True Christianity # 156
156. 6. Our spirits are our minds and whatever comes from them. Our "spirit" really means nothing else but our mind. Our mind is what lives on after death. It is then called a spirit. If it is good, it is called an angelic spirit and later on an angel. If it is evil, it is called a satanic spirit and later on a satan. For each one of us, our mind is our inner self, our true self. It lives inside our outer self that constitutes our body. When our body is cast aside, which death does for us, we are in a complete human form.
People are wrong, then, to believe that our mind exists only in our head. Our mind is present in our head only in its primary structures. Everything that we think with our intellect and do from our will first emanates from these primary structures. In the rest of our body, our mind is present in extensions of these primary structures that have been designed to allow us sensation and action. Because our mind is inwardly connected to the parts of our body, our mind supplies those parts with sensation and motion and also inspires awareness as if our body thought and acted on its own, although every wise person knows this is not how it is.
Now, because our spirit thinks with its intellect and acts with its will, and our body thinks and acts not on its own but with the help of our spirit, it follows that our "spirit" means our intelligence and our type of love, as well as whatever emanates from our love and intelligence and has an effect.
Many passages in the Word make clear that our "spirit" means the nature of our mind. When I quote only a few of these passages, anyone will be able to see that this is exactly what "spirit" means. The following are just a few of the many:
And Bezaleel was filled with the spirit of wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge. (Exodus 31:3)
Nebuchadnezzar said of Daniel that there was "an excellent spirit" of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom in him (Daniel 5:12).
Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom. (Deuteronomy 34:9)
Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. (Ezekiel 18:31)
Blessed are the poor in spirit, because the kingdom of the heavens consists of such people. (Matthew 5:3)
I live among people with a beaten and humble spirit so that I may revive the spirit of the lowly. (Isaiah 57:15)
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. (Psalms 51:17)
I will give a cloak of praise to replace a constricted spirit. (Isaiah 61:3)
And so on.
"Spirit" can also mean the nature of a corrupt and unjust mind, as the following passages make clear:
He spoke to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit. (Ezekiel 13:3)
Conceive garbage, give birth to stubble; in your spirit, fire will consume you. (Isaiah 33:11)
A man who is a wanderer in his spirit and who babbles a lie. (Micah 2:11)
A generation whose spirit was not steadfast with God. (Psalms 78:8)
A spirit of promiscuity. (Hosea 5:4; 4:12)
To melt every heart and constrict every spirit. (Ezekiel 21:7)
What has come up in your spirit will never be done. (Ezekiel 20:32)
Provided there is no guile in their spirit. (Psalms 32:2)
The spirit of Pharaoh was disturbed. (Genesis 41:8)
Likewise the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:3). These and many other passages make it obvious that our "spirit" means our mind and its characteristics.
Numbers 20
1
Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month; and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
2
And there was no water for the congregation: and they assembled themselves against Moses and against Aaron.
3
And the people chid with Moses, and spoke, saying, O that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
4
And why have ye brought the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?
5
And why have ye conducted us from Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.
6
And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared to them.
7
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
8
Take the rod, and convene thou the assembly, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye to the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth its water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give drink to the congregation and their beasts.
9
And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
10
And Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?
11
And Moses lifted his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
12
And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
13
This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.
14
And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:
15
How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians afflicted us, and our fathers:
16
And when we cried to the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth from Egypt: and behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:
17
Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's high-way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.
18
And Edom said to him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.
19
And the children of Israel said to him, We will go by the highway: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.
20
And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with many people, and with a strong hand.
21
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.
22
And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, and came to mount Hor.
23
And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying,
24
Aaron shall be gathered to his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah.
25
Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to mount Hor:
26
And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered to his people, and shall die there.
27
And Moses did as the LORD commanded: and they ascended mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.
28
And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.
29
And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.
