I have a secret hiding place. It
is my safe house, my shelter and fortress, my place of rest and rejoicing.
Whenever my soul is afraid, I run into it and find safety, balance and serenity.
My secret hiding place is called
the spirit of man (1 Corinthians 2:11). Prior to our coming to Christ, this
safe place is all boarded up and inaccessible. Sin destroyed it and it is uninhabitable.
Yet, when we surrender our life
wholly to God, our spirit is born again. We meet God there. From the moment of
our salvation, He dwells with us in our spirit by His Holy Spirit and He never
leaves (Romans 8:9, 16; Hebrews 13:5).
As we mature in our walk with
God, we no longer live through our body or soul - our mind, choices and
emotions. We do not depend on our human skills, talents or capabilities, but we
give God full reign in our life.
We walk this earth in our body in
union with God's Spirit who abides within us; but we function in life through
our spirit rather than our body and soul (1 Corinthians 3:16).
God still uses our body and soul
for His purposes in the earth. He transforms our personality and capabilities
and makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We are no longer tied to the earthly
realm, influenced by sin and hindered by human insufficiency. Our external
world my fall down around our ears, or people and experiences may attack our
thoughts or emotions; but like Paul, we rejoice in the tribulation.
We experience life from our safe
place: our spirit within us (Galatians 5:25). Our carnality is dead and it is
no longer us, but Christ who lives in and through us (Colossians 3:3).
We are controlled, guided and
filled through our entire being with all of the fullness of God (Ephesians
3:16-19). We experience eternal life as a reality even now, by intimately
knowing the only true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent (John 17:3).
Prayer:
Father God, due to Christ's
sacrifice on Calvary's cross, we can leave behind the cares of this temporal
world and touch the glories of Heaven. Our spirit is filled with Your Spirit and
we feel safe and right at home there (Revelation 3:20). We live in step with
Your Spirit from within our spirit, separated from our body and soul and
viewing them as from a distance.
Regardless of what the world, the
devil or our flesh attempt to entice us to participate in, or the amount of
pain and grief they try to distract us with, they have no effect on us or lure
for us, because we live in our spirit by Your Spirit and no longer through our
flesh.
Thought for the Day:
Christ is our whole life and we
live by His faith; He gave Himself for us, because He loves us completely and
unconditionally. - Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4
