1 Corinthians 3:2
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
Let us begin with some teaching about your human spirit.
Once in a while, some people seem to be ready to give up. Actually, they reached a place where fatigue and pressure have caused them to either go on a crying jag or eat a gallon of ice cream or do something even a little more foolish. But they tend to pull out of that state because it has not deeply affected their spirit. It was usually an isolated incident that did not have much permanent significance. It was a safety valve. They blew off a little steam and repented, "Lord, I'm sorry that I was ready to run the other way!" Then they usually press on.
It is not easy to help Christians who have experienced difficulties which have deeply affected their spirit. The serious problems occur when difficulties reach a person's spirit. I am always amazed to read in the Scriptures that the disciples were able to penetrate down into a person's spirit. An incident such as this occurred in the eight chapter of the book of Acts.
Philip had gone down to Samaria because of the persecutions which scattered the Christians after the stoning of Stephen. Philip performed great miracles and signs there, and he preached and won the whole city to the Lord (Verse 6). In Acts 8:14-17 we read, Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
Peter and John were ministering to the believers in Samaria when something unusual happened. Verses 17 through 24 tell a story which illustrates how the apostles penetrated into the spirits of the people to whom they ministered.
The apostles conclusions were not occasioned by what they saw or by the actions of an individual. Rather, they penetrated into his spirit, which was and is the determining factor.
This is important and of interest to us, because today people are generally evaluated by their actions. We might automatically assume that a person has a bad spirit if he hits someone. We tend to reason by the physical action that he commits, rather than to discern what was in his spirit. If we could reach his spirit, we could help him before he starts hitting someone.
Let us see what happened when Peter and John began laying their hands on the believers and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."
We cannot blame Simon too much for offering them money; he was not familiar with the grace of God. He rocgnized their authority, and he thought this was great; he had never seen anything like it. But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God."
Peter exposed what was in Simon's heart, rather than judging him by his actions.
Notice how Peter dealt with Simon's spirit. "Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of inquity." But Simon answered and said, "Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me." Acts 8:18-24.
Peter gave us a good example of how to deal with someone's spirit. People ask questions about everything; and when you listen to them, you know that something is not right. They do not want information; they are trying to put you in a corner. Others ask questions; and you perceive immediately, "This person's spirit is open to the Lord. There is no gall of bitterness here. This is an honest seeker."
If we were to go up and down the highways and byways and try to talk to people about things of the Lord, many would say, "I can't be bothered." Among those who would talk, we might be rather amazed that although some would ask the same questions as others, they would have an entirely different attitude of heart. Some would have a bitter spirit.
Talk to some people about religious Babylon, and they may say, "You don't need to talk to me about Babylon! I don't know about Babylon, but I will tell you what my church did to me and what our church was like and what they are doing. It was terrible!"
There is bitterness in their spirits. That bitterness keeps coming out by their lashing at everything. Talk to another man and you may find that he is not bitter in his spirit. He may have gone through similar experiences and could be bitter, but he is not. In his spirit, in his heart, he has a deep overriding hunger for God. and because he has a right spirit, he has not been embittered by the difficulties he experienced. Although he may have been very upset at the time, he did not retain any bitterness in his heart.
Simon the magician was rightly discerned by Peter, though he seemed to be an honest inquirer: "I want to lay my hands on people and see them receive the Holy Spirit, too. What a neat trick!" However, behind his inquiry was not just the motivation to buy a gift of God with money. Even more than that, he was in the gall of bitterness. Deep in his heart he had no part or lot with God. Peter said, "Your heart is not right with God. You have no part or portion in this matter." Not one thing was right because bitterness had cut him off.
Bitterness can be a great deceiver. It is surprising how many people hide their bitterness so well that it is difficult to detect. Sometimes this happens in a marriage. A wife may act pious in church, but be very bitter at home over the way her life has turned out. At times, we see this also in husbands. Colossians 3:19 says, Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Bitterness can build up, until after a while a veneer of toleration exists, while actually that bitterness goes down deep.
Some of the seemingly religious and spiritual homes should be analyzed for bitterness. Though entire families go through the right motions, at times there are uprisings of insidious criticism. They talk sweetly; their terminology is just right; their inflections of voice are just right. but look a little closer. Within these families there is bitterness. There is not the deep love. Tension and edginess come out. There is that gall of bitterness beneath the surface.
Do you realize where bitterness really is? Proverbs 14:10 says, "The heart knoweth his own bitterness." Doesn't this seem true? We have a way of detecting the bitterness that we accumulate within our own spirit. When you think back on the people who have stopped walking with God, you cannot point to any specific problem that was too much for them to bear. The reactions in their spirits, more than anything else, caused some to lose out.
Others, who went through the same problems stayed on. Maybe you excuse a brother for losing out because he seemed to have so much to put up with. Maybe you thank God for the work he did, and you think, "He was a good man at heart." Take another look. All the way along the bitterness of his spirit may have been constantly building up a reaction in him to the testings that were taking place.
When someone else went through the same testings, God used them as a catalyst to prepare his spirit to go on into deeper things of the Lord and to seek Him with all of his heart.
In Hebrews 12:5-6 we read, "Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines...Any time you go through a testing which seems to cloud your walk with God, be aware that the problem is not the testing; the real problem is your reaction to it in your spirit.
Walking with God in the Body of Christ is deeply personal. It is between you and the Lord. It is not based on the way the Body of Christ treats you. It is not based upon the way that your brother treats you. Good strong ministries, who should walk on with the Lord and be on top of every situation, sometimes begin to blame their circumstances and other people for the fact that they are not moving in the Lord.
Passivity and bitterness build up in their spirits. Their bitterness builds up while everyone else is breaking through. In the same worship services, we see some breaking forth to become prophets of God and others losing out because of their own bitter spirits.
People react differently, and the difference in their reactions often is based upon the bitterness or the brokenness of their spirits. What is in your spirit? A broken, contrite heart before God? or bitterness? Look back and analyze a time when you were in trouble. It was not necessarily the severity of the circumstance that caused the problem as much as it was your own spirit reacting to it.
Bitterness of spirit does not always result in people becoming vicious and leaving the church and criticizing it. they do not always react that way. Some keep going to services without ever becoming active. Meanwhile bitterness is in their spirits. Then in a difficult situation they become champions to criticize everyone else. Their bitterness may manifest itself in numerous ways. Sometimes they become aggressively defensive to a point of blaming someone else. But more than blaming someone else, they may even pose as being very spiritual.
In the New Testament churches that are coming forth today, there are people with beautiful, hungry, tender spirits who wholeheartedly press on with the lord. There are others with beautiful spirits who love the lord with all their heart, but they cannot seem to adjust to intense expressions of music and intercession. Still they worship and pray in their own way and keep a right spirit. At the other end of the spectrum are some people with bitterness! They may be critical and withdraw, or they may become aggressive to a point of berating everyone else.
How are we to deal with this? how can we deal with the varying responses of the human spirit to the things that happen? It would be marvelous if we would all bow down broken before the Lord. then He could give us an overall vision of the Kingdom and of the people who are ready to be brought in. With a right spirit coming forth, we could forget ourselves and bring other people in.
What kind of spirit should we have? We should not be self defensive or self assertive, but in our spirit we should be dedicated to bring forth the will of God in people's lives. If our dedication does not lead to this, we are not motivated in the right direction. A wrong spirit always dead ends before the true issues arise.
A wrong spirit stops at an impasse without seeing the great issues of the Lordship of Christ and His Kingdom coming all over the world. A wrong spirit always stops one at the local, personal level. It can ground you.
Do you realize the amazingly simple wisdom there is in this message? You can apply it to a thousand situations; to what you have experienced and what you are in now; to what other people have gone through and what they are in now. You will see how to best assist and help others.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
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