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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:7; Prov. 20:27; Zech. 12:1b; Rom. 9:1; John 4:24; Rom. 1:9; Luke 1:47; Rom. 8:16; Ezek. 36:26; 2 Tim. 4:22a; John 3:6b; 1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 2:22b; Gal. 5:16, 25b; Rom. 8:4b; Rev. 1:10a
I. The creation of the human spirit:
А. By Jehovah God breathing the breath of life into man — Gen. 2:7.
B. The breath of life becoming man’s spirit — Prov. 20:27.
II. The importance of the human spirit — ranked with the heavens and the earth — Zech. 12:1b.
III. The three parts of the human spirit:
А. The conscience — Rom. 9:1, cf. 8:16; 1 Cor. 5:3; Psa. 51:10; 34:18; Deut. 2:30.
B. Fellowship — John 4:24; Rom. 1:9; 7:6; Eph. 6:18; Luke 1:47; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17.
C. Intuition — 2:11; Mark 2:8; 8:12; John 11:33.
IV. The function of the human spirit:
А. To contact God — 4:24.
B. To receive God — Ezek. 36:26.
C. To contain God — 2 Tim. 4:22a.
V. Being deadened — Eph. 2:1, 5a.
VI. Being regenerated — John 3:6b:
А. By God the Spirit.
B. With God’s life — 1:13b.
VII. To be one spirit with the Lord — 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:16.
VIII. To be the dwelling place of God — Eph. 2:22b.
IX. Walking by the spirit and according to the spirit — Gal. 5:16, 25b; Rom. 8:4b; Rev. 1:10a.
All the saints need some basic knowledge of the human spirit. This is a great topic, but it is good to have this basic lesson to give the new ones and young ones a general knowledge of this important yet greatly missed point in the Bible. In these lessons as well as in the other lessons, I am presenting some basic points to you for your further study and development.
If we are going to see the human spirit, we have to see its source, its creation.
Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In this verse the title for God is Elohim. It is not until chapter 2 that Jehovah is used as a title for God. Genesis 2:7 says that Jehovah God breathed the breath of life into man. God as Elohim was mainly related to the creation of the universe. But God in His title of Jehovah is mainly related to His relationship with man. Jehovah is a title for God in His contact with man. In Genesis 2 this title is used especially when it mentions that God created a spirit in man by breathing the breath of life into man.
Job 33:4 says, “The Spirit of God has made me, / And the breath of the Almighty has enlivened me.” The breath of life here is called the breath of the Almighty. We cannot say, however, that this breath is the life of God or the Spirit of God. The most we can say according to the Bible is that it is the breath of life, the breath of the Almighty. Thus, it is very close to God’s life and very close to God’s Spirit.
Some Bible teachers wrongly consider that this breath of life is something directly of God’s life and of God’s Spirit. It might be that they think that this is the same breathing that the Lord Jesus did in John 20:22 when He breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples. But the following chapters and books of the Bible clearly reveal that although man at that time had the breath of life, he did not have God’s life or God’s Spirit. What was breathed into man was just the breath of life, but we must be clear that it is very close to the life of God and very close to the Spirit of God.
The creation of man’s spirit was not like the creation of his body. Man’s body was formed from the dust of the ground, having nothing to do with God’s life or with God’s Spirit. It was formed of physical, material dust. But the material for the creation of man’s spirit, the breath of life, was very close to the life of God and to the Spirit of God. This indicates strongly that this organ of the human being is not for material things or for psychological things. This organ is for the divine life and the divine Spirit.
The human life with the human spirit is very similar to God’s life and God’s Spirit because two lives must be very similar for them to be grafted into one. When man’s body was formed from the dust, there was no life in man. When the breath of life was breathed into that form of dust, man became a living soul. Man became something with life, and that life came from God’s breath of life. Job 33:4 says that the breath of the Almighty enlivened man. This is similar to Genesis 2:7. This shows us that man was created by God with a life and a spirit, which are very close to the divine life and the divine Spirit. Man is similar to God in this way so that he can be grafted into God in the divine life.
Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah.” Generally speaking, the word in Hebrew for spirit is ruach, but the Hebrew word for spirit here is neshamah. Neshamah is the same word used in Genesis 2:7 for breath. In Proverbs 20:27 it is translated “spirit.” By this we can see that the breath of life breathed into man by God at man’s creation was the spirit of man. The spirit of man is something within us that is very close to God’s life and God’s Spirit. This indicates that the spirit of man was created for the purpose of receiving and containing the life of God and the Spirit of God. Eventually, 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Our spirit can become one spirit with the Lord because it was created with the breath of life, which is very close to God’s life and God’s Spirit.
Zechariah 12:1 says that Jehovah stretches forth the heavens, lays the foundations of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. No one can deny that these three items — the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man — are crucial in God’s creation to fulfill His purpose. The heavens were created for the earth, the earth was created for man, and man was created for God.
Zechariah does not refer to “man” but to “the spirit of man.” This is because the spirit of man is the very organ that can take in God to enjoy God’s life and God’s Spirit and be one with God’s Spirit. This is why man’s spirit has become so crucial and important, even to the extent that it is ranked with the heavens and the earth. The philosophy of man does not rank anything of man with the heavens and the earth, but Zechariah ranks man’s spirit with them. This shows how important the human spirit is.
We have to point this out to the saints. We need to give a training lesson in which we point out that our human spirit was created with a material that is very close to God’s life and Spirit. We also need to point out that our spirit is so important that it is ranked with the heavens and the earth.
It is not easy to pick up a verse or verses that directly show that the conscience is a part of the spirit. We have to compare Romans 9:1 with 8:16. Romans 9:1 says that our conscience bears witness with us in the Holy Spirit, whereas 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. These two verses strongly prove that our conscience is a part of our spirit. In 1 Corinthians 5:3 Paul judged a sinful one in his spirit. To judge is to condemn sin, and that is mostly the function of the conscience. Psalm 51:10 speaks of “a right spirit within me” (KJV). This is a spirit that is right. Knowing right from wrong is related to the conscience, so this verse shows that the conscience is in the spirit. Other verses we can use to show the function of the conscience as a part of the spirit are Psalm 34:18 and Deuteronomy 2:30. For verses related to the parts of the human spirit, we need to read chapter 6 of The Economy of God.
Another part, or function, of our human spirit is the fellowship. John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit.” This worship is a kind of fellowship, a kind of contact. In Romans 1:9 Paul says that he served God in his spirit and in 7:6 that he served God in newness of spirit. Ephesians 6:18 says to pray at every time in spirit. To pray also is to fellowship with God. In Luke 1:47 Mary said that her spirit exulted, rejoiced, in God. That surely is a kind of fellowship. Romans 8:16 and 1 Corinthians 6:17 show that our spirit is one spirit with the Lord. That oneness is also a kind of fellowship. All the above verses can be used to prove that in our spirit there is something called fellowship.
The intuition is also a part of man’s spirit. First Corinthians 2:11 says that the spirit of man knows the things of man. The spirit can know what the soul cannot know. Verses 14 and 15 say that a soulish man cannot receive the things of God but that the spiritual man can. The direct sense in our spirit regardless of reason or circumstances is the intuition. The intuition is a direct sense of God and a direct knowledge from God. Mark 2:8 and 8:12 and John 11:33 are other verses showing that the intuition is a part of the human spirit. These verses show that in the human spirit, there is a direct sense of discernment to know God and the spiritual things. This direct sense is the intuition.
Thus, we can see that the conscience functions to discern right from wrong, the fellowship functions to contact God, and the intuition functions to know God and to know God’s will, God’s intention.
John 4:24 shows that the function of the human spirit is to contact God.
Ezekiel 36:26 says that God gives us a new heart and a new spirit. The new heart is for loving God and seeking after God, whereas the new spirit is for receiving God. The heart is the loving and seeking organ, and the spirit is the receiving organ. We all have a heart to love certain things. A person may love tea, but if he does not have a stomach, he has no organ to receive the tea. This shows that we need a new heart to love God and a new spirit to receive God.
Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” Our spirit is the place where God stays within us, so our spirit is a container of God.
Our human spirit was deadened by the fall. Ephesians 2 says that we were dead in our offenses and sins (vv. 1, 5a). This death was not in man’s physical body or in his psychological being. Due to the fall, man was deadened in his spirit. This means that his spirit lost its function. The deadness of man’s spirit, which pervaded his entire being, caused him to lose the function that enabled him to contact God.
John 3:6b says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Our regeneration was carried out in the human spirit by God the Spirit.
We were regenerated with God’s life — the uncreated, eternal life. Thus, to be regenerated is to have the divine, eternal life (in addition to the human, natural life) as the new source and new element of a new person. John 1:13b says that we were begotten of God. To be regenerated is to be begotten of God with the Father’s life, the divine life.
The human spirit was created for a purpose. God created this organ of man so that man could be one spirit with the Lord. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This may be the most important verse in the whole Bible. Romans 8:16 says that the divine Spirit witnesses with our human spirit. Now these two spirits are one.
Ephesians 2:22 says that we are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Dweller, not the dwelling place. Our spirit is the dwelling place. This proves that our spirit was made to contain God within us.
Galatians 5:16 and 25b charge us to walk by the Spirit, and Romans 8:4 says that we need to walk according to the spirit. In Revelation 1:10 the apostle John said that he was in spirit on the Lord’s Day. This shows that we need to have a life in the spirit. John was a man in the spirit. This means that we need to live in the spirit.
All the new ones and young ones among us need to have a strong understanding of the human spirit. The truth concerning the human spirit is the basic element for many teachings in the Lord’s recovery. If the saints have not been brought into an adequate knowledge of the human spirit, they will be somewhat weak in the understanding of all the spiritual things.
