WHAT IT MEANS TO BELIEVE WITH THE HEAR (PART 1) !

WHAT IT MEANS TO BELIEVE WITH THE HEART (PART 1). In John's Gospel we also read where Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). We cannot contact God with our body or with our mind. We contact God with our spirit. (1 Corinthians 14:14), "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful." The spirit is not the mind. Some people mistakenly think that the mind is the spirit. However, as this verse indicates, we know that when we speak in tongues, this does not come from our minds, or our own human thinking or intellect, but from our spirit--- from our innermost being--- from the Holy Spirit within our spirit. Paul went on to say, "what That is it then ? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also . . ." (vs.15). In other words, Paul was saying that his spirit is the real Paul. THE INWARD MAN: The apostle Paul also said, "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16). Paul pointed out that there is an outward man and an inward man. Many people who say they are believers or Christians pay attention to the outward man more than they do the inward man. They have developed the five senses more than they have developed the God kind of faith. The outward man is the body. The inward man is the spirit. And the spirit has a soul. (1 Corinthians 9:27). The apostle Paul said, "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." If the body were the real man, Paul would have said, "I keep myself under; I bring myself into subjection." He refers to his body as "it". "I" is the man on the inside, the inward man who has been reborn. We do something with our body: we bring it into subjection. The man or woman we look at is not the real man or woman; it is just the house they live in. We can now more easily understand Paul's writings to the Saints at Rome: (Romans 12:1--2). "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy [devoted, consecrated] and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable [rational, intelligent] service and spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world (this age), fashioned after and adapting to its external, superficial customs, but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the things which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]." The amplified Bible. In this epistle, Paul was not writing to unbelievers but to believers he addressed his letter to them that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints . . ." (Romans 1:7). Although he was writing to men and women who had been born again, he said they needed to do something with their bodies and their minds.