Guided by the Holy Spirit

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7(NLT)

By Alexandra Copeland

Jesus Christ tells us in John 4:24 (KJV), “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” God is Spirit, and one of the reasons that it is so important for us to know as much about His Spirit as possible is because we were created in His image and likeness. Genesis 1:27 (NIV) tells us, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” We are spirit beings having an experience on earth. Many people have this turned around. They identify themselves as human beings having a spiritual experience on earth. If that were the case, life on earth is it for them; it’s all they have to look forward to. That is indeed a shame. 

Genesis 2:7 (NLT) tells us, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The human soul and the human spirit are not the same things. They are separate and unique parts of our beings. Just as the body is different from the soul, the soul is different from the spirit. Genesis 2:7 gives us the sequence of events in that first, Heavenly Father formed man, then He breathed soul life into the man. Because we rely heavily on the element of time, we look to wrap things up in a time frame that makes us comfortable with the knowledge we have. So, most of us assume that God created Adam’s spirit around or during the same time that He formed Adam’s body and breathed life into it. We cannot make this assumption, because God does not say this in His Word. He does, however, make it very clear that there is a distinction between the creation of our spirits and the formation of our bodies.

In the case of Adam and Eve, again, the bible does not tell us the exact time span between the creation of their spirits and then their physical bodies. It would be unwise of us to make any speculations about the subject. We only know that God is not limited by the measurement of time that we use. A thousand years to us is but a blink of an eye to Him. One thing is resoundingly clear, and it is that God created us with enormous capacity. We have a spirit made in His image that allows us to connect with Him through holy communion and fellowship, and we also have a physical body and a soul that allows us to impact and influence one another, and to experience all that life on earth has to offer.

We know from Genesis 3:6 that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and because of their disobedience they lost holiness and were no longer able to fellowship with God. Jesus Christ told us in John 4:24 that we must worship God in spirit and in truth. Outside of spirit and truth, we cannot commune with Him. Through Adam’s act of disobedience, this is exactly where he and Eve landed themselves, outside of spirit and truth.

God’s way of restoring what Adam and Eve lost was to send His only begotten Son to the earth. Jesus Christ lovingly left the throne of God to rescue us from sin and death. He gave his life so that we could be born again of God’s incorruptible seed. Everyone that accepts Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives can invite the presence of the Holy Spirit to abide within them. This is beyond extraordinary.

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) tells us, “For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Once we became born again, we are new creatures in Christ. Our human spirits are recreated and become the home of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the comforter that Jesus Christ promised. He is our friend, guide, and teacher. He dwells within our newly recreated spirit. 1Corinthians 6:19 (NLT) tells us, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,”

Many people think and believe that God created our spirits at the point where we were born into this earth. Our bodies were formed in our mother’s womb, but our bodies do not define who we are. We limit our intelligence by trying to stamp a time on the creation of our spirits. The real ‘you’ is not the body that houses your spirit. The real ‘you’ is your spirit—the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:4 (KJV) tells us, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” God knew us even before the world was founded. He knew us before we were birthed into the earth’s realm.

This is important to know because it gives us insight about our destiny in Christ. We’re not wanderers, taking everything as it comes; not being deliberate about the quality and degree of holiness of the lives we live. We’re predestined by God to do the good things He planned for us even before the foundation of the world.

Our Lord and Master said in John 16:13(NLT), “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” God has chosen a destiny for us that is a part of His plan for the entire universe. It would be unwise to think that we can get to the place that He desires us to be without some serious help. This help is the inner gift and guide that His overwhelming generosity and grace has provided through Christ.

We are spiritual beings with a destiny that is far beyond the experience that this earth offers! While we’re here, we’ve got work to do and no time to waste. So it is incumbent upon every believer to recognize that we cannot reach the destiny that God has for us without the Holy Spirit’s guidance. We should make absolutely sure that we have invited the Holy Spirit to have reign in our lives, because he has been given to us by God to help us walk in our destinies.■

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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.