Part 2 – Asking for Revelation of Truth

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called Dealing with Our Thoughts.

In the Luke 11 account, Jesus speaks of “asking,” “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” v13. This verse suggests the giving of revelation of the truth by Spirit is to them that who ask as a child.

We can freely speak with Him, asking for revelation of the riches that come by “the Spirit” to fill our minds with His mind, with its important truths that we need to know. Yes, we already have His Spirit and His mind ‘in our spirit where we are “joined to the Lord” (1Cor. 6:17), but we also need His mind to fill our soul’s mind as He does when we study and enjoy “the word of God,” thereby being “filled” with the truth of the Spirit.”

“… be not drunk with (under the influence of) wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with (under the influence of) the Spirit;” Eph 5:18

We are instructed by Paul to “be filled with (under the influence of) the Spirit” instead of wine. While we ever have Christ in our spirit, we are not continuously filled with new-wine of the Spirit filling our soul’s mind, our minds often stray. Yet, taken in regularly, His Word ultimately produces His desired effect in our life. His “words are Spirit and they are life.”

Our self-Soul is to be as a dependent wife’ … as a submitted counterpart to the Lord in our Spirit (cf. Rom. 7:1-6). (Note: We as the “body of Christ” are not “the bride of Christ” …  Israel is “the bride of Christ,” just read Hosea.)

“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Eph. 5:31-32

Our soul is to be joined in union with our Christ in our spirit.

Having Christ in our spirit, all believers have “the mind of Christ” in their “spirit” (1Cor 2:16) but His mind needs to fill our soul’s mind, thereby renewing us to ‘right thinking.’ (Rom 12:1-2) Our mind is the soul’s faculty by which we hear Him and may understand truth, and by which we may convey these truths to others… making us fruitful’ (cf. Rom. 7:6).

The benefit of all this is that we may enjoy “… the fruit of the Spirit [of Christ in us, which] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance (self-control) …” Gal. 5:22-23. The automatic evidence of trusting “His Spirit” is found in “the fruit of the Spirit being manifested in our lives. Please don’t mistake this with being perfectly mature in all these things.

It is only as we are mindful of, and appreciate the Lord’s all-inclusive cross-work for us that He is able increase His fruit in our lives. Just as a young fruit tree grows to bear more and more fruit, so do we by our union with “His Spirit.” We thus are to regularly talk with our Father, asking Him to help us gain true understanding of His word, thanking Him, and resigning ourselves to His will… that ‘His will be done’ in all things. He thus works to fill our ‘soul’ and life … with His mind and life.

We are those; 

“To whom God would make known what is the Riches of The Glory of This Mystery (the secret plan of God) among the Gentiles; which is Christ IN YOU (in ALL believers), the Hope of Glory:” Colossians 1:27

Paul compares the intimate relationship between a man and his wife to the relationship we always have with Christ “in the Spirit,” when our soul is abiding in a submissive union with Him in our spirit. Just as relations between man and wife is a most pleasurable experience that we may have physically, the times that I’ve spent in union with the Spirit of the Lord are the most pleasurable spiritual experiences any human can have.

One of the biggest problems we still have is the allure of Sin seeming pleasurable “for a season” (Heb. 11:25). While giving in to its impulses toward lust, jealousy, envy, imitation, anger, gossip, etc. may have seemingly soothed our vain interest as in the past. We can fall back to relying upon “the flesh” when hurting or we feel in need of soulish soothing in some way. But this foolishness will only end in disaster... and more pain.

Paul’s answer for righteous living is to “walk in the spirit” (Gal 5:16, 18, 25), to live in accord with the indwelling “Spirit of life in Christ.” We’ve been made alive unto God through His Spirit deposited into us…then we now have the opportunity to inwardly (in soul) “be conformed to His image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29) through ‘walking in His Spirit’ and learning how to maintain control over our self-soul. It’s only through exercising ourselves unto godliness that we increase in victory through the power of Christ “who strengtheneth us” (cf. Phili 4:13). This power is not of ourselves. It is about His work in bringing us to dying to ‘self and living unto God … through the power of “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” based upon the cross.

“For the law (the spontaneous operation) of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law (the spontaneous operation) of sin and death (in my flesh).” (Romans 8:2, cf. Rom. 6:3-4, 6-7)