The lamp of a person is his spirit-Basie Ligthelm

A few months ago, I had a dream. A very busy dream, lots of action, cannot really remember the detail. What I do remember was the final line : “the lamp of a person is his spirit”. I don’t know who spoke it, but it was loud, like a declaration!

I woke up thinking about the strange closing line. I know the verse in Matthew that says “the lamp of the body is the eye”, but I have never heard about this one. Was it a message from God? What does it mean? Is it someone that wants to divert me? Only later did I find the verse in Proverbs that says the same thing “The spirit of man, is the lamp of the Lord”

I started reading about the human spirit and realised that in our modern society, the total focus is on the soul and the body of the person. The functions of the soul are amongst others – the intellect, emotions, desires, will and senses. The whole fashion and sports industries’ focus is on the body. So what about the spirit? Can we train our spirit? What are the functions of the spirit? Can the spirit be hurt or damaged? Can the spirit be healed?

Going back to the beginning, we see how Adam and Eve walked in fellowship with God. They were created for fellowship and intimacy with the Creator. God walked with them in the garden every day. They were naked but it did not bother them.

They could eat from any tree in the garden except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God said to them : “the day you eat of that tree, you will die”. Adam and Eve ignored the warning, they ate.

As a child I thought: “God was not serious about this warning. He just wanted to scare them. They did not die. They continued to live and became parents of the whole human race!”

But they did die. Not in their soul, not in their body, but in their spirit. That part of a human being that is the lamp of God.

How do you revive your spirit? Or how can the spirit be revived? The first question is an impossibility as man cannot revive his own spirit. The second question is relevant but how does that happen? Can somebody outside of man revive the spirit of a man? Jesus said to Nicodemis “You must be born again.” God revives our spirit. When man asks God for cleansing. When any human is washed by God in the detergent of God. That detergent is the blood of His own Son. The only detergent acceptable to God. When a man is spiritually dead, he has no communication with a living God. When he realises he cannot save himself. He cannot wash himself. That he needs a saviour, and that saviour is God himself, then his spirit is revived, by the One he puts his trust in. It is an act of God.

What are the functions of the spirit? Here are a few. It is where we worship God, it enables us to communicate with Him, enables us to hear His voice, prayer and intercession, intimacy with our creator, our conscience, wisdom, our ability to understand situations, supernatural knowledge, our perception of the future, our ability to operate in the power of God. These all happen through our spirit.

The Holy Spirit is God’s agent on earth. The Holy Spirit is the person that enables me, through my spirit to live in fellowship with God.

Where is the spirit? Is it in my head? Is it close to my heart? Jesus said : “He who believes in me, from His innermost being, will flow rivers of living water.” This is the location of the spirit. A place where only the Holy Spirit can reach and the place where God dwells. Medical science or any technology cannot reach there. It is our innermost being. God said through Isaiah: “I dwell on a high and holy place (heaven), and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit. In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”