IF THE SPIRIT

Teaching by Billie Johnson

 at DLTC, Feb 28, 2009

Romans 8:11 amp  “And if the spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you[ then] He who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your moral (short-lived, perishable) bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”           The spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in me! He lives in us!  When Jesus’ body was dead, in the tomb, the Holy Spirit was still ALIVE in that body even though the body was not alive the Holy Spirit was!  He was the energy, the life giving power that caused life to be restored to Jesus’ body –resurrected – come back to life.          God is spirit, the immortal, Spirit which never dies. Ps 45:6 says “Thy throne, O God, [is] for ever and ever.”  He lives forever.  Jesus, after his coming back to life transferred that Spirit to his disciples.  Then they transferred Him to us as well, down through the centuries of time.  The body is of the earth, it dies, but the spirit is from heaven it lives eternally.  It doesn’t go back to dust as the body does because it is not made from dust.  The spirit was given to Adam through the breath of God! Genesis 2:7 says  And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Other words for spirit are Pneuma, breath, life.  If we have no breath, there is no life in our bodies.  When I saw a child who has stopped breathing she didn’t even look like a person, she looked like a doll.  Her face was ashen, no color there.  After she was resurrected I watched the color come back into her face and saw the life in her.  God’s spirit is beyond time.  Genesis 1:2 says   “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. He was over the face of the waters as he created the earth.  He has been here before all things and when all things are no longer here he will still be here.  We know the verse, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” from Hebrews 13:8       

 When we are aware, when we know; comprehend and grasp the knowledge that as new creations we carry that same Holy Spirit in our frail human bodies, when we can sense that with our minds then we bring him out of our spirit and be made aware of him in our mind (which is in our soul) then we are quickened, stirred, moved to allow Him to penetrate through our bodies to be released into our bodies so he can do the resurrection work of giving life where there was death (sickness or disease) in our, bodies  and through us to others.  Alleluia!  When you think about that it brings joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 Peter 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see [him] not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”           

 That Holy Spirit resides, dwells, lives in our spirit that is the miracle that Jesus came to bring to us!  Eph 2:18 “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” He came to bring us the knowledge, knowing, assessing of that Spirit within us.  Our spirit is then woken up from the sleep of death that we all are born with.   Adam sinned and that spirit has been born dead in every human being since then!  We are all born in sin and it is carried on to all of the human race until,    until   G O D   sent his son to buy that spirit back for us!  Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, receive the Holy Spirit thus opening up their minds to grasp the fact that after He had come up out of the grave he would bring that Holy Spirit to completely awaken their spirits.  That is from John 20:22 “And when He had said this, He breathed on [them], and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”  He put his Spirit in them and in us to give us power to be the sons of God.  Gal 3:26 says   “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And Gal 4:6 “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the sprit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him.”  Like father like son – we are given that Spirit that enables us to imitate Jesus who only did what he saw the Father do.  We too can do what is pleasing to the Father.           

God, our Father, is full of blessing, full of good words, gracious words, words that make one happy, not sad or depressed. Eph 1:3 says Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ.”  That means that he has said every good word, good thing he could say about you! Words of life that move us to want to help other humans, to dress and keep the earth, to have control, dominion over, the other creatures  (but not over other men) on the earth.  To give us back all that sin had stolen from Adam.  Gen 2:8   “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” Eden – the very word means delight – it was joy, happiness in the garden with God! Some meanings call  delight the same as paradise. What do you think of when you hear that word?  Paradise sings of no lack, having all you need and want, delight, joy, happiness.  Alleluia!  We have access to all this through our spirit which is united in the Holy Spirit!  Alleluia!         

Zephaniah 3:17 says “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee [is] mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”  We are told that God shows joy maybe even dances over us with singing! Lately the song “I could have danced all night” has been running through my mind.  The song was from the movie “My Fair Lady” which was one of those great movies from the fifties.   As I read it could you picture yourself singing it to Jesus?I Could Have Danced All Night -  by Jamie Cullum

I think that this is what I feel sometimes when I am really aware of the Holy Spirit.   There is such joy I want to sing and dance all night!  I remember some nights I did nothing but praise Him all night!  Maybe you have had that experience too.  Now I just need to continue to focus on getting him out of my spirit and into my flesh!  I’ll speak more on that later.                    

As I’ve carried this scripture in my mind, as I’ve ruminated, meditated, chewed upon it the Lord has given more light, more knowledge of its meaning.  I become more emboldened, become more full;  more aware of the goodness of our God.  I am more joyful and alive because of his truth becoming more implanted in my heart and mind.           

I woke one morning recently with Romans 8:11 running through my mind and I took pen in hand and started to write.  I keep a pen and notebook by my bed as early morning seems to be the time I can receive more of His thoughts.  There’s more to be reaped from the knowledge of the storehouse of God’s thoughts.  Here is another insight.         

So let’s take another look at Romans 8:11 from the King James Bible. It reads:  “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”  If the Spirit, so the question is does that Spirit live in you, dwell in you?  The “if” implies that maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t.  I John 4:13 says “By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”  We decide if we allow him to dwell, live in us.  Sometimes we allow other things to take precedence; we forget he is with us and in us. We get busy with the daily things and forget to recognize that the Holy Spirit is there with us.  We get so caught up in the natural things of life we forget that we have a supernatural spirit living in us.  We go blindly along our way and then when the day ends we may realize that we have not even said, Good Morning, Holy Spirit, or even prayed in our prayer language that he has given us.  We make it hard on ourselves when we do that.         

Back to the scripture – “the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead”  This isn’t just any spirit it is specific, the one who did the impossible, at least in our eyes, improbable task of bringing someone back who had died.  That Spirit is the one we’re talking about.  “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God” I John 4:2.  “Raised up Jesus” – this sentence gives you a picture of animation, one who was prone, lifeless becomes alive again, begins to move to raise from lifelessness to become higher and to raise, lift up, show breath, show movement, show ability to live - not stay inanimate, still or lifeless.  It is that particular spirit.  Then the next question is “does he dwell in you,” not just visit occasionally, but dwell, live, be together with, be a part of you, stay with you, be one with you.  Is He in you, a part of your very being the fabric of your life?  Is He there?         

Then if he does -- he will give life, restore, recreate, make alive, give animation, give breath and move your body.  Your body is called mortal.  Gen 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Our bodies are not immortal yet.  They live on this earth.  They are perishable, tenuous, short- lived.  They are from the earth, part of God’s creation, not yet changed to immortality as Jesus became after he was resurrected. We read in scripture about how Jesus moved about after the resurrection.  John 20:19 “Then, the same day at evening, being the first [day] of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace [be] with you." Your body is still before that state because we don’t walk through walls or doors as Jesus did after his resurrection.             

Remember the verse in 1Timothy 1:17 “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, [be] honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”  This is one of my favorite scriptures.  God himself is beyond the earth, outside the earth, ever living, never to face death.  It was only when he put on mortality, in Jesus, did he have to face death as we mortals do.  We are mortal, we can be touched, can be alive and then not alive.  He is forever – unchanging, always!  There is such a wide difference between us  -- but Jesus bridged that gap, he conquered death.  He went beyond what we as mere humans can do or be.  He rose again.           

Remember the song, “I’ll rise again?”  It always gives me goose bumps or that sensation we also call Holy Spirit bumps or Holy Ghost bumps when we sense His presence.  We don’t always sense or be aware of Him but sometimes our physical senses are aware.  Then we KNOW that his with us at those times.  Our sense of touch is aroused and we feel that He is near.  I’ve had times when I sensed the hand of God on my shoulder when I’ve been in prayer.  But you know we couldn’t survive if that happened all the time.  It is only a foretaste, a quick bite of that delicious state of being in contact with the Almighty.  We long to be aware of Him.  We sense His presence and it is altogether lovely to us.          

But too much of a good thing can cause us to be overwhelmed, overcome,  not functional as it were.  If that happens then we are of no help to anyone else.  We have to learn to have our bodies be strong and we function in ministry even though we feel the Holy Spirit’s touch.  We minister through our tears or our Holy Spirit bumps.  Then of course there are other times we don’t ‘feel’ him at all.  It doesn’t mean he is not there. But we are to be alive to His touch and still aware of other’s need of him.  So we learn to minister and help others to reach a higher plane of being in contact with His Spirit as well.          

The promise here is that the Spirit will quicken, restore to life our mortal bodies.  ‘Quicken’ is a King James word for life, movement.  It is said a woman who is pregnant and about the 3^rd or 4^th month she feels movement of life within her.  We also call this a quickening, when the child moves.  He is felt.  She kicks, so that the mother is aware of that life.  In scripture we have a picture of that in Luke 1:41   “And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.”  The Holy Spirit restores or makes alive, quickens our bodies.  Alleluia! 

He can touch as Jesus did when he physically walked the earth and touched people.  With His touch was healing, restoration, life from death, sight from blindness, ability to walk from lameness, health from sickness, wellness from disease,  ease from unease.  All of these are implied and shown through His touch.  We believe, we see, we sense His presence with us.  Or we manifest (make known) his healing by a knowing within us or by being able to do what a short time before we were unable to do: to lift lifeless arms or to move paralyzed legs, to do and be a body that does what the creator made it to do! 

Hallelujah!  This is not just a pie in the sky by and by promise.  It is for here and now!  We have seen it, we have touched it.  We have experienced it.           

Too often we accept sickness, shrug our shoulders and go on about life.  We just put up with it.  But we have the scriptural record of the one leper out the ten that came back and thanked Jesus for his healing from leprosy.  Luke 17:12- 19 “Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ So when He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’ And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.  And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet giving Him thanks!  And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, “Where there not ten cleansed?  But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?’ And he said to him, ‘Arise, go your way, your faith has made you well.’”  One came back and said “thank you! “ I was healed of some dis-ease, I don’t remember what the specific thing was but I was thanking God for that healing.  It was as though I saw Him smile and say, “You are one of the ten who came back to thank me?”  I said, “Yes Lord!”  And I retuned his smile with one of my own!         

Go back to the last part of that scripture.  It is His spirit that gives life to our bodies.  He is the one who touches.  He is the one who heals, who restores, who make it right. Even way back in Exodus 15:26 the last part of that verse says” I [am] the LORD who heals you."   It is like a little child who is pleased when its mama puts a band-aid on the bump or bruises and kisses the hurt away.  The child smiles and skips away. Our souls are like that when Jesus touches us.  Our souls respond to him with life, with happiness, with completeness as they were meant to be.           

How it must cause joy to our God to see his children restored to health, able to skip again, able to smile. He has joy when cancer no longer ravishes a person’s body.  When even a headache is cured by the Master’s touch it gives him joy.  It gives him joy to see his children in health.  Stop and think of our great Almighty God looking down from heaven and smiling on his kids, the creation of His Spirit being recreated, becoming new creatures with a new alive Spirit or a twisted body being made straight! Joy! Joy! Joy!  The Lord once told me that joy is of the spirit but happiness is of the soul.  Joy is given when a healing occurs.  You hear shouts of joy, you see someone move an arm or leg that wouldn’t move before.  We heard this week about a woman whom we and others had been praying and commanding healing for.  She was paralyzed from the waist down from an auto accident but after much prayer this last week she began to be able to move her legs together and to wiggle her toes!  That news gave us joy!  When a person is healed there is joy in their eyes, their face is lit up with a radiance that comes only from the spirit.  It by-passes the mind and fills the body with that taste of the divine.          

So our bodies are healed by the Holy Spirit within us.  When our minds (souls) can focus on the aliveness of that Spirit within us and bring it out through our bodies to release Him to do His work then healing occurs. There is a story told of John G. Lake where a woman came to him and asked for healing.  He didn’t pray for her he just had her sit and listen and think that she had the Holy Spirit in her.  He told her she just needed to release it from her spirit into her flesh.  At first she was incredulous and said that was nonsense.  John Lake said, “Well, you are a Christian aren’t you?”  “Yes.”  “You have the Holy Spirit in your spirit don’t you?”  “Yes.”  “Then just let him out through your flesh.”  She sat there for a while and thought about that.  Finally her face lit up and she said, “Yes, I am a Christian and I have the Holy Spirit in my spirit and yes, I can release him into my flesh!”  She got up and was healed.  We need to learn to do this.   So that when our souls (mind, will, emotion) grasp that truth His touch is manifested, made apparent in our bodies and  then our spirits can sing with joy with the Holy Spirit within us! 

         Great is our God!         

Great is His love!         

Great -- abundant is his reach for us.          

Above all we can think or reach or ascertain He is!  He is!