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

Tonight, I’m going to need a little of your help, so I’m going to ask you if you would, to turn with me to some verses of Scripture. Sister, you have a Bible. Would you turn to John 8? I believe it’s verse 42. Then someone else would turn to 1 John 3? You have 1 John 3? Alright, someone else, turn to Romans 7, and would someone else give us Romans 8? We’ll get there in a minute. I don’t know exactly when. We’ll get there. Okay?

If I were to ask you, what are the three highest life forms in the universe? Could you tell me what they are? Oh, that’s one life form. That’s the highest Life form in all the universe. The first and highest life form. Higher, higher, higher, higher, higher than anything that comes after it, the highest Life form in all the universe is the triune God. And where does that triune God dwell? What a poor student. (laughter) See, where does the triune God dwell? In you. Amen. In your spirit, praise the Lord. All he has to do is switch over and live by Him, alright.

What is the second-highest life form in all the universe? The angels. According to Hebrews, we can learn that by inverting the passage. What is the third-highest life form in all the universe? Man. Man is the third-highest life form. Is that the way God intended it? Well, we’ll see. Okay. Alright, now, kids, here we are, and in a real sense, we are the battleground of the universe. We are the battleground of the universe. If Satan can win us, he’s got the day. And if God has us, He has the day, and the battle is in us. You might even say the battle is in our bodies, in our very beings.

There are three life forms in the universe, three high life forms. God, the triune God, as uncreated life. There are angels, who are spirit, and then there is man, who is body, soul, and spirit. God is spirit. Originally, God is spirit, and Jesus said, God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him…where? Where is that? Oh, no, it’s not in John 1. It’s right here. He was talking to the woman, and she said, ” You know, we worship God up here on the mountain, and Jesus said, ‘The day is coming right soon when you’re not going to worship God on the mountain. You’re going to worship him in…and we’ve always thought, oh, you know, hallelujah, praise God, sort of a prophetic kind of thing. That man has a really wonderful spirit about him. No, that was a locatable place. The day will come when man will worship him in his spirit, and not only worship him, but live by Him there.

Now then, the second-highest life form in the universe is the angels. Angels are spirits, but they are different in that they are created spirits, and they are spirits with power. They are there in God’s creation to minister. They are spirits with power, and their work is to minister. Now then, unfortunately, there is in this universe a fallen nature, and I would even say there is only one fallen nature in all the universe, and that’s the fallen nature of the angels. But like a disease, it can be transmitted to us. So the angels are the second-highest life form. The third to the highest life form is man.

Now then, brethren, I want us to see the great battle that is waging within us tonight and how it’s won. We have a life. Now, in order to have a life, you have to have a father, right? Okay. How many lives do you have, brother? Brother, are you a Christian? Anyway, I believe that, brother, from what you’ve said. I take that as your testimony. My brother? How many lives do you have in here? Alright, let’s see. How many lives do you have in here? One? You’re a very simple brother if you have only one life. I don’t know of any brother anywhere that has one life. How many lives do you have in here? You have two. You have in you the life of man and the life of God. Brother, I wish we could stop there, but I hate to tell you this, that you have three lives in you. You have the life of Satan in you.

Now then, in order to have a life, you have got to have a father, right? Now, here’s John 8. All right, let’s look at this. This will kind of shake you up the first time you learn this. Alright, John 8:44. Now read it out loud, really clearly, so that everybody can hear it. What do you think about that? Well, that’s right, but it sounds so complicated when it comes out. Brother, will you read that for me? Who’s got it? Anyone? Someone with a loud voice. Alright, sister? Now then. You are of your father, who? The devil. 1 John 3:10. Who’s got it? I want to read it. Alright, the children of God and the children of the devil.

Now then, I don’t want you to get sick about this, but we have within us something of the fallen nature. The rebellious aspect of Satan, and that is sin. Okay, now then, we have another life in us, and that is the life of Adam. Now, maybe we should have started with that. We have the life of Adam. Now, no one would argue that, would they? Alright, we have the life of Adam. We got that life from Adam. Alright, the second life we have, we have it from Satan, and we got it in the fall. You know, the Lord said there is one tree you could not eat. He said, “Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” And when man ate that tree in direct opposition to God, he took something into him that God did not want him to take. He took the fallen nature into him, and it came into us.

Well, you know, the only Adam we’ll ever know is the Adam after the fall, brother, because he didn’t have any children before the fall, and all of his children fell in the fall. May I just explain that really quickly? My, uh, My great, great, great, great grandparents…we hear this tale, I don’t know if it’s true, but it makes an illustration you can understand…maybe up in Quebec, they were French, and a ship had landed in the Quebec harbor in Canada, and these two men, perhaps their names were Edward or Edzard, we don’t know. But they looked out there, and they liked the looks of this, and they jumped overboard, and they swam to shore, and that’s how our family got into this country. But anyway, what if those two men had drowned while they were swimming to shore? Would I be here tonight? Because I would not be here tonight, because I was in them. That’s right.

Now then, when Adam fell, I was in him, and I fell too. And those men, if they had drowned that day, I would have drowned with them. Adam fell, and I fell with him. So, the only nature I’ll ever know on this earth is the fallen nature of Adam. I shall never know what it was like to be, you know…I’ve got something Adam never had. But in that original kind of state, I shall never know what it was like. And Adam, I’m sure, before he died, he’d completely forgotten himself.

Okay, we have the life of Adam, the Adamic life. We have something of the satanic life, and then, brothers and sisters, praise God, we have a third life. I believe maybe we ought to look at that. After getting the bad news we just got, perhaps we need a little encouragement. Yes, we’ll see in a minute. I think we’ll be perfectly clear what it is. We have a fallen life in us. It caused us to fall. It perverted our body and made it flesh. It killed…it deadened our spirit, and it enlarged our soul. But this life dwells in us. And you know, when I started to talk a moment ago, I said, I want us to see the three highest life forms and where they dwell. In a moment, we’ll see where they dwell. Alright?

I believe it’s Romans 8:12, well, starting there and just reading on. Therefore, brethren, we are in debt, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if through the Spirit you do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are what? The sons of God. And the next verse says, For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby you cry, Abba, Father. So, praise God, we have three lives. We have Adam life, we have something of satanic life in us, the disposition of it, and we have the Life of the Father in Christ.