Knowing Your Spirit: Learning to Live From Your Recreated Spirit (Part 2)

Living in the Spirit : ## Knowing Your Spirit: Learning to Live From Your Recreated Spirit (Part 2)

**"Is This Christ?"**

Imagine that someone says something offensive to you.

Immediately, you feel an impulse to respond sharply. Your mind begins preparing an argument. You remember what the person did previously. You begin rehearsing everything you want to say. You feel justified and want to make sure the other person knows that you are not weak.

At that moment, stop. Ask yourself: "Is this Christ?" "Does this response agree with the character of my recreated spirit?" "Am I responding from the spirit or from the flesh?"

This simple awareness can interrupt the progression from provocation to reaction.

Living in the Spirit does not mean that you will never encounter situations that provoke you. It means that you learn not to allow those situations to determine your response.

The presence of provocation does not require a fleshly response. You can choose to be slow to speak. You can refuse to retaliate. You can forgive. You can remain quiet. You can answer gently. You can choose the response that agrees with Christ.

**Your Spirit Has a Different Nature**

You must become increasingly conscious of who you are in Christ.

You are not trying to manufacture righteousness through your behavior. You have already been created in righteousness and true holiness.

This does not make behavior irrelevant. It changes the source from which your behavior should come.

The Christian life is not primarily about trying to become someone you are not. It is about learning to live consistently with what God has already accomplished in you through Christ. Paul says:

"But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." — 1 Corinthians 6:17

Your recreated spirit has been brought into union with the Lord, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Therefore, learning to recognize your spirit means learning to recognize the kind of response that agrees with Christ.

When love is required, the nature of Christ agrees with love. When forgiveness is required, it agrees with forgiveness. When humility is required, it agrees with humility. When patience is required, it agrees with patience. When truth is required, it agrees with truth.

The issue is not whether Christ has provided these qualities. The issue is whether we are learning to live from the nature He has established within us.

This is why you should not excuse every negative reaction by saying: "That's just how I am." That may describe an old pattern. It does not define your identity in Christ.

**The Word Helps You Recognize Your Spirit**

You cannot learn to recognize the nature of your spirit by following every inward feeling.

Your emotions can deceive you. Your imagination can mislead you. Your natural reasoning can justify almost anything.

The Word provides the standard. The more the Word of Christ dwells in you, the more clearly you recognize what agrees with Christ and what does not.

This connects directly with the previous article: the Word received becomes the Word abiding. As the Word abides in you, it renews your mind and gives you a framework through which you can recognize the character of Christ. Romans 12:2 says:

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..."

The renewed mind becomes increasingly able to agree with what God has already made true in the spirit.

**Learning to Live From Your Spirit**

Learning to live from your spirit is practiced in ordinary moments.

When contention rises, don't immediately speak. When anger rises, don't immediately react. When you feel the urge to retaliate, pause. When you want to prove yourself right at all costs, become aware of what is happening within you. When your emotions demand immediate action, give yourself time to respond according to the Word. When circumstances try to dictate your attitude, remember who you are in Christ.

You are learning to move from reaction to response, impulse to discernment, flesh to spirit, and old patterns to the new creation. This is practical Christianity.

**From Knowing Your Spirit to Knowing the Spirit's Witness**

First, you must know that you have been recreated in Christ. Then, you must learn to recognize the character of that recreated spirit. Then, you must learn to live from it.

As you become increasingly conscious of your spirit, you become better positioned to recognize the witness of the Holy Spirit within you. Paul says:

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." — Romans 8:16

The more we learn to live from our spirit, the more sensitive we become to the Holy Spirit's activity within us. This is why knowing your spirit is part of learning to live in the Spirit.

**The Goal Is Christ Expressed Through You**

When you refuse to retaliate, Christ is being expressed. When you forgive instead of nursing an offence, Christ is being expressed. When you choose humility instead of proving yourself right, Christ is being expressed. When you choose peace instead of contention, Christ is being expressed.

You are not creating Christ within yourself. You are learning to yield to the life that God has already established in you through Christ.

**Reflection** - When I am provoked, what usually governs my response — the Word, my spirit, my emotions, or the flesh? - What situation currently challenges me to stop, ask "Is this Christ?", and respond from my recreated spirit?

--- *Hassan Thomas Nenger / Author, My Divine Identity as the Righteousness of God / Living in the Spirit Series /