"For in him we live, and move, and have our being."
- Acts 17:28
Living a life of spiritual awareness should be as natural to you, as a believer, as breathing. The moment you gave your heart to Jesus you became born of the Spirit, and your life is now to be lived in the Spirit. That is the element from which you are to live. It is where your relationship with God thrives.
In writing to the Roman Christians, Paul states: "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of Christ dwell in you" (Rom. 8:8, 9). If you read this passage carefully you will find that Paul points out the stark difference between "being in the flesh" as opposed to "living after the flesh" and "being in the Spirit" as opposed to "living after the Spirit." It is clear that "NO" believer is in the flesh. That is, if he is a true believer. The moment he accepts Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior, he is changed into a new creature, which means he is now born of the Spirit. But that does not mean that as a believer, he cannot revert back to living after the flesh. If he chooses to, he can confine himself and restrict himself to a carnal life and never enjoy a Spirit life. Over in Galatians chapter five, Paul points this out by saying: "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25). In other words, since we are now in the Spirit, we need to make a conscious decision to walk out what we are within.
A Spirit life is one that breathes in the atmosphere of heaven. Just like your natural body is suited to live and breathe earth's atmosphere, your spirit is suited to live and breathe heaven's atmosphere. The very life of God is now your life. The nature of God is your nature, so it should be a natural response to live like heaven lives.
Think of it in relationship to the life of a caterpillar. All its life is spent crawling, etching along, totally confined to inching its way through life. But suddenly, one day, it spins a cocoon and eventually immerse as a butterfly. Everything about its life is now changed. It no longer has to crawl. It no longer has to pull its weight around. It is free to fly and adventure to places it never dreamed possible.
That is how it should be in our Christian life. We entered into the death of Christ confined by a life of limitations and restrictions, but then we arose in him as a new creature with wings to fly like an eagle. To now think of our life as being in the flesh should be just as ridiculous as a butterfly thinking it is still a caterpillar. How meaningless life can be when we have wings to fly, but we live to crawl! That is what living a carnal life is like. We have all this potential in us to live a Spirit life, but we never allow our minds to go through the transformation. Our spirits have been transformed, but our minds remain confined to a caterpillar mentality.
That is exactly what happened to the children of Israel. Moses sent out twelve spies to spy out the land and when they came back, their report was all about how great the children of Anak were. The Bible says, "And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" (Num. 13:33). If you want to see your life soar like an eagle, then start thinking like an eagle. Both Paul and James referred to the Bible as being like a mirror. As you gaze into the Word of God, you will discover who you are. Everything Christ did for you will reflect back to you who he has now made you. You might be amazed to find out you are not that old caterpillar the enemy has tried to make you think you are. You are a new creature. And since that is who you really are, it's time to go ahead and spread your wings and take flight and live a Spirit life. You are free now to fly..."As he is, so are ye in this world" (1 John 4:17).
