Have you ever been exhausted to the core? It's like there's nothing – nothing left on the inside. What we almost need is a new inside. A new life. Some mighty, new spirit within us. Is that even possible?

Well, with the new year just beginning it is such an important time for each one of us to decide whether we want this year to be different from the last one; whether somehow we want to break out of the rut that we've been caught up in. But, as we've been observing over these last few days, so often it's not about breaking out of the rut but breaking out of the mould. It's not so much the track we're on, it's the shape we're in. And we've been looking at that from a different perspective.

Each one of us has a body, a soul and a spirit. That's who we are and we saw, a couple of days ago that, for some people, well their body's are in such a mess with the wrong foods and not enough exercise and not enough sleep. It doesn't matter what else they do with their lives, they are going to be held back by their bodies.

And yesterday we saw that our soul, that our mind, our will and emotions, sometimes we come alive with the disposition of the soul with an attitude that's just plain bad. And so it doesn't matter what else we try to do and change in our lives, we're still carrying around that baggage of bad attitude.

Today I want to look at the third part of this complex puzzle that is our human make up – our spirit. Wow, there's more there. Body, soul, I get those two but, but what about the spirit? What does our spirit look like and what does our spirit have to do with their lives, lives we're living and the rut we're perhaps in?

I tell you the truth, the notion that, in addition to a body and a soul, that you and I also have a spirit. That's the hardest one for me to come to grips with. I mean the cut and thrust and the busyness of life I can sure come to grips with a body. I can understand that. I can understand a soul. But a spirit? Well it kind of feels a bit esoteric or it's like an invention that some religions made up to justify its existence. Huh, doesn't it feel a bit that way sometimes?

What is the human spirit? Where do I go for a definition? Well fortunately God gives us one. Very specific, it's in the Bible, it's in Proverbs, chapter 20, verse 27:

The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord searching the innermost parts.

Our spirit is the light of God. That word spirit is a Hebrew word, it's Ruach, it means "the Breathe of God". It's that breathe that God puts in us that's from Him. It's that identity that God puts in us that means that you and I are made in His image.

The Breathe of God, the Light of God, that spark that lives and searches and dwells in our innermost being. It is the very essence of who you and I are, made in the image of God. You and I have a spirit that is breathed into us from God that shines in us with the light of God.

The best way that I've ever come to understand this wonderful mystery is this: in our flesh, in fact in every cell, we have a unique identity, our DNA, the very stuff of life. And that DNA has elements about our fathers DNA and our mothers DNA. It is, in every respect, our unique physical identity. It makes us who we are. It impacts how we think and react and what we're good at and how we look at all those things. That's our physical DNA identity.

And in the spiritual realm we have a spiritual identity. That's our spirit breathed into us by God Himself, "Formed by God" it says in Zechariah, chapter 12, verse 1.

And the problem with most people on the planet is that they either deny their spirituality altogether or they hand it over to someone else or something else.

Spirituality's a big thing. So many people and religions and belief systems and advertising companies talk about the human spirit but when we hand our spirit lives over to someone other than the Living God, we've sold ourselves to the devil.

Unless and until my spirit and yours are united with the Spirit of God then we're no more than walking dead. Oh sure we live and breath and we do things, some good things, even some brilliant things but it's our body and our soul that's dominating everything and our spirit lies dormant and corrupted, almost dead within us.

Yet each one of us is made in the image of God and yes, each one of us has a spirit but God knows that until our spirit encounters His, it lies dead within. It needs to be made new; it needs to be brought to life. A life that's eternal that begins here and now.

Listen to how Ezekiel, the prophet, speaks to words of God about this very thing. Ezekiel, chapter 11, verse 19:

I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them.

Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 31:

Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.

Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26:

A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you.

Three times He says the very same thing and Jesus picks up on this in His beautiful teaching to His disciples just before He's crucified. He says:

If you love me, you'll keep my commandments and I will ask my Father and He will give you another advocate, another comforter like me, to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. I will not leave you orphaned. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me and those who love me will be loved by my Father and I will love them and reveal myself to them. Those who love me will keep my word and my Father will love them and we will come to make our home with them.

Isn't that fabulous?

Whoever doesn't love me doesn't keep my words and the word that you hear is not mine but it's from my Father. I have said these things to you while I am still with you but the advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of all that I have said. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I don't give to you as the world gives, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.

See, see the plan. A few weeks ago we celebrated Christmas. It was a time when we looked at a new birth. Jesus, the Son of God coming into this world, a new life and Jesus Himself said:

Unless you are born again, you can't see the Kingdom of Heaven.

And what this promise of the Holy Spirit is about is God's Spirit coming to dwell inside each person who believes in Jesus and what the Holy Spirit does for us is what Jesus did for us on the cross. Jesus died for us on the cross and rose again to give us new life and the Spirit of God brings that death and resurrection to life in us. And see, here's the thing that most people miss, they believe in God but they don't let the Spirit of God join with theirs and renew their spirits and bring them new life.

That's why Jesus talked about the fact that we had to be born again. Not a label, it's a spiritual reality, a rebirth, a new life and there are so many people walking through life who feel dead on the inside, as though there's no life. There's a reason for that. They haven't allowed the Spirit of God to renew their spirits. They've never met Jesus, the Son of God, on a spiritual level.

I can talk with you about this until I am blue in the face but that's nothing compared to actually receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit; meeting the Spirit of God in our actual experience and reality. So if that's something that you want to do then in a moment, I am going to give you the opportunity to do just that, to pray a prayer with me.

Lord Jesus, I really am not sure whether I've ever given my life to you but I want to do that today, lock, stock and barrel. Everything I have, everything I am. Every hope, every dream I give to you. Forgive me for all that I've done wrong, I want to turn away from that stuff now and begin my new life, born again from above, in Your forgiveness, in Your grace and filled to overflowing with your Holy Spirit. Lord God, I want to know that I know, that I know, that I know that I'm Yours.

I want Your spirit to witness to mine that I am a child of the living God. So I ask you for a new life. I ask you to fill me once and for all with Your Spirit so that I can walk in Your Spirit and live in Your Spirit so that I can have the power to lay down my life for Your sake so that I will be a fruit for Your glory. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.