THE INNER MAN

What is life about? Is it fulfilling a long list of external requirements, gathering possessions and achieving ambitions? Or is it about growing into a certain kind of person? Is it about the outer man or the inner man? In fact what is the “inner man”?
The inner being is the human spirit. It is here that God begins the work of recovery. Not in the realm of our feelings, but in what psychologists would call the realm of the subconscious, the deep-seated part of our life, the fundamental element of our nature.
The outer man – the physical body, and personal image and the things of the world and our outer life is “decaying” and passing away. Our outwardness, our achievements, our social status, our physical life is all going to end at the grave and pass away in weakness.

• 2Co 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
• 2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
• 2Co 3:16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
• 2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
• 2Co 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Eph 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
Eph 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; Eph 4:23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; Eph 4:24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul wants the Christians in Ephesus to be strengthened in their their “inner man”. He wants them to be fortified against the attacks, the difficulties, the disappointments and dangers that life hurls at them . He doesn’t tell them to strengthen themselves. Regardless of how strong they might be in themselves. He insists they need an infusion of strength from outside themselves, from the Lord.

He prays ardently that Jesus Christ, the true man, new man, will reside in them thoroughly that his presence within them will be their strength, and they will know it.

• The Holy Spirit will energise, revitalise and give power to committed and obedient Christians.
• The Christian life can only be lived in the power of the Spirit.
• Only the Holy Spirit can supply power for living, for growth, for full maturity of the believer.
• Not every believer is controlled, strengthened, empowered by the Holy Spirit, that’s why so many believers live in defeat.

Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him.

WE MUST DEPEND ON THE DAILY SANCTIFICATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BY THE WASHING OF THE WORD AS WE YIELD, SUBMIT AND SURRENDER TO THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST.

Decreasing of the frequency of sin, “Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfil the desires of the flesh.” How do I have less and less sin in my life? Walking in the Spirit. Walking is a continuous action, or an habitual lifestyle. It implies progress.

An increase of spiritual fruit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Gal.5:22-23). You will produce more and more fruit in your life, as you let Him take control, He produces the fruit of the Spirit, and it is His.

You will live form the inside out. Gal. 5:25 “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” If you live in the sphere of the Spirit you will be spiritual, if you live in the sphere of the flesh you will produce fleshy fruit. Your mental health is directly related to the Holy Spirit, you will have a healthier mind, healthier thoughts, and healthier habits.
God deals with the inward man instead of the outer man. Spiritual things are unveiled to this hidden man of the heart. The secret of the divine life is to learn how to live in the spirit realm, how to have one’s lamp filled with the oil of heaven.

• 1Co 2:12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
• 1Co 2:13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
• 1Co 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The only way to know God and the Lord Jesus Christ is through the spirit. God imparts His messages to your spirit. Until your spirit gains the mastery over your senses, your faith will never be strong and vigorous. Faith is a product of your spirit, just as wisdom is a product of your spirit; faith is developed and wisdom is enriched by meditation in the Word of God. It comes by acting on the Word. Every time you act on the Word, faith becomes stronger.

Ro 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you

Greater is he that is in you (i.e. your spiritual man, Christ Jesus), than he that is in the world” (1 Jn. 4:4). If the spiritual man is within us, we must surely win our spiritual conflict.
1Pe 3:4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.