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How To Be Spiritual

Ben Stuart

6 Days

How Does True Spirituality Begin?

Day 2

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Today is day two of How to Be Spiritual. Last time, we talked about how God wants us to have communion with the spirit of God. Ben Stuart now shares how we need to be born again in order to be spiritual.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Ezekiel 36:26-27

Putting your faith in Jesus is not about God forgiving your sins but putting sin out of the way in order for the intimate, animating spirit of God to return.

How does true spirituality begin? By putting your faith in God’s son, Jesus. That’s your challenge here. Have you put your faith in Jesus?

Summary

The Spirit is God's intimate, animating presence that brings us into communion with Him.

Genesis 3 outlines our first break with God that came in the Garden. Adam and Eve believed the lie that in order to enjoy life truly they would have to break with the Author of life. The whole world became corrupted, and God told Adam that he would return to dust.

Remember in Genesis 2, we learned that we were dust, but God breathed life into us. The tragedy of Genesis 3 is that we are still dust, but the wind is gone. You see through the rest of the Old Testament that even though God gave laws to live by but the people could not do it. External laws cannot fix internal problems. God starts to whisper hope through His prophets, like Isaiah, promising a coming Savior. In Ezekiel 37, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy, and the Breath of God brought an army of dead bones back to life. Ezekiel 36 says God puts His Spirit in us and it brings us to life.

In the New Testament, John the Baptist says in Luke 1:36 that one who will baptize us with the Spirit is coming. When he baptizes Jesus, John knows that the Savior has come. Later, Nicodemus asks how to be born again, and Jesus answers him by saying he must be born of the Spirit. See John 3:5-8.

The same is true for us. The Spirit needs to come into us and make us alive again.

Jesus says He must leave so that the Helper can come. See John 16:7. The isolation we've experienced since the Garden; Jesus experienced on the Cross when He took on our sin. After He paid the debt for what separated us from God, the first thing He did was to breathe on the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:22)

Being saved isn't just about having your sins forgiven...it is also so sin can be moved out of the way so His intimate animating Spirit of God can return.

When was the Church born? When the Spirit came, see Acts 2:2.

How do we get the Spirit? By putting our faith in Jesus. How does true spirituality begin? By putting your faith in the Son and being marked with the seal of the Spirit.

What's next?

Do you know Jesus? Have you trusted His finished work on the Cross that saved you and made a way for His Spirit to be in you? Maybe today has been a wake up call that you have been living without the Holy Spirit living within you. If so, you can invite Him in right now. Maybe today was a reminder of a helper who you have been ignoring for too long. Either way, be honest with God today.

Scripture References

14May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,

16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

7Then the

Lord

God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

5Jesus answered,

“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit

gives birth to spirit.

You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You

must be born again.’

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

22And with that he breathed on them and said,

“Receive the Holy Spirit.

2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

4But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

6Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “

Abba,

Father.”

7So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

4Jesus answered,

“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’

”

5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

6And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.

7If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

8Jesus answered,

“It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’

”

9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.

10For it is written:

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you

to guard you carefully;

11they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

12Jesus answered,

“It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’

”

13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4Jesus answered,

“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

”

5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

6“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7Jesus answered him,

“It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’

”

8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

9“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10Jesus said to him,

“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’

”

11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

12At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness,

13and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

13for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Ben Stuart

Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.