Article 3 - The Capacity of the Human Spirit

By Anthea Taljaard

In the articles “An awareness of Ourselves” and ‘Revelation’ I expounded on the understanding that the real ‘you’ is spirit.  That your true identity (your inner man) is created in the image and likeness of God, (Gen 1) born from His spirit – He ‘breathed’ you to life.  The real you, beyond the physical body is made of the very substance of God, his own essence, we are fabricated “Of God”.   Jesus was the blueprint before the ages of everything God had in mind for man, all that He intended and purposed. You were formed in His image.  You are more than the result of a Darwinian Theory – a big bang.  There is an element of intricateness, complexity within your makeup that goes far beyond a random accident.  You were born of intelligence, of love, of companionship and the fabric of your existence is spirit.

So we need to grasp one or two points here.  The inner man with all of his thoughts and inner consciousness, is capable of living far deeper than the superficial realities of the senses. The world we were born into.

“For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?” 1 Corinthians 2:11

Man is made from a far bigger source/substance, by virtue of creation, he is more than just ‘dust’.   So when you hear the gospel and understand that God became man to redeem man back to himself, something of necessity must shift in your thinking.  With the truth of Jesus opening up in our spirits, we become aware of an awesome capacity within ourselves, in our inner man. We were made for something. In the revelation of the resurrection of Jesus we come to understand that He is ‘the firstborn of many’, we have been restored to God, exactly as He is in this world.

The questions that are taking hold of me lately, are

• What is the capacity of a person? 
• How large is the human spirit? 
• What are we capable of if brought to an understanding of our own completeness?

“When Christ who is your life is revealed, you will be revealed with Him in glory.” Col 3:4

It is my firm belief having read and understood the creation account, as well as the implications of Jesus death and resurrection in our lives,  that we may be just a little larger than we first imagined. 

Hebrews provides an understanding of a priest called Melchizadek,  he was viewed as a prophetic type of Jesus, pointing to Him as the Son of the heavenly Father,  born without earthly genealogy.  He states clearly,

“Sacrifices and offerings you did not desire but a body who have prepared for me”   My immediate question was why would God require a body?  Why not just carry on with the sacrifices?  The answer to this is twofold;  Firstly, by providing Jesus as blameless body to suffer for the human condition (as a human)  - God opens up access to himself again.  Secondly,  a body was required because God is looking for permanent habitation. Permanent union.  He wants mankind as a dwelling, a home.  That is the eternal purpose He always had in mind.  Distance reduced to inseparable union.

If you remember the Old Covenant teachings, God did live among men in the Old Covenant, but it was in the Ark of the Covenant within the Holy of Holies.  In today’s thinking He lived in a box!  I  suppose this was acceptable during the time of prophetic shadows and teachings, but certainly not as an eternal solution.  Redemption brings the real deal... God did not want a box, he wanted to tabernacle IN MEN.  Emmanuel.

If we go back to the original creation of man expressed in Psalm 8, we are told of the very significant place that man holds in God’s thoughts...God’s mind is full of man.

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,  what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honour.”  PS 8: 3-5

Ask yourself why.  Why is God’s mind full of you?

“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them”  Ps 139: 15-16.

God’s eyes saw my unframed substance, before I existed,  I was intricately woven by Him,  my frame is known to Him.  Can you see with me that none of these scriptures support an accidental type of creation. A big bang theory.  If anything,  the degree of intricacy involved in my design suggests that an awesome amount of detail went into the creation of man.  God paid attention to the “work of his hands”.  His original architectural plan set the tone. Ephesians 1:1-4 tells us that Jesus was the blueprint for man’s design, we were created in Him before the foundation of the world.  The Father’s purpose in Christ was to present us in the fullness of time as His Sons, the brethren who would follow after the firstborn of all creation.   We were to come of age,  God had us in mind all along, not as a broken, patched up human, but holy and blameless in his sight, because of His Son.

“For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love Hepredestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.  And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to his good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” Eph 1:4-10

We are the dwelling of God, the fullness of Deity has taken up residence is us.  We have become as much an incarnation (God in man) as what Jesus was.  Emmanuel, God with us.

 “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” John 14;20  

“But you know him  the Holy Spirit), for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  John 14:17-18

 So pay attention now, your realization matters.  Let this union really sink into your consciousness.  The definition of the incarnation, as expressed in Jesus, begins to provide insight into the human capacity as an incarnation (dwelling of God), 

“But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”  Heb 1:2-4

Let me repeat that - the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being.  He is Father compatible.  The Son is ‘like to like’  - the exact image of God. He is all of God in a human body.  At the time of the resurrection,  after having died as Jesus of Nazareth, He shed His physical body and came back to take up residence inside us as His eternal body, His temple. So now as He is,  so are we in this world.  He dwells inseparably within.

“In that day they will know that you are in me and I in you and I in them.”  

So coming back to my original questions that I have been asking?

• What is the capacity of a person? 
• How large is the human spirit? 
• What are we capable of if brought to an understanding of our own completeness?

To answer the first two questions.  What is our capacity today, how large are we really?   Think this though with me, if God states that He can live in us, inside our spirit – we must be fairly large….  After all we now need to accommodate him. Let us turn the question around, how large is God? Most of the expressions I have heard want to equate Him with natural things, ‘He is bigger than the universe’, ‘higher than the mountains,’ etc.  But can I suggest today, a different measure… that ‘God is equal in size to the capacity of the human spirit’. The content fits in the vessel. We are His image, His likeness, His habitation forever. Wow!

"The Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come into His temple." (Mal. 3:1)

"You are the templeof God." (1 Cor. 3:16)

"Christ in you, the hope of glory."(Col. 1:28)

The indwelling of God is glorious.  Simultaneously, it is the most normal experience we can go through, it is the restoration of original design, it is our awakening from a deep sleep to eternal reality.

So we now know our identity – sons of God, filled with God.  In a nutshell, THE INDWELLING OF CHRIST WITHIN US DEFINES US. He knew us before time, He has known us through time, and now we can know Him as we have always been known.

“Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ., but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,” Eph 4:13-15

“For of His fullness have we all received. “ John 1:16

“Which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”Eph 1;23

So onto my final question, question 3.

• What are we capable of if brought to an understanding of our own completeness?

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has the faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” John 14: 10-14

Why?  So the Son may bring glory to the Father.

If you want to live, really live large today, understand your real identity.

Closely examine “Christ in you’ the Incarnate Son, fellowship with, walk with, allow Him to reveal himself to you in a very personal one-to-one conversation. Intimate relationship with God, and the place of miraculous display are ‘natural’ in the spirit of redeemed man.

The Son brings glory to the Father.