Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ...(Ephesians 1:3 NET)
To say that God is "blessed" is to acknowledge that He alone is inherently well-spoken of and worthy of praise. To say that He has "blessed" us is to say that He has spoken well of us or given us divine commendation. Wonderfully, the Lord's speech has creative and effectual power. He vibrantly acts through speech. Remember what happened when He said, "Let there be light." Blessing us with every spiritual blessing, He has acted with divine favor in the deepest part of our innermost being.
Where is the locus, or focal point of these blessings? Indeed, it is Christ in the heavenly realms. But Ephesians 1:3 also says the blessings are "spiritual" or pertaining to the spirit. What and where is the human spirit and what is its relationship to the Spirit of God? Jesus tells us the human spirit is our innermost being, an it is the abode of His Holy Spirit from whom God's eternal, uncreated life flows. Furthermore, the spirit is different than the soul. It is deeper and uniquely capable of connection to God:
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39 NASB)
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63 NKJV)
But the natural (or soul-ish) man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (I Corinthians 2:14 NKJV)
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11 NKJV)
The human spirit indwelt by the Spirit of the resurrected Christ is the gateway to the heavenly realms for every believer. The kingdom of heaven is within you! In light of this reality, the following prayer was offered up for believers:
...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:17-21 NKJV)
It is through God's Spirit united with our spirit that God touches and enlightens our soul and body, from the inside out, in knowing Him.
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