1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV (23) Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:12 NKJV (12) For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT (17) This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
1 John 4:15 NLT (15) All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.
The spirit of man is the eternal part of you. It is the part of us that makes contact with God.
The spirit of man is where God lives in you and this is where He speaks to you.
Proverbs 4:23 NKJV (23) Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Issues of life = resources of life; the outflow of life
Guard your heart – same as building a wall around a well
Proverbs 4:23 NLT (23) Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Proverbs 4:23 ERV (23) Above all, be careful what you think because your thoughts control your life.
Proverbs 20:27 NIV (27) The human spirit is the lamp of the LORD that sheds light on one’s inmost being.
The spirit of man is the place from which answers from the Lord come. It is the place where He reveals His solutions to us.
Worry and anxiety is the direct result of a fruitless search for life’s answers out of your human mind.
Your mind is a wonderful tool, but your mind can only give out what you put into it. If you do not put the information into your mind, you cannot ever retrieve that information.
Your mind does not always do a perfect job of giving you back everything you put into it. It can sometimes give back what you put in it in a way that is a little bit inaccurate. Studied in school but still did not make a 100.
If there is an answer that you need, and your mind has never known the answer, then you will never be able to recall or get that answer from your mind.
There are just some things that your mind does not have.
Proverbs 16:1 NLT (1) We can make our own plans, but the LORD gives the right answer.
If you face a new problem, then the answer is going to have to come from the Lord.
When you are searching for the answer in your mind by going over and over the problem to look for the solution, you only cause yourself more anxiety and frustration.
Don’t follow every thought that pops into your mind and every “rabbit trail” they can produce.
Chasing after all these thoughts is where confusion comes from.
Confusion = lack of clarity or distinction, perplexity or bewilderment.
1 Corinthians 14:33 NKJV (33) For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
Another Reason For Worry:
Luke 24:1-4 NKJV (1) Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. (2) But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. (3) Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. (4) And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.
The Scripture says that they were very much perplexed or troubled or worried. They are worried because they are believing the wrong thing.
Worry is a direct result of believing the wrong thing.
They believed incorrectly that Jesus was dead.
They were the last ones to see the dead body of Jesus. They saw his bloodied, beaten and mutilated body and were there when it was placed in the tomb then they had to sit on that for 24 hours because of the Sabbath. In their minds they are expecting to come back and see what they had seen before.
The angels began the process of bringing them out of their worried and anxious state.
Luke 24:5-8 NKJV (5) Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? (6) He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, (7) saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ” (8) And they remembered His words.
Luke 18:31-34 NKJV (31) Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. (32) For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. (33) They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” (34) But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.
Jesus talked about this so much that even His enemies were aware of it because they stationed guards at His tomb so that the disciples could not steal the body to prove Jesus’ statements. But His own disciples forgot it. It never really registered to them what He was saying.
When you forget the Word that you have heard and don’t do it, you fall into a misbelief and believe the wrong things.
As a result of believing the wrong thing, you will be filled with worry and anxiety.
Luke 18:33 NKJV (33) They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”
Not one disciple was waiting at the tomb on that morning but it did not keep Him from rising from the dead.
Luke 24:9-12 NKJV (9) Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. (10) It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. (11) And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. (12) But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.
They are in doubt because they do not remember what Jesus said nor do they believe what the women told them.
Luke 24:13-26 NKJV (13) Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. (14) And they talked together of all these things which had happened. (15) So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. (16) But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. (17) And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” (18) Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” (19) And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, (20) and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. (21) But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. (22) Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. (23) When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. (24) And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.” (25) Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! (26) Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”
Jesus does not speak any Word that is not divinely chosen by God. He called them “fools” but He was not insulting. He was simply saying to them, “You have been fooled.”
The disciples were fooled by their own physical senses which told them something different than what Jesus had said.
They believed He was dead because that is what their senses told them.
Luke 24:27-32 NKJV (27) And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (28) Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. (29) But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them. (30) Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. (31) Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. (32) And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
Jesus manifested Himself to them, but the manifestation came after the teaching of the Scriptures. Instead of just showing the scars, He takes them through the Word of God and shows it to them from the Word. Only after that is He manifested.
Before you ever receive a manifestation from God, you must first receive and believe His Word.
He convinced them with the Word, not the manifestation.
- Worry is a direct result of wrong belief.
- We believe the wrong things because of wrong thinking.
- We have wrong thinking because we have been receiving the wrong information.
- We have to incorporate God’s information into our thinking to change our believing and eliminate worry.
James 1:21 KJV (21) Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
James is telling us that we do not need new roots. We got new roots when we accepted Christ. Our branches are part of the tree and are a picture of your mind. It is up to us to take off the bad branches one by one and begin to replace them with God’s branches so that we can begin to produce the right believing. God’s branches are not native to us but can be grafted into us.
We learn to take God’s Word and replace our old way of thinking and believing into God’s way of thinking.
We start out like a green apple tree but over time we are changed and now we are a green apple tree that is producing red apples on all the branches. Now our roots have not only been changed but all of the branches have been changed too.
If we are worried and anxious it is because we are believing the wrong thing. What we have to do is go to the Word of God and begin to change our thinking and engraft His promises into our thinking and thus change our believing and wipe out worry for good.