12th Sep 26 | 04:00
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Move from the natural to the spiritual
📖 Acts 09:01-22
27 – 14Apr2024 – *Move from the natural to the spiritual* - _Acts 09:01-22_ – THE CONVERSION OF SAUL – _Jonah 01:02-03_
_Acts 9:13-14 Then Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. (14) And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name."_
We can all identify with Ananias. We see here the immediate resistance from him. Ananias was operating in the natural man. The natural man sees the things that have happened, are happening and what is expected to happen. Isn’t this how many of us are, particularly those of us in India as we face our parliament elections?
We are looking at our circumstances and our reactions and responses are all of the natural man. This includes principally our prayers. The fact that we are all praying much currently is very good but consider the heart of God. He is moving things in our nation and worldwide according to His timetable. We ought to be led by His Holy Spirit to pray in the Spirit. Our responses and reactions should not be out of fear for fear shows the natural man. *Our responses and our prayers need to be out of the sovereignty of God.*
Let us look at the example of Moses. _Exodus 4:13-14a But he said, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send." (14a) So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: …_
We see how Moses resisted the move of God in delivering His people from Egypt. The Lord was angry with Moses. Yes, the Lord inclined to Moses’ resistance and enabled him to become the man that God had intended Moses to be in God’s purposes. This is a phenomenal spiritual principle.
*When we operate in the natural man, we miss out on becoming the person and persons that intends us to be, in His purposes.* His purposes are far bigger than us as we see in the life of Moses. God was delivering the people of Israel, and He gave the law.
In the process of changing Moses from a natural man to a spiritual man, the Lord taught him a beautiful lesson.
_Exodus 4:2 So the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod."_ The Lord took what was natural, which was in the hands of a man who was operating in the natural realm. The rod was in the hand of Moses to do signs. This is how the journey for Moses began. This rod became an instrument through which the Lord taught Moses to move from the natural to the spiritual.
_Exodus 4:17 And you shall *take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs*."_
*The rod which was in the hand of Moses became the rod of God in his hands.* _Exodus 4:20 Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And *Moses took the rod of God in his hand*._
We then see, later on, how Moses was completely a spiritual man. _Exodus 17:9 And Moses said to Joshua, "Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow *I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand*."_
*Let each of us commit ourselves to the Lord’s hands to change us from the natural man to the spiritual man.*
Prophet Samuel was operating in the natural man as he resisted what the Lord wanted him to do. _I Samuel 16:1-2 Now the LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; *I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons*." (2) And *Samuel said, "How can I go?* If Saul hears it, he will kill me." But the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.'_
Yet the Lord showed how Samuel needed to follow Him and operate in the spiritual realm. As Samuel followed the Lord and did what the Lord wanted him to do, David was anointed to be King. _I Samuel 16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah._
God’s work was far beyond Samuel. As Samuel moved into the spiritual space, he was part of God’s grand design through him, through David and our Lord Jesus. *All of God’s great purposes were worked out when we transition from the natural to the spiritual.*
We know the story of Jonah. Jonah was told to operate in the spiritual man but he chose to operate in the natural man. _Jonah 1:2-3a "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." (3a) But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. …_ The Lord was gracious and merciful to Jonah to deal with him and make him live in the spiritual realm.
```How is it with each of us? Are we living in the natural space or spiritual? Let us be eager and quick to move from the natural to the spiritual.```
*Let us remember that the ways of God are far beyond us and our times.*
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