Okay. Okay, good morning everyone and welcome to BC 214, our course on developing the human spirit. Can somebody please pray and we will start. Father God, we thank you for this day. Thank you for this time. You help us, you guide us by your Holy Spirit. You strengthen our inner man God. You develop our spirit in our spirit God. We surrender everything into your hand God to be his class into your hand in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Okay, so I hope Chirah will join the class back. For some reason when the recording starts sometimes it pushes somebody off. I'm not sure why that happens. All right, let's continue from where we stopped last week. We were talking about analogies of the human spirit. Sorry, I'm just scrolling through the notes here. Less number four, what the human spirit looks like. So these are pictures or representations of the human spirit and we're just going to look at them quickly today. So we understand, regain some insight about what our spirit is like. So in scripture, the heart or the spirit is referred to as the house, as a house. So we have to think my spirit is like a house. So we see some examples in Genesis four, verse seven. This is very beginning, Cain and Abel. Cain is angry with his brother, Abel. So if you look at Genesis four and verse seven, God tells Cain, so Cain is angry and then he says in verse seven, God speaks to Cain and says, if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. So this is just before Cain goes and kills Abel.  Sin is at your door. Which door? It is not like the physical house door, but it's the door of his heart. Sin is there, but you must dominate it. You must rule over it. So we see one picture there. Matthew 12, another picture of the heart or the spirit like a house. Jesus is talking about deliverance and casting out demons here. In Matthew 12, 29, he says, how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, then he will plunder his house. And then verses 43 to 45, somebody could read it. Matthew chapter 12 verse 43 to 45. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest and finds none. Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation? Jesus is talking about deliverance. Casting out of evil spirits. And notice he's verse 44, the spirit is saying, I will return to my house. How? Who's not? The spirit is claiming ownership. Actually, it's a human being, right? It's been cast out of the person. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, human being, going out. But the spirit is saying, I go back to my house. And he's saying, the house is cleaner, empty, it's nicely kept. He says he brings seven more guests, come, come, come. More wicked, they come and dwell. But notice how the spirits are treating this human person. And then you look at your first current in 316. You look at the first current in 316. Paul is writing to believers. And we know the scripture. And we can read it in 316. 1 Corinthians 316. Don't you know that you yourself are the God's temple and that God's spirit lives in you? Revelation 3 verse 20. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. In habit, somebody could say that it's actually meant for God. It is also a place of communion. Because Jesus said, I will come and I will dine. I will have food with you. I will commune with you. So the house, the spirit, is a dwelling place. So correctly, the spirit is supposed to be a dwelling place of God. God should come and dwell there and it should be a place where we commune with God in the spirit. You understand it, right? Like house. Think of what a house will invite people, companies come, talk, have fellowship to talk to people. So that's your spirit. But if that's not a place where God is dwelling, then sin is trying to enter. Unclean spirits are trying to come. They want to come and dwell. So your spirit is a place. So we just talked about believers perspective. Believers perspective and spirit is where God dwells. Now I have to keep it clean. I have to keep it holy. Don't let any evil thing come and dwell. Right? No jealousy, no hatred, anger, bitterness.   What does all this talk about? Nothing running in your house. What is it? Keep your house clean. Probably not that I have a little bitterness towards that person. Lord, I have little anger towards that person. Please forgive me. No, no, clean, clean, clean. So when you're saying God wants to come and dwell here, don't let all these things come. And it's a place when you commune with God. You know, you can have a lot of God in your spirits. So that is one picture. Second picture. Let's read that. Problems 20, 27 and then some 80. Problems 20. I don't know something. Problems 20 and 7. Problems 20 and Problems 27. The spirit of a man is the lamb of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart. And let's read Psalm 18, 28. Complete that. Put that together. Psalm 18, 28. For you will light my lamb. The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. David said, you will light my lamb. So our spirit is like the lamb and God will light it. And God uses it to search us. So the lamb will think about lamb. Of course, you know, the lamb is lit, it will give light. And if you have light, it gives you visibility. You can see when you go how to take care of it. So first, if you think about that, the spirit of man being a lamb, which God lights, it tells us that God gives us light, meaning revelation, guidance, instruction that we need in our spirits. Okay, God will light my lamb. So when I need light, when I need guidance, when I need revelation, where will it come?  God will give you light there. So when you say God will light my lamb, you can imagine like this. Suppose you say, oh God, I need your guidance. Where will it come? Like for example, a word comes into your spirit. That is God lighting your lamb. He's giving you guidance there. Okay, now you do like this. So the Lord will light my lamb. But Proverbs also says that God uses it to search me. So not only God gives me guidance and gives us revelation and gives us instruction there, but he also searches us. He really wants to look at it. He looks there, searches us. Like, you know, how to say, search me, oh God, it works really inside. And so God will search. He probably wants to look at it. That's why he puts in the lamb. So the lamb speaks of the Holy Spirit. It speaks of the fact that God gives us light. He gives us instruction, revelation, all of that in our spirit. Second, it speaks of God using our spirit to really search us. Another picture, Matthew 12, is a place of deposit. Like, you know, in today's language, we'll say bank deposit there, then you take out the deposit. So it's like a place of deposit. But of course, you know, in Bible times, they didn't use that language for bank. But Matthew 12, 34, 35, you see Jesus talking about it as a place of treasure. Let's read it. Somebody could read it. Matthew 12, 34, 35. Matthew chapter 12, verse 34, verse 35. Dude of vipers, how can you be evil? Speak good things. For out of abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man out of good treasure of his heart brings forth good things.  He's talking about the heart. And then with reference to the heart, he's talking about what treasure you have, what you have deposited in your heart. If in your heart there is good deposit, you bring out good things. If in your heart you have evil or bank deposit, you bring out bad things. So heart is a place of deposit.  So what the food do that? So heart is a place of deposit. It's like a storage place of deposit. It's a treasure. Usually treasure means something valuable you put in the bank, but here you're putting in your heart. What you put there will come out in your life. So we must intentionally put good things there with the word of God there. And that's what we'll do. We can figure it out. Problems 4 uses a different picture. It talks about the heart as a spring. That means a place where some things flow out. Problems 4 versus 23. My son, give attention to my words, incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those who find them and help to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence for out of its spring the issues of life. God is saying in verse 21, keep my words in your heart. Verse 23, guard your heart because from it spring the issues of life. And it comes out. From it comes the issues of life. The force says that shape your life. So the heart is like a spring. The place where something comes out of the source says put my word in your heart and protect your heart. Because from there the sources are shaping your life. What happens in the life of the person? Keep your heart clean. If you put your heart in the people who want to word it in your heart, if you have drawn all of these presents and you spit it, the words, God's presence and God's power that's going to shape it. That's what we come out of here. Into your heart. The force of life comes out. Another picture is that of the womb. Place where conception takes place and from which we give birth. John 7 verses 30, 79, 39. Virginia is talking about the work of a spirit. But notice what he says about the spirit. John 7. On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone does, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive for the holy spirit was not at given because Jesus was not a glorified. So here Jesus is talking about the work of God and then he says, and I'm just focusing on one point here, he says, he who believes, verse 38, he who believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. So that when you look up at the Greek word heart, which is translated heart, one of the meanings of that word is the womb. Out of your womb, they come out of this thing, the spring of. And here he's talking about the flow of rivers of living water, which is very much like a spring. But what I found very interesting was the Greek word, like a womb, the place where you're giving birth to something.  That's the heart. So we didn't think about that, that my spirit is the place where I give birth to the things of the heart. And the Holy Spirit himself is being released from my spirit, out of my innermost, the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit. So if you think about that picture of the heart being a womb, it means that's where the conception takes place, God gives you ideas, he gives you vision. And then as that vision grows in you, in your heart, at the right time, how do you enable you to release it? At least that's what it's called. A few more things, ground, that means it's like a land from that. We know this, Matthew 13, 19, like a soil or the place where you sow the seed, Matthew 13. Matthew 13, 19, 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the big one comes and snitch away what was shown in his heart. This is he who received by the wayside. The farmer is going to sow the seed, this is the sowing seed on the ground. The heart is like a ground. The condition of the heart will then determine what happens with the seed. So God's word is seed, it is sown in our hearts. Our heart is a ground, that means we can intentionally sow seed and receive harvest. Like the farmer, he wants a harvest, whatever, the crop is growing, what does he do? He sows the seed of that crop and then at the right time, he receives the harvest. So you and I can sow the seed, God's word, into our hearts and then receive the harvest. So we intentionally understand this is how the Spirit is. If I sow the seed, because you take the scripture, you sow it into your heart, you begin to reap that kind of harvest. Two more things. Tablets of places where you write something. Second Corinthians 3 verse 3. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Place where you write, compares it to a letter and a tablet stone. That means we can actually, so basically Paul in this context is saying, by the Holy Spirit, I have written into your heart the truth of God, the work of God has taken place in their heart. So the human spirit is like that. In the context of ministry, when you're ministering to people, you are actually writing into their hearts, and these things will remain in their lives, for the rest of their lives, the truth that you put into their hearts, whatever you impart to them in the Spirit, it will remain with them for the rest of their lives. So Paul is telling, I've been able to write into your heart by the Holy Spirit.  Second Timothy 2, 21. Can we read it? Yeah. Second Timothy 2, verse 21. If a man cleanses himself from the later, he will be an instrument for noble purpose, made wholly useful to the master and prepared to do any good work. It will be a vessel but instrument, but we see here in other places that we are vessels. So we do sing the song, you are the porter, I am the clay, I am a vessel. So vessel is a container. Here Paul is having the picture of very nice costly vessels made of gold and silver, and then you have regular vessels, earthenware. So he is saying, see, earthenware vessels, but where these very vessels that are gold and silver, they are kept for special use, noble, very special masters, very proud, very special use. So he says, if we purify ourselves, we will be like the vessels that God can use. The idea is that we become instruments of God ministering something to the people. So we contain, we carry something and through us, God is giving it to the people. So vessels that God can use or instruments God can use. I want to ask one question. What is the difference between a vessel and us? So we are like vessels, our spirit is like vessels. What is one difference that you can think of? That is true. So they are inanimate, we are human. But what does that mean? So that what resulting is what? Normal literal vessels, they can't fill or they can't empty themselves by our own. But with us, it's in our hands that we can fill ourselves or we can empty ourselves by our own. So the point that what essentially you said that, but what I was looking for is vessels, objects, they don't have a will. Whereas we have a will, pre will, which is kind of what you said is that it's in the converts. So that's the difference. So when we say that what the potter, I am the clay, it is true in one sense. God is shaping us. Now that, that remember, there is also a big difference. The clay that is sitting on the wheel, the potter is doing, the clay can't say, I don't want to be shaped. Stop. Stop your work now. But for us human beings, sometimes we can tell God, God, I don't, I'm going, if you don't cooperate. Right. So that is a big difference. Yes, God is shaping us, God is molding us, but we are not inanimate things that, that, you know, God will work in us to the extent of our cooperation, as we need our will to be aligned with, that's a big difference, right. So keep that in mind. So what we've done now is we looked at different pictures and we had to think about, so this is what the human spirit looks like. Therefore, when we engage with God, when we engage with the things of God, understand, God, come in and Lord, I really want to fellowship with you. You're saying, Lord, I'm a house, my spirit is a house, come and fellowship with me. When you take the word of God, put it into your heart. Then you're saying your heart is a treasure. You want to put good treasure in your heart is a womb. You want to give birth to the things of God from your spirit. Your heart's good ground.  You're using it for developing your own spirit. Then you realize your spirit is like a vessel. You say, Lord, fill me, I want more. So the capacity of the vessel, earth, physical vessel is limited. The capacity of the human spirit is unlimited. So some people say, how you can say, God, I want more of you because two things, God is infinite. Second, your spirit doesn't have finite capacity. Your human spirit has infinite capacity as much as you want. You're hungry and thirst. You want some more, some more you can have. You can have some more. So it's not like, oh, I only, if you can only, your spirit can only have so much. No, the human spirit capacity of the spirit is limitless. So that's what we can pray and say, God, I want more of you. If you look at a vessel, it's only so much. The human spirit, there's no, so Paul is saying, I want you to be strengthened by his spirit in the inner man. So how much strength you want that you keep throwing, you keep asking for more. So you understand this revelation of the human spirit. It is like the soul. Even if things around you are not going well, don't worry, you just keep your spirit clean and you fill your spirit with the things of God, the life will change. Why?  So around you, it can be all kinds of forces. It's okay. I'm not worried about that because what shapes my life is coming from my heart. It is not coming from there or here or there. So if I put the word of God in and I'm depending on the power of the Holy Spirit, that is what is going to shape my life and that is more powerful than any other force around me. So you understand this is how the human spirit is. So intentionally you are working with this understanding, the revelation that we have in Scripture about the human spirit. With that revelation, you're building on it, intentionally you're building on it. So let's introduce our next chapter, chapter 5. Any questions before we go to chapter 5? What is the meaning of an yielded vessel? A yielded vessel is a surrendered vessel. That means I bring, I recognize that as a vessel, I have a free will and I bring my free will to be submitted to God. That means I'm going to be aligned to God and I'm going to be obedient to God. That's a yielded vessel. A vessel that is surrendered to God. Yeah, whatever you say I'll do and I want to do what you want me to do. That's a yielded vessel. Yeah, any questions? Let's move to the lesson 5. Let's get started. We want to understand a little bit about the human spirit and its interactions with the spiritual realm. So remember one of the primary purposes of the spirit is to interact with the spiritual realm. The body helps us interact with the natural realm. Spirit interacts with the unseen realm, the spiritual realm. So we must understand that God works with and through in and through the human spirits. So when God works with us, right?  But normally his first place of contact or interaction with us is in the spirit. God is spirit. He's created us as spirit beings. So his first point of interaction is spirit to spirit. Yes, he can touch our soul and yes, he can touch our body. Sometimes we feel the presence of God or sometimes his presence is so overwhelming emotionally. We respond, we feel joy, we cry, all those things happening. Yeah, it's all good. But normally the first point of interactions with the spirit. And so we need to learn to listen to the spirit, the Holy Spirit working in our spirit. It is our spirit, the spirit of man, which is in him that knows all things concerning us because that is the place that God gives revelation, first river. In our spirit, the spirit of God is interacting. He gives us revelation. So it is in the spirit, in your own human spirit, that's the place where you're going to know the things, your own things, things about yourself, about your future, about God's plan, God's purpose. So you always look, learn to look into your spirit. I use this phrase, look into your spirit. What does that mean? It means, what am I getting in my spirit? So when you have to make decisions, learn to look into your spirit. What is happening in my spirit? Do I feel peaceful about this? Yes, we use our mind, of course, God has given us some mind to use it, but start with the spirit because your human spirit actually knows the things about you because that is the place that the spirit of God is interacting, is giving revelation, is giving instruction. So first place to look at what is happening in your spirit, the feeling of, do I feel okay? What should I do? And then of course, you process it with your mind. Your mind also processes other information that is good, but start with your spirit. Let's look at one scripture, Romans chapter 8 verse 14 to 16. Romans chapter 8 was 14 to 16.  The spirit himself testify with our spirit that we are God's children. Telling us a lot about what the Holy Spirit is doing in our spirit. Verse 14, he's saying, we are led by the spirit of God. So this is one thing about the sons of God. What about the children of God? Sons of God means God's people, God's children. God's children are led by the spirit of God. So we must, I'm led by this.  And as part of that verse 15, what does he do? It is the Holy Spirit. He's not the spirit of slavery. So Paul is making clear, hey, the Holy Spirit is not the spirit that makes us like slaves, fearful of God. It's not like that. Holy Spirit is the spirit of adoption. He's the one who's made us sons and daughters of God. So he's the one who's helping us cry above Father. That means because of the Holy Spirit in us, we are adopted, we are brought into God's family, and we have the sense of belonging and we call God our God. So Holy Spirit leads us. Holy Spirit brings us into God's family. He enables us to relate to God as Father, great of adoption, sonship, great of belonging. And you feel like a part of God's family. God is your Father, a relationship with you. And verse 16, the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are gods. He bears witness. The word bear witness, it means he gives testimony like bearing witness, giving testimony, is bringing conviction that we are gods. So where is the Holy Spirit bearing witness? The Spirit bears witness with our spirit. That means there's an interaction happening from the whole, between the Holy Spirit and your human spirit. And in your spirit, he's bearing witness. He's testifying. He is giving the conviction that you are a kind of God. Therefore you can call our Father. And if he's giving that conviction in the Spirit, then we can go back to our spirit and say, well, it's in the Spirit that the Holy Spirit is going to lead me, going to guide me. So the Holy Spirit is giving witness with my spirit. He's also giving guidance with my spirit, within my spirit. He's leading me in my spirit. So the Spirit bears witness with our spirit. So we must train ourselves to learn to listen to the Holy. What is the Holy Spirit? What is the leading in my spirit? Or what is the witness in my spirit? What is the conviction in my spirit, which the Holy Spirit is giving me? That is the way he's going to lead me. So you listen. In your spirit, learn to listen. All right. Now there is a question on the probably question, please. Pastor, when we were talking about all leading by the Spirit, and our spirit bears witness, sometimes maybe it happens that we feel in our spirit that we are led to do something. And when you do it, it doesn't turn out to be a positive outcome. But still we feel like, oh, this is what we are led to do. So in those kind of scenarios or how do we differentiate between it is our own, you know, our own thinking or our own leading, or it is actually genuinely led by the spirit. Do we take a step and we will come to know or is there any? Okay, I got your question. Good question. So all of us have this problem or face this problem, right? To differentiate or distinguish between our soul and our own spirit. Soul and spirit are very close. We refer to it as the inner man. So sometimes we feel something or we have a thought. We have an idea. Then the question is, is it from my spirit? Or is it my own soul, my own mind, will and emotion giving that feeling or that idea? How do we separate, distinguish? So this is where the word of God comes in. So very quickly I mentioned Hebrews 4 and verse 12. We know that verse. It says, the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Piers sing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So the word of God is the one that can pierce and distinguish soul and spirit. And it is a discerner of thoughts and intents that come from the heart. It is the one that can really discern, distinguish this thought, this inspiration, intent is coming from my heart. It is what will discern. So this is the key. If we, and I'll just summarize it very quickly, if we fill ourselves with the word of God and we will be able to distinguish because the word of God is what helps us distinguish between spirit and soul. So be established in the word, ground yourself in the word. So then the moment something comes up, there is the word in you which helps you distinguish spirit and soul. And it's the word in you that will discern, will clearly see thought and intent that is coming from the heart. You'll know, hey, this is my soul, my own, let it go. Okay, this is from the Holy Spirit. So that's the first thing is as we fill ourselves with the word. The second thing is a more practical thing which is the more we learn to listen, the more we become familiar. What is from the Holy Spirit and what is from our own soul. So the way we do it is practice, meaning you get a thought, an idea, you do it and you become more and more, it becomes more clear what is from the Spirit. So it's more practice, you're getting used to it.  And the second time, you're not sure. This person sounds like the other person. So you're not sure. Oh, okay. Third time, you recognize the voice. Oh, it is so and so. You come to recognize that voice. So you'll get to recognize the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Holy Spirit. So second example would be practice, the more we learn to do this. And I think along with that is just learning to subdue all other voices so that what comes in our spirit becomes the loudest.  Superfast computers, working, working, working, lots of noises coming, lots of noise going on in our minds. And so what happens? It is drowning out voice of the witness of the Spirit. Because all these things happen. So what happens? The Bible says be still and know that I am God. So we calm down. So especially when I want to make important decisions, I go pray. Sometimes it takes one hour to ask to pray. Why calm down the mind? Relax, be quiet for some time. Don't get busy. I need to calm down. Leave everything out. Don't touch the phone. So many things, so many distractions, busy things. Calm down. Be still. Then you can know. Be still and know. So best thing is try to be still all the time. Be in a calm disposition all the time. Yes, busy things, a lot of things are happening, lots of things are going on. But you stay calm. Be still all the time. So then it makes it easy to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. Be still and know. So these are just some practical things. But most importantly, it would be putting God's Word in, right? And yeah, if we make mistakes, we learn from those mistakes and say, you know, I try to do better next time. I hope those few thoughts help. Okay, let's close for today. It's already time. We'll continue this next week. I try to practice these things that we've been learning, right, to develop our Spirit. Somebody could pray and we'll close please. Father, we thank you. And once again, we come to your presence, Lord. Thank you for what we have learned through this subject, Lord. Help us to understand deeply, Lord Jesus, what we learned. We could apply Father in our Spirit, Lord Jesus. Thank you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.