Our Human Spirit-Part 2

By: Nancy Missler; ©2002

Nancy Missler has explained that our spirits have three functions designed to connect us to God. Last month, the discussion centered around our conscience: where God teaches us what His will is. This month we’ll look at “intuition” and “communion and fellowship”.

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Intuition

The next function of our spirit is our intuition. Intuition is the attaining of direct knowl­edge, perception or conviction, beyond reason alone. Our intuition and our conscience work closely together. One leads to the next. A pure conscience leads to a keen intuition. In other words, we can’t have discernment if we have a defiled conscience.

Intuition is simply “spiritual sensing” or spiritual discernment. This is very different from following our own natural instinct or our soulish emotional feelings. Spiritual intuition is adhering to what the voice of the Spirit is saying, as this is how we receive God’s instruc­tions. Many Christians do not have this intuitive knowledge because they don’t know how to discern God’s voice. They don’t know how to “walk by or after the spirit.” If we don’t heed our spiritual intuition, then we’ll naturally go back to walking after the flesh and adhering to our own soulish thoughts and emotions. To live and walk by the Spirit means to live and walk according to our intuition.

A pure spirit will disclose an unmistakable discernment and this discernment is critical when fighting the enemy. The enemy can attack us only through our outward man (our soul and body), through the motions of our flesh. Therefore, if we are not sensitive and discern­ing of this, he will always find a “hole” to keep us his prisoners. Those who adhere to the leading of the Spirit, via their intuition, will be preserved from being deceived in times of confusion.

Communion and Fellowship

In review then, our conscience is where God teaches us what His will is; our intuition is where God leads and guides us and gives us supernatural discernment and revelation. The third function of our spirit, however, our communion and fellowship with God, is unique.

This operation of our spirit requires our participation. Teaching and guiding are aspects of God’s communication to us; whereas, communion and fellowship require our communi­cation with God. In other words, here is a response needed from us. Communion is a two-way relationship! Communion is our fellowship and our communication with God. A sprinkled and cleansed spirit is again the basis for this communion.

In order to communicate and fellowship with God, we must possess a similar nature, a spiritual nature. Scripture tells us that God is a Spirit and the only way we can have inti­macy and fellowship with Him is through our sanctified and purified spirit. Therefore, if our spirit has been quenched, because of sin or self, then we won’t be able to commune with Him. In fact, we won’t even be able to hear Him; and He won’t hear us. Lamentations 3:44 validates this, “Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud, that our prayer[s] should not pass through.”

Most of us attempt to communicate with God in a wide variety of ways. Naturally, we give our soulish thoughts and emotions first place and, thus, we often overlook the most important way to fellowship with God, which is though our spirit. If we can learn how to constantly surrender and relinquish ourselves to God, then God will hear us and answer us in the most miraculous ways.

A truly spiritual man is one who has a cleansed and sprinkled conscience, a sensitive and responsive intuition and is continually praying and fellowshiping with God in the Spirit. Our conscience tells us what is right and wrong; our intuition leads and guides us; both of which lead us to communion and fellowship with God.

Knowledge of God’s Will, followed by spiritual understanding and discernment and a two way fellowship, is a life that is pleasing to God and one that will bear much fruit.

Sanctification of Our Spirit

Now that we understand a little more about our spirit (what it is and what its functions and operations are), we can see the critical importance of allowing God to set our spirit free so that it can, once again, lead and direct our soul. If our spirit does not grow stronger and the soulish things in our lives less and less, then we have not really grown at all. Real advancement is only measured by the growth of our spirit.

Eloquent preaching, Bible knowledge and spiritual gifts do not increase our spiritual life. Only the cleansing and purifying of our spirit does. In other words, mental knowledge does nothing towards increasing a person’s intimacy with Christ or his being conformed into Christ’s image. Only the Spirit of God can do these things in our lives. Thus, God wants us to be sanctified not only in our soul, but also in our spirit. He wants us not only to know His Life in our soul (the “abundant Life”), but also to have that intimate, experiential knowledge of Him in our spirit (the “fulness of God”).

Without the cleansing and purification of our spirit, however, we will never experience a pure conscience, a keen intuition or sweet fellowship with God. “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” (Psalm 32:2)

Sanctification, as we said before, is simply the process of becoming holy, purified or consecrated. It’s the process of seeing Christ’s Life reproduced in us. The word “sanctify” comes from the Greek root word hagion, which means “holy place.” This is particularly fascinating to me because the verb hagiazo (to sanctify) is used to describe the gold that adorns the Holy Place of the temple.

Sanctification is the removal of anything in our lives that is unrighteous or unholy. God is not only working to conform us into His image and to instill intimacy, He is also preparing us for His return as the Bridegroom. (Read the Song of Solomon.)

We begin our course of sanctification when we first become believers, but we don’t finish this cleansing process until we are sanctified wholly—body, soul and spirit. Sanctification is simply the process of separating the soulish things in our lives from the spiritual. God is the only One who can do this in our lives, because He is the only One who knows what is spiritual and what is soulish. We could never do this in our own strength or by our own wisdom. Only God can! And the way He implements this in our lives is by literally applying Hebrews 4:12: “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

God is the One who separates, divides and cuts away anything in our souls that is not of the spirit. This is what sanctification is all about.

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Read Part 3