Spiritual Maturity Series Part 16
The mature believer learns how to listen to the inner witness of his spirit-man. All of us have had experiences where we have had a ‘nudge’ to do, or not to do something, and did the opposite. Later, when we saw the negative results of our decision, we were reminded of the ‘nudge’ we had received earlier. With hindsight it was easy to see how different things would have been if we had just obeyed that original nudge. The spiritually mature are so in tune with the Holy Spirit that they immediately respond to the slightest nudge from the Holy Spirit and act upon it quickly.
The spiritually mature have an insatiable appetite for the Word of God. It is food to the spirit of man, and the spirit-man must be fed as regularly as the physical body in order to grow and be strong. Even if your spirit-man is born again, if your mind isn’t renewed with the Word of God, it will not recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit when He speaks and you will fail to make righteous choices. Your un-renewed mind will always side with your body and all its natural carnal lusts and continually keep you bound in defeat and sin. No one can see your spirit man and immature Christians appear to be no different in their outward life than the unsaved because they are ruled by their physical senses.
When the mind is renewed by the Word of God, the spirit-man can take its rightful place. The soul will agree with the spirit-man because it now knows the Word of God and it will allow the spirit-man to dominate. When the spirit and soul agree, the body then has no vote and God’s Spirit, now dominating through man’s spirit, brings Divine order into every part of life.