A few weeks ago, I lay in ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for a couple of days. With both arms strapped to machines, I was unable to turn or move much. On the second day and unable to sleep, I closed my eyes and saw a vision of myself. I could see the outline of my own chest moving as I breathed. As I looked, I was aware of another body outline, about 2″ (5 cm) from my skin. It was soft and undulating and transparent, but it was me.

As I saw it, I spoke out aloud, saying “That’s my spirit!”

As I spoke the words, I remembered a prophetic teaching session I had seen a month or so before. There a prophet had asked the audience to pray and look inside their bodies and see how large their spirits were. I had done that at the time, but saw nothing.

Then, as I looked at the vision and remembered that teaching*, it came to me that, “Wow – my spirit is larger than I am!”

A couple of days later I was in the general ward reading a short Christian book when the Lord started to share with me from the book, but not in the order of the original author.

First the Lord reminded me that we are all made in the likeness of the Lord, as Genesis 1:27 says, “And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him…” As God is Spirit, so too, must we therefore be Spirit.

Then, as described in Genesis 2:7, “Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Here God breathes His Spirit, into us and we become spirit beings.

As I read these two verses, I started to have a new understanding for what they meant for me. Of who I am, of what I am.

A little later as I read into the book, the author quoted 1 Thessalonians 5:23,

“And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blamelessly at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And there I saw myself and who I was. I was a Spirit, who has a Soul (a mind and emotions) and I lives in a body. This is what you are too, a Spirit, who has a soul, and who lives in a body!

Interestingly, as I later searched for the three words, Spirit, Soul and Body in the Bible, I found that there is only one verse in which contains them all, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, so their order of use, is not open to interpretation.

I was utterly amazed as I read these words and the deeper meaning for my life began to sink in. For my whole life, I had seen myself as a “body” with a ‘problem soul’, and somewhere, there was a spirit related to me. But even after I became born-again and the Holy Spirit took up residence inside me (1 Corinthians 3:16), I had never quite worked out how it all fitted together, despite receiving hours or teaching on it. But in an instant, in a vision, the Lord gave me correction and poured out revelation of His word!

As I came to understanding of 1 Thessalonians 5:23, and of what I had seen in the vision, I began to realise that when I next come to study scriptures and theology talking about my Spirit, I must now take a new path of thinking from my past. All my old ways of thinking, were wrong.

As I continued to mull over my spiritual nature, the Lord continued to speak to me about what it means at a fundamental level. The first question which arose was, “How many seeds in one apple?” Well, I ate two and found that each had six seeds.

The next question took a bit more thought, “How many apples in one apple seed?”

It took a while, but I realized that potentially there are a virtually unlimited number of apples in a single apple seed. One apple seed, can theoretically provide apples for everyone in the world. Of course this all depends on the soil that the seed is sown in, as per Mark 4:5ff, but the principle is established, a single seed has virtually unlimited potential, under the right conditions.

Then The Lord brought me to Galatians 5:22-23a, “But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control….”

Here the linkage was plain to see. If the fruit of an apple is determined by the apple seed, the fruit of the Spirit, is determined by the Spirit. If there are unlimited apples available from a single apple seed, so too, must there be unlimited fruit available from the Spirit.

I then realised how wrong I had been praying in the past. How often I prayed for, “more Faith,” or “more Joy,” in my life, when in truth, I had the seed to unlimited Faith and unlimited Joy within me already. What I really needed instead, was the word from the Lord, on how to grow them, from what He has already given me.

I am still getting to grips with this. I pray that this open doors in your life and blesses you, as it has in mine and me.

All praise, glory, honor and thanks to the Lord for His vision and revelation. Amen.

*See 14:40+

 

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