The Candle of the Lord

This message concerns the role of the spirit of man. Please refer to my earlier message - "The Spirit, Soul, and Body of Man."

Solomon said, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly" (Prov. 20:27, KJV, emphasis added).

The human spirit is the "inner man." Its role, restored by the new birth and empowered by the Holy Spirit, is to exercise rule and direction over the soul and, through the soul, over the body. The spirit and soul are immaterial aspects of man: that is, we do not see either of them. We know them only as we experience their functions.

What Solomon said is - you spirit (your inner man) is the candle of the Lord. A question comes to mind is - What is a candle made for? A candle was made to be a container of light - a holder of light. But candles do not produce light by themselves. They will hold light when it is given to them and placed upon them. In Bible days, candles were used for one reason - to produce, or to cantain, or to hold or to shed abroad, light.

The word "belly" does not refer to your stomach, but rather the hidden man (the inner man) of your heart.

Spirit of man and the candle

Now Solomon said that your spirit is the candle of the Lord. Just like a candle, your spirit does not produce light. Furthermore, even as the candle and and light belong to the Lord, your spirit belongs to Him as well.

Paul said, "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:20, NKJV).

You are bought and paid in full, by God. You now belong to Him. He has the title deed on you. Every one of us needs to realize that someday we will stand before God and answer to Him for what we have done with our bodies, our spirits, and our souls. You must never forget that your body, your spirit, and your soul belong to God. You are only a caretaker.


Your spirit is God's candle


Candles are great, but you can have a whole lot of candles and still be sitting in the dark. Just because you have a candle does not mean you have light. The fact is that you have the potential for light. Light comes from God and therefore only God can light your candle.


David, the psalmist said: "With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful: with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright: with the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure: and will the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. For thou wilt save the afflicted people: but wilt bring down high looks. For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness" (Ps. 18:25 - 28, KJV, emphasis added).


Deliverance of God is here clearly regarded as a reward for righteousness, cleanness of hands, faithfulness, uprightness and humility. He will light your candle, deliver you from darkness and let you know what He wants you to do in a particular situation. You may have an area of darkness in your life where you do not know what God wants you to do. It is good to know that God will light your candle and deliver you from darkness.


God lights your candle by sending His Word into your life. His Word is light, His Word brings light, because God's Word is light.


The psalmist said: "Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The entrance of Your words give light; it gives understanding to the simple" (Ps. 119:129, 130, NKJV, emphasis added).


In other words, God's Word enlightens us. And as we keep His Word, it delivers us and makes even the simple wise. Therefore when God's Word comes into your heart, it will give you light. It will light your candle.


The Word abides in you


Peter said: "... having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abide forever" (1 Peter 1:23, NKJV, emphasis added).


Your spirit or your inner man is the part of you that is born again - the part of you which made Jesus the Lord of your life. Before you were born again, your spirit was dark - you have no light because your spirit was dead. When you made Jesus the Lord of your life, the Word came into you, and you were born again by the incorruptible Seed - the incorruptible Word.


When the Word is in you, His light is in you - in your spirit, which is the candle of the Lord. The candle searches all the hidden things of your life. It searches them out. Your spirit man searches out things you do not know, things you do not know in your mind. Your spirit man will be illuminated by having God's Word coming into your life. And that is the reason you must get into the Word - the entrance of His Word that give light. Therefore if you desire to know what God's will is in your life, you must get into His Word and search the Scripture. You must avoid becoming so wrapped up in your problems that you quit getting into the Word. Light is the instrument that drives out the darkness. The more light you have, the better you can see. The more Word you have coming into your life, the better you will be able to see.


Paul wrote to Timothy: "Till I come, give attention to reading (the Scripture), to exhortation, to doctrine" (1 Tim. 4:13, NKJV).


Paul wanted Timothy to get into the Word and teach others the Word so that their "candles" will transfer light to many people.


Divine guidance


Jesus said, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you" (John 16:13, 14, NKJV, emphasis added).


Here are some statements of truth:


1. The Holy Spirit guides. He does not push, He does not shove, He does not compel and He does not threaten you. But we must be willing and obedient to let Him guide us. The Devil does the opposite and he is delighted to guide you too - to the wrong way.


2. Paul said the Holy Spirit leads: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:14, 16, NKJV). The Holy Spirit reveals to you and bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God.


3. guiding is for the future. You need guidance in the future. You do not need guidance to go back where you come from. Many believers have a problem in guidance because they have never left the past.


4. The Holy Spirit will not speak of Himself. He listens to the voice of the Father or the voice of the Son (Jesus). Whatever He hears them say, is what He will say. He is completely sold out to do the will of God. It follows that if you are truly filled with the Holy Spirit you will do the will of the Father.


5. Your heart (your inner man) filled with the Holy Spirit is the candle of the Lord. And the light of the candle searches all the hidden parts of you. His light helps you to look toward things you do not know.


6. The Holy Spirit comes to show you what Jesus has - the things belong to Jesus. Everything that is His, everything that was given to Jesus, the Holy Spirit will show it to you.


7. The Holy Spirit comes to glorify Jesus.


The renewed mind


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


Here are some statements of truth:


1. You need a renewed mind in order to know the will of God in your life. The word "renew" literally mens, "to restore to an original state of freshness, vigor, life, or beauty".


2. We are to renew our minds and restore them to their original condition - a condition before the Fall. Adam's mind before the Fall was sharp, clear, productive, efficient, and non-polluted. We are all born after the Fall. From the day you were born, your mind has been receiving information - some good and some bad. Your mind is like a computer with the ability to store what you learn. The mind not only has the ability to store information, it also has the ability to reason. This ability to reason can present you with a conflict when you begin to renew it.


3. A renewed mind will not let you conform to the world and you will not think as the world thinks. A mind that is not renewed is a carnal mind. A mind that is renewed is spiritual. A renewed mind thinks what God thinks but the natural mind or the carnal mind (the mind you are born with) thinks what the world thinks. That is the reason the natural mind can never discern the will of God.


Paul said, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Romans 8:5 - 7, NKJV).


Before you got turned on to the Lord and to the Word of God and the things of God, the vast majority of information you received into your mind came through your five senses - sense knowledge. Sense knowledge is knowledge you gained through your senses. Sense knowledge can be very useful and we need it in our everyday life. The things we study in schools and universities are sense knowledge. A carnal mind has no difficulty in receiving sense knowledge.


The number one thing that works in the carnal mind is religion. Region works in the mind. It has nothing to do with your spirit. Simply put it, religion is nothing more than trying to achieve righeousness by following a set of religious rules or laws - conceived in the human mind.


After you are born again by the Spirit of God you have to renew you mind. You have to renew your mind to the confession of faith. You have to renew your mind to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in other tongues. You have to renew your mind to many other things of God.


The conflect between your spirit and your mind


When you made Jesus the Lord of your life, you became a child of God through the process which is called the New Birth. You are born again by the Spirit of God. The spirit man is what changed. Practically nothing happened to your mind. You can get born again and gloriously filled with the Holy Spirit and pray in tongues for hours, and get excited about the things of God. Oftentimes when you get up the next morning you will still think the same way you thought the day before. You will still have the same thought patterns, the same reasoning patterns, the same beliefs in you mind. This can present a conflict in you life, and Paul addressed that area in Romans 8 and Romans 12.


That is when you need the renewing of your mind. Your spirit, the candle of the Lord, begins to search out the hidden things of your mind, and gets everything out that is contrary to God's Word. This process takes time. The more Word you have in your spirit the quicker the process. The way you cause your mind to be renewed is by meditating in God's Word. That is the only way you can renew your mind. The renewed mind does not happen through prayer, or fasting, or by seeing miracles. It comes by meditating in God's Word. God and His Word are inseparable - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). As you receive light of God's Word you must meditate upon it, believe it and use it by faith. Yes, by faith only - no reasoning and no questioning and no doubting.


Paul said, "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7).


"Faith" is of the Spirit - things that are unseen. "Sight" is of the mind (sense knowledge).


Paul said, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17, NKJV).


With a renewed mind you can live by faith and Bible says it three times - "The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). So, this must be something very important.


The writer of Hebrews said: "But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must (necessarily) believe that God exists and that He is the Rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him (out)" (Hebrews 11:6, The Amplified Bible, emphasis added).


"Without faith" means, "without confidence in God - in His fidelity, His truth, His wisdom and His promises. If you are without faith, you are darkness and you need God to light your candle!