We Are in The Spirit

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." (Romans 8: 9)

A lot of people declare: "We need to get into the Spirit."

Yet Paul declares that we are already in the Spirit, because of all that Jesus Christ has done for us:

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 15)

Not only do people try to get into the Spirit, but the focus on their flesh, their feelings and thoughts, and try to correct both, as if there is any confidence in their flesh to make anything better:

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." (Romans 8: 6)

To be spirit-minded is more than a mind-set, but to recognize that the Holy Spirit of God has brought us into His Kingdom:

"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)

God promised to pour out His Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2: 28; Acts 2: 17), and now He lives in us.

Instead of trying to get into the Spirit, Paul informs us to renew our minds to the truth in God's word, and thus submit our bodies to His leading:

"1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12: 1-2)

This transformation takes place as we behold Jesus, not as we look at ourselves in the flesh:

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3: 18)

We are in the Spirit, and the same Spirit who holds us transforms us, too.