"For physical training is of some value, but godliness (having God's life consistently manifested in your spirit) has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." (1Timothy 4:8 NIV , parenthetical explanation, mine)

Today many workplaces are furnished with physical exercise equipment. Personnel managers recognize the effect of enhanced employee performance when there is a regular exercise program. What is often overlooked are the implications of poor spiritual health in the workplace: low morale, relational breakdowns, cut-throat competitiveness, arrogant one-up-man-ship, cheating, deceitfulness and extortion. But how does one gain spiritual exercise? There are present and future benefits of staying in shape spiritually.

The first step in spiritual exercise is to recognize that we have a spirit. Our work schedules can condition us to believe that we are just brain and brawn. The human being is an immortal spirit in a temporal body. Rather than thinking of ourselves as bodies that have a spirit, we need to recognize that we are spirits that have bodies. And these bodies are temporal earthsuits that will eventually be discarded.

The second step is to recognize that our human spirits can only function if they are made alive by the power of God's Holy Spirit. This is what is called the miracle of 'regeneration'. It is not enough to embrace a spiritual belief or a set of doctrines or disciplines. Jesus taught that we must be born from above, by being born of the Spirit (John 3:3,7). We are made for a personal relationship with God. This relationship becomes effective to the degree that our lives become inexplicable apart from the fact that God has come to live in our spirits (John 3:2; 1Corinthians 6:17). The effect of this spiritual birth will be obvious although it comes from an invisible source. Jesus said it will be like the movement and sound of the rustling leaves produced by the wind whose actual presence you cannot see. The effect of God's invisible presence indwelling the human spirit will be manifested in an awareness of His love and its expressions of peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, self-control, and faithfulness.

The sacred wisdom of the Scriptures reveal that the function of the human spirit is the key to personal integration. "The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, Searching all the innermost parts of his being." (Proverbs 20:27 NASB). The Bible teaches that the spirit is that part of our being which resonates with the eternal. It is our personal capacity for God's light and life. It is the inbuilt connector designed to receive and commune with the life of God. Like a lamp or a candle it has no illuminating power in itself. It must be lit by a divine act. The Biblical analogy is that God the Holy Spirit is as indispensable to the spirit of man as oil is to an oil lamp. This is why the Apostle Paul teaches us to "keep on being filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18).

How do we receive this new life in the Spirit? Jesus taught that we all have been incapacitated to function as healthy spiritual beings due to the corruption of selfishness. We are like those who are terminally ill because we have been bitten by a poisonous serpent. Jesus said that the remedy would be in our trusting His death, burial and resurrection as God's provision for our spiritual healing. Just as Moses lifted up the bronze snake upon a pole according to the word of the Lord, in order that all the Israelites who had been poisoned by serpent bites would be healed by looking to it in faith, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. Jesus said that everyone who looks to Him and "believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:14-15 NIV). We need to trust what Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross (to redeem us from the curse of condemnation under God's law) in order that Christ might live in us by the Holy Spirit. This reality is ours if we simply ask, take and say thank you, in faith (Romans 10: 9-13). God will keep his promise (Luke 11:9-13).

How do we exercise our spirits? We exercise our spirits with every choice we make. We deliberately yield every situation and challenge to the Lord and acknowledge His sufficiency to lead us and guide us in all things. By asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit we are asking to come under the rule of God. He gives us the power to cooperate with Him in what He is doing. We learn to walk in the Holy Spirit by taking steps of obedience day by day, moment by moment, hour by hour.

We must learn to live with a spirit-controlled mind, and a mind-controlled body. Unless we are in spiritual shape we can easily slip into the state of having a body-controlled mind and a mind-controlled spirit. For example, the fatigue of your body can affect your soul (mind, emotions and will) with lethargy and dullness. Your weary state of mind then can dominate your spirit. Your spiritual life and light has been put under the bushel of your moodiness. You become a walking exhibit of your old conditioned reactions rather than a manifestation of God's life in action.

If we are not exercised through deliberate choices to trust God's word, we can have a mind-controlled spirit, where our spirits are held hostage to our tired old concepts of God rather than a fresh revelation of Who He is.

Don't let your spirit become lame through disuse. Exercise your spirit. Feed on the Word. Commune with God with a prayerful spirit. Get off the treadmill and keep in step with the Spirit by following His lead.