A daily devotional moment by Chris Garcia
1 Thessalonians 5:23–28 (NKJV): Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with you. Amen.
Some of you are looking for a touch for your soul but are needing to come to Jesus first. There are moments in time when you have to do what King David said. He said, “Why is my soul downcast?" "Why is my soul downtrodden?" You need to put all hope in the Lord. Your soul does not dictate your reality. The Spirit does. Sometimes you need to tell your soul to praise the Lord. Your soul can only reflect what it sees. Your soul can only reflect fleshly desires. But when you allow the Holy Spirit to take over and you allow yourself to bask in His presence, to magnify His, beauty to delight yourself in Him and to fill yourself with the Scripture, and meditate upon His Word, your spirit then overrides your emotions, your mind, and your will. Many times we go to God with backwards thinking. We try to enter into His presence with the body, the soul, and then the spirit. What I mean is, we want to touch or connect with our bodies, then we want our souls and then lastly we want our spirits to be refreshed. When in reality, for example in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Paul gives us a wonderful revelation. He says “May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless until the coming day.” He talks about the day of the Lord. That one day we are going to be standing before Him. But it also reveals something about Paul's mindset. Paul was spirit first, then soul, then body. We are all three. We have flesh, we have a body, we have a spirit. So many believers try to go in through the body and the soul. They get frustrated never touching the spirit. The flesh and the soul have to be crucified, to experience the glory of God. Always caring about our body we must die to self to our Lord Jesus Christ so that the life of Jesus may manifest in our mortal bodies. We try to enter into the Presence by fleshly means. But we think and say we are spiritual. That word is thrown around quite a bit. Some say I am spiritual. But are you truly spiritual? It means that you are spirit conscious. Spirit-led. Spirit dictated. That your spirit overrides your mind, your will and your emotions, and it overrides your body. To be spiritual, means that you put your spirit first. How do I put my spirit first? Simple, shift all attention to the Lord. For example worship the way we do during our Fresh Oil worship time. Putting the Lord first. Magnifying His beauty. Quieting yourself from all distractons. Simply receiving and feeding yourself upon the Word of God. This is how you feed and nourish your spiritual body.
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