Fellowship 2

O U R F E L L O W S H I P I N T

THE EXERCISE OF OUR SPIRIT:

highlights of a book review given during a local conference

1 Timothy 3:16 And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, / Justified in the Spirit, / Seen by angels, / Preached among the nations, / Believed on in the world,/ Taken up in glory
     Godliness is God manifested in the flesh

1 Timothy 4:7,8 But the profane and old-womanish myths refuse, and exercise yourself unto godliness. For bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the present life and of that which is to come.
     The charge from the apostle Paul is to exercise unto godliness

I Timothy 2:8 I desire therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and reasoning:
     Wrath is in the emotion and reasoning in the mind to pray in every place, our soul needs to be adjusted and dealt with

1 Timothy 1:4,5 Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God's economy, which is in faith. But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience and out of unfeigned faith;
     Myths relate to gossip and loose talk. Questionings and reasoning’s come from Satan. (Genesis 3)

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness
     Power is related to our will, love of the emotion, and sobermindedness to our mind. Here the sprit God has given us is related to the three parts of our soul.

Hebrews 9:14 How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
     Applying the blood of Christ to cleanse our conscience

H E W O R D O F G O D

Based on the verses and the context of the two epistles to Timothy, we see that godliness is defined in 1 Tim 3:16 as God manifested in the flesh. God here is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Godliness is the way to conduct ourselves in the house of God, the church. In the next verse, the apostle Paul charges Timothy to "exercise himself unto godliness." Therefore, we too should take up the charge and exercise ourselves unto godliness, which is nothing short of God manifested in the flesh to build up the church.

For this we need our soul be dealt with and adjusted to allow the spirit to flow purely, and unhindered. It also requires that we care for and exercise our spirit until our spirit, which is regenerated by and mingled with the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God as Spirit, is strengthened to the point our spirit is the leading part of our being and our soul expresses who is in our spirit. To strengthen our spirit we need to learn to apply the blood of Christ to cleanse our conscience. As we exercise our spirit, we also need to care for the anointing of the Spirit within our spirit. The more we care for the anointing we will become more sensitive to it. If we will deal with our soul before the Lord and exercise our spirit the result will be sanctified, renewed and transformed and our spirit will become our person and our soul the organ to expresses our spirit, thus we will express God, godliness:

God manifested in the flesh.

the church in Wixom

and they continued steadfastly in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers (Acts 2:42)