 OK, the recording is on. Welcome, everybody. Let's take a moment to pray together, and then we will get started. I am using my, I don't have my headset here today, so I'm just using the computer mic. So in case it's not very clear, please let me know. I'll try to adjust. OK, let's pray. And we will get started. Could somebody please unmute your mic? Just pray with all of us in the class, please. Thank you for this time. Lord, we humble ourselves before your presence. We pray, O God, that this time of learning would be beneficial for each one of us. We pray that we would be able to understand the significance and the steps how to develop the spirit that you have given us. We pray that it would impact our personal life, our ministry, and whatever things that you have interested us with God. And we pray for a fruitful time of learning in your presence. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Right, so last week or in the previous two lectures, we emphasize the fact that we are primarily spiritual beings and that we have faculties and we also the spirit, the human spirit, has faculties and functions. So we want to progressively get into understanding how to develop those faculties, like the five faculties which we mentioned, just like in our human body. The human body has faculties, like what we can see, we can hear, we can smell, we can taste, we can touch. The physical faculties. But those faculties are developed over time. So we learn how to those faculties, we learn through those faculties. Also a function, so just like in the natural a human person has certain functions, in the spirit or in the spiritual, the human spirit has functions and we can learn and develop and nurture those functions. But in today's class, as we prepare to make that journey, I want us to understand that now we are going to speak from now on. We're going to speak very specifically about the believer. We're not talking about the unsaved person. We're not talking about somebody who doesn't know Jesus. We don't know about their spiritual life. We're talking about the spirit of a believer, a born-again person. A person who's born-again, who has received light from God. What is it that really nurtures the spirit of a believer? So that's what we want to talk about today. And I want to share with us these seven important ways you could think about to develop the born-again human spirit. How to develop the born-again human spirit? Here we're talking about what is it that really helps develop the born-again human spirit. That means we're talking about the spirit of a believer. And just some examples, some scriptures for us as we get started. Luke chapter 2 was 14. It's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's very interesting. It says, the child grew, that is his physical growth, and became strong in spirit, that is his spiritual growth, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Oh, this is something very, I mean, it's hard sometimes to even understand why. Because in the case of Jesus, this was God who became man. This is God who became man. And yet, when the Bible is talking about what Jesus says, the child grew, physical growth, that we can understand. The human body had to grow, that we can understand. But he's saying, in the spirit, he became strong. That means his spirit also was growing, was developing. That is sometimes very difficult to understand, because if this was God and man, he must have been God and spirit, like he was completely strong. Why did his spirit have to become strong, develop, grow? Why did he have to become full of, and it means he was increasing the wisdom? So what we can say is that he was truly God, but he left aside his powers of deity. And he fully took on the form of man, including the development as a man in all areas, spirit, soul, and body. He was developing as any human person. So even the Lord Jesus not only grew physically, the child grew, but was developed spiritually. That's why he had to go pray. If he was already perfect and complete and fully matured in spirit, the moment he was conceived, then he didn't need to pray, he didn't need to feed upon the Word, read the Scriptures. He didn't have to be filled with wisdom. But the Bible is saying he grew, he became strong in spirit, he became filled with wisdom. So even the Lord Jesus, in his earthly journey, submitted himself to that process of growth and development in spirit, soul, and body, fully. He didn't have to do it. He could have said, hello, I'm God, I'm here. But he chose to go through that same process, which is hard for our minds to understand and grasp why he would do this. But the Scriptures are indicating he didn't. Then, of course, talking about you and me, that we can understand. Ephesians 3, 16, the Apostle Paul is saying, he's praying for the believers. He's saying, I'm praying that God will grant you, according to the riches he has in his glory, that he will help you to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner mind. He's saying, for you believers, I'm praying that you will become stronger by the Holy Spirit in your inner person. But we can understand, yeah, as believers, we need to do that. That has to happen to us. We have to become strong in our spirit, in the inner man, with the help of the Holy Spirit. So how is this inner man or this human spirit, the born again human spirit, what are the things that help us develop? So I just want to place these before us so that we understand. And some of these will come as a reminder. But how are we going to become strong in our spirit? First of all, strength comes through fellowship with God, through prayer, worship, and the Word. That means we commune with God. We have fellowship with God. We share with God. We are engaging with God through worship and in the Word. And that strengthens our spirit. And that's why we say, go have a spend time in fellowship with God, spend time in worship, spend time in prayer, spend time in the Word, because our fellowship with God strengthens us, our spirit, strengthens our spirit. So that's the first thing. We strengthen our spirit. And we talk about the born again. We talk about the believer. The unsaid man will not understand this. So we're saying, for the believer, the first thing in strengthening the inner man is fellowship with God. You spend time with God, engage with God. And as part of this fellowship, there's also this place of quietness and communion. That means just doing things in quietness. That means things like reflecting, meditating, communing, that means you're quietly talking with God. The Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter 30, verse 15, God is telling His people, in quietness, in returning and rest, you will be saved. In quietness and confidence will be your strength. In quietness and confidence, you will have strength. So just that quietness and communion, and we know the scripture, Isaiah 40, 28 to 31, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Waiting upon the Lord. What is that? It is, so an example would be somebody waiting upon a guest. You're making yourself available, so you're waiting. Anything they need, anything they say you respond to. But you're there in their presence. You're there in their presence. And you are looking for what they indicate. If they say, I want more water, I want this. OK, immediately you get, you're waiting upon. So they that wait upon the Lord. That means they are in the presence of God, say, God, I'm here, I'm looking at you, my focus on you. Whatever you say, I will do. I'm ready to respond to anything you indicate. So I'm waiting upon. And the Bible says, in quietness and confidence, we will have strength. They wait upon the Lord. We will renew our strength. See, both of these things, quietness, waiting, increases our spiritual strength. And so, quietness and communion with God, OK? So fellowship with God, quietness and communion with God. Learn to just be quiet in his presence and let our spirit engage with his spirit. Let our spirit just wait upon him, you know? And in that place, we receive strength. Third thing that we know strengthens the spirit man is to feed on the Word of God through meditation, feed on the Word of God. So we know what Jesus said in Matthew 4.4, man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Man is going to live there. And you're going to have your life. You're going to go about living. So when we talk about living, we talk about activity. We talk about doing a lot of things. But that whole activity is going to happen, not just by physical food, but by spiritual food. So I need spiritual food so that my spirit can be strengthened to be engaged in activity, do things to live. So we feed on the Word of God through meditation. You meditate in the Word, you read the Word, you meditate in the Word, you chew on the Word, you take the Word of God into your spirit, let God speak to your heart through his Word, let him feed your spirit so your spirit can engage in activity and live, can do things. Now in Hebrews chapter 5 verses 12 to 14, Paul is talking about maturing to eat the solid food or the meat of the Word of God. So there God's Word is like meat or solid food. So once again, bring out the same idea that the Word of God is nurturing our spirit. It is solid food for our spirit to be our spirit. So then the spirit is strengthened to engage in activity, to do things. So we feed on the Word of God. The fourth thing that we can do to strengthen our spirit, to develop the spirit, is to confess the Word, speak the Word. Now God has, and I'm not expanding on each of these, each of these can be expanded and discussed in detail, but I'm outlining these things. So these are the things we do to develop our spirit and confess the Word. God has said that faith comes by hearing the Word. And one of the ways we can hear the Word is when we speak it ourselves. So I can speak the Word and I can hear the Word, cause the Word to go into my own spirit and build my own faith. So it's like I am intensely developing my own faith because faith comes by hearing and I can speak the Word myself. I can speak the Word. I can hear the Word. I can cause my spirit to hear the Word by me speaking the Word. And faith is developed in my heart, developed in my spirit as I keep speaking the Word or confessing the Word. So that's another way to develop a spirit. You confess the Word, you hear the Word, it strengthens your inner mind, strengthens your spirit. Number four, a few more thoughts here on developing the human spirit, the born again human spirit. Number five is to pray on us. Again, we know this already. It says, he who speaks in unknown tongue edifies himself and he builds himself up. Where is he building himself up in his spirit? So God has given this, it says you pray in tongues and you will build your spirit up. So God has given that method, Jude 1, 20 says, you know, building up yourselves. Where am I building myself up in my spirit? So you're building yourself up as you're praying in tongues. So we just pray in tongues because we know if I pray in tongues, I'm going to build my spirit. So just engage, you know, on a regular basis. Every day, as often as we can just pray in tongues as much as we can, because as you pray in tongues, we are developing our spirit, we're building our spirit. So we know that praying in tongues will strengthen our spirit. Last two. So we must exercise, number six. We must exercise our faculties and functions. So obviously, when we think about in the natural, natural person, if the person doesn't use their faculties and doesn't function, let's do what they're supposed to do. That means they're not living, they're not doing anything. And they will stop using, basically, they're not functioning. So we must exercise the faculties and functions God has given us. And the more we do that, the more the spirit is developed. And so we'll talk about those things. We'll talk about the faculties and the functions of the spirit and how to, you know, work them out. But the point is, I need to exercise my faculties. I need to do my spiritual functions. I need to make use of them. And the Bible tells us very clearly that the greatest of these is to walk in love. That means the greatest thing my spirit can do is to walk in love. Because when you think about first Corinthians 13, follow me a second, I can speak in tongues of men and of angels. I can have faith to move mountains. I can prophesy. I can work miracles. I can give good things. I can give my body to be burned. I can give things to the poor. That means I can do all these, exercise all these faculties and functions. But then he says, but if I don't walk in love, I have nothing. That means while it is important to exercise the faculties and functions. It's good. It's good to exercise faith and move mountains. It is good to pray in tongues of men and of angels. And it's good to prophesy. And it is good to move mountains. And it is good to give things to the people. All these things are good. And the Bible teaches us to do all of that. All of that must be exercised in love with the love of God. So that is very important. So all our spiritual faculties and functions must operate with the love of God. We can just put it like this. We have to walk in love while we exercise our spiritual faculties and functions. And if we do that, then spiritually we can be in good shape. Spiritually we can keep developing. That means I cannot have spiritual development outside of walking in love. Number six. And lastly, seventh way to develop spiritually, to develop the born again human spirit is to receive spiritually through others. Number seven, to receive spiritually through others. So God has given, or he has put this in place in the church. So Paul is writing, for example, in Romans 11 verse 11 and 12, he writes to the believers in Rome. He says, I want to come to you that I might impart to you some spiritual gift. So he's saying, I want to give, I want to impart to you, I want to give to you something spiritually, spiritual gift. So spiritual things can also be imparted or given as a gift. So that's impartation, given as a gift. But we need to understand how that happens. It doesn't happen arbitrarily, randomly, but it comes through that relationship. Example, Paul had a relationship with the church in Rome. So he's going there to serve them. His relationship with the church in Rome was primarily through Aquila and Chrysilla because they, Aquila and Chrysilla were a couple who, when there was persecution in Rome and the Jews were sent out of Rome, they came to Corinth. They happened to meet Paul in Corinth. They worked with Paul in Corinth. Then after some time, they went back to Rome to serve them when they were to go back. So they went back to Rome. And so I'm sure that over in Rome, they must have shared with all the believers in Rome about Paul and the ministry and the things that they had learned from Paul. And so it was through that that Paul had this relationship with the believers in Rome. Because he had very, he had imparted into the life of Aquila and Chrysilla who were also leaders there in Rome after they went back, leading the church in Rome. So now he's got this special relationship with the people there. And now we say, I want to come and impart to you spiritually. So the point is, we can receive spiritually but there is a way through which God does it. It is usually through the relationship, the association that we have. And as we receive through them spiritually, we can be nurtured. Or in Philemon 1 and verse 7, Paul is still in Philemon. You know that the inner, the bubbles of the believers are refreshed through the brother. So that means the way this brother is serving is actually spiritually refreshing are the beliefs. You know, so that he's giving it. So seven ways by which our born against spirit can become strong. And we need to understand this and we need to intentionally do this to build our spirit. So just quickly review this. First we said we had a fellowship with God. So intentionally take time to just go fellowship with God because that is something only we can do. Like I can't take your spirit, go before God's a God. I can't do that. You have to go, you haven't go before God. You have to fellowship with God, throw your bread and word and you have to be with him. Do spend time quietness and communion with God just being alone with God and quietness and communion. Three feet upon the word just through reading the word or meditating the word to putting that word in your heart, feet upon the word of God. Four confess the word, speak the word, continuously speak God's word. Number five, pray in the spirit, pray in tongues as much as you can. Now, again, somebody else cannot, somebody can pray for you, but somebody cannot pray instead of you. You have to pray. We have to, each one has to pray. So pray in the spirit. As you pray in the spirit, you're building up, you're in a manner. Number six, exercise spiritual faculties and functions, which we will learn as we go along how to do it and most importantly, do it in love. If I don't do it in love, then that exercise, Paul says, is as nothing. It is in a mountain. They will not have been found. It should have on my spirit. So whatever I do, I must do it in love. Then it'll bless my spirit, strengthen my spirit. And lastly, position ourselves to receive spiritually through other people, okay? So I've laid this outline before us and I wanna encourage us to start practicing this in our lives in order to develop our human spirit. Any questions on these seven things that we just mentioned and discussed? Any questions on this? Anybody? Latina? No questions? Anyone else in the class? Any questions? Rosalind, you have a question? No. Okay. Okay, fine. So now I'll go into the next chapter. I haven't shared the notes for the next chapter, but I'll just introduce that and we will continue the next chapter next week. In the next chapter, I'll just share this with you. In the next chapter, we're gonna talk chapter four or lesson number four. We're gonna talk about how the human spirit affects the soul and body. So this is very important. It means the condition of our human spirit. What is going on in the spirit affects the soul which is our emotional life and also affects the body. And we can look through scripture going from Genesis to Revelation and see this, okay. How is the spirit affecting soul and body? All right, so this is very useful for our own selves. It means if I understand this, then any problem I face in my body and any challenge I face in my soul, I can overcome from my spirit. If I understand this truth, because I can understand that the spirit is stronger than the soul and the body. And if I can keep my spirit strong, I may face challenges in my body and I may face challenges in my soul, but I can overcome it. And this is also important when we are ministering to other believers because if we can help them develop their spirit, then we can help them overcome the challenges they face in their soul and body. In their soul and body, right? So this is important. Understanding this is important both from a personal perspective, like, hey, if I can develop my spirit, I can overcome what I face in my soul and my body. Yes, sometimes my soul may be really parted with confusion and disturbances, all kind of things shaking my soul, but if I let my spirit dominate, I can, I won't be put down just because what I'm facing in my soul emotionally, obviously, and I can help other people. If I can build them up in the spirit, they can overcome what they face in their soul and body. So just follow along with me. We'll do a few today and we'll continue the rest next class and I'll give you this as a PDF. Here are some things we see in the Bible. For example, we see things like anguish of spirit. That means their spirit was broken or crushed. And so we look at the negative and positive, right? We'll see both sides. And good things happening in the spirit and bad things happening. Anguish of spirit, that means the spirit was broken, the spirit was crushed. And when they were in the anguish of spirit, you can see their behavior. In example, Exodus 6, they were unwilling to receive the message Moses was bringing them from God. So when Moses first came and was telling the people, hey, God wants to deliver you. God wants to take you to the promised land. They were unable to receive the promise. Why? Because in their spirit, they were already crushed. So Moses is coming with a message from God. With a promise from God or something better of God's purpose for his people. But at that moment, people were not ready to receive it while they were already crushed inside. Inside, they felt broken. Inside, they felt so suppressed, they couldn't even imagine coming out of their situation. So you see now, how what is going on in their heart is affecting how they're receiving a true promise from God. God has sent Moses. Moses, go tell my people, I'm going to bring you out. I'm going to take you to a land that I've prepared for you. People could not listen to it. So why? They were crushed inside. The anguished spirit. Spirit was already crushed. And it took a while. It took a while for them to be able to come to a place where they could receive the promise from God and back the bags and start the journey. It took a while. Moses had to keep coming back, God had to show all these signs and wonders and finally the people believed in Moses. Okay, God is here. God is doing something. Yeah, this is real. Let's go. So we can understand this. Sometimes even when we speak to people, sometimes first time you say, they're not able to receive the promise from God. They don't think, hey, I don't think this can happen. I don't think God can take me to a better place. I don't think, you know, good things are there for me. I don't think, you know, I can come out of all of this. Why? Why are they like that? You can't blame them. They've been crushed inside. They seem like the children of Israel. There's an anguish of spirit. They've been broken on the inside. They cannot even imagine being in a better place. They cannot even imagine the promise of God actually happening in their lives. And just that, it's in the Bible, but to happen to them, it's very difficult. And so we need to encourage them, encourage them, encourage them, encourage them to bring them out of that place of being crushed, you know? So that is important. Same thing with Joe. You know, he was in that place where he was so, he was an anguish of spirit. And he began to complain out of the bitterness of what he was going through. We can see that the spirit can be against God. Sometimes in their spirit, people are against God. There is, the spirit can be angry. So we just, let's quickly move through a few things here. Spirit can be angered. And they can be, you know, having this feeling of anger in the spirit. So it's not only an emotional thing, but a spiritual thing. We see that sometimes in the spirit, we can feel bound or restrained. So this is what Paul was feeling. He says, I feel bound in the spirit. That means something is, he feels, in his spirit, he feels restrained, constrained. I don't feel comfortable. Like in English, we might say, I don't feel comfortable about this. Like if something inside me is disturbing it, I feel bound, I feel restrained. So Paul was expressing that, Acts 20. And he actually says, the Holy Spirit will come, we'll study this a little later when we talk about the faculties of the spirit. But it was a Holy Spirit was making him feel like that. It was a Holy Spirit was making him feel constrained. I feel constrained in my spirit about going, just, okay. So you can have that feeling in your spirit and that actually is coming. It could be in some certain cases, the Holy Spirit giving you that feeling, telling you, hey, be careful, don't do it, don't go on. Then we also see about brokenness or contrition in the spirit. That means we are in our spirit that is brokenness or contrition. Again, this can happen through or because of different situations. It can happen because we are repentant, we made a mistake, and so we are of a broken and contrite spirit. It can happen because we choose to be broken and contrite that is humble ourselves before God. And sometimes it can happen because of, like we said earlier, because of the circumstances and situations, broken. Now, each of these have a different effects. If I'm broken in my spirit because of repentance, it's a good thing. I go before God, I repent, He forgives. If I'm broken in my heart because I'm humbling myself before God, it's a good thing because then God exalts us on themselves. Suppose if a person is broken because of the crushing of the circumstances, that's where it says a broken spirit dries up bones. It would have a bad effect on his health also. A broken spirit dries up the bones. Sometimes the ill health can be connected to broken, a broken spirit has been crushed and they're wounded, they're hurt on the inside and therefore they are in that place. So I'm gonna pause here. I will give you this chapter as a PDF and we'll go through, we'll go through various conditions of the human spirit like I'm just, we'll go through this next week. And we see how this affects the way the person affects us in our soul and in our body. It's good to know this because both for our own person self and also as we speak to others. Any questions so far on this? Are you all with me or all following me? Pastor, the last point you mentioned, the broken spirit is it to do with personality or is it just because of the circumstances? Yeah, so the brokenness can be for different reasons. A broken spirit is something sometimes that we choose to take a posture one like we said maybe as a sign of repentance, they go before God and say, God, I'm sorry. Or it could be a posture we take in order to keep, to stay humble. So in that case, brokenness means I am choosing not to depend on myself. I say that I am broken meaning I need somebody to be with me too. So that's a place of humility. Broken, so God, that means we're choosing to be humble and God is close to those who are humble. But brokenness sometimes in some people's lives is forced, is inflicted. It's because people are hurt because circumstances crush them. Then that's a negative thing because it's not a posture choosing to take willingly in a healthy way. But that is something that is forced on them, they are hurt, it's inflicted on them. And that actually can keep them in a place of sorrow and it affects the soul and the body like we see in scripture. I'm not sure. Yes, yes, yes, thank you. Any other questions for now? Okay, so this is a little heavy chapter because we see in scripture many conditions of the spirit. On the condition of the spirit affects the soul and the body. So I just shared a few and I will upload this PDF later today and you can look at it and we'll go to some more in scriptures where we see if the spirit is having this condition, this is how it affects the person and affects maybe the relationship with God, maybe the way they face people and so on and so forth. Okay? All right. So we will close here today, we'll pause here a little early, I know we're a little early, we'll pause here and we'll pick this up next week, take it forward. Can somebody please close in prayer and then we will dismiss. Let's pray. If you can. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you under the name of Jesus, we thank you for this day, thank you for the beautiful glass that we have. God, we thank you for the spirit that you have given us. God, as we are listening to the glass, help us to grow in our spirit, Jesus, just like how you grew strong in your spirit. God, we thank you that you came down here to this earth for us. God, we thank you for your amazing grace. God, as we are learning, make us strong in our spirit, help us to keep growing in our spirit and help us to open our eyes and heart and mind and understand your deep roots, Lord. We give you all the glory. Be with us and guide us in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you everyone for being on the class. See you again, God bless. Bye now.