The Heart of Man !

THE HEART OF MAN: (2 Corinthians 1- through 8). "For we know that the if our earthly this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are the home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: For we walk by faith, not by sight: We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." The body of man was made with hands, the inward man was not. When our body is put into the grave, we still have a building with God not made with hands. Who is going to be absent from the body ? We are [verse 6]. Who is going to be present with the Lord ? We are [verse 8]. The Bible speaks of the inward man as being the real man-- or woman. (Philippians 1:21--24) For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I [the inward man] live in the flesh [the body], this is the fruit of my labor code yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Paul is saying here, "it's left up to me. I don't know whether I'm going to choose to go on living here for a while or to die." Some people say, "Oh, that's all in the hands of God." No ! It's in your hands. Many have missed it, thanking they were leaving it up to God as to whether or not they died, little realizing they were actually leaving it up to the devil. The devil is the author of death, not God. Paul died exactly when he wanted to die. He said, "I don't know which I am going to choose." He did not say, "I don't know what God's will," or "I don't know what God is going to choose for me," or "I'm just praying that they will love the Lord be done." No ! That's where we missed it. And if that is what you have been taught then you have been taught wrong and mislaid religiously. Paul said, "I [the inward man] don't know where the shell choose to stay here [in the flesh [the body] a while or whether I shall choose to go on." The inward man [the spirit] is the real man. Made in the image and likeness of God. For God is a Spirit. He became a man, for Jesus was God manifested in the flesh living in a human body. He took on a physical body, yet when He did He was no less God than He was before He had a physical body. Even so, when man leaves his physical body at death, he is no less man or woman than he or she was when they had their physical body. This was true of the rich man; it was true of the beggar Lazarus; it was true in my own experience. It is the inward man [the spirit] who contacts and knows God. We cannot know God through our human knowledge, through the mind. God is only revealed to man through the spirit. And when I say "through the spirit" I am not referring to the Holy Spirit, but to man's spirit. It is the spirit of man that contacts God, for God is a Spirit. Jesus has a physical body--- a flesh and bone body--- but not flesh and blood. You recall that after His resurrection He appeared to the disciples and they were frightened and suppose they had seen a spirit [a ghost]. Jesus said to them, "Handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have" (Luke 24:39). He asked them if they had any meat. They gave Him a piece of boiled fish and a honeycomb, and He ate it before them. And then there was the time when Peter said, "I'm going fishing," and the others went with him. Suddenly they saw Jesus standing on the shore. He spoke to them and they went to Him. He had fish on the fire and He ate with them. Yes, Jesus has a physical body right now--- a resurrected, flesh and bone physical body. God is a Spirit .(Notice that I did not say, "God is spirit." Something God is spirit, and that that means He is a sort of impersonal influence. No, God is a Spirit.) However, the fact that God is a Spirit does not mean that He has no shape or form in the spiritual realm, because He does. Angels are spirits, the Bible says, and they have a form or a spirit body. In the Old Testament, the prophet of God prophesied deliverance when the city was besieged, and everyone laughed at him because they were in starvation, hunger, and famine. Even his servant reprimanded him, so Elisha prayed, "Lord, I pray thee, opened his eyes, that he may see" (2 Kings 6:17). Elisha wasn't talking about his servants physical eyes, but his spiritual eyes. When the eyes of his spirit were open, and he saw Angels of fire, horses and chariots of fire all around the city ! And sometimes, as God wills, engines have the ability to take form or appearance in the material realm where we can see them--- but only as He wills. The Bible says that God talk to Moses face-to-face; so we know He has a face. A cloud was there, however, and Moses could not see God's face, for God said, "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live" (Exodus 33:20). And then God said, ". . . I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts. . . "(Exodus 33:22--23). My point is this: God is a Spirit, yet He is no less real because He is a Spirit than He would be if He had a physical body. Jesus with His physical body in heaven now is not more real than the Holy Spirit, or God the Father. Spiritual things are just as real as material--- in fact more real. In (1 Peter 3:4) our spirit is called "the hidden man of the heart." The inward man, the spirit, is called "the hidden man." He is a man of the heart, of the spirit. He is here to the physical or the natural man. The natural man does not know is there-- but he is; and he is the real man. In (Romans 7:22 the spirit is called "the inward man." The terms "inward man" and "hidden man" gives us God's definition of the human spirit. Man is a spirit; he has a soul; and he lives in a body. With his spirit, man contacts spiritual realm; with his soul he context the intellectual and emotional realm; and with his body he contacts the physical.