Proverbs, chapter 20, verse 27, part one, comments, the spirit of man

 Proverbs 20:27 ¶ The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

A human being is composed of three parts; body, soul, and spirit.

1Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The physical body is your vessel that carries you around in the world. It’s how you identify with the physical world: your physical reality identity.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

1Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Your soul is your self-identity. It allows you to be distinct as “I” from others. It is eternal. You can never, having existed, cease to exist.

1Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (see how by the phrasing that living is synonymous with quickening.)

Your spirit is the sum total of your mind and emotions and is heavily influenced by the demands of the flesh.

 

It includes the functionings and thoughts of your brain; those functionings and thoughts called the mind.

 

Romans 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

 

1Corinthians 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

 

Ephesians 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

 

Philippians 1:27  Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

 

2Timothy 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

 

Your spirit is also your God identity. It’s the vehicle through which a human being knows and is known by God.

Philippians 3:12 Not as though I had already attained (understood, arrived at an understanding – see verse 24 and explanation), either were already perfect(complete): but I follow after, if that I may apprehend (know) that for which also I am apprehended (known) of Christ Jesus. (Remember that “of” can mean “by” in context as in “tempted of the devil”.)

But, because of Adam’s sin, your spirit was a dead thing toward God the day you were born in the flesh, the water birth as mentioned of in John 3:5. You have to be born again by the Spirit of God in order to know the God who created you, the God of the Bible. So, all mankind’s natural destination is an eternal lake of fire by virtue of a dead spirit that cannot know the God who created them, because of sin. You radio has a broken receiver and you can’t hear the things of God with a dead spirit (Genesis 3:3 noting that Adam did not physically die for several hundred years as this was a reference to his spirit. Contrast with 1 Corinthians 15:45).

Now, I don’t want to go into detail about how the body and soul was tied together in the Old Testament under the Law (Ezekiel 18:20) or how by the new birth, being born again, the soul is separated from the sins of the flesh by an operation performed by God alone (Colossians 2:11). Nor do I want to get into detail here about how higher animals also have souls (Numbers 31:28) and how you don’t really know if their spirits have a different destination than your own (Ecclesiastes 3:21).

So, to narrow the focus down, this Proverb shows how the spirit of man is a light that illuminates every secret thought, every physical operation, and every part of a person for God. He doesn’t stand outside of you and look you up and down. He sees from inside. In the unsaved person he uses the spirit to examine him and in the saved person God’s Spirit, capital S, lives in him or her, making their formerly dead spirit alive. Our carnal religion has God coming down on the congregation while, in fact, He’s already inside you. Our carnal religion has God seeing everything you do like some kind of cosmic Santa Claus from above. Most of us Christians want that ‘Old Time Religion’ as in Old Testament and I can’t help but wonder if we’re annoying the daylights out of a God who has given us something much more special than the Hebrews ever received, but that Adam once knew and the prophets enjoyed.

For the Christian, God sees every thought and every action. He knows your most inward goings and desires. He knows your intentions. Satan doesn’t have this power. There is nowhere in the Bible where it says Satan can read your mind. Satan has to view your behavior and what you say. He’s the ultimate psychologist who correctly, 99 out of 100 times, knows what a man is going to do by what all men do and by what you’ve done before. He’s smarter than you are but predictable.

God uses your living spirit to not only search you as He would any Hell bound person, but because of the new birth God’s Spirit communicates with your spirit and your spirit can receive the things of God. David pleaded;

Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

When Adam’s spirit died he no longer could know God intimately or receive the things of God intimately. So, men had to create religion and call on God’s name (Genesis 4:26). With the new birth we have the opportunity to know God again, on a personal level, intimately. We accomplish this by believing, believing in, and trusting God the Son by the vehicle of the Holy Spirit inside of us which we were given when we first believed, hearing God speak to us through God’s words in a Book, capital B, not your imagination or by some meaningless ritual or piece of wood or stone, which are all things the heathen man makes up to try to recapture that lost intimacy with the God who created him and her.

Our faith is a spiritual faith and is not connected to nations, armies, navies, groves, temples, cathedrals, councils, physical altars or thrones or anything of this temporary reality we live in. If you think that baptism, the mass, going into a church building every time its open, or doing anything, anything of a physical nature that glories in your flesh, and feeling spiritual by an emotional high or going from emotional/spiritual fix to fix like someone going from rock concert to rock concert or sporting event to sporting event, then you and I have a different religion. I respect your right to have it. But don’t tell me it’s the same thing. I’m not looking for a self-satisfying emotional drug. I’m looking for truth. I believe the only truth is the God of the Bible (John 14:6) who we know as the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are to know intimately every day 24/7 not just a couple of times a week in a special ceremony.