Before we were born again we didn’t know anything about that realm. Because sin had darkened our hearts and deadened us to God, all we could do was operate in the flesh and in the realm of the natural. When we gave our hearts to Jesus, however, that situation changed. Spiritually, we became “dead…unto sin, but alive unto God” (Romans 6:11). We experienced the fulfillment of what God said in Ezekiel 11:19-20: “I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God” ("NKJV").
Notice those scriptures say that God has given us a new heart and a new spirit. They also tell us He has done that for a reason: so we can walk in His ways! So we can learn how to walk with Him in the realm of the spirit!
That’s what the Holy Spirit is in us to do. He’s here to teach us how to live and serve the Lord according to Romans 7:6: “not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life]” ("Amplified Bible, Classic Edition").
As those who have God’s Spirit dwelling in us, we’re not in the same position people were under the Old Covenant. All they had was God’s written law. They couldn’t live in close fellowship with Him because He’s a spirit and they were still operating in the realm of the natural. They were still trapped in the flesh.
As New Covenant believers, however, we’re “not in the flesh” (Romans 8:9). We’re “born of the Spirit.” We not only have the written Word of God, we have the Author of that Word living inside us. He’s in us 24/7 to reveal to us what His Word means, to show us how to apply it to our lives, and to EMPOWER us to do what it says.
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28 : BVOV
