In the Spirit (Rom 8:9)

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. - Romans 8:9

When Paul speaks of being "in" the spirit or being "in" the flesh, he is speaking of being in two separate places - similar to how we could be, for example, in the kitchen or in the bedroom.

However, unlike being in two separate rooms, the two states Paul speaks of are not spatial but spiritual. In other words, it does not matter where our physical bodies are, we always have access to this realm of the spirit through the workings of our minds.

In another letter, Paul instructs his hearers to "set your minds on things above, not on things that are on the earth" (Col 3:2). "Do this," he says because, "you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Col 3:3)

A Christian is one who has died to the flesh, died to this world, died to sin. And if we share in the fleshly death of Christ, we are promised also to share in His resurrected life.

For a Christian to be in the spirit is to be walking in this new resurrected life even though they have not physically died. For a Christian to be in the flesh is to be walking in their old sin-enslaved way of life even after they have already met Christ.

After baptism, in which the Christian identifies with Christ's death on the Cross, life in the spirit becomes possible, but not automatic. We must, as Paul says elsewhere, "put off the old man and put on the new man." It is not enough to be born again, or to believe in Jesus, we must choose each day to be in the spirit.

To be in the spirit means not to react to situations the way the world does. Not to have short tempers like the world does. Not to get anxious the way the world does, or to fear the things that the world does. It means to see the world and all its activities from a higher perspective, a godly perspective.

To be in the spirit is to help when the world rejects. To slow down when the world says hurry. To give when the world says take. To love when the world says hate.

But because we have spent so many years of our lives in this world, our minds and habits have been deeply conditioned by the ways of this world. We must therefore allow this same process to happen to us by the Spirit of God.

This is why Paul exhorts us elsewhere not to be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2). What we focus our minds on continually will inevitably produce itself in our lives. We must train our minds to focus on the things of the spirit rather than of the flesh.

This doesn't happen automatically, but nor does it happen by pure willpower either. It happens by daily, moment-by-moment surrender to the nudges of the Spirit who dwells within us.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh,

but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death,

but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:5-6