¼º·ÉÀÇ º¸Áõ°ú ´ã´ëÇÔ The Holy Spirit's Deposit and Courage <Our outer flesh and inner self> 2nd Corinthians 5:6~7
Verse 6 starts with "So," referring to the previous verses - verse 5 states that God has given us the Holy Spirit as a deposit. Therefore what does courage, or boldness, have to do with the flesh? As in a negative or positive way?
There are those who are courageous in the flesh. They have no courage or interest in the spiritual, heavenly, or truthful things, while they claim that they believe in Jesus Christ and are bold in the flesh. For example, Peter (before receiving the Holy Spirit) confessed that he was willing to die with Jesus, be it that the other option was to deny Him (Matt. 26:33-35) ...we know what actually happened... Peter, who denied Jesus in front of a servant girl, radically changes. After receiving corporal punishment and ordered not to speak of Jesus any longer, Peter and John reply, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."(Acts 4:17-20) The Peter who was very bold in the flesh was the first to confess that Jesus is Lord, the true son of God, but yet when his life was in danger, he denied even knowing Jesus. Hence, there is a fleshly courage; however this courage pertains to the outer flesh, completely different from the courage that is from the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must separate from our outer flesh to the inner self. There are those who always have courage in the flesh. Our flesh and our inner self is always at war with each other. Apostle Paul commands us to 'walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh' in Galatians 5:16-17. However, this command is for those who have the Holy Spirit, the inner self. Those who do are not born again must fight the spiritual battle with their conscience; thus having courage only in the body. We are unable to win the outer flesh with knowledge, determination, and conscience(moral sense). So, if we continually lose the battle with our flesh, we are separate and 'away from the Lord' verse 6. Colossians 1:13 states that there is a domain of darkness that we are currently entrapped in. Which raises the question, although we are healthy, able to provide for ourselves, why do we still worry? Worrying about tomorrow, worrying about death? We cannot have real courage, even if we have worldly knowledge, wealth, determination because we are oppressed by the domain of darkness. Those who know that we are separated and with the Lord, it's not living by sight. 2nd Corinthians 4:18 states that 'things that are seen is temporary, and what is unseen is eternal.' Therefore the things that are unseen are from the Spirit and things that can be seen, heard, and imagined by the heart are from the world that applies to the outer flesh. If we are in the domain of darkness, we cannot see, hear, or imagine with the heart "what God has prepared for those who love Him(1st Corinthians 2:9-10)." We cannot, because "all that is in the world- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life-is not from the Father but is from the world (1st John 2:16)." There are those who have courage through faith. Scripture does not demand us to act according to the faith, it tells us that there are those who can act according to faith. If truly one is born again and the Holy Spirit lives within them, they are not focused solely the outer flesh feels, they have something that the inner self is saying. The text tells us to act upon what the inner self is saying, courageously. What is the Scripture telling to to do courageously? To "speak the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:29-31)." Speaking the word of God represents being full of the Holy Spirit and knowing that God is the one in control of the world. Those whose inner man is alive asks for prayer that "the words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19)", they pray for the spiritual things and not for things regarding the flesh.
What do you want to be bold/courageous about? First you must distinguish whether you even have the inner self, and if you do not, then start from the beginning and receive the Holy Spirit. Then you can live boldly through faith due to the deposit from the Holy Spirit.
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