The Spirit Within and The Spirit Upon

Welcome to another Tuesday of studying the bible with me. Hope you’re having a great week. Let’s see what we have today:

The Spirit within and the spirit upon

[The Spirit within is the Indwelling of the Spirit And The Spirit Upon is the Infilling of the Spirit]

There is a confusion in the body of Christ on how the Holy ghost functions.

Most times we’re confused, other times we don’t know what terms to use.

You know, in churches we pray ‘Holy spirit come into my life’ and we say one of the signs the Holy ghost has come is we start speaking in tongues.

So we are basically saying you have to speak in tongues when you have the Holy ghost or we’re saying if you see a person who doesn’t speak in tongues then they don’t have the Holy ghost; which is wrong.

A Christian can be a Christian and not speak in tongues. It is not speaking in tongues that makes a person a Christian.

There is something called ‘The spirit within and the spirit upon’ or ‘The indwelling and Infilling of the Holy ghost’.

Now, in the beginning, God had a plan.

Once SALVATION is clear to your mind, once you know what God came to accomplish for man, you’d also understand the spirit within and the spirit upon.

Salvation is the most important knowledge every believer should have. A believer that does not understand salvation but claims to understand everything else, understands those things wrongly.

God had a plan from the beginning and the book of Titus helps us understand what it is;

Titus 1:1-2 KJV

(1) Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;

[2] In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

The bible says in vs 2 that God before the world began promised that he’d give man eternal life.

So, God’s plan from the beginning was that man would receive eternal life.

2 Timothy 1:1 KJV

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,

You’d see here the promise of life.

So, before the world began, God already knew what he was going to do with man. He knew he was going to give man eternal life. All God did in creation was to prepare a place for man.

John 1:1 KJV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The old testament was written in the Hebrew language; and the new testament was written in Greek language.

So, at times for us to understand certain words in the English translated bible, we need to refer to the old manuscript. It helps us see how words were used in their contexts when the bible was originally written.

In the Greek; the word ‘WORD’ in ‘IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD’ is the word ‘LOGOS’. ‘LOGOS’ means an utterance, a spoken word, an intention, a word that is uttered or spoken.

So, when the bible said ‘In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, it wasn’t talking about the bible.

Let’s assume it was talking about the bible, and we try substituting the word ‘WORD’ for ‘BIBLE’

‘In the beginning was the bible…’

How does it sound? Ridiculous I guess.

If you read John 1:1-5, 14, replacing the word ‘WORD’ with ‘BIBLE’ you’d realise how much it doesn’t fit.

The word here doesn’t talk about Genesis to Revelation. Genesis to Revelation are eternal things written with mortal ink. So, when reading the bible, we should know they are eternal things written to mortal men to read and comprehend with their mortal mind.

God decided to compile the bible together so we can read and understand what he wants us to understand.

The word ‘WORD’ in John 1:1 does not refer to the bible neither does it refer to God promising material wealth but rather refers to ‘God’s Intention’.

‘In the beginning was God’s intention…’ and don’t forget that the intention of God is towards man.

Remember Titus 1:2

So, John 1:1 is simply telling us ‘In the beginning, God had an intention for man and that intention was with God. And that intention was God.’

Follow me as we look at what these means;

Now, if you observe, John was careful not to use the word ‘IT’, because the intention of God was living. It was Life.

Whenever you see the word ‘Eternal Life’, see a being, not an object or a non-living thing.

In Genesis 1:26 KJV

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

When we see this, we’d think God wanted to make men who looked like him in their physical appearance; if that was so, then all of us should look alike once we give our lives to Christ right?

So what exactly is God’s image?

Colossians 1:12-14 KJV

[12]Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

[13] Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

[14] In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

And Vs 15 talks about the image of the invisible God.

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Looking at it from vs 12, who would that image be?

Jesus

So, Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

God was simply saying in Genesis 1:26 that he wants to make Man like Jesus.

(I believe we know that Man is for male and female. It is like a group word for both genders)

God never had many plans for Man. The only plan or intention he had is eternal life. And today, the eternal life is Jesus.

Jesus is the eternal life God wanted to make man.

You might wonder if Jesus had existed in heaven before he came to earth; but remember in our last study we talked about ‘The Trinity’, and we were able to explain that the Trinity are not three different gods but ONE.

The Trinity is simply God performing three roles to achieve redemption for man. You can check the teaching here.

So, Jesus, God, and the Holy spirit existed in Genesis 1:26

Jesus, God, and the Holy spirit were the ones speaking ‘Let us make man in our image’.

A quick recap;

The plan God has for man is to give Man eternal life and we have seen that the Eternal life God had for man which was his intention in (John 1) is making man in God’s image (Gen 1:26) and we see that God’s image is Christ Jesus.

Is this image of God separate from God himself?

Not at all.

The image of God is God himself.

So if God is saying He wants to make man in his image then God is simply saying ‘ I want to make man myself’.

‘I want to give man myself’.

God does not have an image carved somewhere that he wants to make man like.

No. rather, because the image of God is God himself, from what we have seen so far;

God wants to make man like himself.

What does this mean?

It means God’s intention was to give man himself.

Become one with man.

That when angels see man and God, man will look exactly like God in spirituality, glory etc.

That is Eternal Life.

So in Genesis 1:27, does this mean God accomplished it? No.

Why?

Because the Old testament is full of the prophesies of God’s plan for man, and Genesis 1:26-27 is one of them.

Gen 1:26 was a prophecy of God’s intention.
Gen 1:27 was a prophecy of God fulfilling it.

So, how will man become God? And has man become like God?

We will see that Next week.

Remember, what led us into all this study? The Spirit within and the Spirit upon; which can also be called The Infilling and the Indwelling of the spirit.

If you follow through with this study, by the time we get to explain ‘The spirit within and the spirit upon,’ you will be able to understand what it is all about and why you don’t need to tell God to fill you with the Holy spirit you already have as a Christian.

I’m sure you learnt a thing or two, because I also did. The word of God is beautiful.