A Born Again Believer is Infilled by the Spirit of God

February 9, 2025 by M. Stephanie Zeller

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NKJV)

In order to make headway in our walk of faith, it is helpful to first meditate on the relationship between our spirit, our soul and our body. Scripture recognizes that the born again believer exists on three levels:

each born again believer lives in a tangible physical body,
each born again believer has a soul that expresses his or her identity and involves the believer’s mind, will, and emotions, and
each born again believer is infilled by the Spirit of God

When we are born again, our spirt comes alive and we are connected to God. “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Corinthians 6:17, ESV) Scripture further explains that the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us when we are born again. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, ESV)

Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’.” (John 3:6, ESV)

The Apostle Paul taught: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19, ESV)

We are also taught by scripture that God has placed everything in our newborn spirit that is necessary to bring victory in our lives. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23, ESV) Each of these qualities will be expanded upon in a future post. Suffice it to say here that we are not talking about imperfect human love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Rather we are talking about the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control of God Himself. The Holy Spirit resides within us and these are God’s qualities or God’s fruit residing in our spirit.

Clearly, if we could but tap into the fruit of the Holy Spirit Who resides in our spirit, our lives would be victorious. But as we have all experienced, our souls are not yet conformed to our spirit; we are a work in progress. We must yield to our spirit if we are to experience victory in our souls.

A testimony by Corrie Ten Boom helps to illustrate the point. Corrie was a Dutch watchmaker during World War II who was arrested with the rest of her family by the Nazis for sheltering Jews. Sent to a concentration camp along with her sister, Betsy, she witnessed her sister’s death at the hands of brutal Nazi guards. Many years later while preaching before a large group, she was approached by a man from the audience who had just been saved by her sermon. When he extended his hand to her, she recognized him as one of the guards who had beaten her sister. In her soul, hatred sprang up and she felt no desire to forgive this former Nazi guard. But then, she yielded to the love of God in her spirit and was able to shed her hatred and manifest Christ’s love for this guard. She extended her hand to the hand of the guard and called him brother as God’s love washed over her.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (Galatians 5:16-17, ESV) Corrie’s flesh desired to hate the Nazi guard who had beaten her sister, but she was able to walk by the Spirit and love him. She yielded to the Spirit within her. This is the process by which our minds and hearts are transformed so that we become conformed to the image of Christ.

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Where scripture translations neglect to capitalize pronoun references to God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit, we have taken the liberty to do so.