Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
So what is our spirit? In order to answer that question we need to see exactly where man’s spirit originates, which means that we need to go back to the beginning when God created man to see how the spirit of man came to be. As quoted in the above passage of scripture we see that God first formed the body of man i.e. the outward man, from the dust of the ground. We then see that God, who is Spirit (John 4:24), breathed man’s spirit into existence through His breath of life. And so we see that man is primarily a spirit being, for God created man in His image and according to His likeness (Genesis 1:26). As man’s spirit entered his body the body of man came alive, for the spirit gives life to the body (James 2:26). This is the moment that man’s heart began to beat for the first time, his blood began to flow through his veins, and his lungs began to breathe air for the first time. And for the first time man’s mind began to reason and experience emotions, for God was able to converse with Adam from the moment He created him (Genesis 2:15-16). We also know that the will of man also came into being at that time, for God had given Adam the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17), and initially Adam obeyed the command of God as an act of his free will. And so we see that man became a living being because of the spirit of man that God imparted to him.
Numbers 16:20-22 “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, (21) "Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment." (22) Then they fell on their faces, and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and You be angry with all the congregation?”
Every human being born into this world is primarily a spirit being. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the prophet Moses reveals to us that God is the God of the spirits of men. But I want you to notice that Moses refers the spirits of all flesh. When he refers to all flesh he is talking about men’s physical bodies, and he is in effect saying that every physical body has a spirit living on the inside of that body. Mankind knows a fair amount about the body, mind, will and even conscience of man, but mankind knows little or nothing about the spirit of man, which is actually quite astounding considering the fact that the spirit of man is where the life of man emanates from. And so this series is designed to inform us about the most important part of man, i.e. our spirit.
Hebrews 12:9 “Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?”
Just as when God created Adam, the spirits of all men come directly from God, for the passage of scripture quoted above clearly reveals to us that God is the Father of spirits. The spirits that God is the Father of are the spirits of men, for in the context of this passage of scripture the Holy Spirit is teaching us as believers to be in subjection to God our Father. And so, because the spirits of men come directly from God, the spirits of all men have the divine nature of God when they are born into the earth (John 1:8-9). Sadly, although the spirits of all men start out having the nature of God, as we will see in this series, there comes a time when the nature of the spirits of men change and they no longer reflect the nature of God. Nevertheless when men are initially born into the earth their spirits come directly from God and thus have the nature of God.
Michael E.B. Maher
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