Becoming One with The Holy Spirit
"He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17)
I believe it is the will of God that every believer is joined to the Lord in one spirit.
This scripture implies that in order to be joined to the Lord in one spirit a process must take place. The verse does not state that, “We are joined to the Lord in one spirit, as if already completed, but states, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Implying that something needs to be done before joining of one spirit can be accomplished.
If I was to say to someone “He that enters into that shop shall be given a prize”. If that person decides not to enter that shop, then we could rightfully conclude that he wouldn’t be eligible to receive that prize. However, if that individual decided to enter the shop, then he would be entitled to receive that prize. So, to receive the prize action is required beforehand.
The above scripture also requires action on the part of the individuals involved. Let’s say, we make a decision to be joined to the Lord. How would we go about it? What steps would need to be taken in order to be joined to the Lord in one spirit?
Some may say that as soon as a person becomes born again; they are automatically one with the spirit of the Lord but is that really the case?
Before we were born again our spirit was dead (Ephesian 2:1,5), no life in it, dormant and inactive. Every deaf person I have ever met have a pair of ears, it’s just that their ears for whatever reason are not functioning and they cannot hear - that was the situation with our spirit before being born again. Our spirit was sedentary and not functional because it was dead.
However, when we confessed our sins unto the Lord and truly repented from our heart, asking for forgiveness for our sinful life, we became born again and the Spirit of Christ entered into us, looked upon our dead inactive spirit and made our spirit alive and started speaking to our spirit. (Ephesian 2:1,5)
It’s remarkable! “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God”. (Romans 8:16)
Originally, I was afraid to give my life to the Lord, I was afraid of the unknown, the change, what would my friends think? Most of all I thought, I wouldn’t be able to maintain the Christian lifestyle. I was the type of person that was either in or out, I wasn’t an in-between type of guy and whatever I committed myself to do, I gave 100%, whether for good or bad and I felt I didn’t have the ability to give 100% to God and to live the Christian life.
I told myself that I didn’t want to waste God’s time, but at the same time I knew this was the right decision for me to make, I was in mental turmoil, half of me wanted to give my life to the Lord and the other half didn’t want to take the risk.
I give thanks to God, as he was very patient with me and He kept telling me in many different ways that I should trust Him and step out in faith and I would see what He would do in my life and I am so grateful and thankful that I made the right choice because I am witnessing God doing some great and marvellous things in my life that i could never have imagined.
When I finally stepped out in faith and confessed my sins, repented and invited the Holy Spirit into my heart, I didn’t really know what to expect but I thought at least some sort of supernatural experience would take place either in my spirit, soul or body, something I would feel but there was nothing, no tangible change and I felt the exact same.
I found this a bit strange and called the helpline on Premier Radio Station, a lady answered my call and I explained to her that I had just repented of my sins, asked for forgiveness and invited the Holy Spirit to come into my heart but I still felt the same.
Bless her, she did her best to tell me that a change had been taken place leading up to my conversion, which was true, however, I discovered years later that a big change took place in my spirit that I was unaware of, and at the time of my conversion the Spirit of Christ entered into me, looked at my inactive, dormant and dead spirit and quickened it and made it alive. He spoke to my spirit and all this was happening inside of me without me having any knowledge of it.
I was used to living my life by ‘feelings’ and if I didn’t feel something then as far as I was concerned it didn’t happen. Right? So, I thought, many Christians operate this way, they act and react according to how they feel. This is not walking in the spirit but walking by feelings. Our feelings can never impact the spiritual realm but the spiritual realm can impact our feelings.
If you read the story of Hannah in (1 Samuel 1:1-18), you will see at one point Hannah was being governed by her feelings (emotions), she was having what we would call a ‘pity party’. ‘Poor me, myself and I’, don’t get me wrong, it was a very difficult and challenging situation she was facing, my heart went out to her when I read the story. However, her situation and the two ways she responded to it is very insightful.
While in that ‘pity party’ mode she could never impact the spiritual realm and change her situation but as soon as she came out of the realm of ‘feelings’ and moved in the spiritual realm by ‘faith’ and sought the Lord, her situation changed.
Brothers and sisters, this is a crucial lesson for us all to embrace and to live by. It’s the spiritual realm that controls the physical realm and not the physical controlling the spiritual. So, if a person really wants to see big and massive changes in their lives and others they must become spiritual.
When a believer becomes born again, this is not the joining process (1 Cor. 6:17) and believers can actually live their lives that way without joining or become one with the Spirit of the Lord.
Jesus stated in (John 15:4) “Abide in Me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me”. (Psalm 91) says “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”. So, its possible to abide or divide.
The Greek meaning for abide, is to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy. Jesus goes on to say that we cannot bear any fruit if we do not abide (remain) in him, we can do things but it will be in vain unfruitful (Psalms 127:1).
However, the word ‘joined’ as stated in 1 Cor. 6:17 has a deeper meaning. In the Greek the word means, ‘to glue, to stick and cleave’.
I know when I attempt to glue something together, I end up holding it in place for a while until it binds together and is permanently fastened, if I move too quickly the bond will easily be broken.
Is it not plausible to say that we believers also need to abide long enough in the Spirit of Christ for us to bind and be glued permanently and become one with the Holy Spirit?
Many may not realise that the Bible is full of processes and procedures and if not followed then the process will not be completed and the result not seen.
For instance, the Bible states, “draw near to God, and he will draw near to you”. (James 4:8). If a person does not draw near to God, then God will not draw near to that person. It’s as simple as that, it’s a procedure that we all need to follow and adhere to.
Also, if we need to draw near to God, does this not prove that the oneness has not yet taken place? Otherwise, why would we need to draw close to God if we were already one with Him? In Psalms 91 it states, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
The secret place is where our spirit resides, as its undetectable, man has no radar or ultra sound scans to detect the spirit because it is in a secret invisible place.
So, if there is no dwelling, then there is no shadow of the almighty and all the benefits that comes with dwelling under the Almighty will not be experienced by the non-dwellers or non-abiders.
This is of paramount importance because becoming one with the Spirit of the Lord means moving from being ordinary to becoming superordinary. I think there are too many ordinary believers out there and this is not God's intention for our lives.
If you look at a pair of gloves, they have the appearance of a hand but without any active life in them, they are lifeless. However, once our hands are joined to those gloves, they become alive and active and can do the things that our hands can do. Once we are joined to the Lord, we too will be active and alive to do the things that Jesus did (John 14:12, 1 John 4:17).
Brothers and sisters, God wants to use each and every believer, much more than we can think or even imagine (Ephesian 3:20). He wants to give us an abundant life and part of that abundance is becoming one with Him. (John 10:10). This is remarkable, that the creator of the universe wants to become one with us, fastened together, inseparable, this is intimacy of the highest kind.
Saints, the world doesn’t need religion but it certainly needs God’s provision, and God wants to demonstrate that provision through us. It is estimated that at the time when Jesus walked the earth, the world population was approximately between 150 - 300 million people. Now there are over 8 billion people, so that means there are more sick people around, more people needing deliverance and more people needing to hear the gospel and to receive salvation.
Jesus impacted the people around Him through the supernatural power of God and we need to do the same but if we are not one with Him then the impact will be very minimal as we are sadly seeing now.
When a person becomes one with the Spirit of the Lord, that person will be greatly impacted by the Lord and that person will greatly impact the world because when the world sees that person, they will actually see God in that person and God operating mightily through that individual. (Colossians 3:3)
You just have to look back in history to see great men and women of God being used mightily by God. These individuals became one with the spirit of the Lord and great exploits were achieved because they were one with the Spirit of Christ.
My sincere prayer and hope is that you will also do the same.