Here is a thought to consider and possibly meditate on, and that thought is we all have a stranger inside of us and that stranger is literally ourselves. What do I mean by this comment? With that in mind let us consider a philosophical view and one that is probably missed by millions of people, but again is absolutely vital. That thought is, we all think that we are what we are by the measure of this world and by what this flesh that we are in appears to be. We look in the mirror and a fleshly image appears and we recognize that individual in most cases because it is ourselves.

        However, the flesh or the tent covering is only a small piece of the puzzle as to whom and to what we all really are. The flesh is so greatly limited in so many ways that this in itself is astounding. I want to consider a Scripture written and work off of it. Turn with me please to the book of 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 and starting at verse 10:

“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural 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. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” NKJV.

        This Scripture reveals a lot of information in regards to our own personage, including the physical and the spiritual world that continually surrounds us. Remember now, the physical or the flesh in which we occupy is only a small part of who we actually are. There is a spirit within us that again is the real person that we are. However, if we do not know nor recognize the spiritual man in us, is it not true than that we are basically a stranger to ourselves?

        The heart or spiritual realm of every individual will reveal in the flesh who the individual actually is. This is why God searches hearts because from the heart we are, we do, and we act. If we do not know our own hearts than how can we claim to know who we ourselves are? The answer to this is not difficult because it simply means we only think we know ourselves when indeed we are living with a stranger we are choosing to neglect. That stranger happens to be the real you! The spiritual man inside of you is the one who is being forsaken and left out to dry, yet it is this same man who will spend an eternity in a spiritual reality that will take affect when the flesh has to give up its outer covering, which is an inevitable event.

        The spirit or heart within each individual cries out to Abba Father daily, even though the flesh will not submit to this reality does not change the fact that it is still a reality. When the physical attempts to give more power and ability to things passing and done away with, what hope will there be for those things which are eternal?

        “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:9-10. NKJV.

        Until we come to the understanding, and I mean the true and real understanding that this flesh is futile and totally limited and literally knows nothing of spiritual realities will it be that freedom and liberty present itself and the Living God will reveal Himself to an individual who sincerely seeks after the heart of God. The flesh profits no one anything, because the flesh is bought and paid for by death and thus the flesh must die. You and I are not the flesh, for the flesh is only a tent, a rental, a borrowed object in which covers the inner man or the spiritual man. How would you know this unless you are seeking and getting to know the inner man?

How can you truly come to know the inner man, when you don’t even know the Giver of spiritual principles? This means that a stranger is living in your house people! There are spiritual realities at work in and around us even right now. As we consider the opening Scripture we find that the inner man knows the flesh, but the flesh does not know nor recognize the inner man, what a contrast. We are also told that no one know the things of God except the Spirit of God.

        We have worldly spirits who love to cause havoc and death, and again we have the Spirit of God who loves to give life and to give that life most abundantly filled with blessing upon blessing. The flesh longs for the spirit of the world or of evil intent, because the flesh is part of the world and will receive the full reward of its spiritual father, which is death. Yet the inner man, or the spiritual man within the confinements of the flesh is crying out to Abba Father knowing that the flesh is going to end and the real man is going to step up to the plate eternally. Yet the flesh will not wake up nor recognize the realities of what is actually going on in and around them. That is why the worldly man is called a fool because he is trusting in his already dead flesh that has no other option but to die and to die miserably.

        The inner man does not have to be a stranger to us, but many people feel that their flesh is all that they have because it is all they have willingly come to know and to believe that they understand. I suppose that is why the comment made by many peoples that states: “You don’t know me the way I know me”. When in fact, they themselves don’t even know themselves, but they just like to think they do because it is their own security they feel is well built on sand.

        When a person in the flesh and in the world comes to a point in their own lives that they feel there has got to be more in this life than what the flesh and its limitations have and offer, willingly choose to bend their knee and will to come to the knowledge of our Abba Father and simply, with humble heart accept Jesus into their hearts and lives, and are washed in the Blood of the Lamb, do they come to realize a whole new person, and a whole new God. The stranger within is now introduced as reality and spiritual awareness comes to life as Holy Spirit teaches and reveals Himself and ourselves to us. This is one of the most amazing things about a life in Christ Jesus.
        This is what is meant by the Scripture ending that we have the mind of Christ, because the manifested Spirit of God is in us and is teaching us the things of God. This is how an individual comes to know the heart of God. There is a huge difference between heart knowledge and head knowledge when it comes to the reality of Christ.

        The flesh which is dead, (“But if Christ lives in you, [then although] your [natural] body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you].” Romans 8:10. Amplified Version.) knows nothing of spiritual realities for the simple fact that the already dead flesh wants nothing to do with spiritual realities because it is all about life. That is what is meant by having a Born-Again experience, which again is dealing with spiritual realities in which the flesh again knows nothing of spiritual realities. The flesh gives birth to flesh while the spirit gives birth to spirit.

        Until we come into spiritual realities, the spiritual man or the inner man is a stranger to us and is an unknown substance. The inner man is far greater and of far more importance than the outer man is for the fact that the inner man is actually who we are. However, if the inner man is so greatly neglected because of the worldly pleasures that the outer man so greatly desires and is given priority than death is imminent and leaves the individual without hope or purpose and this by their own doings and because of their own personal acts of ignorance.

        Nevertheless, the outer man or the flesh will not take responsibility for its actions or for what it has become. This is where man gets into the blame game. It is always somebody else’s fault but not our own. Where there is no accountability, there is no growth, maturity, honor, integrity or virtue. I suppose that is why the self-esteem of many people around the world is so greatly affected because of a lack of mature responses for causes they themselves are absolutely and totally responsible for.

        The stranger within should not be a stranger at all. However, if the lust of the eyes, the lust of money and the lust for power overrides life and its richest realities because individuals are too busy chasing rainbows and throwing their entire existence away for the hope of delusion; what more can be said of them? It is only by the Spirit of the living God that we can come into the knowledge of who God actually is and who He is to us in full. Until we come into the knowledge that the inner man within us is a stranger to the flesh, because the flesh is being honored, life will not be lived, joy will not be experienced, and freedom will be far from these individuals. The reason being is because we were all Created to Worship and to Know God. There is a space within each one of us that only Holy Spirit can fill and fulfill within us and no other.

        That is why those who long for things in this world are not ever satisfied or fulfilled in this life. Only the Spirit of the Living God can reveal to us in our truest form who and what we really are. It is by the inner man within us who comes to know these truths and realities by coming into union with Holy Spirit who is the very Spirit of the Living God who loves us more than life. This has been spelled out to clearly and with such ease there is no room for mistakes, it is too simple for that too happen.

        However, if the individuals who are now without Christ Jesus and have neglected receiving the grace that is at hand; than how will they ever know of what is being spoken to them even now? As the Scripture states so it is: “But the natural, non-spiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.” 1 Corinthians 2:14.

        As we can all see here, there are two men in one, and one is natural or of the flesh, and the second is the spiritual or called the inner man. This too is part of the trinity in which we ourselves have been naturally created in. The three in one are as: Flesh, Soul or Heart, and Spirit. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In all reality it should be the flesh that is the stranger to the spirit, but in most cases of people on earth it is the opposite and the spirit is the stranger to the flesh because the flesh is given utmost care while the spiritual or the inner man is so greatly neglected and the flesh is so very quick to neglect the Spiritual blessing found in the blood of Jesus known as Salvation. This indeed is every individual’s right to do, but we always say as Jesus did, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

        If we choose to consider what is normally called common sense, we should know and recognize a greater picture that is being formed within us. Faith is a Huge requirement in regards to the knowledge and relationship founded within the heart of God. This is why the Word of God states not to look with the eyes of the natural man but to view things with the eyes of the heart. When the heart is being talked about it is not the physical heart founded in the chest of man that beats blood. The heart is the soul of the inner man and this is where our emotions are conjured up and released from. Yet no one can see emotions, they can only see the end result of emotional responses by characters and traits given by the flesh. Yet emotions cannot be seen or touched.

        Just because something is presently unseen does not mean that it is not there. Here is a question you should ask yourself, Did your mother or father love you? If so, prove it! All you can do at this point is tell me or anyone why you feel that your parents loved you and this by the actions they presented toward you. Yet to show the presence of the reality of love cannot be done because it is something unseen, yet remains a complete reality.

        Getting back to knowing ourselves and who and what we think we are and knowing who and what we are again are two separate ideas that are divided by a thin line of that which is called knowledge. So looking at it from this point of view, the flesh in itself doesn’t know much accept what it sees, touches, feels, smells, or tastes. This in itself reveals the limited ability that the flesh has. However, the spiritual man operates on a different reality and one that the flesh cannot comprehend, thus the spiritual search is incited on the flesh to find deeper or higher meaning for its existence. When the flesh comes to know something it did not know or comprehend in the past, than thinking is changed to knowledge. When that takes place those changes cause changes to the character of the flesh. Thus we can honestly say that people change everyday knowingly and unknowingly, but even so a change has occurred.

        If a change has occurred how is it than that the flesh can positively say it knows who and what it is? The honest answer to this is it doesn’t know and that is why it is constantly learning and than changing. There are events that occur in people’s everyday life where reactions are born that are absolutely unfounded toward the individual. People react in different ways to different situations that present themselves, yet the flesh will boldly say when it’s not in a traumatic situation how it would act. This we know is a lie because when certain events should occur we all together act differently than even we ourselves thought we would. This again reveals to us that we do not know ourselves the way we think we do. So if we are blinded by the simple things founded in this life how is it than that we can be so confident in regards to spiritual realities in which the flesh does not want to know anything about in the first place?

        If you continue to allow your flesh to rule and to reign as leader, than the spiritual man will be a stranger until the fleshly man is laid to rest and whether you like it or not, accept it or not, approve of it or not, but the spiritual man will rightly take its place and go to the home you have prepared for it. The inner man is the real you and you are not exempt from the spiritual world we are now present and caught up in because you chose your already dead flesh over the spiritual or inner man within you.

        Since we know that Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our lives and our faith, and He is literally the Author and Founder of life, how does the already dead flesh who does not want anything to do with spiritual matters know anything about life and what life truly is? Don’t you think it’s time you stop playing with false delusion and wake up to the reality that is presented to you every day and that is the grace that the Father pours out on you daily, calling you by name to come and to know Him for who and for what He truly is? Your flesh has an end people, but the inner man was Created in the very image of God who gave it in the first place, and that is eternal and there is an eternal home waiting for each person who has breath under heaven. The Lord our God would say to you to choose life, to choose wisely and there is no wisdom to be found in the flesh no matter how hard you search for it, it cannot be found where it is not located.

The Lord bless you and keep you and may you come into the knowledge of the Living God today if you have not already done so. The Lord our God awaits your invitation to come and sup with Him. So come, taste and see that the Lord He is good.

Bless you! Shalom.