Are We Being Made Into Spiritual Beings At This Time?
Posted February 10, 2010
Updated March 3, 2010
Mike,
How would you respond to this question?
In what ways are we being made into spiritual beings?
Thanks,
M____
Good morning, M____,
Thank you for your question. The realm of the spirit is where knowledge and understanding really reside. Any knowledge or understanding we have in these physical bodies is extremely temporary from God's perspective:
Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
You ask "In what ways are we being made into spiritual beings?" Since this life "is even as a vapor that appears for a little time, then vanishes away," I would have to say that we are not at this time being made into spiritual beings. Let's look at what eternal life is and then we can understand what is being done at this time. Here is what eternal life is:
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Knowing our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ "is life eternal." In other words, learning to think as they think and do as they do "is life eternal." There is only one problem with doing that, and this verse gives us a little bit of an idea of what that problem is.
Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
What that means, in practical terms, is that if it is given us to "pass from death unto life" while still in these bodies of clay, then we must be willing to accept the consequences of "knowing God and Jesus whom He has sent." It is those consequences which are the answer to the question, "In what ways are we being made into spiritual beings?" Here are those consequences.
Mat 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against [their] parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Knowing God and Jesus Christ means we think and act as they think and act. The way the Father acted got Jesus killed, and if we act like Christ, we too, will be "hated of all men" and especially hated by the beast that is within us and must "die daily and be crucified and resurrected with Christ" to "walk in newness of life", which again causes us to be "hated of all men." Here is what it all boils down to:
1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
That "fiery trial" includes "dying daily" to the illicit and harmful desires of our flesh, as well as "being hated of all men". As I have said so many times, that really is not a marketable message, but it does explain the Truth of this verse:
Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
To answer your question directly, we are not at this time being "made into spiritual beings". We are growing spiritually, but it is not in spiritual bodies. That requires a resurrection from among the dead which goes beyond the "earnest of the spirit" 'resurrection' in which we now live. To be "made into spiritual beings" we must first be given "the redemption of the purchased possession." In other words we must experience the resurrection in its "redemption of the purchased possession" form.
Eph 1:14 Which [gift of "the holy spirit of promise," verse 13] is the earnest [Greek, downpayment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
What is being done at this time is that we are learning to think and act as Christ thinks and as He acts, and that is being accomplished in us through the fiery trials of this life. That includes the daily dying to our old man and it includes being willing to be "hated of all men" because our thought are not their thoughts, and our ways are not their ways. If we have that mind then we know God and we know Jesus Christ whom He has sent. If we know them, then we will be "tried by fiery trials" and we will be "hated of all men for His name's sake." That is how we are being prepared to be "made into spiritual beings" at "the redemption of the purchased possession" of our spiritual bodies, which will be given us at the time of the resurrection "out from among the dead."
Php 3:10 to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, conforming to His death,
Php 3:11 if somehow I should be attaining to the resurrection that is out from among the dead.
Php 3:12 Not that I already obtained, or am already perfected. Yet I am pursuing, if I may be grasping also that for which I was grasped also by Christ Jesus."
Php 3:13 Brethren, not as yet am I reckoning myself to have grasped, yet one thing - forgetting, indeed, those things which are behind, yet stretching out to those in front - "
Php 3:14 toward the goal am I pursuing for the prize of God's calling above in Christ Jesus.
I hope this is of some edification to you. If I haven't answered your question to your satisfaction please let me know.
Your brother in Christ,Mike