You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
17
Wherefore[dia][touto] be ye[ginomai] not[me] unwise,[aphron] but[alla] understanding[suniemi] what[tis] the will[thelema] of the Lord[kurios] is. KJV-Interlinear
17 So then
do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. NASB
(this study continues from yesterday)
With the formation of the human spirit within you, this continues the completion process of your life, and is the last creation component for your life. You will now be body, soul and spirit. Into the body you have biological life. Into the soul you have human life. Into the spirit you have eternal life. That completes the essence of your life.
What remains, is the growth that you need and eventually the replacement of your physical body with a permanent resurrection body. That final body change will occur at the Rapture. The Rapture is a future event and the final event of our current era of time, called the Church Age.
So, with faith in Christ, you now have a spiritual life. What is needed now is spiritual growth to maturity.
Just as when you were born physically, and were an infant child, your next process in life is to grow up. Time and food takes care of the physical part of growing up and learning takes care of your temporal knowledge part in growing up. You have to learn your reading, writing, and arithmetic, so to speak.
But that is the temporal side, or the carnal side of your life. Everyone has that side.
What everyone needs is their spiritual side of life, and that comes only through learning and living the spiritual life.
Everyone needs to live in their temporal life. That is what pays the bills. But simultaneously, everyone needs to pursue their spiritual life, which does not take that much time out of your day, but does help you turn your spiritual focus on, so that you will advance in your spiritual life.
So, simply stated, you need to live in the spiritual realm and then learn spiritual information. God does all of the rest.
Living in the spiritual realm is easy, you just confess your sins daily, or several times a day, depending on your mental state of mind.
Confession gets you into fellowship which is the spiritual realm. This is for believers only, by the way.
Once there, you need to remain there as much as possible. Commit a sin and you are out, so confess it and you are back in fellowship.
Next you need to study the Bible. Not that learning the begets or the judges or the baby Jesus stories will do anything magic for you, but the real issue is that you are in fellowship and that you are using the Bible to focus your life.
God works the magic so to speak, and He does it while you are in fellowship and while you study daily and while you utilize spiritual information in your life, to learn right from wrong, etc.
This in turn builds up a maturing process within your soul, and that in turn, you will realize as you are better able to cope with life, and realize your improved stability.
This leads you to a productive life, a spiritually productive life. And that all points to your eternal reward.
There are many examples describing your eternal reward, and the best example is the reference to that being above and beyond all that you can think or imagine. And that is a lot. That is if you are normal and can imagine a lot.
So, back to the subject at hand. Do not be stupid. Do not waste your time focusing on worldly things only, to the exclusion of your spiritual life.
Because your future is beyond phenomenal and more. To ignore your spiritual life, is to lose a vast treasure for all of eternity.
Esau traded his birthright for a single meal. He ate the meal and then it was gone. His birthright was eternal and he lost that for what? Not a good trade.
By ignoring your spiritual preparation, you are doing the same. You are trading away a treasure for the price of this worldly meal. And the world has nothing that will last you, but will be gone the moment you leave this world.
Then what would you have?
So, salvation is mandatory in order to be saved and to have a spiritual life.
But do not stop on salvation. Too many people stay with salvation rhetoric when they need to be moving forward and growing up. No baby can remain a baby and attain maturity. So you need to grow up.
There is but one way to grow up in your spiritual life, and that is to be in fellowship, which is obtained through confession, and then study your Bible through instruction, as you are receiving now. Then repeat that process every day, listening, learning, gaining understanding, and eventually becoming productive in your spiritual life.
God takes care of the rest.
But to ignore your daily instruction and convincing yourself that you can do this on your own, is foolishness and the path to your own ruin.
Be smart, be wise, and use your time wisely, namely pursue your daily study, every day, for the rest of your life.
