Joseph Prince - How To Walk In The Spirit

Say this after me right now. Say: "I am a spirit. I have a soul and I live in a body". Amen. Your body is your house. You have a soul. You are not a soul. You are a spirit. Amen. This is the real you. You are a spirit. You have a soul, you live in a body. Amen. So each part has its own functions that God has given. Right? Of course your body has the five senses. You have the sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. So those are your bodily functions. Alright? In other words, anything that activates this is activating your body. The function of the soul is this: the mind, emotion, and will. So your emotions. Whether you feel joy or you feel elation, you feel peaceful or you feel depressed, you don't feel good and all that, it's just an emotion. Alright? It's all in your soul. It's not true in your spirit. Alright.

Now, emotions can affect your body. And it's the thing that we're gonna look at as well. But then look at the will. The will is actually in your soul. You decide in your soul. Okay? So these are the functions of the soul. And what are the functions of the spirit? The spirit is communion, intuition, and conscience. Now communion is communion with God. That's where you commune with God. You don't commune with God with your body. Okay? You don't say: "Oh, I feel God". It is true that sometimes you feel God. That's fine and good, but don't rely on it. Amen. You commune with the Father in spirit. "Those the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth". Alright? So that's where you commune with God. And it's the most intimate communion. Amen. Even bodily, if you sense Him. What's going to happen when you don't sense Him bodily? When the bodily sensations are no longer there? I know people cry sometimes in the tangible presence of God and you know, I want people to have experiences like this. And I've seen them and I'm not knocking that. Okay? But I don't want us to depend on those things.

God says: "We walk by faith in the spirit realm and not by sight". Okay? And then you can also contact God with your emotions. "God, I want to feel You, Lord". Feelings of felicity. You know: "I feel that You are near". No, no. Don't depend on that because your feelings can go up and down. Amen. But in your spirit man, you have communion with God. Just realize it. And that's why when you pray in tongues, you are actually praying in the spirit. Whereas praying with understanding is praying with your soul, with your mind. Your understanding. So the deepest part of communion with God is actually in your spirit. That's one of the functions. And then, intuition. Now, intuition. Even though people are dead spiritually but the word "dead" doesn't mean a cessation of all the spirit’s functions. Even for people who are not saved, they still have a certain amount of communion. There are times they sense God, alright, in the communion, but it's deadened. That’s a better word to use. It is deadened.

Like the Bible says, when talking about a certain widow that lives in sinful pleasure. "She is dead while she lives". The prodigal son. When he was living in sin, the father says, right: "My son was dead but is now alive". Similarly, we are cut off from God, in that sense but the spirit's functions are still there. You know, they lie dormant. But when we are born again, our spirit's functions come alive. Amen. In full force! Praise the Lord. They are resurrected. Hallelujah. So there are people of the world, even they can sense their intuition, long before their mind understands something. So that's why it's important for us to know that intuition. Amen. And the Bible tells us that for those who are born again, those who are believers in Christ, there's a new covenant established with them in Christ. Which is that God will lead you from within. Amen. God will put His Spirit in you and lead you from within. And how does God do that? Intuition. Amen.

If you are about to sign a business deal, you're contemplating about it, and there is unrest inside. Deep down, there is an unrest. You can't explain it and you don't know why. Listen. Stop, pause, and pray again before you rush into it. Amen. Don't rush. Listen to your spirit. Listen to what God is saying to you because your intuition is quicker than your mind and your body. Because it is in contact with the eternal Spirit, God's Spirit. And it knows things even before it happens. Praise God. So we must learn to live by our intuition. Amen. Parent by your intuition. Amen. Deal with your children by your intuition. Listen to what God tells you. Amen. You should even eat by your intuition. If your intuition says: "Enough". Your intuition says: "Okay, today you can eat more". Don't even go by: "I always eat less". Okay? If your body is telling you that, it is probably preparing you for some energy-depleting task ahead of you. But whatever it is, just follow the intuition on the inside and the more you practice that, just like with the muscles of the arm it becomes stronger and stronger. But it is spiritual strength. Hallelujah. Praise the name of Jesus.

And now we see: "Conscience". Conscience is the part where, actually the word "conscience" in the Greek is the same as "consciousness". Like the Bible tells us in Hebrews 10. "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those same sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered"? Why? "Because that the worshippers once purged, once cleansed, should have no more conscience of sins". In other words, if all those sacrifices of the Old Testament, the burnt offering, the sin offering, they bring a lamb as a sin offering, they bring a goat for a sin offering and those goats die in their place and they are forgiven for a day or a week. And that is how it was done. They offered daily even. The Bible tells us. As well as also yearly. Alright? Where they bring the bullock on the Day of Atonement. The Bible says all this is temporal. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. And God says that if those sacrifices had worked, the worshippers would have no more conscience of sins. Do you see that?

But "conscience" is the word "consciousness" in the Greek. And that's why the translations like ESV and the New King James version, puts it as: "Those who are once purified, once cleansed should no longer have any consciousness of sins". Now let's go back to Romans 8:10. It says: "And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness". Okay, the body is dead because of sin. Do we agree on that? Every time you experience depression, you are experiencing death in your soul. That’s a manifestation of death. Death manifests as depression. In your body, death can manifest as sickness, disease, constant fatigue. Alright? These are signs of weakness and death. Okay, friend. Do not be worried. In fact for a child of God, even though the body is dead because of sin, we still have the old body. When Jesus comes again, we're going to have a brand new body, right? Amen. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. He is going to transform our body like to his body. But until then, we have this body and the Bible says: "Even though Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. The Spirit is life because of righteousness".

Now that righteousness is not something that you do. It is who you are. Amen. You are the righteousness of God in Christ. Amen. Your Spirit is life because of righteousness. So the thing is this. If only I can get that life in my spirit to touch my mind. And then to flow into my body. How is that possible? The very next verse tells you: "But if the Spirit of Him," So although your body is dead because of sin and your spirit is life because of righteousness, "But if the Spirit," That's the Holy Spirit here. "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you". Hallelujah. Do you hear that? The Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, He indwells you, right? He's going to quicken and give life to your mortal body! Amen.

Now back to my chart again on the spirit, soul, and body. So what's happening right now. What do you have in your spirit? Righteousness. Can you see that? The Bible says: "Your Spirit is life because of righteousness". Now, what you want is the life in that spirit. Because you are righteous. You want that life to touch your soul, to permeate your soul. You want it not just to be contained in your spirit but to come out and touch your soul. And then after that, touch your body. That results in healing, health, wholeness. Amen. Renewal of youth and strength. Hallelujah. But notice it all starts with your spirit. Your spirit is born again. Your spirit is righteous, and God wants you to be conscious. Now, where are you conscious? You're conscious in your spirit, right? So exercise that by being conscious that you are the righteousness of God in Christ. And you do that by confessing. "I am the righteousness of God in Christ".

So the more you confess it, come to the place where you even feel it in your emotions. Amen. Because your emotion is your soul realm. Now you want that life, that life is already in you. That "zoe" life, that life from God is in you. If that life can touch your depression, that's the end of your depression. If that life can touch your sickness in your body. Amen. It will heal your body. Praise the Lord! So that life needs to come out from our spirit and into our bodies. But the problem is what? It says: "The Spirit is life because of righteousness". And we are not righteous-conscious. So your soul realm, your mind, back to verse 6 again. "To set the mind on the flesh is death". Notice that? "But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace". So your soul realm is the deciding factor. Are you going to focus on the fact that your spirit is, now I'm illustrating like I'm the soul, okay? The soul decides to set it’s focus on the flesh or to focus on the spirit. Your spirit, my friend is life! Because why? It is righteous. Amen. Because of righteousness.

Now, the Bible says: "Get your mind to focus on that". Listen to teachings. Amen. Renew your mind to who you really are. And when you set your mind on the Spirit, it is life and peace to your soulless realm. You're going to feel it even in your mind, in your emotions. Hallelujah. It is going to affect your will. Praise the Lord. So that depression. Where is it? Where is it found? It's in your soul, in your mind. Sickness is found in your body, but the life and peace can touch that depression and remove it and flood your emotions. Amen. Flood your soulish realm with life and peace. Hallelujah. So where's the point that there's a break? It is because we are not conscious. We are righteous because that life is in that righteousness. So the more you're conscious of it, you're setting your mind on the spirit. Guess what? The life comes out and touches your mind. And then when your mind is touched, it goes further and touches your body. That's when you are healed. Hallelujah. Hey! I preached myself happy.