Spiritual life

By Jabulile Myeni

As you open the pages of the book, you will discover the life that God wants you to live. You will also discover the following; the original plan God had for man, God's disrupted plan, the restoration of God's disrupted plan and salvation in three phases.The contents of this work  will help you tap into a spiritual reality that will empower your life with you the necessary tools to help you walk the spiritual journey in these turbulent times. You shall be transformed by the contents of this book in a very powerful way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jabulile Myeni
• Release date: Sep 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393135111

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

John 1v5-6

Jesus answered; most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water, and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

In this verse, Jesus was responding to Nichodemus' inquiry on how a man can be born again. I hope you know the story, or have read it before. Jesus stresses that, in order for a man to enter the kingdom of God, he has to be born again. It is important to note that by being born again, Jesus was not referring to the physical birth that we are all familiar with, but He was talking about the spiritual birth, which is the core theme of this book.

Apostle Paul in Galatians 5 v 16 says; Walk in Spirit, and you shall not fulfil lust of the flesh.

Here, Paul is teaching about the importance of living a spiritual life, so as to avoid the lusts of the flesh.

In order to understand the principles of the spiritual life, it is important to first know who God is, His creation, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. All these are the important elements in unveiling the truth about the starting point of the Spiritual Life, as a journey. Therefore, these elements will form the introduction of the book.

We will first look at who God is.

Who is God?

I know that we all have a lot of explanations of who God is, and none of them are wrong. Let us have the Biblical definitions;

Some scholars define God as; being omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), omnipresent (all-present), and as having an eternal, and necessary existence.

God is the Creator:

Genesis 1v1; In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.

God existed before anything, and this verse clearly states that He is the one who created everything, and it shows that when there was nothing He Himself was there.

John 1v1 goes on to say that; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Now this verse unveils the pre- existence of Jesus, being referred to as the Word, who is God as well, and was also present during God's creation. Wow! So God was not alone when He created everything.

God is three-in-one (Trinity)

2Corinthians 8v6; Yet there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came, and through whom we live.

2Corinthians 13v14; May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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These verses unveil the three people of the trinity which are; God the father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. However, there are a lot more scriptures that talk about the trinity.

The meaning of the word trinity comes from; "tri" meaning three, and "unity" meaning one; (tri + unity = trinity). This equation is used throughout the Holy Bible to describe God as three distinct individuals.

It might be a very difficult concept to easily grasp as many scientists have challenged it in their own perspective, yet us believers, need to believe God's word, and know that while His ways are higher than ours, we can only trust in Him, and in all the holy writings in the Bible. It is only faith that helps us to believe in the unseen God.

Some biblical heroes have described God as:

• Our Father: by King David in 2Chronicles 29v10; Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel, our FATHER forever and ever.

• Our Father: by Jesus Himself when his disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray in Luke 11v2.

• King of kings, and Lord of lords: by Apostle Paul in 1Timothy 6v15:16; Which He will manifest in His own time. He who is the blessed, and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Who alone has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, or can see to whom be honor, and everlasting power. Amen! Wow!!! This verse is so amazing, if you can read it carefully you will notice who God really is.

• The God Who can do all things; by Job in Job 42v2: I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. I can also attest to this fact that Job is talking about, I have seen God doing great things in my life, that no man can do, and I have noticed how His will power can't be challenged or reversed by anyone.

•  The God who declares the end from the beginning: by Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 42v10; Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things that are not yet done. Saying 'My Counsel shall stand, and I will do my pleasures.’ Amen!

• The God Who does according to His will: by Daniel in Daniel 4v35; All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can say 'what have you done?

• Holy God: by Himself through Moses: Leviticus 19v2; Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them; You shall be holy, for I am your God, and am Holy.

•  Lord who sanctifies us; Himself through Moses; Leviticus 22v30; You shall not profane my Holy Name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, to be your God.

• God of Grace; Himself through Moses; Exodus 34v6-7; The Lord God, merciful, and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness, and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving inequities, and transgression, and sins by no means, clearing the guilty, vising the inequity of the fathers upon the children, and the children's children, to the third, and fourth generation.

• God of Love: by John in John 3v16; For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

• God whose thoughts and ways are higher; by Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 55v9; For as heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God is many more. I personally define Him as everything depending on what an individual has experienced Him to be in life, in regard to the circumstances we face on daily basis. To some He is a Healer, some Comforter, some a Redeemer, some a faithful God, the list is endless all depending on what He has done in one's life.

God's Creation

Let us look at an amazing topic; His Creation which in the book of Genesis. I like this part of the Bible because it tells us of our origins, and God's original plan about us. It is normal that every human being would love to know more about their roots of family. This is the same with us believers, it is important that we should always give ourselves time to know more about our roots as well as our religion, and there is nowhere else we can learn this, except from the Holy Bible.

Genesis 1, talks about the beautiful things God created. Below is a summary of the five things that God created in seven days.

1. Earth

God created the land and the seas. This was the visible, or the physical world.

2. Heaven

He created the area directly above the earth's surface, the area encompassing the stars, sun, the moon, and the realm of heaven unreachable by man. This was the invisible world.

Origins of seed

He created plants, each devised to reproduce itself by way of seed.

Species

He created all living things, those that lived in water, and those in the land.

Man

He created two distinct sexes for the purpose of replenishing, and caring for the earth. He named the man Adam, and the woman Eve. When God created man, He spoke the most amazing words in Genesis 1v26; He said; Let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

Wow!!!! This verse is breath-taking, and amazing when you think of the words, "in our image and let them have dominion over."

Our image; with these words, God was not referring to the physical body as He Himself is not flesh but He is spirit.

John 4v24: God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

This then brings us to the idea that man is a two in one; meaning that he is physical and spiritual. The physical body was designed for the physical world, so that he would be able to perform the physical duties assigned to him by God; that of taking care of all the living things on earth. The spiritual being is the body that resembles God. This being was designed to communicate with God, and would worship Him.

Out of all the things that God created, man was a different creature.

God endowed humans with a certain kind of awareness, one which animals were not given. In other words, humans possessed the capacity for reasoning, morality, language, personality, and purpose. In particular, the ability to use morality and spirituality are unique characteristics to human beings among God's creation on earth.

The words; let them have dominion over; this phrase implies that God's main purpose of creating man was to give him ruler-ship over the earth. He wanted him to be His representative or an ambassador in His earthy kingdom.

In short, the reason God had to give man the physical and spiritual bodies was that; He wanted man to take responsibility using the physical body, and oversee for Him in earth, as well as communicate with Him through the spiritual being. In other words, man was given stewardship in earth, he was to manage all of God's creation.

To summarize the verse; God is the maker, or creator of everything, everything belongs to Him, however, through love, He extends His power to man to rule over all. Man stands as His image, he is accountable to the Creator of everything, he has been entrusted with, and above all in his body, he has the Godly spirit. Genesis 1v31 says that, upon completing His work, God saw His work perfect, and He felt good, and pleased about it, leaving it all to the hands of man to take care, He left. Wow!!! What a wonderful creation so magnificent, perfect, and in order, right in the hands of man.

However, as we read chapter 3 of Genesis, we see man having an encounter with the devil, unexpectedly, everything changed. As we go through the chapter, we come to a conclusion that the main goal of the serpent was to drive man away from his luxurious life he had in God's presence.

John 10v10, states clearly that the devil comes to destroy everything that is good. His plan worked at his advantage because we notice that man was indeed driven out of the garden, and God made sure that man never set foot in it again, by guarding the place day, and night. The Bible says, the garden was guarded day and night by a cherubim and a flaming sword. When we read about a cherubim, we notice that they are second in command angelic beings that serve the will of God, they perform divine duties in the earthly realm.

What a fall!!! This is how sin was introduced in earth, God's perfect plan was disrupted by the devil through Adam's disobedience. God was disappointed into the core of His great heart with man. In his expulsion man lost;

•  The important relationship with God.

•  The stewardship, or kingship in the kingdom of God on earth.

•  The Holy Spirit.

Through man's disobedience, a kingdom of darkness was eventually formed on earth, which constantly fights against the kingdom of God. That is why even today, when man wants to do the will of God, there is always a conflict because the devil is fighting against man doing what is right in the eyes of God. The devil is always pulling man away from God, trying in his power to destroy the relationship, and making sure that man is always unhappy. He does this by bringing all sorts of temptations to make man lose focus in reuniting with our God.

That is why today, I would like to take this opportunity dear reader, to encourage you to not be shaken when you face difficulties in your spiritual journey with God. You must