Strength Training

Strength training is a type of physical exercise specializing in the use of resistance to induce muscular contraction which builds the strength, anaerobic endurance, and size of skeletal muscles.Other benefits of strength training are, develop strong bones, control weight, boost stamina, manage chronic conditions and sharpen your focus. It is estimated that Americans spends around $2.6 BILLION! per year on gym memberships. Another type of strength training so to speak is developing the mind. According to statistics, the USA spend approximately $809.6 BILLION per year on education. There is nothing wrong with strengthening our body and our mind, but when the rubber meets the road, both of these areas are limited. How so? Well, if a portion of the body (an arm or a leg for example) does not function then the entire body suffers loss. In the same way, if one of the five senses does not function, then knowledge also becomes limited.

The Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Thessalonica writes, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23) We see that man is not only body and soul (mind, will, emotions and intellect) but he is spirit. Man was made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) and God is Spirit (John 4:24). If man is indeed spirit with a soul in a body then a dilemma exists. The part of man that is most important and needs to be strengthened, the spirit, becomes the part that is most neglected. It's not that we haven't tried to develop the spirit. We had thought that the only way to do this was through religion or religious education. Interestingly enough, most Bible Colleges, Seminaries and Local Churches only teach knowledge and tend to fail at bringing students and or congregants to a place of understanding spiritual things.

The knowledge obtained tends to become the only thing that is important, but again it is limited. This is why the apostle Paul warns us, "Knowledge puffs up..." (1 Corinthians 8:1) Paul was explaining to the church that their knowledge of things had filled them with pride and self-sufficiency, which could lead them to stray from the truth. The knowledge that they had filled their minds with was sense knowledge. Knowledge that comes through ones senses. This is the type of knowledge is the type of knowledge that fills the mind of every person. However, the Bible does exhort the believer to grown in the knowledge of the Father and Jesus the Son. (Ephesians 1:17, 2 Peter 3:18) This type of knowledge only comes through revelation by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables the believer to use the wisdom of God to use knowledge wisely.

Jesus tells us, "I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17) and "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." (John 16:13) Here Jesus tells us that the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit would come and take Jesus' place after He had fully completed His work of redemption. Unknown to most, the Holy Spirit does not communicate knowledge to the intellect, except in rare cases, but communicates with our spirit. Until we know this fact and act upon it, for most there will be no development of faith nor will we come into the knowledge of our rights and privileges as God's children.

We must also keep in mind that the spirit will never grow and be strengthened in the things of God until it receives eternal life through "confessing with the mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believing in the heart that God raised Him from the dead." (Romans 10:9) By new birth, the Holy Spirit recreates our human spirit and imparts to us the Father's nature. With the Father's nature comes the Father's wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30). This is the process by which the believer uses knowledge wisely. In fact, God imparts His entire nature within the believer (2 Peter 1:4). We may not have worked fully with the Holy Spirit in developing His nature in us, nevertheless it does exist within our recreated spirit. This is why it is so important for believers to grasp the fullness of redemption.

It takes faith to come to the place where our spirit become so developed that it dominates the soul and body. Once this happens I believe that the believer will walk in the same limitless life that Jesus walked in His ministry on earth as the Son of Man.