Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
TO
LIFE IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH
By
The Man Who Saw God Face To Face
Raphael Okechukwu Nweze
The Life We Live
We all know that there is life and that we are living. We move about, eat, breath, grow, learn and accomplish. All are evidences of life.
There is only one life, and that life is God. The entire universe is a creation of life, from life and by life. Outside this one life, there is nothing except utter darkness, which is boundless. You can now understand why Jesus said that on the Day of Judgment, the evil ones shall be cast into the outer darkness.
In other words, there is one life and this one life takes various forms. The form is determined by purpose, environment and path. You can now understand what is written in John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
The Spirit
Spirit is life, indestructible life. It is everlasting. It is light. It is love. It is unaffected by the ups and downs of our everyday life, though a person reaps what he sows.
Weapons cannot destroy it. Hence, it is not destroyed when the body is destroyed. It is not harmed or damaged by accidents. It cannot be drowned or wet by water. Fire does not burn it. Knife cannot cut through it. Obstacles cannot block its movement. It can not be buried or trampled upon. Nothing can destroy or harm it. Only God can cast it into the hell fire.
It can see without the eyes, hear without ear, perceive without the nose, feel without touching etc. It can appear or disappear. Hence, it is visible and can make it self invisible.
It moves at will. It can decide to crawl, walk, run, fly or appear and disappear. Such is the glory of God for his children.
It animates and dominates all living things.
9 But as it is written:
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
1 Corinthians 2:9
Spirit is life, and life is spirit. It is spirit that can produce spirit. Now you can clearly understand what Jesus said,
It is the spirit gives life; the flesh is of no avail: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 16:63
When Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life,” He means that Himself is Spirit (God) who created all things and that outside Him and His creation, nothing else exists.
It is the Spirit that is Life.
It is the same Spirit that is Truth.
And it is by the Spirit that we can know God.
That is why God says
“Not by power, nor by might,
but by my spirit.”
Spirit Is Light
The spirit is also light. Light is something that can glow, dim, heat up, burn, appear or disappear. Hence, God is Light and a Consuming Fire.
The Truth
Truth means that which is existent and possible. It is only life and its activities that are existent. You cannot prove what does not exist.
When Pontus Pilate asked Jesus “What is Truth?” Jesus answered that “Truth is from Heaven.” That means that truth is God and His creation. Remove God and the universe, and nothing is left.
The universe includes the Heavens and the Physical Plane. By Astronomy, we know that the earth is an infinitesimal part of the Physical Plane. The term ‘Heaven and Earth’ is often used because many people used to think that only the earth is the physical part of life.
If you were to break down Truth, it will comprise: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Angels, Mankind, the Heavens and the Earth (Physical Plane). It also includes the laws of nature because these laws are God’s will in creation. It is these beings and laws that interact to create and expand the universe.
Graduation of Truth by relativity produces what we call facts (the realities of life). Truth is universal in scope, while fact is localized and hence relative. For example, one truth about life is that there is day and night on earth. What is relative is that while some are having day, others are having night; some are working, even as others are resting; some work in offices, whilst others work in farms, at the same time others work in the factories, and yet there are those who work in so many different types of activities.
Living In Spirit
“God is spirit” means to understand things from the spiritual side of life and live accordingly. Some examples will make the Truth very clear. Consider an accident that happened on the road. In an attempt to avoid the accident, a car knocked down a person and the person dies. Then the natives who saw what happened rallied round, and stopped the vehicle. The driver ran away out of fear of being lynched, and the natives set the vehicle on fire. While the mob were about to burn the vehicle, an elderly man who sees in spirit appealed to them not to burn the vehicle, but they would not listen.
Now let us understand the physical and spiritual side of incident. From the physical perspective, it was the driver that killed an innocent person. That was how the angry natives saw and understood it. But from the spiritual perspective, the elder saw it differently. The elderly man later explained that the accident was caused by a wicked one in the village, who paid a native doctor to invoke an evil spirit that confused the driver and bound the deceased to the spot, so that he could not run away.
Consider the case of Mary Magdalene who was caught in adultery. The angry Jews wanted to stone her to death. But Jesus would not let them, because he understood the situation differently. As far as Jews were concerned, Mary Magdalene should be stoned to death. From spiritual dimension, Jesus saw that the adultery was caused by seven demons which possessed and influenced her. To the Jews, the solution was death penalty, but to Jesus the solution was deliverance from demonic possession. He delivered Mary Magdalene of the seven demons and Mary Magdalene became a saint.
Let us consider the case of Jesus in the midst of the Israelites. Everyday, the Israelites saw Him from the physical aspect. To them, He was an ordinary man, and son of Joseph the carpenter. As far as the Israelites were concerned, it was sin punishable by death for an ordinary man to claim to be God. What a blasphemy! They were defending their God in Heaven, because they could not understand that it was the same God that came in the form of the man called Jesus.
But the demons understood Jesus from the spiritual dimension. When the demons met Him, they were not seeing ordinary human being. They saw a spirit being; whose height reached the sky. They could recognize Him; after all, they had stayed in the Heaven before.
And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. Matthew 8:30-32
The Israelites who claim to be righteousness could not identify Jesus, but the evil spirits did.
Living In Truth
Living in Truth means to have knowledge of Truth and be doing the right thing compatible with the Truth. It means to apply the Truth in a way that is not against the Truth. It also means to understand that Truth is part and parcel of universe (the universe is the clear and comprehensive structure of Truth); it means to know that there are laws of life, called natural laws. It means to avoid errors by not of creating (generating) them. Above all, to live in Truth means to know God and do His will.
To tell the truth means to say things the way they should be said; to call a spade a spade, to state the facts. Above all, to live in spirit means to join your spirit with the Holy Spirit of God, become one with it and do the will of God, always, This is exactly what Jesus said in John 14:11
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
Again, he said,
At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father,
and ye in me, and I in you. John 14:20
Living in truth means sincerity in all dealings with your fellow men. Your 'yes' must be yes and your 'no' must be no. You must wear your heart on your skin. Otherwise, you will not be able to find and experience God, who is the Absolute Truth. Every child of God should avoid all forms of lies, hypocrisy and pretense.
You observe that in both Old and New Testaments, before a person can do what God wants him to do, first the spirit of God (the Holy Spirit ) has to fill the person (join and become one with the person) This phenomenon we call anointing, inspiration or spiritual possession. The example of Bezaleel is found in Exodus.
And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the LORD hath called by name Bezaleal the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; And to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work. And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work. Exodus 35: 30-35
The example of David,
And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah. I Samuel 16:11-14
The example of Ezekiel
And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. Ezekiel 11:15
The example of Jesus
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor;
he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
As already stated above, Truth also means sincerity: honesty. You must wear your heart on your skin. Unfortunately, people do the contrary and still expect to go to Heaven. Today, people practice hypocrisy a lot. There are so many little lies people say everyday. We feel they do not matter. Yet, they are the little hitches that hinder the pilgrim in his journey back to God.
Spiritual Growth
Spiritual growth takes place in a spiral form. It comes back (repeats) in ways that are more glorious, more meaningful, more convincing and more inspiring. Therefore, if you are not experiencing spiritual dimension of life, then know it that you are not growing in spirit. That means that you are not in line with God. And you must examine your method of worshipping God, and where necessary make changes. As simple and truthful as that.