Experiencing the Highest Life – Part 1 – Living by the Spirit, Not the Soul

We have been talking about life, and I was sitting here listening to these songs and realizing that we are just starting to learn about Life. All we’ve done so far is just gotten to know a very, very little bit, but the Lord has all the riches out in front. And so far, brothers and sisters, we’re just beginning on something really wonderful.

I’d like to review a little bit with you, and I want you to help me. God has an eternal purpose. What is it? I’m going to say it in three ways. First, that he would do what with His Life? Put his Life in us, and that we might live by that Life, and that we might be, I thought so, we might be one with Him in the Spirit. That we are to have His Life, live by that Life, and to be one with His Life.

Alright, this afternoon, we talked about another life. Yesterday, we learned that God’s life is the highest life form in the universe. Ours isn’t; we have a life that ends, it has a beginning and an ending, and God has a life that never began and never ends. His Life is not just about a different quality; it is of a higher quality, and His purpose was for us to live on this earth with His Life and not our own. But this afternoon we learned what man was, and what is man? Alright, what is man’s life? Let’s get the first three things first, all right, yes, spirit, soul, and body, according to 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Or if you want to turn it around here, it’s body, soul, and spirit. God’s life, the highest life, is what? Spirit. Alright.

Now then, God’s Life is to dwell in our life. Where is God’s life to dwell? In our spirit. God’s spirit and our spirit. Where did God intend for man to live? Not in soul, not in body. Have you ever met people who live almost completely in the body? They live entirely for the flesh. They give very little thought to their soul life, and nothing with the spirit, but they’re just creatures who live almost instinctively to gratify the body. Alright, that’s living by the flesh. We live by our own human life. God wanted us to live in spirit. Now, brothers and sisters, the next time you go to the scripture, and you live in there, to live in the spirit, that doesn’t mean to woohoo, happy, woo, hallelujah, you know.  That means to live in a certain, locatable place. To live here, that we were actually to live by a life and that life is spirit. Not soul, not man, but to live by spirit. If you can think of spirit as life, and life as spirit, for that is exactly what the spirit is. It is the highest life form, and we are not to live by ourselves, but by Him who dwells in our spirit.

Well, this is why we’re here this weekend to learn how to live by another life form. We learned a little bit, then, this afternoon, about our life. What essentially are we? We are a what? We are a soul. Man’s life is primarily his soul, and we have three parts to our soul. What are they? The mind, the emotions, and the will. Now then, if we want to live by a life other than our own, what might be our first step? To deny the soul. Now, the verse, does that mean giving up pork for Lent? Is that what it means to deny the soul? I’m not going to bathe my body for a week, two weeks, or three. I’ll deny it the comfort of soap and water, or I’m not going to eat this meal, or I’m going to fast for three days. Is that denying the soul? No. Not at all. That’s just pagan religion. That’s all it is. Alright, to deny the soul means to deny the mind, to deny the emotions, and to deny the will. Not to keep something from them, but literally to turn away from them, and that is the first step in living by another life. The Lord said, ” If you keep your life, you’re going to lose it, but if you deny it, then you can turn and live by it.” Amen.

The great burden of the Lord Jesus in the four gospels was twofold. One, He said over and over to man to deny the soul, to deny his life, to turn from his old life, and to live by His life. The gospel is: Christ as our life. This afternoon, just a few minutes before we were in the meeting, while Don, Gary, and I were eating supper, I made the remark: “That takes growth in life.” And Don said, ” Boy, that really means something new to me now—growth in Life.” Brothers and sisters, we have to grow more in the Lord, and we’ve got to let another Life change us. We need growth in the highest Life form; the highest Life form. The Lord Jesus Christ, as divine Life, uncreated, eternal Life in us, needs to grow. Does that perhaps mean something to you that you’ve never really thought of before? Maybe this will really clarify what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Do you know that? Do you know? What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? What is in my spirit? God’s Life is there, His Spirit.

Then, when I have a great big soul and a little bitty spirit, am I filled with the spirit? Alright, but then as I turn more and more to the spirit, as I turn more and more to the Life…to the higher Life, then what happens to that life? And whenever that grows, the other has to shrink when one displaces the other. We grow, and we grow, and we grow, and we grow, and we grow in spirit. We grow in the higher Life until, brothers and sisters, you are filled with the spirit. Until the mind, the emotion, and the will…let’s say it again. The mind, the emotion, and the will are completely controlled by the spirit. We have to deny the mind.

Well, you know, sometimes when people first hear about “you have to deny the mind,” that this is not so good. The mind? Is this good? Well, all my life I’ve been told, you know, to really study and to get to know things and have a good mind. Wait a minute. What about that verse that says that we should have a sound mind? Is that contrary to denying the mind? Does anybody know where that is? Do you know where that verse is? 1 Timothy, I believe, isn’t it? Well, let’s look at it and see if that’s what it says. Is it 2 Timothy? Okay, thank you; 2 Timothy 1:7. Alright, do we have an English major here? We need an English major. Patty, good. I’m so glad you’re here. Sister, I’m going to read this to you, and I want you to diagram it for us. 2 Timothy 1:7. For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Now, sister, I want to know what the subject of that sentence is. Sister, God is the subject. Alright, what’s the predicate of the verb? God has given. Alright, what’s the direct object? The spirit. The spirit. The direct object is the spirit. God has given the Spirit. Okay. What then are the prepositional phrases? Alright, of power, of love, and of a sound mind. Now, did God give you a sound mind? Well, he may have way back in the creation in the beginning when he intended for us to have His Spirit in him, but we have since had a fallen mind. Now, God takes care of this by giving us His Spirit, His Life, a Life so much higher than our own, but this verse says, God has given you a spirit of love, a spirit of authority, and a spirit of a sound mind. Now, if you are to have a really sound mind, you don’t go around talking about the ‘sound mind principle’, because the mind isn’t sound. If you want a principle, it’s the sound spirit principle, and if we have a spirit, a strong spirit, if we are in the Life, if we are living by the higher Life, then the mind is sound. But brothers and sisters, you turn from the mind, you live by the Life, you live by the Spirit, and you discern by the Spirit, and the Spirit fills, and the Spirit grows, and the Spirit emits, and the Spirit transforms, and the Spirit gives you a sound mind. You have a sound mind when you live in the Spirit. You have a fallen mind when you live in the soul.

We’ll put it this way. The soul has become large, twisted, and distorted. It wants to be the instrument of the mind, whereas it is almost exactly the opposite, although really not; we simply live by it. I have a mind as an instrument of my soul that, when I will to do something, I can do it with my mind. I have a soul to be an instrument of my spirit. It is there to be a part of that which projects the image of God. I have a spirit. My spirit controls my mind, my emotions, and my will so that it might be an instrument to project the image of God.

Okay, I haven’t even started the message yet. This is all a review. Alright? I want to know before we go any further whether you have any questions about this so far. Alright? Now then, this evening, we’ll talk about Life again. I don’t know how to begin it. I think if I were going to say, “This is what we want to do with that tonight,” I would say, “Let us look at the three life forms in the universe that are the highest life forms and find out where they reside and what they are like.” The three highest life forms in all the universe are what? And then, where do they reside?