At this time of year, many people are performing their New Year's resolutions. Some are dieting, some are building up their body. Some are attending schools, colleges/universities . . . all for their further development.

Just as the body can be built up in strength, and the mind built up with knowledge, so the human spirit can be built up with strength AND knowledge.

Today’s message, “How To Develop The Human Spirit” will endeavor to teach you how to strengthen AND educate your spirit. (Remember, you are a 3 part being – you ARE a spirit just like Father God, you have a soul and you live in a body.

There are 4 steps to the development of your spirit:

1.   MEDITATE

2.   SEE

3.   DO

4.   INSTANTLY OBEY

#1.) Many of you are new to the teaching of the Word of God,so you may not be familiar with Joshua 1:8 in the Bible.
 
Josh 1:8 (NIV)
8       Do not let  this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Remember from past teachings what “to meditate” literally MEANS??
(to utter and mutter)

Let’s look at more scriptures – only one will not prove our point.

Ps 1:1-6 (NIV)
1          Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
2       But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3       He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
4       Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5          Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6       For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Now, the same scripture in the New Testament:

James 1:25 (NIV)
25     But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-- he will be blessed in what he does.

#2.) SEE

Prov 4:20-22 (KJV)
20     My son, 1)attend to my words; 2) incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21     3) Let them not depart from thine eyes; 4) keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22     For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

God is giving us a prescription here … how to TAKE the Word of God so that it produces LIFE in our spirits and our bodies.

Focusing on step 3, God ALREADY instructed us to “attend” to His Word, indicating LOOKING at it attentively, so “letting His Word not depart from your eyes” is like “staring at a flashbulb” … if you were to look in a mirror after it goes off, you would see a “spot” on your body.  That is PRECISELY what that scripture means.. see what God has for you, then look at yourself WITH that (healing,salvation, prosperity, lack of debt, etc.)

#3.) DO

Check back to the scriptures we read for step #1 … then …

James 1:22-25 (NIV)
22     Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
23          Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror
24     and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25     But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-- he will be blessed in what he does.

Finally,
#4.) INSTANTLY OBEY (the voice of YOUR spirit):

1 Cor 6:17 (KJV)
17            But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

The “Spirit of Christ” enters your spirit and you become one spirit.  After renewing your mind(learning the Bible and deciding to obey its every command) (following steps1-3), then hearing God’s voice becomes clear. You may think it was “just you” when you have a leading or an idea or an inspiration, but if you have followed steps 1 – 3 faithfully, you can depend on that “still small voice” on the inside of you to guide you. (Hint – the inward witness will ALWAYS be in line with the written Word of God).

Heb 5:13-14 (NIV)
13          Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
14     But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.