Port Authority Police Department officers Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin were the last two people rescued from the World Trade Center after the September 11 terrorist attack. For Will Jimeno, that tragic day represents a defining moment in his Christian faith. Jimeno, McLoughlin, and three other officers entered Tower 1 to rescue civilians. But when they got inside, the building collapsed. McLoughlin and Jimeno were pinned under large blocks of concrete rubble and twisted steel. The other three officers were killed. For the next ten hours, Jimeno and his partner fought pain and thirst inside a concrete tomb swirling with dust and smoke. At times, ruptured gas lines would hurl fireballs into the ruins, threatening to burn the two men to death. In another terrifying moment, heat from the fireballs “cooked off” the ammunition inside the firearm of a fallen officer, sending fifteen bullets ricocheting around the chamber.
Jimeno’s hope began to falter. “I was exhausted. I had done everything as a police officer that I could do, and everything as a human being,” he said. “I just knew I was going to die.” Just then, Jimeno saw a figure coming toward him through the rubble. “He wore a glowing white robe and a rope belt,” Jimeno said. “I couldn’t see his face, but I knew it was Jesus.” The vision filled Jimeno with hope. “I had this resurgence of the will to fight,” he said. Turning toward McLoughlin, he yelled, “We’re going to get out of this hellhole!” Several hours later, U.S. Marines and NYPD rescue workers lifted the men out of their concrete prison. The events of that day have given Jimeno a new perspective on the brevity of life. He noted that, even if a person lives to be ninety years old, that’s only a little over thirty-two thousand days. “It’s not that many,” Jimeno said. “You have to do good and do right with the small period you have in between.” ¹ Jimeno had a vision of Jesus. The Lord enabled him to momentarily be in the Spirit. Paul references the phrase in the Spirit in Romans 8. What can we learn from Paul about this place called ‘In the Spirit’?

Romans 8:8–9 (KJV)
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

You Have ‘In the Spirit’ Capacity

• Romans 8:8 represents a continuation of thought from verse seven.
• You remember Romans 8:7 addressed ‘being the enemy of God’?
• The additional information adds even more emphasis to the inability of the carnal mind to bring pleasure to God.
• Romans 8:9 now imparts a positional new birth truth.
  • ‘But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.’

Revelation 1:10 (KJV)
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

• Revelation 1:10 shows that the positional truth of Romans 8:9 does not have to remain positional but it can manifest in the ‘here and now’.
• What does it mean to be ‘in the Spirit’?
  • Positionally it means capability.
• Believers in Jesus have the capacity to operate in the spirit realm.
• ‘In the Spirit’, is a place.
• It’s a place a believer can go to.
• When you arrive at this place called ‘in the Spirit’, you are more conscious of spiritual things than you are of natural things.

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How You Get to This Place

• You can get over into this place in prayer.

1 Corinthians 14:2 (KJV)
2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.

• You can get over into that place by prophecy.

Matthew 22:43 (KJV)
43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,

• You can also get over into that place as the Spirit wills

Revelation 4:2 (KJV)
2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

• The admonition to ‘be in the Spirit’ has an underlying message.
• Since you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, you should act like it at all times.
• Carnally minded living simply has no future in your life.
• This is all predicated on the assumption that you are saved or as the scripture puts it ‘if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.’
• The word ‘dwell’ means to reside in a place, to settle down in, to live or to dwell.
• This dwelling does not refer to people being filled with the Holy Ghost but rather people who have the initial experience of coming to know Jesus.
• Paul now gives the antithesis of his previous statement.
• “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
• Simply put, if you do not have the Spirit of Christ in you, then you are not saved.

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Christ, Life and Righteousness

Romans 8:10–11 (KJV)
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

• The word ‘Christ’ means, the anointed one or Jesus and His anointing.
• ‘Christ in you’ does not speak of the physical Jesus who now sits at the right hand of the Father.
• What it refers to is His anointing in you in the person of the Holy Spirit.
• ‘If Christ be in you’ is a synonymous term for the ‘Spirit of God dwelling in you’.
• ‘Christ in you’ and the ‘Spirit in you’ both equal a Christian.
• Because Christ is in you the body is dead because of sin.
• All human beings are dead in their sins prior to having a Jesus encounter.
• The sin nature, a result of Adam’s transgression, made the body a broken and non-repairable mess.
• Only one solution existed in heaven, replacement.
• The body must be discarded.
• There’s no reason to fret.
• A resurrection body free from the sin nature awaits every child of God.

2 Corinthians 5:1 (KJV)
1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

• Paul goes on to give us hope.
• Even though the body is dead because of sin yet the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
• The word Spirit in Romans 8:10 should have been translated with a small case (s).
• It should read ‘spirit’ meaning human spirit.
• What this verse states is the human spirit has life because righteousness has been imparted to it.
• Righteousness is defined as to be set right with, to be judicially or lawfully correct.

Call to Action:

The Spirit realm is your realm. It is the realm of the believer in Christ, the one who has been declared righteous before God. Learn how to walk with God in His arena. Learn everything you can about how to flow in the Spirit.

Question: When was the last time you visited the place called ‘In the Spirit?’ Please share your visit in the comments section below?