Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16 NKJV) “Therefore we do not lose heart. Like with natural food, the best policy is to feed your “inner man” with God’s word several times a day (See: Psalm 1:1-3), and to do the spiritual exercises of faith, prayer, and warfare daily-along with the continuous advance of expanding forward: not shrinking back (Heb. (1 Timothy 4:7 MSG) “Exercise daily in God-no spiritual flabbiness, please!” Obviously, for spiritual strength we need both spiritual food from God’s true knowledge, and we need some spiritual exercise. (1 Peter 2:2 NKJV) “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”Įven the “milk” of the word will enable you to grow. If we feed our inner man the right diet, and exercise him, he will grow. Obviously, knowledge does not feed our natural outer man and because this Scripture passage cannot be untrue, we see that knowledge must be the food of the "inner" man. In this Old Testament prophecy, God promises that he will supply true shepherds who will feed his people with his true knowledge. (Jeremiah 3:15 NKJV) “And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” Thank You, Father, that I can come to You asking that You would strengthen my inner being, and because of Your great love I trust that You will answer this cry of my heart.God’s Knowledge is Food for the Inner Man. When we ask on that level, God promises to give. Paul prayed that these Ephesians might have this granted to them. All that is necessary is that you ask Him for it. This beginning step is not your responsibility it is God's. It starts down at the level of the spirit and may be nothing more than some consciousness of reassurance that things are going to work out. Relief will come, but it doesn't start there. We get so hung up in this process of spiritual recovery by always wanting an instantly good feeling. Just as taking a drink refreshes your body, so drinking of the Spirit refreshes your spirit, at the deepest level of your life. That is what our human spirits are for-to drink of the Spirit of God so that we are refreshed and revitalized. and we were all given the one Spirit to drink (v. In 1 Corinthians 12, speaking of believers, Paul says, For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body. And what the apostle tells us about here is the capability of the Creator himself our loving Father, to give us a fresh infusion of strength by His Spirit into our spirit, the inner being. But this is something that touches the spirit, right at the deepest level of human life, and you find yourself filled with despair and indifference. It is not merely a question of temporary boredom. When you are really discouraged, really brokenhearted and have given up, your condition is often described as dispirited. Not in the realm of our feelings, but in what psychologists would call the realm of the subconscious, the deep-seated part of our life, the fundamental element of our nature. It is here that God begins the work of recovery. It is clear that the soul is part of our life linked with the outer person, which is perishing day by day.īut that is not the inner being. Your soul grows old as well as your body. And that is what he calls the inner being. That is, for Christians there is something about us that is getting old, decaying and deteriorating but there is also something about us that is getting more vital, increasing and becoming richer and deeper and stronger every day we live. There he says that our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day (4:16 NKJV). But I don't think this is what Paul means here, because in 2 Corinthians 4 he gives us a clue about what he does mean when he says the inner being. What is your inner being? Many take this to mean the soul, with its faculties of reason and emotion and will.
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