How to build your Spirit Man!

The start of a new year tends to make people think about self-improvement. For many people, that means going on a diet to loseweight or taking a class to learn something new. They focus on building up their bodies or their minds, but they often neglect to build up their spirits.

One reason people neglect to build up their spirits is that they don't even realize they are spirit beings. But the Bible clearly points out this fact in First Thessalonians chapter 5.

Your spirit man is the man on the inside it's the real man, the real you. So when people look at you, they don't see the real you. They see the house you live in. It's important that you build up your physical body and develop your mind, but it's also important to build up your spirit man. You build up your spirit man the same way you build up your physical man through discipline.

Have you ever tried weight-lifting, jogging, aerobics, or any other type of physical exercise? I'm not talking about occasionally I'm talking about regularly! If you have, you know that it takes discipline to achieve results, because at times you have to exercise when your body doesn't want to!

For example, when the weather gets too hot or too cold, many people who walk or jog don't want to be outside. And if it's raining, they really don't want to be outside! But sometimes I'll see a few people outside running or riding their bikes in those kinds of conditions. That takes discipline!

I've noticed something in my nearly forty years in the ministry. In general, the person who disciplines himself by keeping his natural body in shape has fewer problems keeping his spiritual man in shape.

That's because it takes the same kind of discipline to build up the spiritual man that it takes to build up the natural man. In other words, you don't always want to get out of bed and read the Word! You don't always want to pray sometimes you have to make your-self pray.

I know you face these challenges, because you're human just like I am, and I don't always want to pray! Sometimes I have to tell myself, You are going to pray.

But, thank God, there are some steps we can take to build up the spirit man. The first step we need to take is meditating upon the Word. I'm not talking about grabbing a Bible and quickly reading a Psalm or a verse from Proverbs. On the other hand, I'm not talking about reading a whole chapter or whole book of the Bible, either.

Now it's a good idea to systematically read through the entire Bible. In fact, it's necessary for spiritual growth. But meditation means that you read a few scriptures and then begin to think on them. You might also study references on those scriptures to find out what certain words mean and what their connotations are (2 Tim. 2:15). When you meditate on verses of Scripture, you concentrate on those scriptures until they become a part of you.

You see, the way you feed your spirit is by feeding your intellect by renewing your mind with the Word of God. The Word gets into your spirit through your mind. Many people think you can acquire spiritual knowledge without it coming through the intellect. But our mind has to understand to some degree the words you read in the Bible. Then you can take a verse of Scripture and begin to meditate on it.

For example, when I'm preparing to minister, I read verses of Scripture on the particular subject I plan to preach on. Then I think about those verses constantly for a few days. Of course, I still do other things during that time, but those verses of Scripture are "on the back burner" of my mind, so to speak. Anytime that I'm not consciously working on something else, I think on those verses again.

That's what meditation is. One definition says "meditation" means to focus one's thoughts on. When you meditate on something, you mull it over; you turn it over and over again in your mind.

We even need to meditate on the scriptures that we already know, because many times we have understood only parts of those scriptures. Have you ever started thinking about a verse of Scripture that you knew really well, and then suddenly received a revelation of something you hadn't seen in that verse before? That's why we need to meditate on God's Word continually.

I don't mean that you can't continue to deal with the normal affairs of life while you are meditating. In fact, you need to be careful in this area. When you start building up your spirit man, the devil will try to push you into spiritual excess until you become "super-spiritual" with no common sense.

You need to understand that we live in this world and that we have to get along in this world. This means that in building up our spirit man, we can't shut ourselves off from the world. But that's just what the devil will try to get believers to do. When a believer does nothing but read and study the Word, he'll eventually "go off the deep end" because he isn't able to cope with the daily affairs of life.

If the devil can't push people to this extreme of studying the Word only, he will try to push them to the other extreme where they involve themselves in everything except Bible study, so they're very shallow in their knowledge of Scripture. But the truth is some-where in the middle of the road.

I've noticed over the years that some people can't seem to stay bal-anced or in the middle of the road in their Christian walk. They get pushed from one extreme to another. To quote an old saying, "They're so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good."

This saying refers to people who have gone into spiritual excess. The devil can't get them to do wrong, so he gets them caught up in the extreme of doing good works alone.

For example, if the devil can't get you to "forsake the assembling of yourselves together" (Heb. 10:25) to neglect church attendance he will try to push you to the point where you feel guilty if you're not attending a service every night of the week.

But when you meditate upon God's Word properly, you will become spiritually "smart." You'll be able to recognize and win victory over anything the devil tries to do in your life!

There are also other benefits to meditating upon the Word. Joshua 1:8 says that we can become prosperous and successful through meditating upon God's Word.

The Amplified Bible says, "This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success." So according to Joshua 1:8, if you don't meditate on God's Word, you won't be able to deal wisely and have good success, either naturally or spiritually, and you're going to find yourself in a mess broken down and defeated.

We know that meditation in God's Word is one way to build up and strengthen our spirit. Using wisdom is another step we can take to build up our spirit man. It's important that we use wisdom in all the affairs of life. But actually, a person can't exercise wisdom if he doesn't first meditate in God's Word.

Unfortunately, many people don't use wisdom in the affairs of life. For example, a friend of mine opened a flight school back in the late 1960s, and I began taking flying lessons from him. He'd purchased three airplanes and hired a couple of instructors, and his flight school was going really well. School enrollment was growing, so he wanted to expand. But I encouraged him to wait a little while before opening another school.

"Don't do this so quickly," I said. "You're just excited right now about the rush of new students. Most of them are probably going to drop out, and you're going to be right back where you started. If you buy more airplanes and expand, your whole business could go under."

He insisted, "Oh, no, man. I've hit it big!"

Well, instead of hitting it big, my friend hit bottom. I was almost ready to take a check-ride to get my private pilot's license when the school folded. His first flight school couldn't support his second flight school until it got off the ground financially. So he lost both schools.

If my friend had just used some wisdom and waited, he would probably still be in business. He might have been the owner of several flight schools at private airports all over the country. But he didn't use wisdom.

It's extremely important to use wisdom in natural matters, but it's just as important to use wisdom in spiritual matters.

As I said before, some people don't use wisdom in spiritual matters, and they end up in spiritual excess. They become "super-spiritual." Although it is good to be spiritual, they get so caught up in spiritual things that they forget about the natural things of life.

For example, a wife who works in the home as a homemaker could get so caught up in spiritual things that she neglects her family. When her husband comes home from work, the house is dirty and the breakfast dishes are still in the sink! She meets him at the door in her bathrobe because she sat and listened to tapes all day!

The woman's husband walks in the house tired, and she hollers, "Hurry and get ready we'll grab a hamburger on the way to church! 'Brother So-and-So' is preaching tonight, and we have to go to the service!" They might have eaten hamburgers and gone to a service somewhere for the last seven nights in a row. Yet the wife can't understand why her husband and family are getting upset. She says, "But we're building up our spirits."

Well, there's a time for taking care of your spirit, but there's also a time for taking care of your family and other natural responsibilities. That's what I mean by using wisdom. Using wisdom will help us both naturally and spiritually.

We can't run from this meeting to that meeting all the time and still expect to have good family relationships. Relationships aren't developed by sitting in church all the time. Now someone could take this statement, run off in the other direction with it, and say I'm teaching that you shouldn't go to church. No, that's not what I'm saying at all!

I'm saying that you have to use wisdom. You can't go to church all the time, and you can't stay home all the time. You must have a balance.

That's where wisdom comes into play, When you begin to meditate upon God's Word, you'll grow in wisdom, godly character, love, and all the characteristics you need to become a success in life. If you're going to become successful in life, you will have to meditate upon the Word of God and use wisdom.

We can see that this is true by looking at the life of King Solomon. Solomon asked God for wisdom (1 Kings 3:9). He didn't ask for riches; he asked for wisdom. And God made him the richest man on the earth!

But Solomon began to depart from God's wisdom later in life, and it cost him. I see that happen with Christians many times. They start out walking in wisdom, and God begins to bless them. Then they stop using the wisdom God gave them, and they start making bad decisions.

Anytime I observe a person making an unwise decision, I realize that he hasn't studied God's Word and received wisdom on the subject. I personally refuse to make a decision without receiving wisdom from God first.

People sometimes come to me with different ideas and business opportunities, trying to get me to make a decision right away. But when this happens I usually say, "Let's wait on that. I need to check that out before I make a decision."

That's what wisdom does. Wisdom won't allow you to just jump up and run after every opportunity that comes your way. You need wisdom to know when to move and when not to move. When you use wisdom, you won't make a hasty decision.

When a salesperson tells me, "We're having a special, but you have to buy now or you're not going to get in on it," I always say, "Well, I guess I'm not going to get in on it then!"

If it's such a good deal, it will be there tomorrow! I have found that if I can't wait to receive wisdom from God on a matter, then something is wrong somewhere! And I'm not going to make a move on that matter, because that door is the wrong door for me to go through.

God wants you to be a success both in the natural and the spiritual. And building up your spirit man is a key to your success. When you begin to meditate upon the Word of God and use wisdom in all the affairs of life, you will be on the road to well-balanced success!

extract from Word Of Faith Monthly Free magazine