How to Train your Spirit

Joshua 1:8 ESV

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

James 1:22 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Proverbs 4:20–22 ESV

My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

Lesson Ten- How to train the Human Spirit

Central truth: God will use our own spirit to guide us

Just as the Human mind can be trained intellectually, so the humans Spirit can be trained spiritually. The human spirit can be built up in strength just as the body can be built up.

There are four ways that this is accomplished and we are going to be looking them. Here are the four rules for training your spirit:

Meditating on the Word of God

Practicing the Word of God

Giving the Word of God first place

Instantly obeying the voice of our spirit

AS we apply these four biblical principles to our daily lives, we can come to know the will of God even in the minor details of life.

Understand that God communicates with our spirit, not with our reasoning facilities

and as we instantly obey our spirit, we find we are obeying the Holy Spirit.

God Says in Proverbs 20:27, “  The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord,

searching all his innermost parts.”

This means that God is going to use our own spirit to guide us

The Spirit of Man is the lamp or Candle of the Lord

Rule One: Meditating in the Word of God

Joshua 1:8 “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”

When God anointed Joshua to lead the children of Israel after the death of Moses, God told right from the beginning the importance of meditating in the Word of God.

The Amplified says, “ This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.”

The Last phrase- “You shall deal wisely”

We most certainly wouldn’t have success if we could not deal wisely in the things of life

If you lack wisdom:

you don’t live well

You Don’t lead Well

You don’t succeed

God told Joshua one of the keys to succeed-

God said that if Joshua would meditate on the Word, God would make his way prosperous, and he would have good success

The greatest ministers in the history of this world gave time to meditating on the word of God.

The most deeply spiritual people that I know or have known, and that I allow to pour into my life, are men and women who give time to meditation on the Word

Kenneth Hagin says, “One pastor once told me he had been trying to make a success of his church. He flew all over the country, visiting many of the larger churches, studying their methods, and trying to find out what made them successful. He brought their programs and ideas back to his church, but they didn’t seems to work

After hearing me teach about meditating in God’s Word, he decided to try it. Rather than asking God for things, he set aside a certain time daily for meditating in the Word.

After 30 days had passed, at the close of his Sunday Morning sermon, a landslide of souls were at the alter. More people were saved in that church in the previous two years. The People were revived, and the pastor began to have good success

His testimony can be that of any believer who will follow his example and spend time meditating in the Word of God.

Shut the world out- if you have ambitions to do something worthwhile, I suggest you begin by taking 10-15 minutes daily for meditation.

Begin the development of your spirit.

Rule Two: Practicing the Word of God

James 1:22 AMP “But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].”

James 1:22 “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

Be doers of the Word!l

Practicing the Word is what James is writing about- James calls it being “a doer of the Word.”

Some people thinking that being a doer of the Word is keeping the ten commandments. Under the New Covenant, we have one commandment: The Commandment of Love

If you love someone, you won’t steal from Him

you won’t lie about Him

Paul said that love is the fulfilling of the law

If you walk in love, you won’t break any law that was given to curb sin.

In James 1:22, James is urging believers to do primarily what is written in the epistles: To act upon His Word

For one example The apostle Paul writes in Phil 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”

The Amplified “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (h definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.”

Usually we practice only part of this verse. We don’t mind do the part of the verse that tells us to pray, but if we practice one part and not practicing the other, we are not practicing the Word. We are not a doer of the Word

The Lord said to worry or “fret” first, before He told us to pray. If we are going to Fret or worry and have anxieties, it isn’t going to do any good to make requests.

If God said don’t not worry or fret, this means we can keep from doing it.

God is a just God, and He won’t ask us do to something we can’t do

1 Peter 5:7- Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Kenneth Hagin- “There was a time when I believed that I could make my requests known to God, but I had difficulty believing that I couldn’t fret.

God however said we don’t have to fret. so I say, ‘ I refuse to fret or have any anxiety about anything.’ I take my requests to Him, and then I thank Him. This quiets and pacifies the troubled spirit that the devil would try to make me have. If inner turmoil persists, I simply go right back to this verse and read it again. I keep claiming it.”

If we follow Paul’s advice and, “don’t worry, fret, or have anxiety about anything,” we can believe God for the promise of the verse that follows, Phil 4:7, “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Many People want what this verse talks about- peace- but they do not want to do what the previous verse tells them to do to get it, Phil 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”

The Amplified says, “And God’s peace [shall be yours, that i tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall j garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

God’s peace will keep guard over your heart and spirit.

The education of our spirit comes by practicing the Word of GOd. Can you rerap the results and have peace without being a doer of the Word?

No, you really can’t

Being a doer of the Word, reaps the results of the Word

Be a doer of the Word and you’ll grow spiritually

Rule three: Giving the Word First Place

Proverbs 4:20-22, “  My child, pay attention to what I say.

Listen carefully to my words.

21 Don’t lose sight of them.

Let them penetrate deep into your heart,

22 for they bring life to those who find them,

and healing to their whole body. 1

With so many different voices surrounding us, it is difficult to stop and listen to the voice of the Word of God.

Family and friends are always ready to give us their opinions and advice. However, and essential part of training the spiritual man is learning to listen to what God’s Word has to say to us

It is giving the Word first in our lives

In the three verse of Proverbs 4:20-22, God tells us three things to do with His Word

Listen to it

Read it

Memorize it

Anytime the Bible is being read aloud- in church, in family devotions, on a Gospel radio or television program- give careful; attention to its words.

Proverbs 4:21 “Don’t lose sight of them.”- In other words spend time alone reading God’s Word

Let it sink in deep into your hearts and into your thoughts.

Memorize it as verse 21 tells us, “Let them penetrate deep into your heart”- or Keep them in your heart

If we do these three things, we will find that God’s Words “bring life to those who find them,

and healing to their whole body.”

We will enter into the abundant life in Christ Jesus.

We will find physical healing for our bodies

All we need to do is give God’s Word first place in our lives

Rule four: Instantly Obeying the Voice of Our Spirit

The human spirit has a voice. We call that voice the conscience.

sometimes we call it intuition

or we call it the inner voice of guidance

but it is our spirit talking to us

Every person’s spirit has a voice, whether they are saved or unsaved

but the new birth is a rebirth of the human spirit- Your Spirit gets its information as you meditate on the Word of God

Learn to obey your spirit.

Your spirit has the life and the nature of God in it, because the Holy Spirit dwells within you

Romans 8:15-16, “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.* Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”* 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children”

The devil can’t be giving you the information, because he is not in you; He is on the outside of you

God has to communicate with you through your spirit, because that is where He is.

He isn’t in your head

He isn’t in your reasoning faculties

He is in your Spirit

Your spirit gets it’s information through Him.

Learn to obey your spirit.

Some people say that the conscience is not a safe guide, but this isn’t always true. The conscience is a safe guide in the Spirit-filled believer because God is dwelling within that believers

James 4:17 “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”

The Believer’s conscience , the voice of his spirit, becomes the voice of God

God is speaking to Him

Paul says he obeyed his conscience in Acts 23:1, “Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!”

Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord,”- The lamp or the Candle is the way God leads and guides

God will us your spirit to guide you

He will use your spirit to enlighten you

As your spirit meditates and feeds upon the Word, it becomes a safer guide

it is trained in the Word

The Holy Spirit does speak a little differently to those of us who have certian ministry gifts.

As a rule in the lives of believers, the inward voice is the voice of the human spirit speaking; not the Holy Spirit.

Kenneth Hagin says, “The Holy Spirit often speaks to me about other, but I never hear Him for my own benefit. Why? Because a prophet’s ministry isn’t given for his own benefit; it’s given for the benefit of others. i have received guidance for myself from my own inward voice.

As we learn to obey the voice of our spirit we will come tot he place where we knw what we should do in all phases of life- THE LORD WILL GUIDE US!

PROVERBS 3:6 “  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

Memory Text: Proverbs 20:27, “  The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord,

Searching all the inner depths of his heart.”

Lesson is Action: James 1:22 “Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only…”