The apostle Paul said:
Acts 24:16 - And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
I Timothy 4:7-8 - But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
To exercise means to practice or perform a similar action repetitiously for the purpose of training and discipline. Some of the basic objectives for exercising include: the development of a habit, a strength, a skill, or adjustment of body mass. Scripturally speaking- exercise in the Greek is the word 'gymnasia', which is where we get our English words gym and gymnastics from. The central idea of the word is to exert one's energy in a certain direction.
As citizens of the Kingdom of God we’ve all been called into the gym of life so to speak. We’ve been commissioned by God to literally ‘work out’/exercise/bring out/express - what He has 'worked' (deposited) and is working in us. Notice Paul’s commendation to the Philippian church:
"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13).
Well, when we were born-again we received again God's nature. So His express nature resides in each of us, specifically inside our re-created spirits (spirit man). Praise God- we possess all that He is! Therefore what comes forth out of us should resemble His nature, right? Yes! But wait, with the fall of man (I Cor. 15:22) and the conception of the sin-nature/flesh/old man (which is 100% counter-God) we have some opposition to contend with (Gal 5:16-17).
Now for those of you that exercise (or used to) - you know that exercising is not always easy. It is sometimes called resistance training when weights are involved. Well, both our flesh and spirit man desire exercise (to be used). So which should get the work out? Now remember, as mentioned earlier - exercising a thing will cause it to develop and grow stronger. So if we exercise our flesh it will grow stronger and if we exercise our spirit man it will grow stronger.
Simply put - the one that gets the most exercise becomes the strongest!How do we exercise our spirit man then? Well, exercise involves repetitive actions so lets see what James (the 1/2 brother of Jesus) can tell us. James 1:22 says "Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only... So hearing the Word, then doing the Word is exercise for our spirit man. Now we see that in order for our spiritual exercise to be labeled as 'proper exercise' it must be our spirit man that gets the work out. When our flesh gets the work out - it is 'improper exercise'. Either flesh or spirit- we're always exercising something, but those that exercise know that improper exercise can be more harmful than no exercise. Folks, it is safe to say that our flesh deserves death- not exercise!
Note Hebrews 5:14:
"But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age (mature), even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." For maturity sake our spirit man needs exercise. Self-examination will reveal to us where we need the most spiritual exercise.
Even God exercises. Take a look:
"But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment (justice), and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD" (Jer. 9:24).
Blessed regards,
DraperW
P.S. Everyone, check out Min. Josh Harvey's blog "Kill That Old Man" at revelatoryword.blogspot.com (The Sword of The Spirit) as a companion blog to this one.
This is very true. Joyce Meyer said, and it bears repeating, that your body craves what you give it. If you put junk in, that's what you'll crave (and that's what will come out). The same is true with exercising the spirit. As believers we don't want to look like the world and with the PROPER exercise we won't.
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog DraperW
Good brohta, I was jus telling somebody yestarday at Paradise Rest about practicing doing good. I like the exercise thang you talked about too.
ReplyDeleteGreat job! The thought of spiritual exercise was really an attention grabber for me. Keep up the good work, I enjoy the readings.
ReplyDeleteHey I just noticed something out of that Jer9:24. The Holy Spirit is the reprover of the world.Reproving them of Righteousness,Judgement, and Sin. but for those who know the Lord(in Christ) sin is replaced with Lovingkindness in Jeremiah..Praise God. I love hearing you preach and teach Drape!!God actually exercises yall!!lol! Why can't His people do the same?????lol
ReplyDeleteI see I need to rethink some things. This gives me some food for thought.
ReplyDeletehey draper this is christian. i like the exercise thing you were talking about. i should do alot more practing.
ReplyDeleteGood word!
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog, you inspired me to write on Self Examination @ thewordofgodistruth.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog!!, it inspired me to blog on Self Examination @ http://thewordofgodistruth.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteHey, this is Stephen, I agree
ReplyDeletethat not only do you need to work out your physical body, but your spirtitail body as well :-)
Very hot blog drape! Exercise is imperative! And we also know if our muscles aren't exercised they will become weak from non-use. No exercise= No maturation...so LET'S HIT THE GYM!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting Draper! People put so much emphasis on life on earth and rarely consider eternal life.:>)
ReplyDeleteWe as individuals put such an emphasis on education to obtain careers. After doing so we continue to study looking for the most recent information to sharpen our skill and stay current. However, we don't consider the amount of time we invest in studing and learning the word of God:>)
ReplyDelete