Worship Music and the Human Spirit (Part One)

 Worship Music and the Human Spirit (Part One)

Man is a spirit who possesses a soul and lives in a body. Man's spirit is that part of him that knows God. He is in the same class with God because God is a Spirit and God made man to fellowship with Him. God made man for His own pleasure. Man is not an animal. In order to fellowship with God, man must be in the same category with God. Therefore, just as God is Spirit, so is man spirit. Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). We cannot know God or touch Him physically. He is not a man. He is Spirit. We cannot communicate with God mentally, for He is a Spirit. But we can reach Him with our spirit, and it is through our spirit that we come to know God.

To fully understand the relationship between music and the human spirit it is expedient that we grasp fully the reality of the human spirit. Ephesians 3:16 says, "May God, according to the riches of his glory, grant you to be strengthened in your inner being through his Spirit". In our modern society there is a recognition and reawakening of the inner being.

For a long time now, our society has been operating largely at the materialistic level. Everything has been centered upon industrialism, politics, money, technology, and so forth. The human spirit and the reality of spiritual forces and kingdoms has been ignored or marginalized. Today, however, many people are turning back to the inner person, the spiritual being that is distinct from the mortal and physical being.

Today many people are recognizing that life should be thought of, and experienced, as a spiritual Path and a Quest, an inner walk to higher ground transcending this temporal realm. In the Bible, Christianity is called a "way" (Hebrews 10:20), and Christians are seen as "sojourners and pilgrims" in this world (1Peter 2:11). Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:6). Jesus calls us to follow his way to true and eternal life, and to God his Heavenly Father. It has always been the only true way.

Ancient wisdom spoke of this way which even then was already ancient. "Stand by the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths wherein is the good way, and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls" (Jeremiah 6:16). Jesus spoke of the ways from which we may choose. There is the broad, popular, and so-called modern way, which pretends to lead to life but really leads to destruction, for it is the way of earthly things which hold false promise and which perish. On the other hand, there is the old narrow and difficult path that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14). This path transcends earthly things. It is the path of the soul led by the Great Shepherd.

None of the spirit's needs can truly be satisfied with material or worldly things. Sadly, many people spend their lives fruitlessly trying to satisfy their souls from the physical world. Either we madly consume and acquire material goods and status, or we gaze at those who do and waste our lives wishing we could get some of the action! We are like the rich fool who built a great big barn, filled it with stuff, then congratulated himself: "Soul, you have many goods laid up in store for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry" (Luke 12:19). The same night that he said this, his soul was required of him, and he died.

The promises of prosperity in certain passages of the Bible (usually made to the children of Israel) are not what salvation of the soul, or the satisfaction of the inward person's longings, are about. Rather they are a type or symbol of the spiritual. God promises to satisy the basic needs of the body such as sufficient food and covering, if we will seek first the more important needs of the soul — his kingdom and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). He has already said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth... but treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:19-21).

The word “spirit” when used in the Scriptures has several meanings. Whenever the word “Spirit” appears used with a capital letter, it has but one meaning. It is the name of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit of God. The word “spirit” spelled with a small letter may have one of several different meanings. It can have direct reference to the spirit of man which is as much a part of the tripartite nature of man as the Spirit of the living God is a Person of the Holy Trinity. Or it can indicate an evil spirit such as any agent of the Devil. We will confine ourselves here to the Biblical usage of the word only as it relates to the spirit of man, one of the three constituent parts of his being.

The threefold nature of man might be illustrated in several ways. Dr. Clarence Larkin uses three circles (Rightly Dividing The Word, page 86). The outer circle stands for the body of man, the middle circle for the soul, and the inner for the spirit. At this point it will be well to quote a portion from Dr. Larkin’s book:

In the outer circle the ‘Body’ is shown as touching the Material world through the five senses of ‘Sight,’ ‘Smell,’ ‘Hearing,’ ‘Taste’ and ‘Touch.’

The Gates to the ‘Soul’ are ‘Imagination,’ ‘Conscience,’ ‘Memory,’ ‘Reason’ and the ‘Affections.’

The “Spirit” receives impressions of outward and material things through the soul. The spiritual faculties of the ‘Spirit’ are ‘Faith,’ ‘Hope,’ ‘Reverence,’ ‘Prayer’ and ‘Worship.’

In his unfallen state the ‘Spirit’ of man was illuminated from Heaven, but when the human race fell in Adam, sin closed the window of the Spirit, pulled down the curtain, and the chamber of the spirit became a death chamber and remains so in every unregenerate heart, until the Life and Light giving power of the Holy Spirit floods that chamber with the Life and Light giving power of the new life in Christ Jesus.

It develops then that the spirit of man, being the sphere of God-consciousness, is the inner or private office of man where the work of regeneration takes place. Dr. James R. Graham says that the main theatre of the Holy Spirit’s activity in man, and the part of man’s nature with which He has peculiar affinity, is the spirit of man. The Apostle Paul gives us the Word of God on this, a passage that is sadly neglected. Quoting from the sixty-fourth chapter of the book of the Prophet Isaiah, Paul wrote:

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

A great many people stop here, content to remain in ignorance. However, Paul continues:

But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-11).

Man in his unregenerate state comes to know the things of man by the operator of “the spirit of man” which is in him. If I have a will to know certain scientific facts, by my human spirit I am enabled to investigate, think, and weigh evidence. If I set myself to the task, I may become a scientist of world-renown and of great accomplishments. However, my human spirit is “limited to the things of man.” If I want to know about the things of God, my dead and dormant spirit is not able to know them.

The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The human spirit requires “the spark of regeneration” before there is an understanding of the things of God. Man’s spiritual nature must be renewed before there is a true conception of Godliness. Only one thing stands as a guard at the door of man’s spirit, and that is his own will. When the will is surrendered, the Holy Spirit takes up His abode in the spirit of man. And when that transaction takes place we will know it, for, says Paul:

The Spirit Himself (meaning the Holy Spirit) beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God (Romans 8:16 R.V.).

Many people confess that they get nothing out of the Bible even though they attend church and read their Bibles regularly. Perhaps they do not know that they are not regenerated and that they need to yield their will to the Spirit of God so that He can renew their human spirits. The deep things of God never will be understood by the world outside of Jesus Christ. Our Lord warned His disciples,

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6).

The spirit of the unregenerate man has no more capacity to appreciate the things of God than a dog has to appreciate holy things, or a hog a genuine pearl necklace. We read that “The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22). This they did because the dog was a dog and the sow was a sow. No amount of religion or church activity can change the spirit of the unregenerate man. “Remember,” says Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, “if out of false charity or pity you allow men of material ideals and worldly wisdom to touch holy things, to handle the pearls of the Kingdom, presently they will turn and rend you. This is the whole history of Christendom’s ruin, in the measure in which Christendom is ruined. We gave holy things to dogs. We cast the pearls of the Kingdom before swine.” The ministry of Christ’s Church dare not be entrusted to any man who has not been born again, for “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).