Daily Bread - JAN/21/2015 1 Corinthians 12:1 - Now concerning the spiritual brethren I would not have you ignorant. Paul sets forth in this chapter and in Chapter 14 very specific details of how the saints should function in the context of the church. In Pauls opening statements to the Corinthians he testified that they were not lacking in any of the charismata (gifts) (1 Corinthians 1:7). Now Paul speaks of a realm called the spiritual that extends beyond the charismata. The pneumatikos (the spiritual) is a word that is synonymous with the Kingdom of God and incorporates everything that the Spirit of God is doing. Of the 27 times that this word is found in the New Testament, Paul uses it 26 times to express the operation of the Holy Spirit through the saints in signs and wonders or to express that which belongs to the realms of Gods glory. The first time that Paul uses this word is in Romans 1:11. He used it to express the need that those at Rome had in order to be established in the things of the Kingdom. The impartation that Paul referred to may have been the ability to understand how to yield to this realm of glory. The first time that he used this word in his letter to the Corinthians, he described how he ministered and used it in contrast to the realm of the natural (1 Corinthians 2:13). Paul contrasts the spiritual pneumatikos, which is the realm of God, to the natural psuchikos, which is the realm of men. This is a realm that speaks of far more than just gifts but extends into every dimension of interacting with God. The same contrast between the spiritual and the natural is made in 1 Corinthians 15:44-46. And finally both Jude and James defined that which is of the natural realm (psuchikos) as that which has not the Spirit (Jude 19; James 3:15). Many translations of the Bible add a word that does not exist in any Greek manuscript, gift. To include this word actually narrows the focus from a broader application of the spiritual. The spiritual is the realm of the Spirit, including all of the activities of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual refers to everything that pertains to the Kingdom of God, the realm in which God and all of His heavenly host function. The gifts of the Spirit are only a part of this realm. When Jesus ministered, he did so out of the realm of the Kingdom of God which is the realm of the spiritual. When the realms of the Spirit invaded the place where Jesus ministered, devils went out of those that were possessed by them and every sickness and disease was cured. If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God then the Kingdom of God is come to you (Matthew 12:28). When the Kingdom of God is revealed, it is revealed through the activity of the Holy Spirit who brings the realms of God (the spiritual) into the realms of men (the natural). Both Jesus and his disciples preached the gospel of the Kingdom and as they did, the realms of the spiritual invaded the place. The spiritual realm was revealed when the glory of the Holy Spirit that was in their lives invaded the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of men (Matthew 9:35, 10:8; Luke 9:1-2; Luke 10:1,9,17; Mark 16:17). When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, it was the realms of the spiritual that began to manifest. They were baptized in the Holy Spirit even as one may be baptized in water. And just as Jesus had promised, out of their bellies began to flow rivers of living water, which is an unlimited manifestation of the spiritual. We are called by God to earnestly desire the realm of the spiritual (1 Corinthians 14:1). The Holy Spirit desires to lead us and guide us into this realm for it is the realm where God dwells and His Kingdom is revealed. The spiritual is where we will live forever in the glory of God and the glory is the place of oneness with Him (1 Corinthians 15:44; John 17:22).
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 15:11:00 +0000