Proverbs 17:27, 18:14, 20:27 He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

We left off yesterday without determining the issues of the contrite spirit. Once again, let us call upon help from the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds.

The spirit of man is not the spirit of God. Much confusion exists in the use of spirit in our vernacular. A biblical understand of the spirit of man can be found beside the spirit of God. It is as if they are inseparable, but must be defined in nature as to which is the divine nature and not.

In man: as that which breathes quickly in animation or agitation, vivacity, vigour, courage, temper, anger, impatience, patience, disposition (as troubled, bitter, discontented), disposition (of various kinds), unaccountable or uncontrollable impulse.

Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son, as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy, as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning, imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power, as endowing men with various gifts, as energy of life, as manifest in the Shekinah glory, and never referred to as a depersonalized force.

This depersonalized force points to the direct issue at hand. Man can and will act against his true nature. Man’s actions do not define him. God on the other hand cannot and will not act against His nature. God cannot give up one part of His personality in favor of another. God is consistent in execution of His true nature.

Contrition: the state of feeling remorseful and penitent. God never has to repent, man does.

In this the Holy Spirit gives way to the spirit of man, that the spirit of man maintains free will in exercise of confession and repentance. It must be this way because the conscience belongs to man and must by needs be cleansed and excised by man at the urging of the Holy Spirit, but not against our will.

And thereby saved.

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

I left off yesterday with a very pertinent question, one that is not easily answered. How does belief go from the mind to the heart? I would be fooling myself if I thought that I could answer this for you on my own. We will need the help of the Holy Spirit.

In the parable of the seed sower the soil that receives the Word with understanding and takes root is a soil that is prepared to receive the Word. This is comparable to the tilling of the soil prior to the planting of seeds. The ground has to be broken. This is only the first part of psalm 34:18, He is nigh, meaning near. The saving however is not of the broken heart, it is of the contrite spirit. This is where many of us get lost and confused in the meaning.

Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

Understanding is compounded when you add this verse. That broken stony heart is transformed into a heart of flesh. Here is where the Holy Spirit needs to lend us revelatory understanding.

The following is just a partial definition of flesh from Vine’s Expository Dictionary: Rom 7:5; 8:8,9; (h) “the seat of sin in man” (but this is not the same thing as in the body), 2 Peter 2:18, 1 John 2:16; (i) “the lower and temporary element in the Christian,” 2 Cr 7:1, Eph 6:5, Hbr 9:13; (l) by metonymy, “the outward and seeming,” as contrasted with the spirit, “the inward and real”.

Once you have received Jesus Christ into your heart, and it becomes flesh, then that same descriptive element of flesh “the seat of sin in man” has been transformed because Christ dealt with sin once and for all time. We are left with flesh but the inward and real has to accept that sin is no longer an issue. In Christ, we can accept and belief that our new creation has a new heart of flesh which is now “the seat of Christ in man”. Christ having replaced sin in our hearts and now rules and reigns there.

Which leaves us with the nearness but not the contrite spirit, which is the second part of the issue.