“spirit” – ruach (in the Old Testament and pneuma in the New Testament) is the spirit, the breath, and occasionally the soul, but ultimately it is life force.
Proverbs 25:28 NASB
[28] Like a city that is broken into and without walls Is a man who has no control over his spirit.
Our identity is the body we wear in the spirit realm. Angels and demons can see our identity. Every emotion and every thought we have gives off substance, and informs the spirit realm about how we see ourselves. A man who lives in faith gives off the fragrance of that faith. The woman who abides in the world of love is surrounded by the aura of God. Spirits can see exactly who you are. They can smell the stink of fear. They can see the ugliness of self condemnation and insecurity. Oftentimes the experiences we are having in our emotions are a direct result of how evil spirits are ministering to our hidden fears and insecurities. Lies we hold onto are like an infection that invites the flies. They swarm around us hoping to add to the decay as they smell our stink. Most of our negative thoughts are coming from spirits who are looking to destroy our souls. They can recognize the condemnation identity. They can recognize the hidden insecurities. They can recognize when we have sold ourselves short, when we believe that we’re not good enough, or we have settled for something second-best.
But just like in the natural. The pain that infection causes leaves when the infection leaves. The Holy Spirit has been releasing antibodies and if you will allow Him, He will minister healing ointment to our malnourished soul. I saw this in a vision as God showed me a possible infection in my finger. He reminded me of the times that a cut in my hand or finger had gotten a small infection. He reminded me how if I squeezed the pus out and the pain would leave, and oftentimes the infection would come out with the white blood cells. When we face the pressure of allowing Holy Spirit to speak to us about our lies, it is like pressing out the infection. The pain may be intense for a moment, but the relief is so satisfying. We don’t have to live with a malnourished soul.
The condemnation identity allows us to come under attack, this is not God‘s plan. At salvation you receive the identity of Christ. At the infilling of the Holy Spirit, God breathed life into that identity and began ministering it to us so that it would overtake your old identity. This is what righteousness is. God has replaced who you were with who Jesus is. You are no longer a fallen man. You are now the righteousness of Christ. You are no longer a mere mortal. Now you are a son to the most high. Your very DNA has changed. Where you once were a dead man walking, now you are a spirit being with the life flow of God within him. Righteousness means Sonship. When you got saved, you were born into God’s family and you became God’s son; just as much as Jesus is God’s son. In God‘s eyes you are just as much loved, wanted, and valued as Jesus is. You even have the same potential as Christ had. You have been given everything that Jesus had access to so that you can follow in His footsteps. You are not limited by your humanity, because Jesus was not limited by his. Righteousness means Sonship. This is who you really are. Nothing you can do (except denounce Jesus) will change the fact that you are now God’s son.
When you take on the full identity of Christ, then in the spirit realm, your identity looks like Jesus. You are not snow covered dung. No, in fact you are becoming the very essence of who God is, love. God is sharing His very nature with you so that you can look just like Jesus. This is real transformation. It is not a mask, nor is it some outer garment that covers up your shame. You are being changed from the inside out until you are a perfect reflection of Christ. The identity of Christ has skin like superman, but it is not calloused. This is what God told me. It is impossible to penetrate your Christ identity and give you an infection any longer. We must fully embrace the Christ Identity. As long as we continue to carry around our old identity, we will continue to suffer under the molesting hands of evil spirits. God never intended for us to be harassed with constant negative thoughts or emotions.
Holy Spirit’s main job is to conform us into the image of Christ. He conforms our mind and our emotions until they come into agreement with Christ. He does this primarily by shifting our perspective and our identity. When we think like Christ we will live like Christ. What is required is that we believe what He speaks and we yield to what He speaks, yield to come to Him, and yield to His flow. He will teach us how to yield to His flow.
Holy Spirit comes to nourish our identity until it becomes fully mature. This means that He speaks until we are fully capable of letting go of the old identity, and embracing the fact that we are now sons of God. As our identity becomes beloved, we step into full maturity and what it means to be like Christ.
Philippians 2:1 TPT
[1] Look at how much encouragement you’ve found in your relationship with the Anointed One! You are filled to overflowing with his comforting love. You have experienced a deepening friendship with the Holy Spirit and have felt his tender affection and mercy.
Proverbs 4:21-23 TPT
[21] Fill your thoughts with my words until they penetrate deep into your spirit. [22] Then, as you unwrap my words, they will impart true life and radiant health into the very core of your being. [23] So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.
John 4:14 NASB
[14] but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
John 7:37-39 NASB
[37] …Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. [38] He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” [39] But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive…
What if Holy Spirit could guard the affections of your heart for you?
In Ezekiel 36:26 we are shown what the new covenant will look like. God makes a promise that He will give us a new heart and a new spirit, and then put His Spirit in us and cause us to walk in His statutes. But, Ezekiel 18:31 is very different. “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?” Ezekiel 18:31 is distinctly different because it is under the old covenant. In the old covenant the responsibility for change rest upon men’s shoulders. The responsibility to guard our heart, our affections, and our behavior all rest upon men’s shoulders in the Old Testament. In the new covenant, that responsibility is shifted over to Holy Spirit. Remember that Jesus said that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. The water of life springs forth from within us producing a life of full satisfaction.
Galatians 5:18 NASB
[18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
Galatians 5:16 NKJV
[16] I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
If you are in the Spirit then Holy Spirit will both guard the affections for you, and he will also pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being. By putting our trust in God, we step into a lifestyle of “rest” rather than working. We step into a lifestyle of fulfillment. Jesus says the fulfillment He offers is so extreme that it’ll cause our hearts and souls to never hunger and thirst again. In the John four passage above, Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, and promising that she will never thirst for love if she puts her trust in Jesus, and drinks from His well. He was speaking about Holy Spirit. When we allow Holy Spirit to minister to us He shifts us into full satisfaction and causes us to recognize who we are. He empowers us to live in a lifestyle of fulfillment. He really gives us a brand new identity.
When we pull completely into Him, coming completely in, agreeing from the heart with what He says about us, then He lives through us and we naturally express His nature only. When we live partially separated, we express that separation; we end up living broken rather than whole. A born again believer is designed to live in perfect harmony with the Spirit. When the believer doesn’t, that believer is double minded and unstable in everything.
John 6:35 NASB
[35] Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
John 6:48-50 TPT
[48] I am the true Bread of Life. [49] Your ancestors ate manna in the desert and died. [50] But standing here before you is the true Bread that comes out of heaven, and when you eat this Bread you will never die.
Revelation 2:17 NASB
[17] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’
Luke 4:4 NKJV
[4] But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'”
These passages are amazing to me because they let us know that if we begin to live life from God, we begin to take on a sustained life that is supernatural. All of these are references to placing our trust in Jesus, and the word of God being released into us from Father God, through Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit takes the word from Father and declares it to us. Holy Spirit takes the nature and image of Christ and declares it over us. Holy Spirit leads and guides us into all truth. Holy Spirit explains mysteries that no man can unlock. He is the fountain of life. If we can learn to receive from Him, it is like receiving mana in the wilderness. We will have life in the wilderness of this world, where no life can be found. We will have life that overcomes death. “For the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells on our mortal bodies.” As we learn to partner, yield to, and be trained by Holy Spirit, He causes us to become a tree of life. Our job is to learn to hear and receive all that He has to offer with hearts wide open. The easiest way to start this process is to press into learning to hear the voice of God. Step three helps a lot with that.
Revelation 22:2 NASB
[2] in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Ezekiel 47:12 NASB
[12] By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”
Psalm 1:1-3 TPT
[1] What delight comes to those who follow God’s ways! They won’t walk in step with the wicked, nor share the sinner’s way, nor be found sitting in the scorner’s seat. [2] Their pleasure and passion is remaining true to the Word of “I Am,” meditating day and night in his true revelation of light. [3] They will be standing firm like a flourishing tree planted by God’s design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of their lives. They are never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, ever prosperous.
God‘s plan was always to make us into trees of life that the world could come and eat from. Trees that are always bearing fruit and always releasing healing. God is taking men who were once byproducts of the tree of knowledge and good and evil, the tree of the law, and turning those very men into trees of life, that can spread the life of Jesus to the world. This way we become a testimony of how amazing Jesus really is. Our very existence testifies that He is God and Savior, and He changes men who were failures into men who are answers.
Many people struggle with the idea of being embraced by God. They may say things like, “how can God hold you, or hug you?“ But the love of God is more real than physical touch. Oftentimes there is a physical manifestation as God comes and loves upon us. But, His love brings about wholeness within our being. His love satisfies the deep longing of our soul to find acceptance that lasts. Much like the woman at the well was searching for love, we also are chasing to find our significance, and find home. What I’m referring to is often talked about as the orphan spirit. The orphan spirit is another name for the condemnation identity. It is a mentality of not belonging. This mentality gets in the way of many as God calls them into His love. This is the biggest problem that the condemnation identity leaves us with. We are afraid that God would reject us. But once we allow Holy Spirit to minister to our fainting hearts, we begin to discover that we can fall into God’s arms. He really adores us. If we can let ourselves, we can fall into the adoration that Holy Spirit offers. This fall will cause us to become settled, and seated, in our identity. I like to call it “lost in the swirl of overwhelming.“
His acceptance can feel like it is too big for us to handle. It can even feel like it’s too good to be true. But we must put on brave faces and accept the love that He is offering. We must resist the urge to run, we must stay and let Him do the work that He desires. In this place, we are truly on the potter’s wheel. As we resist the urge to run, yet give into the adoration that Papa and Holy Spirit pour out, our surrender will fan the flames of revival deep within us. God‘s purpose is to make us an abiding fire that can ignite anyone we come in contact with. The depth of your passion in the secret place affects the significance of the flow you can handle when we attempt to minister life. God is desiring to expand us. As we yield to the greatness of His love, He expands us and makes us capable of caring all that He has. This process is more important than we can possibly imagine. All the great men and women of God who have demonstrated significant levels of power, have the testimony that they surrendered in the secret place.
Ephesians 3:17-19 NASB
[17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, [18] may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, [19] and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
As we surrender in the secret place we take on a lifestyle of living embraced by God. It has been said that the reason that Peter’s shadow could heal was because of what overshadowed Peter. Living in the embrace of God is living in the Spirit. In that place, we are fully surrendered to the flow of Holy Spirit. His very desires move us to do great exploits. We become the perfect expression of God‘s heart. God can pour through us like a fountain of life, so that all we come in contact with have access to who God really is.
We, in fact, become the door to heaven. I realize that many will struggle with this phrase, but it is something that God has been speaking to me on a regular basis. When we are yielded to Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit is an open heaven. Because we are yielded to the very heart of God, we have access to all that God is. Because we are the heart of God, God has access to all that we touch. God is literally reaching through us to pour His heart out upon other people. We become His access to release life into dark places. The stranger gets access to God by virtue of our relationship with Holy Spirit. The deeper your walk with God, the more yielded you are to the swirl of overwhelming, the easier it will be to release the glory of God upon those you are loving. This is exactly God’s heart. Because we are living in the embrace of God, God is able to embrace those who don’t know Him yet. We can supernaturally feed the hungry, heal the sick, bind up the brokenhearted, and declare liberty to the captives. We become someone who reveals Christ.
Most people don’t realize that they’re STUCK in the middle of the song of Solomon. In the song of Solomon the bride groom comes calling, but the bride is unwilling to leave what was nurturing her before (her mothers house). Because she turns down the call of her bridegroom she ends up facing hardship. By the end of the book she has finally said “yes” to coming away with him. And we see a picture of the two of them “coming up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved?” At this point her transformation is complete and he says to her, “I awakened you under the apple tree.”
In the passion translation it is revealed just how much the scripture is referencing Jesus.
Song of Songs 8:5 TPT
[5] Who is this one? Look at her now! She arises out of her desert, clinging to her beloved. When I awakened you under the apple tree, as you were feasting upon me, I awakened your innermost being with the travail of birth as you longed for more of me.
Can you see the parallel of the work of Holy Spirit as we feast upon the bread of life, Jesus?
We need to allow the Holy Spirit to finish the song of Solomon within us. Notice how these next versus parallel the Ephesians 3 verse from above.
Song of Songs 8:6-7 TPT
[6] Fasten me upon your heart as a seal of fire forevermore. This living, consuming flame will seal you as my prisoner of love. My passion is stronger than the chains of death and the grave, all consuming as the very flashes of fire from the burning heart of God. Place this fierce, unrelenting fire over your entire being. [7] Rivers of pain and persecution will never extinguish this flame. Endless floods will be unable to quench this raging fire that burns within you. Everything will be consumed. It will stop at nothing as you yield everything to this furious fire until it won’t even seem to you like a sacrifice anymore.
God is bringing us into complete transformation that impacts every part of who we are. The result is that we will be perfect reflections of Christ, and the earth will see you again what a son of God looks like. But this process requires us to be brave and face the fears that tell us we are going to be rejected by God. If we yield to the process, we will be surrounded by His perfect love which will cast out all those fears. And ahead of us is a lifestyle of living embraced by God. Let us surrender to be lost in the swirl of overwhelming and discover that we are caught up, enraptured, into the dance of God’s love. God’s embrace of us is perfect and He will surround us with His peace and give us a lifestyle of rest. The result is that we will have the life flow of Jesus, who is Holy Spirit. In this way we will be anointed and Mantled by Holy Spirit. Let Him love you like He loves on Jesus.
Proverbs 4:21-23 TPT
[21] Fill your thoughts with my words until they penetrate deep into your spirit. [22] Then, as you unwrap my words, they will impart true life and radiant health into the very core of your being. [23] So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.
If we allow Him, Holy Spirit will surround our hearts and fill us to overflowing with all that He is and make us the wellspring of life. If we let Him, Holy Spirit will transform our innermost being until it is a perfect reflection of Jesus. Then nothing will ever be able to stop the spring of life from flowing out from our inner being.
Proverbs 23:7 KJV
[7] For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…
Every man who finds God‘s love in the secret place, will find that God has one subject He talks about more than anything else. Because you have pressed into hearing the voice of God, you know that God loves to talk about who you really are. As you embrace the love of God, and accept the things Holy Spirit declares about you, your entire being will shift into ChristLikeness. You will find that you are now fully in Christ, and you have become the perfect expression of who Christ is. You become the demonstrator the world is waiting for.