SPEAK LIFE TO THEIR SPIRIT (1) 2 Corinthians 5:12-21
12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Paul writes, ‘We regard no one from a worldly point of view… if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!’ (2 Corinthians 5:16–17 NKJV) Here is an important spiritual principle. When you’re trying to help a believer who is battling adversity, addiction, or physical affliction, speak life to their regenerated spirit. Speak to the part of them that’s capable of rising up in faith and responding to God’s Word: ‘Faith comes from hearing the message… through the word about Christ.’ (Romans 10:17 NIV)
How does faith come? By hearing what God thinks, says, and can do. Until God has been heard, the last word hasn’t been spoken. God instructed Ezekiel to stand in a valley full of dead bones and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.’ (Ezekiel 37:5 NIV) And guess what? It happened! Ezekiel said, ‘As I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together.’ (Ezekiel 37:7 NIV)
MEDITATE: Now let’s be clear; you can’t hold on to a loved one when God in His sovereign wisdom decides it’s time to take them home to Heaven, which Paul describes as ‘far better.’ (Philippians 1:23 KJV) But until that happens, speak God’s Word to their regenerated spirit. Faith doesn’t deny the reality of the circumstances, but it refuses to be intimidated, limited, or ruled by them. ‘Only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means’ (1 Corinthians 2:14 NLT), so when someone is a redeemed child of God, don’t speak to their human intellect—speak life to their spirit. (TWFT)