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Spiritual: Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal; as a spiritual substance or being; refined from external things; not sensual; not lay or temporal; relating ot sacred things; Pertaining to spirit or to the pure and holy; pertaining to the renewed nature of man; not fleshly; pertaining to divine things.
Greek: pneumatikos [pnyoo-mat-ik-os’] = Spiritual [26]. from (pneuma); non-carnal, i.e. (humanly) ethereal (as opposed to gross), or (demoniacally) a spirit (concretely), or (divinely) supernatural, regenerate, religious: - spiritual. Strong's Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary. Usage Notes: "Always connotes the ideas of invisibility and of power. It does not occur in the Sept. nor in the Gospels; it is in fact an after-Pentecost word. In the NT it is used as follows: (a) the angelic hosts, lower than God but higher in the scale of being than man in his natural state; (b) things that have their origin with God, and which, therefore, are in harmony with His character, as His law is 'spiritual,' Rom. 7:14; (d) the purposes of God revealed in the gospel by the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 2:13, and the words in which that revelation is expressed, are 'spiritual,' 1 Cor. 2:13, matching, or combining, spiritual things with spiritual words [or, alternatively, 'interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men,' spiritual wisdom and understanding' is wisdom in, and understanding of, those things, Col. 1:9; (e) men in Christ who walk so as to please God are 'spiritual,' Gal. 6:1; 1 Cor. 2:13 ; 'spiritual blessings,' Eph. 1:3; 'spiritual gifts,' Rom. 1:11; (h) the activities Godward of regenerate men are 'spiritual sacrifices,' 1 Pet. 2:5; their appointed activities in the churches are also called 'spiritual gifts,' lit., 1 Cor. 12:1; 1 Cor. 14:1; (j) all that is produced and maintained among men by the operations of the Spirit of God is 'spiritual,' 1 Cor. 15:46. "The spiritual man is one who walks by the Spirit both in the sense of Gal. 5:16 and in that of Gal. 5:25, and who himself manifests the fruit and gifts of the Spirit in his own ways. Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words.
Have you ever been in a situation whereby you were conversing with someone, and you could tell by their eyes and then by their talk, they were not on the same page with you. I have had this experience even with so called Christians who were doubting what I was presenting and I backed it all up with scriptures. I have had communication with even some folks I have spent some time with and in explaining the power and working of the Holy Spirit, the discussion went ‘over their heads’ to the point they were not sure how to react. In other words, it seemed they were not truly born again or better said, they seemed to have no sensitivity to the Spirit of God.
If one is to grow in the things of God, there will be change and most importantly, a hunger for the Word of God and the things God is interested in. So many church going folks cannot get to a place whereby they become spiritual in their thoughts, actions and words. As a matter of fact, spiritual becomes a negative and folks’ reactions are, “you are just becoming spiritual’ and it becomes a negative, as if to say that you are going someplace that they are not interested in going with you. Or perhaps they will walk away with an attitude of ‘oh boy, are they getting weird and religious’.
This is a very dangerous place to be. It speaks of an attitude that they don’t need God to be ‘directing traffic’ in their life, so just stay away. Few believers ever get beyond the born-again experience, or even worse, they know about God, but they really do not Know Him, much the same way you would the President or some person on the news daily. He is not their Lord and is not interested in reading the Word of God and surrendering all they do to Him. That is very foreign to them, and it scares them, confuses them, or they simply reject the notion that they are surrendering to something they cannot see, hear or understand.
Well, I am here to tell you that it is time to change and to get serious about the things of God. Yes, become more spiritual and get your feet headed toward the teachings of God and the Holy Spirit. It is time to walk away from the surface understanding of the spiritual side of life or one day you will wake up and find you are not where you thought you should be. Your days on earth are over, and you are on the other side, but not the side you thought you would be. It is time to toss off the embarrassment of the things of God and get serious about Him to the point people will think you are a little weird because He is always on your mind and in your heart and coming off your tongue. Yes, it is time to be ‘normal’ to God and strange or an outcast to the world. It is time to show them that there is truly a God and there is a great reason to live and move and have your being with Him.
This is what l Corinthians are attempting to get across to us. Paul states that: “we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit.” In short, it is comparing spiritual things with spiritual and if we are to change and be like our Creator, we must focus on the spiritual side of life and let the world drift away, even if it is the church you attend.
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