know what the smells are, but must be something very nice. Right? But our prayers are like incense before God, the presence of God. And taste, of course, even in the spiritual realm, there's that sense of taste. Again, I know how it's made up, but we will share some thoughts on this as we go through each of these five faculties in an upcoming chapter. And we mentioned the seven functions. So I'll just mention these now. We're going to look at all of these point by point in different coming chapters. The function, so what does the born again human spirit do? That means you're born again, what must your spirit be doing? So it has faculties, it can learn all these things. What does it do? Number one, it's conscience to help us recognize what is right and wrong. Right? So the conscience is actually a function of the spirit. So when we say conscience, what are we meaning? We're saying there is something God has put inside the spirit, that every person is telling them this is right and this is wrong. So you can think even unbeliever, you ask, generally ask unbeliever, is it okay to murder? No, no, no. How do you know it's not okay to murder? Conscience. So even an unsaved person, as long as his spirit is alive, like he has not, you know, like killed his conscience, the conscience is there, he will tell us to some extent what is right and wrong. But whether he does it or not, that is different story. At least he can tell us correctly, this is the right, this is because we have a conscience. It is a function of the spirit, the human spirit. But some people can suppress the conscience. No, don't listen to the conscience saying, don't do it. I won't listen, go do it. Then slowly the conscience dies, the voice becomes softer. Another function of the human spirit is to know, that is receiving revelation, knowledge. Another function is to commune, that is to fellowship with God. The human spirit is also like a container. It carries the nature, the grace, the power, the glory of God. The human spirit also has identity, who we are in the spiritual realm. So that recognition of that identity is important for us. The human spirit can also do things, act. That means in the spirit, you can do things. You can believe, you can serve, you can intercede, you can fight, you can get things done in the spirit. The human spirit can also grow. That means it's becoming, the character is becoming more and more like Jesus. So that means the character of the spirit is becoming, is being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. So these are the functions of the spirit. We will discuss all these in upcoming chapters. All right. Yes, friends. We're talking about the senses of the spirit and what the spirit can do. Like we can, we saw like spirit also can take actions. So like my question is like, is astral projection, is true or can it also be done? Yeah, can be done. So the human spirit can do a lot of things in the spiritual realm. We are talking of all the good things we can do, but other people can train their spirit to do wrong things. Example, we are thinking about communing with God. They will commune with some dark powers. They'll say this, no, we call them as familiar spirits, but they say, no, no, there's some spirit that is talking to me very nice, giving me extra information, very friendly. So they will build, come in with that. We call it familiar spirit because actually evil spirit that has become friendly with this person, giving them information. Now like that, they will do other things like the evil spirits can help them have experiences, one of which is go out of the spirit, show you other things and come. So they make them feel very powerful. Yeah. So the good side example is Paul, we read 2 Corinthians 12. He was caught up to the third heaven, so free ticket, like body is here on earth, but he went there and God was speaking to him. He said, I heard things, I can't even utter. So what happened? Body is here on earth, God took his spirit, same thing with John in Revelation. He said, on the Lord's day, I was just praying, suddenly I was in the spirit and God says, come up here and he's there. The door is opening, he's going inside. It's like actually entering some place, but body is on earth in the spirit. Now that is an experience God gives. Paul is not saying today, I'll press three buttons. He's not going up and down, like taking a lift. Lift is only if you want to go in the building, but this is not like that. It's not like Paul is deciding today, I'm going, God is giving that experience. And for a reason, in Paul's case, he had to give him revelation about the New Testament. In John's case, he had to give him revelation about coming events. So there is a reason God does those things. Does it mean that person is more special? I think it means that person has more responsibility. Paul, you go back and write everything. Whatever I want you to write, you make sure you give it to the church. John, right? Because they have to read the response to it. But like that, evil spirits can help people go have this kind of experience. Yeah, I'm saying, is it possible? Yeah, because God has not changed and God can still do, God will still do these things. But here's the thing, we don't know, hopefully, I say, hopefully all these ministers of God are saying truthfully, but we don't know when, how much is genuine and what some people are just making up. So we're not denying the genuine, but we also must be aware that sometimes people can just make up some stories and say, write some things, just for becoming popular, writing books, this, that story. So and the other thing is the only way we can judge those things is by going back to the Bible. So when people start saying things that we cannot judge by the Bible, like if they say, I went to heaven, there was one school, special school called School of the Supernatural. All the believers who died had to go to the school first. Some people have written all these things that some bastard had written about how God, there is some training schools and God is training the spirits and something on his writing. No, there is no way for us to judge those things. Somebody else had written, I went to heaven, he saw one big storeroom of different body parts, body parts are hanging there. And so if you have to claim your body part, if any injury or something, now how will you judge that? But he said, I went to heaven, I saw those things. Some said, I went to heaven, I saw my two dogs, they were there. How are we to judge? So my response is just leave it alone. They had their experience, if it's real, enjoy. If it's not real, leave it for us, we can only live by the written scripture, that's all. So I don't pay too much attention to it, I just leave it. If you want to, you pray. But I think there's a lot more things to pray about now. Eventually you're going to spend eternity there. So the short time we have here on earth, I think you pray about things here on earth. Once you're there, you're there. You can't pray about earth. So that's my response. I mean, there are people who say, you must pray that God will take you to heaven. Why are you going to be eternity there? Now you focus on getting the job done. You have a very short time here on earth. All right, very quickly there's a question on the chat. The human spirit is made alive and sensual things of the spirit. Everyone is born again and enveloped by the spirit of God. The people of the world who are not born again operate according to the level of their conscience, their knowledge of right and wrong. Yes, that's correct. They operate out of their conscience and they can either the conscience can become strong or the conscience can become weaker depending on what they do with that. Okay, so let's pause here. So can we pray for the rapture to happen quickly? I mean, we can say, Lord come, Lord Jesus quickly because Revelation 12 says, the spirit and the bride say, come. Spirit, the bride is the church. The spirit and the bride, they're crying or saying, come. Let me say, Lord, we want you to come. So you pray that. So there's nothing wrong in saying, Lord Jesus, please come. But he will come in his own time. I mean, I did that point at whenever he sees that time's ready. Okay, let's close and pray and we'll continue this next week. Somebody could pray please. I have only Father Lord. We come before your throne, O Lord Father. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love, O Lord Father. We thank you for this time of learning and a good insight to Lord Father that you have given. Lord, we pray, O Lord Father, whatever you have taught us, O Lord, we ask you, O Lord Father, that let it be in our hearts, O Lord Father. Let it fall on the good ground, O Lord Father, to bear 30, 60 and 100 folds, O Lord Father, for your kingdom and help us, O Lord Father, to live according to your word, O Lord Father and walk in your ways. We submit our lives to you. We give you glory and honor. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you.