Bible, NT-10, Gospel-1, Intro
Part 1
LESSON 10
THE GOSPEL I
INTRODUCTION
PART 1
By Rev. G. Evan Newmyer
INTRODUCTION TO LESSON 10
Our study of the Gospel will be divided into seven parts, with the first section being this lesson. Matthew will be divided into two sections, as will Luke, Mark is one lesson, as is John. The Gospel of Peace contains information regarding the Good News Jesus granted us, thus we will take more time in this area, than any other. The New Testament letters center on the presentation of the Gospel; therefore, understanding the Gospel makes it easier to understand the letters. The Good News contained in the Gospel of Peace opens the Door to our victory, gives us a reason to believe, the Truth to be free, the ability to enter God’s Liberty by faith.
Jesus said the Law and Prophets were until John (Matt 11:13), then He said among those born of women (natural birth, excluding Jesus) there is none greater than John (Matt 11:11). It would include David, Moses, Solomon, Elijah; then Jesus added, the least in the Kingdom is greater than John (Matt 11:11). If we are the least in the Kingdom, we are greater than the greatest man born of natural birth, it’s only the beginning of the Good News.
John’s ministry was vital, there was none like it before, there will be none like it after, yet we find some interesting things about John and his ministry. When Paul found disciples in Ephesus he asked if they received the Holy Ghost (Acts 19:2). They said they hadn’t even heard there was a Holy Ghost, then Paul asked, “unto what were you baptized?” (Acts 19:3). He didn’t say, “what name?”, or “by whom”, it was “unto what”, indicating the purpose of their baptism, or what did they understand their baptism to mean. They answered by saying they were baptized Unto John’s baptism. Paul then said, John truly baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying the people should believe (Acts 19:4). Then Paul felt it necessary to re-baptize them in water, afterward he laid hands on them so they could receive the Holy Ghost (Acts 19:4-6). If John was so great, why baptize these disciples in water again? John’s ministry was between two places, he was not Old Testament, since the law and prophets prophesied unto him, but he was not New Testament either, since he was not a member of the ministry of Jesus. John’s ministry was specific for a time and purpose, it pointed to the kingdom, it didn’t deliver it. After the Resurrection, Jesus sent His disciples to baptize people in water under His Name (Authority). John’s was unto repentance, the baptism in the Name of Jesus was acceptance into the Body, based on our belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The water didn’t accept or save the person, it was a Token, or a Sign of the person accepting the call to enter the Body by God’s Mercy. All this shows the Gospel events were not Old Testament, since the law and prophets were unto John, yet it wasn’t New Testament either since the New Testament begins with the Blood of Jesus, what was it? The Mercy of God, the very foundation of every believer. Mercy heals us, maintains us as vessels of honor, while securing us in Grace. We must have both Mercy and Grace in order to come boldly to the throne of Grace to Obtain Mercy and Find Grace (Heb 4:16).
The Name of Jesus refers to Authority granted to those in the Body, thus the Body is the place of Mercy unto Grace. There is no other Name (Authority) on this earth to grant Salvation, Jesus made it clear in Mark 16:16, wherein He said if we are “baptized’ (indicting placement in the Body), then continue to Believe we shall be saved. If one is not “baptized” (in the Body) then the premise of “shall be saved” does not apply, thus the premise of shall be saved is only directed to those who continually believe after they are in the Body. However there are conditions regarding those in the Body, continually believing is one of them, to walk in faith another, to love one another is yet another, to be in Peace with God another, there are more we will view shortly.
Jesus never made leaders, He made disciples who became leaders. There is a beginning place for all who enter the Kingdom, it doesn’t matter if one has fifty diplomas or none, we all begin at the beginning. This lesson will look at some “beginning” elements to view the foundation for our search into the “Gospel of Peace”. The entry place is called the kingdom of heaven, the place between places, the Kingdom of God was granted on Pentecost, however, the entry is still the kingdom of heaven, making the kingdom of heaven the womb to the Kingdom of God.
God has many names by which He is known, El, Jehovah, God, and so on, but it doesn’t mean there are different gods attached to the names. God’s Name refers to the authority He is using at the time, God doesn’t need a name for identification. Peter said the holy men of Old were moved by the Holy Ghost to write, yet the title “Holy Ghost” never appears in the Old Testament, but it appears over 80 times in the New. The title Holy Spirit only appears seven times in the entire Bible, three times in the Old referring prophetically to the New, then four times in the New, thus it’s a title directed to the New Testament alone, a very special attribute from God. The function of the Holy Ghost is to be the Sower, Teacher, Guide, Placing people in the Offices on behalf of Jesus, empowering us to deal with the masses (Acts 13:1-3), thus He is a New Testament concern. In essence He becomes the delivery force of God’s Character and Power. Although the Holy Ghost was behind the scenes guiding the men of Old to write concerning the things of the Spirit of Christ, we find the men of Old didn’t know about the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost was not apparent until the time for Jesus to appear in flesh as the Word. One of the main functions of the Holy Ghost is the Sower of the Seed, or placing the Word in us, which is the Holy Spirit. Being Born Again is the greatest act God has granted mankind, it came as a result of what Jesus did for us.
LESSON 10
THE GOSPEL I
INTRODUCTION
THE PURPOSE
From the Old to the New to discover our Salvation (Thank God). The New contains some terms similar to those in the Old, yet the concepts, or meanings are much different. Grace is one example, in the Old it referred to a mercy granted from one to another to pull them from pending danger, or a fondness granted between individuals, but in the New it is the very vehicle (New Birth) granted from God allowing one into the Kingdom of God. Grace is the means to do the things of Grace, without the Spirit no one can become Spiritual in nature. We find there is a circumcision in the Old, and one in the New, yet they are different by definition. There is a Jubilee in the Old, and one in the New, yet they are different by definition. There is a sabbath in the Old, and one in the New, yet they are different by definition. There is a Law in the Old, and one in the New, yet they are different by definition. There is the Tithe under the Old, and tithes in the New, yet they are different by definition. There is a priesthood under the Old, and one in the New, yet much different by definition and purpose. If we don’t know the differences we might find ourselves under bondage to the Old, thinking we are in the New.
First Corinthians 13:13 tells us the three pillars of Grace are Faith, Hope and Love, the greatest of these is love (Agape). Does it mean Love by itself is enough? No, it means Love added to the attributes makes them beneficial for all. In Hebrews 11:1 we find faith and hope connected, in Galatians 5:6 we also find there is a faith which works by love, thus we can have faith, even a working faith, but it must have love attached to it in order to be beneficial to all. Without Love we will see the anointing work in our lives, yet think it’s by our power and might, thus Love keeps things in order. We can cast out devils, yet act like a devil in the process, as did Judas. We can do many things, yet do them because we want people to honor us, or pay attention to us, or validate us; we can even use the Name of Jesus to draw attention to us, rather than Jesus. The danger is the meaning of the phrase, “knowledge puffs up”, but if we fail to know the context of the phrase we might think knowledge will always “puff up”. If we presume the phrase means knowledge in general, we have to ask how did we know knowledge puffs up? By having knowledge, thus the context must go further. In First Corinthians 8 Paul does say “knowledge puffs up”, but then he added, “we all have knowledge” (I Cor 8:1). However he was specific about the knowledge relating to the freedom in Grace absent love, without love the same knowledge becomes a weapon of self-importance. Those in Grace are free, but to use ones freedom to place others in bondage lacks love. How? “Oh I see you still keep the sabbath”, “oh I see you are still under the Law”. Whether one keeps a day or not has nothing to do with their Salvation, if they do, or don’t, they still keep it unto the Lord. Which means they don’t make it doctrine, they don’t force it on others, they don’t except special treatment, above all they don’t make it a requirement. Love keeps us from beating people half to death with our freedom, while thinking we are superior. However, the strangest thing about Grace is how it makes us superior, Jesus said we can tread on serpents and scorpions, as well as all the works of the devil; He also said if we are in the Body and continue to believe we shall be saved. We are the only ones on this planet who have the God granted authority to baptize people in water, simply because we are members of the Body of Christ.
Paul confirms this by showing Knowledge wasn’t the problem, using it without love was. We can have knowledge of the freedom of Grace, yet use it against others to belittle them, or make them feel inferior to us. However, Grace was designed to draw others into Liberty and Freedom, it was not designed to exalt the self-nature, or put others in bondage. Love would never seek to belittle another just to exalt the self, thus knowledge absent love produces legalists and Pharisees, who go about beating up people with religion, while proclaiming they are so holy they create the water they think they walk on. Our goal is to find the keys to the Kingdom so we can be transformed into a son of God.
Before Jesus made it possible to be Born Again all mankind was lost under the shadow of darkness, no one was righteous, no not one. Paul best defined it in Romans 7, even if someone wanted to serve God, they really couldn’t since their effort had to be through the flesh, making the entire matter corrupt. We cannot serve God through the fall nature; yet Jesus provided a means wherein the flesh is imputed dead, so we can operate through the Body of Christ. The importance of Romans chapter 7, is Romans chapter 8, two complete different premises. In Romans chapter 7 it was using the flesh, or using the fall nature to impress God, a losing endeavor, causing the Commandment to fall on the person, proclaiming them condemned, appointed unto sin and death. In Romans 8 we begin with “there is Now therefore no condemnation”, the proviso is to walk in the Spirit, yet the Spirit wasn’t given until Jesus was glorified (Jn 7:39).
The first course of duty was to show the Mercy of the Father, thus Jesus as the Word took on the form of man, to die for man, so man in the flesh can accept the death of the Cross in order to obtain the Spirit of Christ by the granted Authority of Christ. In order to gain this we first have to define the obstacle, the old man who is the natural nature of man, the fall nature held us under the yoke of bondage. The old man is the spirit lusting to envy, motivated by the spirit of man (disobedience), yet we were not devil possessed, we were in bondage to the fall nature. The New Birth has many benefits, one is we can account the old dead in order to gain the New. The Nature of Christ is the only freedom afforded mankind, no other system or order, grants mankind freedom from the fall nature. Not even the Old Covenant granted man freedom from the fall nature, the only way to be free is to be Born Again by having the Seed delivered by the Holy Ghost; the Seed then becomes the New Man, created (or formed same word) after the true holiness and righteousness of God (Eph 4:24).
The old man will attempt to tell us what we used to be, we still are, yet the New Man has a vision of what we can be. The old man uses facts lacking Truth, the New Man uses faith based in Truth. The battle is to hold to our faith in Christ, knowing God is fully able to bring about the salvation of our souls (I Pet 1:9). Before the battle began, before we accepted the Cross, God made sure we had more than enough ability to win. None of us “just made it into the Kingdom”, we were hand picked by God, then placed in the Body by His Mercy, so we as a people could obtain the Grace of God by the Spirit.
In our Old Testament studies we found the yoke was destroyed because of the anointing, not the other way around. Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me” (Luke 4:18). If we have the Spirit, then we must be anointed; if we are anointed, then the yoke is destroyed. The problem is do we believe it? The old man will tell us, “no, you are just as bound as ever”, the New Man is presenting the perfect Law of Liberty, which one we believe is a matter of our choice; thus belief is a matter of choice, two people hear the same Truth, one accepts it, one rejects it. However, we are in the Kingdom, thus we are the ones who accepted the Truth are Free indeed.
The Record is a written document containing all the facts and truths regarding something considered as done. In our case we call it Predestinated, which simply means God has a Record for us. When we were in the world it was the Plan, not we are Born Again we fall under the Record, the Record needs an ability so it can be carried out, yet none of us in and of ourselves are capable of fulfilling the heavenly Record. The Record consists of the Father, Word, and Holy Ghost as One, but the Witness on earth is the Water, Blood and Spirit. The soul is the treasure in this, not the Witness. The Water refers to the Mercy of the Father, the Blood to the Grace provided by Jesus as the Word, the Holy Ghost brings the gift granting us the Spirit. The Witness carries out the Report, not the other way around. If we accepted the Mercy of the Father, the New Covenant in the Blood of Jesus, and we are Born Again, we have the Witness in us to complete the Report.
The devil uses illusions continually, he brings up the past as if it still exists. Like the roaring lion he is, he attempts to get us to accept his roar of judgment and condemnation. Once we accept the roar, we become the devoured one. One day a thought comes, we panic, “Gee, I thought it was under the Blood, what is this?”. An illusion, we rebuke it, we don’t play with it, promote it, or accept it. Our belief says the flesh is imputed dead on the Cross, all things are new, we are covered by the Blood of Christ, but the illusion says it’s not so, we haven’t changed, it’s all a mind game. Is it under the Blood? Yes, if it’s confessed. Here we are thinking we’ve been free for years, or even days, then all of a sudden out of no where comes a thought. Have we lost Grace? No, the enemy is attempting to plant an illusion, to get us to accept the lie as the truth. Faith looks for the Hope of God, if the enemy can remove our Hope, our faith has no direction.
An illusion is different from a delusion, a delusion is retained in spite of evidence showing the thought to be false; an illusion is based on something we think is real, but it lacks evidence of reality. The old man uses illusions from our past, or attempts to present the illusion of him still having power over us. The old man uses “feelings” and “lusts”, not truths. The flesh does things to gain the feeling, or the emotion for the moment. Our faith in God must entail our knowledge of the delivering power of God being fully able to free us from any darkness, or bondage of the flesh. If we are delivered from the world, what do you think the old man will use as an illusion? The cares of this world, just to get us back into the thought process.
The devil used an illusion at the tree when he told the female she could be as the “gods”. The old man will have us looking through a dark cloud of the self, the New Birth brings us Clarity as a pure and clear view of events and things from the perspective of God. James called it the Wisdom of God, the ability to discern or deal with people and events in a Godly manner. It begins by being Born Again, then growing in the Birth to become a mature person in Christ.
The New Man is the greatest detective of all time, he sees the clues and gives us the information. Clarity, means one sees the intent behind the action, there are times when the visible and the intent are miles apart. Clarity is invaluable, it gives us insight to our own intents, as well as the intents of others. They may set the trap, but we need not fall into it.
When we received Jesus we gained Potential, it’s the potential scaring the devil. We have the Power of His Christ within, when we accepted the Cross the devil knew his means through the old man was doomed, yet the old man doesn’t give up easily. We know there is a battle; one of the tricks of the enemy is make us think the old man is greater than the New Man. We have Scripture to counter the attack, Greater is He in us, than he in the world (I Jn 4:1-4). However, if the old nature can get us to question the Bible, or worse to consider the Bible the work of the hand of man, we’re defeated before we begin. We may find what appear to be slight mistakes in the Bible, whether David defeated 700 chariots or 7000 men who fought from chariots, but they only prove the prophetic power of the Scriptures, only a fraud would make sure each point was absolutely correct. Our foundation is to continually believe, but believe what? Anything? What intellectuals say the Bible says? No, our place of Belief is knowing the Scriptures point to Jesus, Who has our redemption. The enemy attacks in many ways, thus if he can get us into unbelief regarding our source, we are doomed. The enemy has his massagers change, alter, or challenge the Bible, but the Holy Ghost is able to guide us into all Truth.
Another trick of the old man is the illusion of us not being able to make it, since we keep doing the same dumb things over and over. Lies from hell, look at Peter and the others, did Jesus reject them because they made mistakes? Hardly, the life of Peter before and after Pentecost show us we are in training, reaching toward the goal. There is a vast difference between making a mistake, and setting out to sin against another while enjoying it. The meaning of “to continue to sin”, means we like sin, we don’t feel any conviction for the wrong, hardly the same as someone who finds they have fallen into a trap.
Our soul is the prize in all this, if our souls were not worth saving, why did Jesus go to the Cross? We find God thinks more of us than we think of ourselves. Each of us is the Prize, the Treasure in the Field; if we’re not worth it, why did the Father send the Son? Why did the Father and Son send the Holy Ghost to give us the Spirit? We have to recognize what Jesus did for us, and why. How could Paul say, “He did it for me” if he didn’t understand what Jesus did? After Paul was converted he gained clarity, by the clarity he saw what Jesus did for him, then his appreciation of Christ became the driving motivation behind his love for the Lord. It’s the same attitude bringing us into the fullness of Christ, as well as keeping us there.
We must also know the Purpose for being Born Again, Jesus said it was to “see” and “enter” the Kingdom of God (Jn 3:3-5). The word See in John 3:3 means To perceive or understand, the word Enter in John 3:5 doesn’t mean to physically enter, rather it means to Begin. The premise is defined for us in First Corinthians 2:9, where we find eye has not “seen”, nor ear heard, nor “entered” into the heart of man those things God has for those who love Him. Then we find the Spirit has brought those things to us. The premise “that born of the Spirit is Spirit (original KJV, or spirit modern KJV)”, means the person’s soul is changed from flesh thinking to being Spiritual in nature by the Spirit of Truth in the person. We were first born of the flesh, our souls associated with the flesh. However, if one is Born Again they have entered the realm of being a Spirit. The concept of “that Born of the Spirit is Spirit” is not talking about the Holy Ghost bringing the Spirit, it’s talking about the person‘s soul being formed by the Spirit. We were flesh minded, we still have the flesh, because we are born of the flesh, but then our souls become Spirit because of the New Birth. Our flesh remains, although imputed dead on the Cross, so our souls can connect to the Spirit. Our souls were natural, but now we are being trained to be spiritual by the New Man. The reason Jesus said Ye Must be Born Again is based on the Kingdom of God being Spirit in nature, since God is Spirit. Of course we look through physical eyes, see a physical body, then think, “yeah right, no way”. However, the process is internal, our belief knows we asked, we received, our faith then reaches to the Hope set before us, as Jesus is, so are we in this world.
It begins when the Holy Ghost brings the Seed of God, which Seed is the Word, and the Word is Jesus. The Seed is planted in us, with the purpose of conforming us into the Image of God’s Son. So, does it mean we will look like Jesus? No, it means the Nature of Jesus was given to us in the New Birth to bring us into God’s Nature. This is not a removal of our souls, or a removal of our personalities, rather it’s a “saving” process. Does having the Spirit mean one is Born Again? If being Born Again means we are Spiritual, why did Paul say the Corinthians had the Spirit, but they were not Spiritual? (I Cor 3:1 & 3:16). The planted Seed is not the same as being Born Again, rather Jesus said the Fruit comes when the Blade comes forth, thus it’s a Process. The Seed planted would be like unto conception, the Root like unto the fetus stage, then comes the Birth as the Blade breaks forth.
The Corinthians were blinded to spiritual matters by their carnal thinking, yet they had the potential to be spiritual. They were not robbed of the opportunity, they simply needed to enter in. When we are carnal we needed a written guide to show us sin, when we are Born Again we have a guide within cleaning us from sin.
How did it begin for us? We prayed for the Will of the Lord to be done, then we prayed for the Kingdom to come, thus we asked to be Born Again into the Kingdom, to have the entire process in the manner and method God desires. Therein lays the problem for some of us, we wanted God to do the effort, but we wanted it done our way. When God did it His way, we got mad, cursed the darkness, then found ourselves face to face with a sand storm in the wilderness. There are provisos to being Born Again, the first is to forgive as God for Christ’s sake has forgive us, yet how do you forgive the unforgivable? By faith, the decision is first, we make the decision to please the Father, thus faith pleases God. Once we make the decision the Father will flood us with His Mercy granting us the power to forgive as we are forgiven.
A Kingdom is a place where the Will of the King is being carried out, thus the Kingdom of God is where God’s Will is being carried out. Our will as kings must fit the will of the King, or rebellion takes place. We as kings can run our kingdom any way we want, but in the end we will face the King of kings. If we as kings say we don’t believe in something, we have banned it from our kingdom; however, if the King of kings has not banned it, we may find ourselves in trouble. Therefore, our will must fit the will of the King of kings, before we can be Godly kings.
The Kingdom of God is within, it doesn’t come with Observation (being able to see with the naked eye, meaning it’s faith centered – Luke 17:20), but the result of having the Kingdom inside will be seen by others. Jesus equated the New Birth to the process of how one is birthed into the flesh, yet He also separated the two by saying that born of the flesh (is) remains flesh, and that born of the Spirit is Spirit. From the statement we are given two elements, the flesh and the Spirit, so where is the soul in this? The prize, if we are not Born Again our soul will join to the flesh, yet the flesh is joined to darkness. If we are Born Again then our soul has the opportunity to join to the Spirit to have the saving Grace of God.
When Jesus said that born of the flesh was flesh, He did not say, that born of the flesh is flesh, is flesh, is flesh. Even Nicodemus knew Jesus wasn’t talking about some type of reincarnation. How many times can we be born of the Spirit? Once, there is no born of the Spirit, born of the Spirit, born of the Spirit; however, don’t confuse it with being filled with the Holy Ghost, they are different. The Holy Ghost brings the Seed, the Seed is the Spirit, the Spirit in us has two main functions, linked together. First is the saving of our souls, but the New Man (Spirit) will also manifest in those one on one situations (I Cor 12:7-11). The Holy Ghost will fill us to deal with the masses, or grant us the extra ability needed for the moment (Acts 4:29-31 et al). The Holy Ghost also appoints to the Offices on behalf of Jesus (Acts 13:1-3), thus the Spirit in us is not designed to appoint Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Teachers or Pastors. However, the anointing on the Offices does allow leaders to appoint Bishops, Deacons and Elders. God has an Order, one He expects us to follow.
The New Birth does not mean some spirit in us was re-born, the concept would then be “that Born of the Spirit was re-born”, meaning it was not a New Birth, but a “re-birth”. We are Born Again by the Seed granted by the Holy Ghost into a spiritual potential nature by having the Spirit of Truth in us, thus we can count on being led into God’s wilderness by the Spirit to defeat the works of the devil.
The term “again” in the phrase “Born Again” means a second birth, but it’s in conjunction with the birth of the flesh being first, thus the “again” is the birth of the soul into a Spiritual state. The word New means “never before”, the New Birth means something never before in the history of the earth until Jesus was glorified by the Resurrection (Rom 1:4), yet for the disciples it began on Pentecost and continues until the Rapture.
Once we understand the New Birth is a process, then we can understand why we find terms like, “Babes in Christ”, or “Growing up into the Head”, or other terms showing a process. All this still hinges on Faith, yet Faith and Belief are different, but related. Faith is a present tense condition based on something not seen, reaching to a Hope set before us, which is not seen, but known. Belief is based on past information or knowledge which we accepted as Truth, whether we heard the information, or experienced it. Belief is also a Now, or present tense condition, but it’s based on past awareness, whereas Faith is based on a future hope. Belief and Faith meet in the Now, thus we must believe Jesus is raised from the Dead, but we must also have faith to be partakers in the First Resurrection. Jesus being raised from the dead and the Rapture are interrelated as the First Resurrection, thus our Belief is based on what has happened, giving us the foundation for our faith to what will happen. Belief is not the unseen of faith, since we saw or understood something in order to believe. The unseen of faith can be the New Man, it can even be the hope before us, but our faith in action will show the unseen motivation. If we use our faith in self-based ways, the source is the flesh. If we use our faith to please God, the source is the New Man.
We are saved by Grace through faith, yet in James we read faith alone won’t save us, so what gives? We are saved by Grace through Faith, two things, faith without Grace won’t save us, just as belief without being in the Body can’t produce “shall be saved”. James also says the devils believe in one God, so simply believing in one God isn’t enough, we must be in the Body of Christ for the belief to have effect. To say one believes in God, yet deny God’s only Son makes them a devil according to James. The Jews considered anyone who worshipped idols devils, they also considered the idols devils. James merely asks the question, how can one say they believe there is One God, or they love the One God, yet deny His Son? First John tells us if deny either the Father of the Son we are antichrist in nature (I Jn 2:22). The Father is connected to Mercy, the Son to Grace, we come to the throne to obtain Mercy, but find Grace.
Now the Love part, there are various types, or forms of love, we love our pet, but not like we love our children. Some love just to get the feeling, but do we love God to be loved of God? Or do we love God for what God has done for us? Do we love God only because He does things for us? Or do we love God regardless of the things? All these issues are sorted out by the New Man (Word) in us. Once we see we Love God because of what He has done, is doing, and will do, as well as loving Him for who He is, regardless, then all the facets fit together in a Love which will not be rocked, shocked or broken. Let’s face it, some people love others simply to get all they can out of the relationship, without giving a thing: it’s a type of Love God does not impart to us, but it is the type of love the old man uses.
The purpose of all this is the saving of our souls, yet without the Spirit (New Man) in us we can’t begin the process. The Scriptures tell us over and over again, no man can save his own soul, if a natural person regardless of their credentials attempts to save another soul, both will fall into the ditch. If anyone attempts the saving of the soul through the old man, or through the ability of man, it ends in self-denial, rather than denying the self. There is a Greater Work, a Good work which can overwhelm the natural mind of man. There was no way Peter, John, or any of the others could enter the Saving of their souls until Jesus sat down next to the Father. A greater work? Yes, Grace is much greater.
The Body of Christ has done some great things, it has also done some stupid things. The Body of Christ is doing some good things, it is also doing some very stupid things; however, we are not judged by what the Body does or doesn’t do, we are judged by what we do, or don’t do as members of the Body. The Scepter of the Kingdom is the Righteousness of Jesus, making all other forms unrighteous (Heb 1:8). One of those forms of unrighteousness is self-righteousness, it always seeks the glory for itself, the pat on the back, or “you owe me” attitudes, but those works last for the moment, then they are dead. The Righteousness of Jesus is proven, it has already accomplished the task, thus we don’t work to obtain, we do deeds because we have obtained.
This study is sent to the person who loves Jesus, yet has discovered systematic theology, intellectual hermenutics, or the nonsensical eschatology has failed to produce the power of Christ. It’s sent to the one who is tired of the same old Christian status quo’, or has found it wanton; it’s for those in the fire of affliction, or the one who knows there is more to being a Christian than a social religious moralistic appearance void of power and authority. Theological jargon just doesn’t cut the “grain of mustard seed”, today there are many questions, yet God still has the answers.
Today we see many attacks against the premise of God having Faith, or against the Power of the Spirit, or against the Rapture, each attack is against the knowledge of God. There is also the worldly pressure of compromise, the acceptance of all the religions of the world, whether they believe in Jesus or not. Our job in the Body of Christ is to be fishers of men, not compromisers with the world. The answer to these attacks are not more attacks, but a display of the Power of His Christ based in the Love of God. God’s Power is found in His Love, thus His Light and Life are coupled with His Love, yet the actions of all three are only found in the one who is Born Again. The good “fisherman” has “good bait”, thus good bait will always catch fish.
The number one fear of mankind is not death, it’s rejection. The Power of Christ removes us from the fear of rejection, into a place of acceptance. At times our motivation is based on the fear of rejection, rather than faith. We fear God will not give us the new job, the new car, or will bring destruction into our lives if we don’t appear holy. We put on the mask of holiness, then enter the illusion of self-righteousness. We must allow the holiness and righteousness in us by the New Birth to become our source, not some fear of not being accepted by God, or mankind.
Whatever God begins, He finishes. He brought us into His wilderness by the Spirit to finish the process of salvation while defeating the works of the devil. In the wilderness we find the differences between Mercy and Grace; between forgiveness of sin and remission of sin; between being transformed, or entering self-transformation; between transformed and transfigured; between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of antichrist; between puny faith and great faith; between who we are, and who we can be. However, when it’s time to leave the wilderness, it’s also time to leave the wilderness thinking behind. The error of the children in the Wilderness was not their failure to leave Egypt behind, it was their failure to leave Egypt thinking behind. The victory thinking of the generation who crossed the Jordan was to leave the wilderness behind. Retain the lesson, not the stripes.
When Peter walked on the water Jesus called it little faith, or puny faith, but the Centurion was told he had great faith. Peter said, “If it be You Lord, bid me to come Lord”, thus Peter asked a question, but it was a question allowing one answer, which is really testing the Lord. What was Jesus to say, “No”? When Peter began to walk on the water he was not “obeying” a command, rather he responded to an answer from a question he asked. Peter wanted to do something the Lord was doing, but in the process he was not doing what the Lord told him to do prior. The command was to get to the other side of the lake, not take a walk. The Lord used the opportunity to show Peter how showing off only lasts until the storm hits. We can see the intent, there was the storm, they were frightened, here comes Jesus walking on the water. Peter who was also frightened by the storm saw the opportunity to prove himself, which is self-confidence, or doing something in order to prove himself to himself. The issue of faith includes Obedience and Patience until the result is in hand; therefore, if they had labored to reach the other side, Jesus would have called it great faith. There are times when we do things we consider Great, just to avoid what the Lord told us to do. Jesus said He would meet them on the other side, He would not have said it unless He knew they would make it. It was the issue, not a display of ability mid-way, thus Peter did show a sign of faith, but he didn’t follow a command, he followed an answer to a question. “Lord if the sun is in the sky, then bid me to……”, what would the Lord say? No?
The Centurion said, “You say the Word Lord”, his faith was based in his knowledge of Authority, and who had it. The difference between the two is great, Peter wanted to copy the Lord, the Centurion didn’t, Peter wanted to show off his faith, the Centurion left it in the hands of the Lord. The Centurion understood authority, the result was Jesus saying the Centurion had great faith. The man didn’t venture into an area where he lacked authority, neither did he give commands to others outside of his authority. When the Centurion gave a command to those under him, they did it, when he was given a command by those above him, he did it, because he understood the levels of authority. The Centurion didn’t attempt to copy Jesus, he knew he lacked the authority, but he also knew Jesus had it.
Peter did something, the Centurion believed Jesus could do something going beyond the realm of natural man. Peter had “puny faith” since it depended on Peter doing something, the Centurion had great faith since it depended on Jesus doing something. This adds to our faith concept, showing faith can be a confidence in someone else to do something for us, whether we can, or cannot do it. We know better than to ask Jesus to brush our teeth for us, yet there are things we can do, as well as things we shouldn’t.
We must discern the purpose of the event, in order to gain from it. An example is Peter and the tax issue; a man asked Peter, “Does your Master pay tribute (taxes – Matt 17:24)? Peter did another walking on water trick by saying, Yes! Then he went to Jesus to find out if his Yea was really a Yea. Jesus sent Peter to catch a fish, in the mouth of the fish he would find the tax money (Matt 17:27). Why not just take it out of the bag? Because Peter made a statement outside of his authority, thus Peter being a fisherman had to use his trade to come up with the money. The problem was not whether Jesus did or did not pay tribute, it was Peter making statements outside of his granted authority. Of course this was Pre-Pentecost Peter, he becomes an excellent lesson on the differences the Spirit in us makes in our attitude, thinking, demeanor, and ability.
Faith propagated on the experiences of others is puny at best, but faith in Jesus never needs a formula. Formulas tend to give us the results of the process before we begin, leaving no room for faith. We find great faith in those areas where the person lacked any personal past event to point to, rather they Heard the Spirit then trusted in the Lord to complete the task. They had a foundation of belief, but not the experience. Peter saw the Lord walking on water, the Centurion had not seen Jesus grant any Gentile a blessing. Peter did something most of us haven’t done in a week or two, walk on water, although the feat was grand, the faith to do it was not. As great as the effort of Peter walking on water might have been, getting to the other side would have been greater. In the Kingdom some things seem little in the natural, but are great in the spiritual; some things seem great in the natural, yet mean little or nothing in the spiritual. Discerning what to do, and what not to do always takes the Spirit through the Wisdom of God.
The word Patience means to Stay the course, not to move from one side or the other, but to maintain until the goal is in hand. We ask by faith, than allow Patience to have her prefect work (James 1:2-6). Often Patience is the place where we fail, we want what we want Now. Patience gives us the ability to wait on the Lord, rather than attempt to make the Lord wait on us.
Faith in Jesus has nothing to do with the mundane daily tasks; if we are looking for someone to tell us to put on our shoes, we need a nursemaid not a Lord. Our measure of faith is by Measure, meaning it has a limit, thus we have the same measure to reach the desired position, where we find the Faith of Jesus has obtained for us. The kingdom of heaven is the Rock, or the Body, meaning it’s Mercy based. The Kingdom of God is the Church, or the Blood of Jesus, meaning it’s Grace based. We are in the kingdom of heaven, the Kingdom of God is within. Often we say “the Lord told me”, in truth we heard from the New Man, thus the New Man speaks not of himself, but as he hears so shall he tell us. Our connection to heaven is the New Man, it’s not theology, or church standing, or the lack thereof. The New Man is the Tree of Life in us, the connection on this side of the River of Life reaching to the higher area of the Report at the Throne of God (Rev 22:1-2 & I Jn 5:7-8). From within us comes Rivers of Living Water, this Jesus said regarding the Spirit (Jn 7:38-39). The River of the Water of Life flows from the Throne of God, yet there is a Street or something used to get from one place to another, on either side is the Tree of Life. The Holy Ghost holds to the Tree of Life, the New Man in us is the Spirit holding to the Tree of Life on this side, giving us the ability to say ABBA Father.
Being Born Again is a Gift from God called Grace, based in the Blood of Jesus. It’s for a Season, yet the Water represents the Mercy of God. Again, we need Mercy, Grace by the Spirit in order to be a Witness. The Witness then connects to the Record, between the two is the River of Life, the very footprints left by the Faith of Jesus allowing us to follow Him by our measure of faith, through the New Man.
The old man was a product of worldly things, the purpose of the kingdom of heaven is to expose and defeat the power of the old man. The purpose of the Kingdom of God is to clean us from all unrighteousness, and to save our souls. We must understand our souls are not evil, they picked up evil things, thus the purpose of our faith is the saving of our souls (I Pet 1:9). We are the Just being Justified, who believe (daily) unto the saving of the soul (I Pet 1:9 & Heb 10-38-39). We minister by the Spirit, thus the dumbest thing anyone can do is minister through the old man. Yet, if we haven’t denied the self, we end ministering by the spirit of man, rather than the Spirit of Truth. How does it fit here? If we are not Born Again and walking in the Spirit, we will find those times when we’re in need, we will minister to ourselves through the old man, ending in the pit of self-pity, or run off being presumptuous. Faith comes by hearing, the hearing by the Rhema, yet we can reverse the process, thinking if we say something, we will force God to perform. The path is we hear, faith then comes, it’s not the other way around.
Jesus made a simple statement regarding what we do with our measure of faith, as He said “have faith in God”. He didn’t say “have faith in your ability”, nor did He say “have faith in your faith”, nor did He say “make your faith work for you”, nor did He say, “have faith in your potential”. Faith will work, but it’s designed to be placed in God, thus our measure of faith is still under our control. Faith without “works” is dead, to think it means we’re suppose to go about promoting our beliefs is not only error, but misses the point by miles. James tells us to pray for God’s wisdom, but do so in faith. Our faith must work toward God to please Him, or it’s dead. Some think, “well I’m pleased, so God must be”, not so, we found out in the Old Testament the people were pleased, but God wasn’t. God is pleased when we deal with people and events as He would; the ability is found in having His Wisdom. We have the choice, to walk in the Wisdom of God, or use the wisdom of man. However, man’s wisdom is lust driven and envy based, it will seek to enhance the self, rather than please God.
Without the measure of faith we lack a starting place, thus our faith is very important, but it doesn’t end there, we must move from faith to Faith in order to win this. There is our faith by measure, but there is also the proved Faith of Jesus without measure. Our faith is for things regarding Mercy, the New Man is able to lead us on the path of the Faith of Jesus. It in no way means we control the Faith of Jesus, it means we must walk the path of His Faith, without changing, or challenging it. There are prerequisites, deny the self, and pick up our cross. If we attempt to jump over denying the self or picking up our cross, thinking we will able to follow Jesus, we error.
Whenever we place our faith in something or someone other than God, it twists to mind power, yet mind power is the mother of witchcraft. The Faith of Jesus brought us life (Gal 2:20); therefore, we have faith in God to experience the Faith of God. What if some have failed to believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God to no effect? (Rom 3:3). No, let God be true and every man a liar. The faith of Jesus is tried and true, so much so we are of “The Faith”, guess which faith it points to.
Offense and confusion are in the heart of the holder, Jesus said Woe to the one who brings offense, yet we find Jesus offending many. His intent was not to offend, rather it was to expose unto correction to bring perfection. There are two different areas of Offense, one is to make someone sin, which is the Woe, the other is when offense comes to expose some wrong. Therefore, we can give a word of correction, one intending to heal a person, or bring them into a teachable place, yet if they will allow the old nature to become angry, or be offended causing them to reject the very Word the Lord sent to save them. The Pharisees also offended many, but their intent was to exalt their self-based position and condition. Showing us the two different types of offense, one unto correction to bring about perfection, the other to belittle someone for the sake of self-enhancement.
Confusion is in the mind of the confused; at times when Jesus spoke to the disciples they became confused, so did Jesus confuse them? No, since God is not the author of confusion (I Cor 14:33). Jesus spoke to the religious leaders, yet they ended in confusion, so did Jesus confuse them? No, what happened? When someone speaks Truth, yet we have a stronghold we will be confused. The truth didn’t confuse us, the truth came to set us free, thus the stronghold is the basis for confusion. It doesn’t seem so at the time, many of us have said, “you know I was fine until they showed up, now I’m confused”. If we have the Truth we can’t be confused, but if we’re holding fables saying they are truth, yet when truth comes we will be confused.
The heart of the Gospel tells us because of what Jesus did, we who in no way deserve it, can have the Spirit of Truth, the very essence of the Son of God in us. The Spirit is sent to save our souls, by granting us a position in heaven no angel was ever promised. The Gospel is the Power unto Salvation, the Bible talks about the elements regarding the Gospel, but the Gospel is something in us granted by God through the Seed of God.
The Bible is the rule book, within the rule book we find Jesus told the Pharisees just because they read about life, it didn’t mean they had it (Jn 5:38-42). Just because we read about Grace, doesn’t mean we have it either. It takes the Word in us, thus the Bible defines the Word as Jesus (Jn 1:1-8 & James 1:21). James will tell us the Word in us is dividing and separating, and fully able to save our souls (James 1:21). The Bible cannot save our souls, it takes Jesus (the Word) in us, the very basis of being Born Again. Never forget the same Bible says the Word is able to save our souls, defines itself as the Scriptures (Matt 21:42 et al).
In all this we do have a problem, called the “old man”, a nature who became our natural fleshly guide while we were in the world. The old man is also known as “the spirit lusting to envy”, a product of the spirit of man also known as disobedience, but he is “natural”, not spiritual, thus he tempts us with things common (worldly) to man. The metaphor “Spirit” pertains to the essence of something or someone, the old man is the essence of the darkness, not as an entity, but more of a nature or character. When Eve took of the fruit she picked up something else, the nature of the serpent. Both Adam and Eve went from products of God, to the beasts of the field, the evidence was their subtle behavior. Neither of them were demon possessed, but they were guided by a nature ignorant of understanding the things of God (I Cor 2:11).
This opens the term “spirit” to include ones attitude, or way of thinking, or better their nature, or heart. When we are Born Again we gain a New Heart, one with the flesh cut away, one centered on forming our souls into a spiritual nature. However, it begins with basic principles; we deny the self, we don’t kill it. We impute the old nature and flesh dead by the Cross of Jesus by picking up our cross.
The self nature is the product of the old man, it will always look for the self-based natural benefit, whether it’s pride in the doing, or allowing others to trumpet our endeavors so we can gain the feeling of pride. The old man is flesh related, he is a product of darkness, yet if the flesh ceases, so does his effectiveness. If we are Crucified with Christ, how come we’re still walking around? If we are dead in Christ, how come we’re still breathing? Two words of importance in the things of God, Imputed and Imparted. Imparted is the easy one, it pertains to something granted to us, or within us, such as the Seed of God. The Imputed part gets a little more complicated, yet it is vital to understanding how the Cross of Jesus functions in our lives. God imputed righteousness toward Abraham, but if Paul said none were righteous, would it not also include Abraham? Yes, yet in the same letter where he says were none righteous, he points out how God imputed righteousness toward Abraham (Rom 3:10 & 4:22). Imputed is an act of placing something on someone based on a trait found in them connecting to a much greater trait found in someone else. God looked at those who would believe in Jesus, thus belief became the basis. God treated the belief of Abraham as a point of righteousness for a specific reason, not saying the man was, rather God treated the belief of the man as righteous, God could then impute righteousness on the man who held the belief, in order to enter Covenant, so it might be by faith. Abraham is like anyone else, without a contract (Covenant) there is no binding agreement. Although Abraham believed in what God said, it would take something else to reach to the confidence of the promise; much like adding a signature on the dotted line to secure the promise. The token of Abraham’s Covenant was after the fact, he was not circumcised to enter the Covenant, but his offspring would have to be. God made Covenant with Abraham regarding the Seed of the man, thus the Seed would have a Token granting them permission to enter Abraham’s Covenant. It is any different for us? Not really, we believe in the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus, we begin our adventure by belief. God imputes His Mercy on us, we make a decision to forgive as we are forgiven, then God imparts His Mercy in us. We ask for the Spirit, the Holy Ghost plants the Seed, we believe we receive, then the process begins.
Paul tells us the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments have a power and authority, as well as a realm wherein they operate. However, both are nailed to the Cross, since both are against us (Col 2:14-16). The Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments are linked together by the token of the sabbath day, but both only pertain until the person dies, then they become the books one is judged by. The Cross removes us from the principality of their realm, but it leaves us lawless. Through the Cross and imputed death we have the obligation to do the least Commandments of Mercy, but there is no “Law of Mercy”. We must accept the Resurrection power of the Spirit to enter the Law of the Spirit. If we stop part way, it would be the same is getting out of the boat, without reaching the other side.
The imputed part is something we must accept by the efforts of another in our place, before we can receive the imparted righteousness, so it can be by faith. We are not saved by Mercy through belief, or by Grace through belief, or by faith through belief, for by Grace (Spirit) are we saved through faith (Eph 2:8), not of our own. Since it’s Through faith, rather than by faith it means we must travel Through something to reach the hope on the other side. We must be Born Again so we follow the New Man along the path of faith.
It’s still appointed unto all men once to die, then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27), all we did was call something done based on what Jesus did for us. Paul called it, “never the less I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the Faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2:20). For this reason we find God will not impute sin on us, because we have taken on the nature of Christ. How can the Father hear, “forgive them”, yet not? When we came to Jesus we asked to be forgiven based on the Mercy of God, through the words of Jesus. Anything Jesus asked of the Father, the Father granted, including, “Father forgive them”. However, in order to receive, we must make the decision to forgive, then believe we have received the ability. Therein lays the imputing, the second we ask God to forgive us the magnitude of His Mercy covers us, thus His Mercy is imputed on us. The second we make the vow to forgive others, the same Mercy becomes imparted, giving us the ability to complete the vow. The same is true with the Seed of God, or the Wisdom of God, we ask, we believe we receive, then we allow the growth to take place. However, believing we received doesn’t mean we go about attempting to use what we believe we received, it means we wait for the growth, as we wait by Faith for the product to manifest.
When we impute ourselves dead in Christ, the act becomes the very separation between the Law of Moses, and the Law of the Spirit. The Law of Moses granted one a way of life until death, thus it defined the law of sin and death; the Law of the Spirit speaks of an existence after death. Grace is a granted authority and power for those who have received the Resurrection power of Christ, thus they had to be considered dead by the Cross of Jesus: no one is going to be Resurrected until they die.
Being able to impute ourselves dead also means the devil can no longer run our lives, or dominate us. Through death Jesus destroyed (made ineffective) he who had the power of death, that is the devil (Heb 2:14). Therefore, by accepting the death of Jesus, the devil becomes ineffective in our lives. Our problem is not the devil, it’s the wiles of the devil (Eph 6:11).
What then is this? We cannot be resurrected, or have the power of the resurrection unless we are dead, yet we can’t be dead and receive the Spirit until we pass the Judgment. Nicodemus’ knowledge was based on this issue, to him being Born Again meant to have another chance in the flesh with the knowledge of past errors, so what? We would just make new errors. Jesus was talking about something one could have now in order to be free of the power and dominion of the flesh and darkness. Jesus used the staff of Moses as an example, Moses took a brass serpent which caused the serpents in the camp to be ineffective. When the Cross of Jesus is lifted up, then all things changed, the serpent would no longer be effective (Jn 3:14 & Heb 2:14). The Cross was not the only step in this, the way to the Cross was included, as well as the Grave and Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, the Cross would have been a vain effort. The Cross grants us the position as a son of man (Mercy), the Resurrection of Jesus opened Grace declaring the ability for us to be sons of God (Rom 1:3-4).
When we were water baptized it was a token, or sign on our behalf to enter the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Death is an act of Mercy, the Resurrection one of Grace. Our water baptism didn’t provide the acts, it was our Token of acceptance to enter a place in the Body where they acts could take place. Later in this Lesson we will discuss the importance of water baptism, but for here we want to focus on the Doctrine. There is One Baptism, but it has parts giving us the Doctrine of Baptisms (Eph 4:5 & Heb 6:2). Water baptism was our first act of imputing, if Jesus was buried in the ground, why do we use water? Why not dirt? Water is a sign of God’s Mercy, we enter the water, or have it sprinkled, whichever, as our acceptance of the Mercy of God (II Cor 1:3). The idea was to be immersed in the Mercy of God, not merely water. The water didn’t save us, God did. The water isn’t going to give us the Gift, the Holy Ghost does. We used the water as a symbol, thus we imputed the water as the Mercy of God, so was it? How about the bread and wine (grape juice)? Did the wine turn into real blood? How about the bread, did it become flesh of Christ in our hands? No they are symbols for us to Remember what Jesus did for us, thus He said, “In Remembrance of Me” (I Cor 11:24). Jesus also told us the Holy Ghost will bring things to our remembrance, both are based on Jesus.
No one is going to be Resurrected unless they first die, thus we impute ourselves dead by the Cross of Jesus, then we ask for and receive the baptism with the Holy Ghost to gain the Spirit. By our act of imputing death based on what Jesus did, God looks at us as if we are dead in Christ, meaning we become a New Body, one called the Body of Christ. From the new position we can gain the Same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 1:4 & 8:11). All this would be a mind game, except for what Jesus did, thus our proof of the Resurrection is having the Spirit, which will produce a change in natures.
In order to impute we must have two things, something said or granted from God, and His permission. We can’t simply run around imputing this or that, we must fit the requirements. This imputing is also the basis behind the ministry of reconciliation, although we know sin exists, we do not impute sins on people, because God doesn’t impute sins on us (Rom 4:8 & II Cor 5:19-20). The concept shows we as sinners accepted the Cross, by the act God does not impute sin on us, rather the Father views us as innocent, this is called the Declaration of Justification. We then have the position to claim ourselves dead in Christ, yet we live by the Spirit in us (Gal 2:20 et al). Once the imputed death takes place we have completed the Law of Moses (law of sin and death). Once we receive the Life of Christ we know the flesh remains until it’s purpose is complete, but the power of the flesh is no longer effective. By the Cross and Resurrection we can say No to the lusts of the flesh, with the position to make the declaration effective. Paul could say with complete honesty and confidence, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live”. Was he really dead? If so why did Nero cut off his head? Paul understood by the efforts of Jesus, the man Paul was able to impute something before the fact, so it could be by faith. How do we know it worked? Are we Born Again? Do we have the Spirit? It worked.
The sting of death is the result of sin, the result of death is hell. We bypass punishment by what Jesus did for us, so we can also say, “death where is thy sting?”. We will physically die someday, or in a twinkling of an eye leave this tent of flesh to obtain a new and everlasting resurrected body, thus it means the consequence of sin is no longer a factor over us. We have to accept the premise by faith, there is no way natural reasoning is going to accept the process of imputing. We accept the Seed, something happens to confirm the experience, perhaps speaking in unknown tongues, prophesy about the wonderful things of God, or a joy beyond the confines of the reasoning of man, whatever the sign it confirmed the act of the Seed being planted, but it wasn’t a sign of the Birth. The Corinthians spoke in tongues and did prophesy, as they should, but they stopped there, as they shouldn’t.
We didn’t enter this race to stop halfway, Jesus didn’t enter it to stop at the Cross, or even at the Resurrection, His goal was to reach heaven to give the greatest Sacrifice of all time, yet there had to be a start. The Book of Hebrews puts it this way, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh, and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil” (Heb 2:14). Jesus was born of the flesh, not like any human, but nonetheless took on flesh for the specific purpose of dying on the Cross, so He could be raised on the Third Day, so we could have the absolute privilege of accepting what He did for us. Jesus didn’t die for Himself, or to escape the earth, the purpose was for us, something we could not do.
God wanted a people who would be with Him, but those people had to make the choice to be with Him by becoming Spirit because God is Spirit. They had to desire to be servants, not masters, yet He would make them kings. Until the Truth settles in our souls how being Born Again is the greatest gift any of us can have, we will never reach the true appreciation of what Jesus did for us. When we are crucified with Christ all the old things are passed away, behold all things are new. Our past died on the Cross, the only ones who remind us of the past are the old man, or those who listen to the devil. God doesn’t hold a thing against us, rather He is for us.
Yet we know the voice out of darkness says “it’s not so”. What did the old man do to capture us to begin with? Impute, he still does, yet he lacks permission to do so, in his case it becomes a suggested illusion. The old man is a master of deception, a professional in presenting illusions. The old nature attempts to get us to use some wile, some effort of his to reactivate his authority in our life, really the world is an illusion, based on supposed natural reasonings lacking truth. Paul told us not to give place to the devil, which is the same as saying, giving the devil opportunity (Eph 4:27). There is an assurance God has given us, Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, because He was anointed (Luke 4:18). If we have the Seed of God in us, we’re anointed. If we are anointed, we are set apart. If we are set apart, then God is dealing with us as children, meaning we are holy. The first battle is, which report will you believe? The illusion of darkness, or the hope of God?
The New Birth gives us the ability to gain a New Start, a New way, a New power, a New authority, a New Nature, and a Newness involving Life while at the same time being free of the spirit of disobedience. Jesus didn’t crucify Himself, neither can we. We are told to pick up our cross, not crucify ourselves. The faith act of picking up our cross is the acceptance of the death of Jesus, with all it entails, including our trip to the grave. However, the work will be completed by the Spirit of Truth if we continue in faith.
When Jesus told the Pharisees they were of their father the devil and the lusts of their father they would do, He wasn’t belittling them, He was making a statement of fact (Jn 8:44). The truth of exposure was there, their ways proved it. They had all the religious talk, they knew the Law of Moses, they talked of God all the time, but when their Ways were exposed the display of their nature proved they were still of their father the devil, being run by the spirit lusting to envy. Even Pilate said they sought to kill Jesus because of their envy (Mark 15:10). Therefore, the New Birth is not rebirthing the spirit of man, but gaining the True Spirit of Holiness from God. The spirit of man knows all the things of man, but is void of any understanding regarding the Spiritual things of God (I Cor 2:11).
Examine the reaction of the Pharisees, did they say, “Oh yes Lord, what would you have us do?”, no, they allowed the old man to guide them. The Word of Truth came, although they thought they were retorting in a “Godly manner”, they were merely proving the point, they were self-based, they did the lusts of the devil. How can it be, they were among the chosen religious order God ordained for the earth? The nature of fallen man is still the spirit of man; thus God winked at the nature of man until the Cross, the Cross made a place of change for all mankind, Jew or Gentile (Acts 17:30).
When any natural person says they have a spirit, it’s not good, since the spirit of man is the spirit of disobedience. Paul also talked about the “spirit of the world” being opposed to the Spirit which is of God (I Cor 2:12). Accordingly there could be no spirit of the world until there was a Spirit which is of God, John called it the he in the world, or the induction of the things of the world into the Body of Christ, to corrupt the Body, the danger is within, not without.
Why would anyone try to use the old man to crucify the old nature? Control, being able to master over their own life. The result? Self-transformed, going about as a minister of righteousness, but inside Satan still reigns (II Cor 11:13-15). Ouch, Satan and the old man are so close, you can’t tell one from the other. When Jesus told Peter, “Get thee behind Me Satan”, was Peter the devil? No, Peter used a statement from the old nature. Yet moments prior the same Peter told Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. When he did, Jesus said, “blessed are you”, since the information came from the Father. One second something from the Father, the next from the pit of hell, yet Peter couldn’t one for the other, they both sounded right to him. No one can tell the source of their intent without the Spirit of Truth in them to discern the intent from the thought (James 1:21). What sounds right to the natural mind, often ends in death.
If this strongman (old nature) was the boss, how did we make the decision to come to Jesus to begin with? The strongman can twist the love God gave us, he can deceive us into using the measure of faith for all sorts of things, but he can’t destroy either love or faith, thus he can’t stop anyone from coming to the Lord. The old man can’t even force us to act when we were in the world, his used the power by suggestion through the lusts of the flesh. When the call came for us to come to the Cross we were drawn by the Holy Ghost. We accepted the Cross over the objections of the old man, there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. The devils have influence, but anyone who has the Mercy of God has power over devils, even Judas cast out devils.
Lusts are not always what they seem to be, they can, and often are deceptive. We can have a lust centered in greed, yet it may surface in some sexual area. We fear the worst, and go to battle against the lust before anyone finds out, yet we also don’t want God to know, so we use a lust to defeat a lust, thereby ending exercising it. Lusts use “feelings”, greed has a feeling, superiority has a feeling, self-pity has a feeling, and so on. We do things to get the feeling, they don’t have a life of their own, rather they are based in a nature which uses the flesh. They need to be deflated and defeated, but how? Since they are based in the old nature, don’t you think a New Nature would be the means? Yes, we are being Transformed from one nature to another.
However, we do not use the feeling as a judge, “Oh I know this isn’t manipulation, because I know the feeling of manipulation”. No, we can’t use the feeling, since the feeling itself is based in deception, thus if we trust in the feeling to tell us anything, we end in more deception. Ears hearing sounds are as common as dirt, ears hearing the Spirit of Truth are rare indeed.
In truth, the old man never had a right to run our lives, he came from his father the devil, who usurped authority at the tree. God’s desire was for us to be in His image, yet there is no way anyone can assume for a second the spirit of disobedience is the Image of God. God has a soul (Heb 10:38-39), God is Spirit (Jn 4:24), and His Word took on flesh (Phil 2:6-8). We put off the flesh, seek the Spirit which is of God to have our souls saved by becoming spiritual in nature, the essence of the Gospel.
When Jesus was on the Cross He said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”. Who was the “them”? You and I, or anyone else who was the victim of the spirit of disobedience. The sign above the head of Jesus was written in three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, the three languages of the world, thus the “them” became all inclusive. The Cross was just a Cross, it was Jesus on the Cross making it special. The cup Jesus used was just a cup, the symbol of His Blood made it special.
The Cross had a shadow, it was the door of the first Passover, the Blood was in three places around the door. We will read about the “time of doors”, but the first Door we find is the Cross. In our case Jesus granted us permission to enter, but then comes the grave and resurrection. At the Door we find Jesus knocking, we have to give Him permission to enter and sup with us; as He enters, so do we into the Kingdom.
The Gospel has two elements, the Mercy of the Father and the Grace of the Son, with the Holy Ghost bringing the gift of Grace (Spirit) to those who ask. The Mercy part is the area far too many of us overlook, yet it holds the Will of the Father. The Father received the request from the Son, granting forgiveness to anyone who accepts Jesus. Those same people are then asked to forgive as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven them (Eph 4:32). Forgiving is the key to all this, yet we all know there are some we either simply can’t forgive, or we refuse to. If we refuse to, we know the area is a Tare needing to be removed, but if we simply can’t forgive, we find the answer in the theological term, Ingress Aires From Majesty On High. However, to begin with we have some words of Wisdom; Jesus said, “when you stand praying, forgive, if you have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses, but if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses” (Mark 11:25-26). A great Incentive, yet there must be a method. Also it doesn’t take long to see we are the ones who initiate the act. If Grace is something you can’t earn, buy or steal, how is we are the ones who initiate the premise? Because it’s Mercy, the very means of binding and loosing. We loose people by forgiving them, then God will loose His Mercy toward us. If we bind people to our unforgiveness, we have Bound God’s Mercy from us.
If Jesus knows all things, He knows there are some who are very difficult, if not impossible for us to forgive, so He must have given us a means. One is imputing by faith. as the desire before the act. We desire to forgive, because our faith desires to please God, thus we make the decision to forgive. We then impute the act on the person in prayer, we do not go up to people and say, “I forgive you because my God has commanded me to”, or any other manipulative statement making us feel superior, or them inferior, which is just another manipulative way of placing blame on the others to validate our innocence. We keep this in prayer, as Jesus commanded, thus obedience gains the reward. On the same not we have no idea of the pain and hurt we caused God, yet He forgives us based on how we forgive others. Once we enter this area, then James tells us if we have aught with another we settle the matter by praying for one another (James 5:16).
The decision opens the door for God to instill in us His Mercy, then His Mercy gives us the ability to complete the effort. Once Mercy is imparted, we forgive the more, until our nature is one of Mercy, or Mercy as a way of life for us. If we are to forgive as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us, then God will give us the same Mercy He used. Freely we received, freely we give. We come boldly to the throne of Grace to obtain Mercy and find Grace (Heb 4:16). The boldly part is not pride, it’s knowing we are doing something God desires, yet the first step is Obtaining Mercy, then we will be able to find Grace. If we reject Mercy, we can hunt, seek and knock, yet never find Grace.
This is not an easy area to understand, but refusing to enter it makes us a worker of Iniquity. Mercy is a Joy in and of itself, it grants us peace in the storm, or stability in the wrecks of life. Mercy is the constant mindset of forgiveness, even when there isn’t a cause. Paul called it the ministry of reconciliation (II Cor 5:18-21): the heart of reconciliation is refusing to impute the sins of others on them, this doesn’t excuse them, it simply refuses to find them guilty.
What about “validation”, have we forgiven some, but refuse to forgive others? Do we demand for someone to at least recognize the wrong? Validation is a sign showing we have yet to forgive; of course, the most obvious is the demand for Justice or Punishment. We cannot accept the Mercy of God, then refuse to extend Mercy to others, it makes us hypocrites of the highest degree, placing us in the molding room for the vessels of dishonor (Rom 9:21-23). Jesus said when we stand praying, forgive, for the same manner as we forgive, God will forgive us, the call is a Commandment, not a suggestion. There is no “maybe”, or “can be”, it says “when you” (Mark 11:24-26). The “ability” is not the same as the “desire”, the desire must come first, then God will grant the ability. Knowledge of imputing is the key to receiving the ability to forgive, if we don’t grasp the importance of imputing, we will never understand how there were none righteous, Yet God treated Abraham as if he was righteous.
The Truth will set us free, but the prerequisite is to have Jesus in us, since Jesus is Truth. The Truth without having Jesus in us will not set us free, it will point to the freedom, but only the New Man (Jesus) in us can set us free. We can play at being a Christian, or we can have Christ in us changing us into a Christian, the choice is ours.
Sometime in the past someone told us about Jesus, we asked for the Spirit, or had hands laid on us, or simply believed we received, then the Seed of God was planted by the Holy Ghost. Jesus tells us the Seed is the Word, yet He is the Word, thus the Seed of God, the Word, or the Greater He in us are all the same, it depends on the growth as to what area we’re talking about. James 1:21 tells us the Word is able to save our souls; First John 4:14 says the Greater He in us is able to overcome any antichrist behavior, Paul said in Romans 8:16 the Spirit of God bears witness with our Spirit (Spirit that is of God) showing we are children of God. All these point to being Born Again, Grace is the ability to do Grace. No human has a right to the Spirit of Truth, yet God gave us position by freely giving us the Spirit through the Seed of God.
We tend to look at the word Name as a form of identification, which in turn puts us in bondage thinking if we don’t call God by His “name” He won’t hear us. The word Name means Authority, each Name of God stands for a point of authority, rather than a form of identification. When God walks into the room, He doesn’t have to identify Himself. Even the devils looked at Jesus and said, “thou are the Son of God”. Legalists get concerned over identification, saints seek to know what area of Authority they have. In Matthew 28:18 Jesus said all power (authority) was given to Him, then He said, “In the Name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost”. The Report in Heaven consists of the Father, Word (Son) and Holy Ghost. However, Jesus said “name” not “names”, thus it’s One Authority. Among those included in the Statement was the “Son”, is Jesus the Son? The Name of Jesus is the authority granted to the Body of Christ, we do not cast out devils by El, we don’t heal in the name of Jehovah, we don’t lay hands on people in the name of Elohiym. Jesus is the one who handed us the Bread and Cup, it’s to Him we answer. So, what if we said, “in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost”? Nothing, it’s still one Name (authority), rather than question the wording, look to the results. If the Pharisees who questioned John the Baptist would have considered the results, they would have obtained a Godly viewpoint, rather than the one they ended with.
Jesus said the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, but He also talked about Another Comforter. All these connect, showing us the various aspects of Authority and Power. Authority is the granted permission to do something, Power is the means granted to carry out the Authority. Jesus said “go ye”, but then He said, “Tarry for the Power from on High”. Two things, using the Authority without the Power leaves us wanton, using the Power without the Authority is rebellion. We are called, trained, then sent out, no one is going to jump from called to sent out, there is a time of training.
We can be trained by natural means, learn languages, the meanings of words, read the various manuscripts, yet without the Authority and Power of Christ, it’s still natural, and lacking. It doesn’t mean knowledge is wrong, it only means there is more to being trained than natural knowledge. Paul had tons of learning, but he counted it all a waste compared to his experiences with Jesus (Ph’l 3:8). However, we need knowledge so the New Man can work with us. The Holy Ghost teaches by comparing spiritual to spiritual, yet if we remain carnal, we will miss the teaching. The New Man is not the student, we are: our souls are in prize in this, the more we learn from the Spirit the more spiritual we become, thereby our souls become Spirit in nature. Like any schooling procedure, it had to begin with a beginning.
When we first heard and believed, it may not have been the first time we heard about Jesus, however, it was the first time the words had effectiveness, wherein we believed. The combination of hearing and belief had to come together, in order for us to receive what we heard as truth. The Truth of the Cross came to our ears and we agreed when the words made sense to our soul. We made a decision based on the granted information; then we heard about the Seed of God, we asked to receive. The Seed was planted, as a change took place deep inside, the change was enough for us to know there was more, yet we knew there remained something inside not right. We were drawn to the Cross, but the old man was not far behind. The old man either told us it wasn’t true, it was a mind game, or all these people are nuts, or the really big lie, why this religion, find another believing in One God. Or the granddaddy of lies, “see, you could have done this years ago, you have wasted your life, what a mess, you’re good for nothing, nothing at all”. Of course we responded, “gee you’re right, I guess I really blew it”. Nope, nay, not at all, if the Holy Ghost drew us to the Cross, then it was the perfect time and timing. If God knows all things, then He knew the exact second we would receive Jesus. No mistakes, just time and timing.
After we put some duct tape on the old man’s mouth we settled down, but then someone told us, “you’re born again”. We looked at ourselves and said, “born from what, to what, by what, for what?”. We found we were in the family of God, we became water baptized as our Token of acceptance, things did begin to change. We were separated from the darkness, yet for the first time we knew it. We had a desire to read the Bible, things seemed to go along just fine for a period of time; then one day it happened, the war started, we said, “I don’t know who I am”, or “I think I’m going crazy”, or “I’m losing my mind”, or the famed, “I’ve lost my salvation”. We were “losing a mind”, by gaining another. In truth we never knew who we were, we lived a lie, worn a mask, believing the mask was the real us, yet the real us was granted when we received the Spirit, yet the same Spirit took us into the wilderness to defeat the works of the enemy, so we could be Spiritual in nature.
In the wilderness we found when they told us we were Born Again, we weren’t, we were conceived as the Holy Ghost planted the Seed, now the Spirit as the Root is digging around in places we didn’t want to look at. The Root pushed things to the surface which needed to be recognized and dealt with, but we didn’t know how. Ignore it? Push it back down? What are we going to do with this? Jesus told us to say unto the Mountain “Go”, then trust God is able to remove it. How is God going to remove it? By bringing in something better, something so powerful the old shakes, then vacates. God doesn’t just remove things, He brings an attribute of His, forcing the old to leave. Light is always superior over darkness, no one turns on the darkness, they have to turn off the light.
The Root is still part of the Seed of God growing, thus we find the Stronger One (New Man) has moved in to bind the strongman. Perhaps we knew something was going on, but what? The Root is the preparation for the Birth, the fetus in the chamber moving to break through. We were in the kingdom of heaven, being prepared to have the Kingdom of God within. When the breakthrough came, the victory was there, as “little children” we knew our sins were forgiven. The growth continues until we as Youngmen have overcome the wicked, then it grows the more until we become of full age. Sounds like a Process doesn’t it?
There is a difference between Mercy and Grace, between being Spirit and spiritual, between natural and spiritual, between conception and born again, between knowing of God, and being known of God. The phrase, Supernatural Authority, is still Natural regardless of how super it becomes, if someone is physically super, they are still physical. However, we are given supernatural authority in Mercy plus spiritual authority in Grace. Jesus said all authority in heaven, and on earth was given to Him, thus we find the natural and the spiritual in the phrase. The supernatural is the same ability the disciples had before the Cross, it comes by Mercy, the spiritual comes with the New Man.
The supernatural grants us authority over the darkness as it pertains to the natural, the spiritual element pertains to the things of Salvation and Grace. In essence we find the supernatural takes care of earthly matters, the spiritual the heavenly.
There is the physical realm, the natural realm and the spiritual realm, all have their points of authority. Paul told us the demonic realm is run by the prince of the power of the air, the air is the unseen element in the soulish natural realm. James told us about the spirit lusting to envy, thus the two are the one element of the spirit of disobedience. Nonetheless, all authority is under the Authority of Jesus, which authority is giving only to those who are in the Name of Jesus (Body).
The paradox of the counterfeit really proves we are a special people, the prince of the power of the air has a principality in the carnal, natural unseen air. The fall nature is reproduced in the old man, who is the spirit lusting to envy, but the element is restricted and limited. It can only suggest, it can’t force man to do anything, it can only use the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life, it can only operate in darkness. The paradox is the New Birth, the New Man is the Seed of God delivered by the Holy Ghost, meaning the New Man is Light, his realm is Salvation, he produces the Fruit of the Spirit and the Manifestation of the Spirit, the ability is above all things, the authority and power are granted from on High. The enemy counterfeits, he doesn’t create. A counterfeit is an illegal copy, being illegal it’s always inferior.
Are there those in the Body who are not Born Again? Yes, Paul said there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (the Body) who walk not after the flesh, but after the Sprit (Rom 8:1). If no one in the Body walked after the flesh, then why begin the statement with “which are in Christ Jesus”. Surely the letters to the Romans and the Corinthians show some in the Body walk after the flesh, or are carnal. We also know of some disciples who were in Ephesus who hadn’t heard about the Holy Ghost, yet it’s the baptism of the Holy Ghost bringing the Seed (Acts 19:2-3 & 11:15-16). Paul said the Corinthians had the Spirit, yet he also said they were carnal, and unable to understand spiritual matters; therefore, there is a difference between having the Spirit and walking in the Spiritual nature (I Cor 3:1-3 & 3:16). He also told the Romans to be carnally minded is death (Rom 8:6). How did Paul battle this? By teaching the Romans and Corinthians what it was like to be Spiritual. Knowledge allowed them to know what to expect, allowing them to let it take place.
God’s love believes all Things, yet all Things are of God, thus it becomes a matter of determining what is a Thing, or in which realm the Thing belongs. There are all sorts of things we believe, but it doesn’t mean we do them. We believe there is a hell, but we don’t have to go there to believe it exists. However, the enemy produces fables and strongholds which are not things; fables are not considered things, thus they not a matter for discussion (I Jn 4:1-4). Rather than disbelieve fables, or say “I don’t believe it”, we simply make no room for the fable, they are moot, not accounted, not considered, not to be debated. Even unbelief takes up room in our minds, thus if the statement fits Salvation then we add it to our Belief, if not, we discard it as if it never was. Not easy for a teacher, who must face the “I don’t believe” statements, or address them, but it’s not impossible either. Holding “I don’t believe” statements as doctrine becomes doctrines of devils. Doctrines of devils is not teaching about devils, it’s what the devils teach, which is unbelief. The moment we have to teach someone not to believe in something, in order to make our point, we are teaching from the spirit of disobedience (unbelief). The spirit of disobedience may not have a grip on us, but we may have brought some roots with us. “I find it hard to believe Moses led all those people”, “I really doubt Jesus walked on water”, “I don’t believe Peter walked on water, because I can’t”, “If the Bible is the so true how come we find conflicts?”. The so-called conflicts are often tests placed by the Holy Ghost, rather than seek error, we seek the opportunity to learn.
Mark 16:16 is not only known to us, the devil knows it as well. The phrase “shall be saved” has to connect to two things, being in the Body (baptized) plus our continual belief. Remove the belief, we’re in trouble. If it offends us, we search out some reason to discount the verse, thus thinking we’re free of the obligation. Not so, the Holy Ghost is the Author, not the men who penned the words. If the Holy Ghost used any person it doesn’t discount the truth of Him being the Author. The Witness has to be the New Man, if the New Man tells us “ABBA Father”, we must receive it. The natural mind looks for reasons not to believe, the saint searches for reasons to believe.
We call John’s Account the “Gospel of faith”, yet the word Faith never appears in the entire account. The word Believe in one form or another appears more times in John than in all of Paul’s letter put together, including the Book of Hebrews. John says the purpose of the his account is, “we might believe” (Jn 20:31). Belief and Faith meet in the Now, if we lack Belief, our Faith will lack purpose or direction.
Division has many areas, there is the sinner, yet there is the Wicked, there is a difference between the two. The Wicked are those who entered by the mercies of God, but retained the authority of the world, which authority Paul called the “old man”. The Wicked talk about the Spirit, even use the Name of Jesus, but their weapons are carnal, their minds are carnal, their thinking is worldly, yet to be carnally minded is still death. Paul said the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, neither do we fight against, or with flesh and blood (II Cor 10:4). The metaphor blood in this case means something inside, relating to the personality of the person. We don’t use personality to war with, nor do we war against someone’s personality, neither do we follow people around like little puppy dogs because of their personality. This gives us the Weapons we don’t use, as well as the Battlefield we are not to engage in, guiding us to the Weapons and Field we do engage in. In the world the bigger gun wins, but not so in the Kingdom. When anger attacks, we use peace, when manipulation attempts to trick us, we preach the Truth in love, when deception appears, we use clarity. We never use the same weapon used against us on others; the deception of the evil battle is to get us to use the same weapon used against us in our retaliation. When we “turn the other cheek”, it’s not to give them another target, it means we don’t use the same methods used against us.
Paul tells us about the Strongholds as they retain high things coming against the knowledge of God. He defined these Strongholds as Imaginations, thus the battlefield is in our own minds; this battlefield is demonic, but it does not contain the devil, or devils. The word Imagination means Extending something beyond it’s intent, or Making something based in Truth, an untruth, or producing a fable, or better forming tales about what we think should happen, or what we think did happen, or what we think is happening. We term it unconnected inferences, an example would be taking a verse far beyond it’s intent, or making an event something it was not.
The term “Parenthetical Phrase”, or the use of Parentheses “( )” is found in some of Paul’s letters. A parenthetical phrase either defines the subject of the surrounding text, or contains the subject being defined by the surrounding text. In II Corinthians 10:4-5 we find such a situation, the parenthetical phrase points to the term “strongholds”, then in II Corinthians 10:5 defines the stronghold. Once defined, we limit our focus to the defined area. The defined area shows us the metaphor Stronghold is limited to 1) “imaginations”, 2) “high things coming against the knowledge of God”, and 3) “thoughts”; all of which are products of the mind, which come from carnal illusions attempting to define something they are incapable of. In light of this verse if we were to say strongholds are places where devils dwell above cities, we would then have a stronghold about strongholds. There is no mention whatsoever about devils, it’s our own natural reasoning and carnal thinking producing strongholds in our minds, or the minds of others.
There are theological strongholds, as well as strongholds from life. Since all strongholds come against the knowledge of God, we must ask, “What does God know?”. All things? Yes, thus one forms strongholds by misconceptions of events, or attempting to use natural reasoning to decipher events, or using carnal means in an attempt to define spiritual matters. In any case the New Man takes down strongholds by Godly Knowledge and Truth, brick by brick if necessary, yet we must be willing to cast those bricks off when they are discovered.
We prayed, “not my will Lord, but Yours”, but we didn’t give up our Will, we gave up our agenda to accept God’s Record for us. In order for our part to be faith, it must entail we don’t know all the Report, but our belief knows God does. In order to carry out ones Will, they need two things, authority and power. Will power is the ability behind the Will, it’s the element making the will come to pass, thus if we still using the old power, yet changed our worldly agenda to some carnal religious agenda we are none the better. Therefore, using carnal Will power to carry out a religious agenda still makes the agenda worldly.
We didn’t give up our Will, we sill have a Will, if not we couldn’t resist the devil. We changed from self-promotion, to serving the Lord. From doing what we want, to a pleasure in doing the Will of the Lord. Really it has little to do with events, rather we find the Will of the Lord is for us to be filled with the Spirit, speaking to ourselves in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts unto the Lord; giving thanks for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 5:17-20). Therefore, it’s not a matter of giving up the will, but a matter of exchanging desires, as we put off the old, by putting no the New so we can be saved.
We can receive Jesus as our Savior, yet retain our soul as lord, but when we make Him Lord we become servant, no one can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost (I Cor 12:3). How can a servant know what to do, if they don’t hear the Master? How can one be a servant, yet demand control? Anyone can say, “Jesus is Lord”, it would seem Paul’s statement was in error, but it’s not. The context doesn’t mean saying “Jesus is my Lord”, rather it means to live it, thus no one can be a Servant of the Lord without the Spirit in them; therefore we can’t say Jesus is Lord without the Holy Ghost bringing the Spirit. On the same note, whenever we speak by the Spirit, whether in tongues, ministry, or prophecy means we never call Jesus accursed (ineffective – I Cor 12:3). If we are Born Again, Jesus is our Lord, because if we are Born Again we have the Spirit, anything said by the Spirit is Truth, also it’s approved by God. Would the Spirit which is of God, curse God? Not hardly, don’t be tricked by carnal minded people who go about attempting to prove the Spirit which is of God is a fraud. Paul says the Interpretation is by the Spirit, if someone has to travel all over the world to find a supposed translation, they don’t have the Spirit, neither do they have a clue regarding the differences between translation and interpretation. For us we will speak as the oracles of God, as we enjoy the things of the Spirit.
Our soul will be at its happiest being a servant to God, but the old man will resist the effort by using false information to tell us submission is being a forced “slave”. Not so, a Bond Slave is one of the happiest people around, they have their need cared for, they don’t have to worry about tomorrow, they are treated as a friend, they have close contact with the Master, they don’t have to make decisions, they simply carry them out; they are at Liberty.
The old man knows when we finally make the decision to walk in the Spirit he is domed, so what will he do? Attack everything pertaining to the spiritual realm, or twist it. The old man will use a dress code to promote holiness, or self-righteousness in place of God’s righteousness within the person working on the soul.
All of us will face our wildernesses, each is designed to give us some victory over the old man and his deeds. Each wilderness pertains to the Law of the Spirit, the established Tabernacle in our hearts. Each is prepared to save our souls, bringing us into the Rest of God by our belief. Only the prideful and wicked avoid wilderness experiences. Some of us don’t understand the wilderness, which is why some avoid it. The wilderness of Jesus is an example of how the Spirit leads us into the wilderness so we can face the wiles of the enemy. Being Born Again means we have the Holy Spirit as the stronger one, the ability to be free indeed is having the Word in us. The Word is cleaning, separating and leading us through the Process (James 1:21 & Heb 4:12).
An example of how the enemy works is found in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, the enemy plants his tares, then leaves. The same field where we find the Wheat, we also find Tares, thus the Wheat is good, the Tares are evil. The Parable is about the kingdom of heaven, but it shows us method, the Wicked are the Tares in the Body, they still use the spirit of the world, as they cause strife, division, or lie in wait to deceive. Although they bring the strife, they also move in as the great healer so they can claim they are the peacemakers of God. The deception causes the problem, they bring about strife, then claim they healed the conflict, so they can brag in their carnal activity. Bragging in our efforts and giving a testimony are different. There are those who insert their goodness into the testimony, causing the testimony to take on a completely different form. The old man is quick to steal the glory, but the Word in us is quicker to bring conviction. The Wicked however, lack conviction, rather they enjoy the feeling of superiority, they desire the special something to hold them higher in their minds than the rest of the Body. The Word in us discerns moment by moment, dividing and separating the thought and intent to keep us from falling into deceptive ways. The cleaning process in the various wildernesses we go through remove the tares from our souls, bringing us closer to the spiritual nature. In essence the flesh is being washed away, as the our souls become more spiritual in nature.
The Tares have allowed deception to rule in the souls of the victims, in the process they lie in wait to deceive others. Their self-deception assumes they cannot do anything wrong, thus they never feel repentance is an act they should do. The same as the Pharisees, as it was with Judas. Judas repented himself, or better was sorry because things didn’t turn out the way he wanted: he even said he sinned, but he repented to the wrong people, for the wrong reason. He sought forgiveness from whom he thought was the power at the time, rather than going to the feet of Jesus. Being sorry is one thing, repenting to the world for our sin is another.
There is a difference between Character and Personality; one’s character is the combination of elements distinguishing the person from the group, or places them in the group. Our personality determines our outward behavior from our character. Our old character was being formed by the spirit lusting to envy, the same fallen nature who formed all those Strongholds. The old man is a result of taking the wrong fruit, but the New Birth comes as a result of being Born Again, thus we now have the a New Mind, producing a change in character, wherein we are being formed into the Image of God’s Son. This is not a personality change, but a refining, bringing our personality into it’s intended purpose. Our old character has a name, a position, a realm, a will, a power and a course it followed, it would have continued to follow the oldness, if it were not for Jesus. Our old character was darkness, based in the spirit of disobedience, but Christ is Light, we are the Light of this world. This changing process is called Justification, the Just still live by faith. Jesus said the Father was in Him, and He in the Father. Our goal is to be in Jesus, as He is us, it can only be done by the growth of the seed of God through the New Birth.
More people believe about Jesus, than we think. How many children today are named “Judas”? Why didn’t Jesus cast the devil out of Judas? There was no devil in Judas, it was his nature powered by his greed making him a devil (Jn 6:70). When we get to the Gospel accounts we want to keep an eye on Judas, for two reasons; we want to identify his offspring when they show up, next we want to make sure we don’t become one of his offspring.
Peter was told to Watch and Pray, Jesus tells us three times to Watch and Pray, they all relate to the Hour of Temptation. What did Judas do? Start the hour, yet the Hour has the Day and Night, thus the last two prayers of Jesus in the Garden relate to the Judas minded who are formed during the Day, but enter the Night as the “drunken”. Jesus wasn’t praying against them, He was praying for them. His sweat was as it were Blood, it wasn’t Blood, it was so heavy it appeared as Blood; indicating a lack of Salt in the system, showing the Wicked either don’t have, or lost their Savor. In the Garden Jesus as the Head of the Body (Rock) prayed over the Rock regarding one thing, “the fourth cup”. The center of the prayer was based in “will”, yet it was not a battle of wills, it was the manner of performance. The Father finished the works of Night, Jesus prayed for all mankind, yet He also took the Cup of the wrath of God. It will be poured out, but only after we’re removed to the safest place of all.
Jesus never prayed for the world (Jn 17:9), so did He pray for us when we were in the world? Yes, since for Jesus we were called to the Kingdom before time began, thus He prayed as if we were in the Kingdom, at times our intercession should follow the same pattern, we should pray for people as if they are in the Kingdom.
In John’s account we find what Jesus did during the forty day fast, it doesn’t take long to see He spoke of being Born Again, yet it was written so we might believe. It shows we can’t reject water baptism, but neither can we stop at water baptism thinking the race is complete. Iniquity means Unequal, refusing one baptism for another is unequal.
Since Judas was part of the ministry, he had all the same opportunities as John, Peter, Philip, or any of the others. He had more responsibility, since he was the treasurer (Jn 13:2), but he also used the bag for his own gain (Jn 12:6). Judas would give to the poor, indicated on the night of the Passover, but he would also hold back for himself. Perhaps the ministry received 50 pieces of silver, Judas would give 35 to the poor, yet kept 15, then he could say, he did wonderful works. Judas cast out devils, but failed to show Mercy toward Jesus, he was Unequal.
If even a man like Judas had power to cast out devils before the Cross, what kind of Power do we have now? Greater, we’re in a win, win situation if we receive it. The very second Jesus forgave our sins the power, authority and seat of Satan became powerless in our lives. Sin lost its power to deceive us, the first taste of freedom we had was the removal of the power of sin in our lives.
In Acts chapter one when Peter makes the determination to fill the position of Judas one of the base requirements was “from the baptism of John”, or better from the ministry of John’s baptism. Peter made two mistakes, the first is obvious, they were told to Tarry, not vote. Next he wanted to replace the man, but the man began the position of the son of perdition. Peter used Scripture and prayed, but didn’t hear one word from the Lord, not even the still small voice. They were out of order, no human can appoint others to the five fold Offices, only the Holy Ghost on behalf of Jesus appoints to the five-fold Offices (Acts 13:1-3). We appoint Bishops, Deacons, and Elders, not Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Teachers of Pastors, confirm yes, appoint no.
However as out of order as Peter and the rest were, the requirements do tell us something about Judas. In John’s account we find Andrew, with one unnamed disciple from the ministry of John joining Jesus just after Jesus was baptized (Jn 1:35-42). John shows there were only two of John’s disciples who joined Jesus (Jn 1:35 & 1:37). Since there were only two “from the baptism of John” the field narrows down considerably. Philip was called from the area of Galiliee after the two disciples from John’s ministry joined Jesus. Philip obtained Nathanael, who was also known as “Nathanael Bar-Tolmai” or Nathanael Bartholomew, yet neither Nathanael or Philip were from the ministry of John (Jn 1:43-46). Judas not only held a position in the ministry of Jesus, he came from the ministry of John. Judas had all the right “qualifications”, but the wrong character.
The devil uses anger, bitterness, wrath, envy, strife, slander, error, pride, ego, or any aspect of the self-nature as his weapons; Paul called those weapons “rulers of darkness”. Emotions are good, God has them, but emotions controlling us, making our decisions for us, or causing us to do things we should not, end ruling us. Saved emotions are beneficial, unsaved emotions will damage us and others continually.
Our Weapons are many, the New Man, the Name of Jesus, Mercy, Grace, God’s Righteousness and true Holiness, Faith, Truth, Peace, Clarity, Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom of God, Hope and Love. God will not leave us, but like Judas did, we can leave Him. If God won’t leave us, we must discern the difference between correction, and the presumption of being attacked. Correction is not punishment, rather it’s purposed to keep us from being condemned with the world (I Cor 11:32). God will spank us, but not beat us, thus He is saving us. The old man wants us to test the protection by walking down the middle of the street to see if the cars can really run over us. The old nature wants us to look down the barrel of gun to see how fast the bullet comes out. God wants to save us by keeping us in the highest place.
It’s our soulish conclusions and lack of knowledge regarding the Ways of God causing us to enter warfare against God. It takes the Spirit to bring the Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom to discern the Ways of God. When we are able to discern how our battles are against the works of the devil, we will also be able to discern the event, rather than curse it. We will discern if we are fighting God, or the works of the devil. When we join God in the fight, it becomes a Joy, not frustration.
The decision (key) is in our hands, we entered this wilderness to be tested, proved and brought to a place to know we have overcome the Wicked. The progression of our growth is the method God uses to build us into the Christ Nature, each step is one of faith into the Faith. God proved His love for us in Jesus, thus when we enter the kingdom of heaven it becomes our turn to prove our love for Him. If we love Jesus, we will strive to give Mercy. If we continue to be nasty, full of manipulation, always wanting our own way, we will separate ourselves further and further from the Spirit (Jude 19). Of course we may not always walk in faith and love, but if we are seeking to, we’re on the right path. There is a difference between the wheat and a tare, the tares are looking for ways to avoid the call, the Wheat is looking to complete it.
How many times have we said “I’m going to show them love”, or “I’m going to walk in love today”, or the more used, “I love God with all my heart”, then turned right around and cut the heart out of someone? We didn’t fail, but the exposure found the desire to Love was there, but there was yet something missing. We needed the Power from on High to bring us into the training so Patience could have her perfect work. This brings us to the process of being “Born Again”, Jesus said it is something done here on earth (Jn 3:6-12). Hold it, do you mean earth as in the earthly, sensual and devilish? No, not at all, rather it’s a matter obtained here on earth, from something granted in heaven. It begins when we use Mercy then desire to walk in the Christ nature. We are the only people on earth from time beginning to the time’s end, who can have the Spirit of the Resurrection before physical death actually happens.
In each case when Jesus spoke on this subject we find “when you ask”, thus our desire must be to have the Spirit by asking in faith. Cornelius didn’t ask with his mouth, but the context of Acts 10 shows he was willing and seeking, then God blessed him (Acts 10:44-48). If we ask God for the Spirit, the Spirit is what we get, the devil has no ability to counterfeit it, or stop it (Luke 11:13). Once the Seed is planted, the Process begins.
Jesus also explained how being Born Again relates to a “grain of mustard seed”, yet we know mustard seed is hardly flesh, a mustard seed has no soul, or mind, nothing from which to establish belief or faith. “Well. maybe it’s having faith as the size of a mustard seed”. It would be “little faith”, rather it’s a comparison feature, although the mustard seed is the smallest of the herb seeds, it grows to the largest of all herbs, yet it’s the conception process drawing our attention. The mustard seed has the unique ability to grow the root while the grain yet lives, yet in order to spring forth the grain must die. The comparison shows the Seed of God entered, but there remains some of the old root in the ground which must die. The Root of the Seed of God penetrates the soil, as it comes across some old corrupt roots, it will expose them. When the Sprout begins to move toward the surface it also pushes those old ineffective, worthless roots up. When the roots appear we panic, “My God what is that?”. It’s not Manna, it’s horrid. The washing of the water by the Word is the application of God’s Mercy by the Word in us. It’s a process, one wherein we grow as the Seed of God grows. Jesus said, the fruit comes from the blade, full ear, or full corn in the ear, not the seed or the root (Mark 4:28). The ineffectiveness of the darkness over us is gone, yet tares, roots without power or authority remain in the field. Forcing something back down, and having authority over it are different.
We tend to fight the process when the Root of the Seed of God is growing in our hearts to free our souls. Jesus also said the branch failing to produce fruit, will be cut off, but the branch who produces fruit, will be trimmed to bring forth greater fruit (Jn 15:1-5). Fruit comes after the blade has come forth, not when the Root is still growing. The seed is planted, which we call conception, then the fetus time, which is akin to the root, then comes birth. None of us celebrate our conception day, but we do our birthday. If the New Birth is a birth, and Jesus equated it to the seed, or to “that born of the flesh is flesh”, surely we can see this is process. First John shows the process from little children, to youngmen to fathers, it’s the little children who are in danger of being trapped by the spirit of antichrist, but the youngmen have overcome the Wicked (I Jn 4:1-4 & 2:13).
Taking it a step further we find another truth, when we reached five years old we didn’t go down to the “flesh” store and trade in our flesh for a larger size, rather we found the flesh grew as we did. It’s a correlation we must consider, as we grow in the Spirit, the Spirit also grows with us. The paradox is the flesh is dying, the Spirit is living. There are attributes of the Spirit bringing growth, we know there are things required by the flesh in order to grow, so it is with the soul and Spirit. The soul has to accept the Spirit as master, as the soul takes on the role of servant (disciple) in order for the Spirit to bring us into the Spiritual nature. Once the acceptance takes place, so does humbleness, then we stop attempting to tell the Spirit how to be Spiritual.
The Greek word used for Grain is the same Greek word from which we get the English word Cocoon. The Greek word for Transfigured is the same Greek word from which we get the English word Metamorphosis. The cocoon is a covering during the change, the metamorphosis is the process between changes. The butterfly wasn’t waiting in the cocoon for the caterpillar to show up, rather the change took place inside the cocoon. Yet, the cocoon didn’t bring the change, rather it was the protection while the change was taking place. The change must be on the inside of the covering, painting butterflies on the cocoon isn’t going to bring about the change. Painting apples orange, will not change the apples into oranges. Jesus said we needed a tree change to bring about a fruit change, not the other way around. In order to be Born Again one must have the Spirit, in order to be Spiritual one must have the Spirit, thus Born Again is an advancement in the Spirit until our souls become spiritual. When we were all flesh, our souls were all flesh centered, now the change is making us Spiritual in nature, it doesn’t happen over night.
We must be Transformed and Transfigured by God, and God alone. There is no self-transfiguration, but there is a self-transformation. Paul used the word Transformed in II Corinthians 11:13, but his context is self-transformed, rather than transformed by God, this is found in the phrase “Transforming themselves”. His use of the Greek word is not to be confused with the English word Transformed used in Romans 12:2. The wording in II Corinthians 11:13 means A self induced change by the person’s own will power to produce an outward appearance, without having an inward change. In essence self-transformed means the person is wearing a mask of righteousness, but inside the old man still reigns. The Godly transformed condition comes from Mercy, the transfiguration by Grace through the Spirit, both are products of God. They call for a process, a process calling for patience.
Transformed is a change on the outside, while Transfigured is a change within producing a change on the outside, we need both. Translated is being moved from one place to another.
The Greek word and context in Romans 12:2 shows the change is by an outside source caused by the Pardon of our sins, which produces a renewing of our mind on the inside, thus Romans 12:2 is not mistranslated, but a deeper view of the word Transfigured; showing Grace and Mercy working together to free us from the bondage of the flesh. The Renewed Mind is not a change in the old mind, but a renovation of the soul. One would think Why do I want the old mind back? We don’t, we want it removed of the hindrances, but we don’t it destroyed. Therefore the mind is Transformed, the word Renewed means Renovation, the word Renovation means to restore to an earlier condition. Jesus said we are to come to Him as little children, thus this Renovation is the removal of all the fleshly concepts, yet leaving the mind intact.
The Renovation doesn’t mean we forget the Bible, neither does it mean we depend on our natural reasoning. The Mind is one part of the soul, the saving of the soul by the Word in us doesn’t mean we no longer need the Bible, rather it means the Bible will become more important. The Bible is our instruction manual, the source of impression, a door to the hidden things of God. Once our soul is in the saving process the verses will begin to bring truth. It will seem as if God had the Bible written just for us, all of a sudden we will find verses speaking to our hearts. Instead of attempting to figure out what the scribes were saying, the spiritual child of God Hears the Interpretation of the Holy Ghost through the Spirit.
The mind of man guesses at the meaning of the Scriptures, which some term Natural Theology; whereas, the Spirit applies Life through the Scriptures to bring a change within the person. There is the knowledge of man, and a Knowledge from heaven, thus one’s “theology” can be based in either. Sound theology is beneficial, it’s our study (logy) of God (Theo); however the Holy Ghost is our Teacher, the New Man our tutor, we must have the knowledge of God, not just a knowledge about God (Col 3:10).
If we have the Word in us, we also have the Love of God in us, thus the next step would be to allow the Word to flow forth from the New Man through the soul (Eph 4:24, Jn 5:38 & 5:42). Being Born Again means we can See things from the perspective of the Kingdom, which we term Clarity. The Word (Logos) in us divides and discerns things, yet the Scriptures are the Bible, but the Bible cannot interpret the Bible, if it were the case we won’t need the Holy Ghost bringing the Interpretation. The Bible defines itself, which is different from interpretation. The Bible defines the “Word” as Jesus, it defines itself as the Scriptures. It’s difficult to say the Bible is a rule book, if we keep making up our own.
We have to accept how the Scriptures are God Breathed, Jesus used the Scriptures, but He is Life. It takes the Rhema from the Spirit to explain the Logos, as the Logos brings clarity to the Scriptures. The Word (Jesus or Logos) comes to life through the growth of the Seed of God in us, thereby producing the Greater He in us. We have to make the distinction between the Bible and the Word in us, if not we might think if we read the Bible we have life. The Bible speaks of Life, it is a guide to Life, but it cannot produce Life, only the Holy Ghost (Sower) can produce Life by the Seed of God.
There are many things God will do, some He will not. God will not believe for us, nor will He make our choices, nor will He study for us. God will be there to study with us, He will be there to help us in our choices, He will provide the evidence for us to believe, but He won’t do them for us. Since this is a Covenant we are told to “seek ye first”, we are not told God will do the seeking for us.
God knows the heart of man, but He is saving our souls, don’t confuse the two. During our Season God will present the Seed to all, no one can say they didn’t have a chance. They may have rejected the Seed, but it nonetheless came. Wait, what about “many are called”? When the Seed takes hold, then the “called” takes effect, from the Called come the Few. The Good News is the Few is only relative to the Many, thus when John sees the Few they are so many they can’t be counted (Rev 7:9). Later he sees another great multitude, the Greek shows two different words used between the first and second group. The second group has some added to it, not only could it not be counted, but the end thereof couldn’t be seen (Rev 19:6), showing there is room for us.
Since the Seed is tossed in all directions, we find some receive, some don’t. Out of those who receive we find various types; there are some outside of the Way who love the spirit of man, when they hear the Word they reject it immediately for the power of the darkness (Mark 4:15). It’s important to know this group is on the Outside of the Way, they are not in the Way (Called). For those who receive the Seed there remains other areas as forms of growth, all of which are testings for our faith.
This next grouping would be the “Many”, once someone receives the Seed of God they still have a likewise condition, which means they still have the spirit lusting to envy, but at least the Seed is planted. They entered the doorway to the kingdom of heaven, as long as the experience produces pleasure, they are happy, but when affliction or persecution comes for the Word’s sake (purpose) they are offended (Mark 4:16-17). When we entered we were looking for escape from the worldly, thus we were seeking God more than pleasure. This group consists of those who seek pleasure more than they seek God, instead of jumping for joy at the offense, they become offended the more. Jesus shows they lack the Root of the Seed, they never allowed the Seed to grow. They are moved by the emotions of the moment, yet reject the responsibility of having the Seed. They chase all over wanting other people to believe for them, but when the call comes to deny the self or forgive, they are offended, get mad, rebel, or run.
The next group receives the Seed, they have the root and some growth. They face the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things, they too would fit the Many. The cares of this world tempt us to change the course of the world to satisfy our self-desires. The deceitfulness of riches is the thought of money curing our ills or problems, or money providing our security. When we panic over money, or allow money to be the means by which we make decisions, we have fallen into this area. God will bring money problems to expose how we are falling into the deceitfulness of riches, not to harm us, but to free us from the trap of the deceitfulness of riches. This lust causes us to associate, or use wicked means to reach what we assume is a Godly result. This has nothing to do with being responsible to God for the money He has given us, this has to do with “trusting in riches”. The lusts for other things, tempts us to use Bible principles, or any means “legal to man” to satisfy the self-nature. When we use the “sales policies of the world” to fill the treasury of the temple, we have fallen into the lusts for other things.
The group we seek to be are those who receive, grow to the Blade, or those who endure the process. This is the productive group, they are also those who know how to submit to the New Man to get through this. The clarity comes in the wording, “be ye transformed”, showing we submit to the Spirit allowing the Renovation of our minds. Clearly the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit being active in our lives is the greatest gift anyone on this earth could have. Understanding the specialness makes one humble: the God of all looked down on mankind then gave His Son as a Sacrifice just for us; because He loved us long before we loved Him.
We know the evils of the Pharisees, but there was also the teacher Nicodemus the first human to hear the words “Born Again”, the same man who would be at the Cross of Jesus. Therefore, Nicodemus proves there were exceptions, although he was among the Pharisees, he was not part of them. There were the disciples, but among them was Judas, the opposite end of the spectrum; therefore, Judas proves being called a “disciple” doesn’t mean one is holy. There were the Romans who ruled the land, but there was the Centurion who had great faith. There were the people, those who believed and received, and those who didn’t believe, or receive. We want to find what determined what, and how it all fits into the Restoration of our souls.
LESSON TEN – GOSPEL I – THE RESTORED SOUL
What is the difference between holding to a religion (devotion to a religious idea), and being Christian? The difference is the Born Again experience. A person in a religion can change habits, but the source is still the spirit of man (II Cor 11:13-15). One can force their self to pray ten times a day, refuse to eat certain foods, keep one day above another, yet use the spirit of man to accomplish it all, ending none the better. The facade of religion can be something any of us can fall into, portraying the role, dressing right, performing the various rites, yet inside we’re dead. There are those who engage in the deception of religion, thinking nothing inside is out of place, all is holy and perfect. Deception manifests when someone thinks the role they are playing is real, they take pride in their efforts, soon becoming a legalist going about enforcing their rules and regulations on others. There are others who know something inside is wrong, they either lack the Spirit, or lack submission to the washing of the Water by the Word. The Christian experience is a change in natures by a source directly from God. It’s the Tree change, to bring about fruit acceptable to God: however, in the process there will be things “not right” within, but they being removed day by day. A religious minded person trains their self to do what they think are good works, a Christian does good works by nature. We would be surprised to find how many Good works we do by nature, or how many bad things we don’t do anymore, because our nature has changed.
A mask is merely changing the fruit on the tree, but leaving the tree the same. Painting oranges to look like apples doesn’t make the tree an apple tree. Sooner or later the oranges will manifest for all to see. Jesus told us to change the tree, but while we are in the world we only had one tree. How can we change the only tree we had? The Holy Ghost has the other Tree, the one based in Life, which has two places of residence with a street between (Rev 22:1-2). The Tree of Life is seen next to the river of life, as the river of life flows from the Throne of God, but to where? Our Hearts, the place of the Spirit, the residence of Life in us. How can we obtain this Tree? No secret there, Jesus provided a means for us to obtain, but He did so through a Covenant.
There is the “pure and undefiled religion” but the main element is for the doer to be unspotted from the world (James 1:27). Religion defined by James pertains to man’s relationship with man; whereas a Christian is centered on their individual relationship with God by the Spirit. Without being Born Again one cannot remain unspotted from the world, rather we will either fight the world, or use it (Jude 23). Those who walk with Jesus washed their Robes in the Blood of the Lamb, they are the unspotted (Rev 7:14).
Paul will tell us a good soldier is not caught up in the affairs of this life (Greek Bios meaning world – II Tim 2:4): the cares (anxieties) of this world entice us on a daily basis, the world will even condemn us if we don’t get all worked up over their cares. The cares of this world are a product of the fall nature, in the Night things will change, but the end thereof is death. The cares of this world will overtake us when we deny all things work together for good to those who love God, and to those who are called according to His purpose. The manifestation of the Good may not be immediate, but the Scripture says we will gain, therefore we will. Sanctified means Separated unto God for a holy purpose (Rom 8:28); the second God called us to the Cross we were Sanctified by the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus unto obedience by the Spirit (I Pet 1:2).
Some enter religious duties to have a good feeling about themselves, some enter so they feel morally superior over others, some so they can appear holy before man, others because they want to know God. Those who want to know God, have the activated measure of faith, thus when their faith is directed in the proper direction they will find God, and soon know He desires to save their souls. However, it’s a process entailing various other areas concerning the soul. The healing of the soul is one, the restoration of the soul is another.
Psalm 23 is a shepherd’s psalm, but David was a shepherd who became a sheep. It’s not evolution, since no actual sheep ever becomes a human, much less a shepherd, rather it’s humbleness on the part of David. Jesus is our Shepherd, but He is also the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Jn 10:11 & Rev 5:12). Peter was a shepherd, yet said we were all sheep lead astray (I Pet 2:25). We all begin as sheep, Jesus picks some to be shepherds (pastors): not evolution, just metaphors.
In Psalm 23 we find the word Restores, in the phrase “restores my soul”, but restored to what? To a point it was before we came to Jesus? Big deal, it’s still lost. The Hebrew word for Restored is Shuv with several meanings, including delivered, but the central thought is a movement back to a point of departure, it was often used in reference to repentance. In the case of Restoration is refers to the point before we entered sin by an action, or to the point where we are innocent. In the Psalm we find the Lord restores our soul, so this can’t refer to repentance, since repentance is an act on our part. This Psalm shows the Restoring takes us back to the moment God set the plan for our souls. Entailing many things, including a healing, removal of strongholds, introduction of Light, a new character and nature. The restored soul is when our soul matches the Designers intent, therein we find the Peace which passes understanding.
We were all born into the sin nature, because we were born of the flesh, sold out to death; however, we became sinners when we used sin. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but all made the choice to sin. When we were little babies we made sounds, or whatever to get someone to help us, it’s not the same as using the fall nature to satisfy a lust. Our parents can usually pin point the day we moved from “oh how cute”, to “what is wrong with you?”. We found by using some element among the wiles of the enemy we could get our way, we enjoyed the “game”, or feeling we obtained, thus we learned to use other wiles, giving ourselves to sin. We then continued to sin to get the feeling, whether it was using self-pity, kindness, anger, manipulation, or some other mask we found worked on people. As we grew we became impressed with ourselves, pride became our motive, the self our lord.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. However, the Record had a Restoration project in hand, one bringing us into the place of intended Goodness, which is Perfection in God’s eyes. Perfection is based on the ideas of the one doing the forming, not the thing formed. If God molds us by His Perfection, we are Perfect. What would it take to bring this Record into our lives? The Witness, the Water (Mercy of the Father), the Blood (Grace of the Word), and the Spirit (Seed planted by the Holy Ghost), therein lays our Perfection, the Mercy of the Father, the Grace of the Word, the Spirit granted by the Holy Ghost are all Perfect, without exception.
When we came to Jesus the Promise entailed many things, yet they were all centered on what God desired for us. The saving of our souls may seem “self-based” on the surface, but it’s not. If we understand, the result is something God sees for us, then we see the treasure for God is the saved soul. It would be self-based if we made the rules, or formed the plan, but we find the Record and Witness are void of the flesh and soul; the flesh being considered dead, the soul being the prize in this. We gain the benefit, but we are not the Benefactor, thus removing the saving of our souls from being self-based. It does no good for Jesus to tell us to deny the self, if we are going to turn around and use the self in some feeble attempt to save our souls. Those who try to save their souls, lose their souls because they attempt to save the self, by using the self, failure in the making.
The self is not the means granted to save our souls, but it’s exactly the method the old man desires for us to use. Someone can be religious, yet remain nasty, arrogant, boastful, hateful, or use manipulation to belittle others, all signs of the self attempting to become religious, while remaining worldly.
We are bought with a price, the process shows the Holy Ghost takes, He blesses by giving us the Seed. Then the Water and Blood are applied as we grow until the effort is complete. In Hebrews 10:38-39 the wording “saving of the soul” is strange at best. The Greek word for Saving isn’t Sozo, or even Soteria as one would suspect, rather it’s a Greek word meaning to redeem a purchased possession. Even more strange is the word Believe, which is often translated as Faith, so did the translators make a mistake? No, not at all, we find the Holy Ghost is showing us the Now, the English word Believe means we have a Now confidence based on past experiences, or knowledge of what Jesus promised us. Faith on the other hand reaches to a future hope, it’s based in the unseen, while the act of faith is seen. In the case of Hebrews 10:38-39 the phrase “The just live by faith” shows the Just live moment by moment based on their knowledge of the Process, yet they look for the hope of the Just being glorified. In essence the Just live in the Now, by connecting their belief to their faith in the process.
We are given the New Man to form our souls into the Image of God’s Son, to be a son of God, enabling us to be the Bride. The idea is for the soul to join the New Man so the two can be One Spirit. What good would it do for the New Man to join to the soul to be natural? The Resurrection body is not Spirit as Jesus said, but the inhabitant of the Body must be Spirit, thus that Born of the Spirit is Spirit.
The restoration project entails something in us greater than the product to be restored, John called it the “Greater He”. On the other side of the coin we have a enemy based in destruction, one who only knows how to waste termed the “he in the world” (I Jn 4:1-4). This “he in the world” holds three major weapons, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (self-confidence – I Jn 2:16). The wisest thing we can do is put off the old man (he in the world) with his deeds, then put on the New Man (Greater He – Eph 4:22, Col 3:9, Eph 4:24 & Col 3:10). From there we move to be the Bride of Jesus (also known as the Lamb’s wife, or Bride of Christ), so the two can be One with Jesus. Eve came from Adam, the Bride of Christ comes from the Body of Christ.
If we were sinners, how then can the old mind who used the wiles of the enemy be one with Christ? This is not a personality destruction, it’s a salvation process. We see how this relates to the renovated mind, only in this case it’s the restored soul. It also shows there must be a healing of the soul included in the saving of our souls. When it takes place the New Mind by having the New Heart instructs us, no longer are we guided by pains, hurts, self-based conditions holding us down, or haunting us. This entire effort is having something eternal directly from God, designed with God’s Holiness and Righteousness, without condemnation, centered on one thing, to save our souls, thus God provided the New Man (Eph 4:24).
When we have hurts, tares, bruises, and misconceptions in our souls, they all work against us. We will filter every experience, every word, and every person we come in contact with through the maze of tares in our minds. If we hang onto those tares we will minister through them, instead of helping someone, we will end another victim.
Psalm 23 begins with identification, the Lord is our shepherd, there is no other, we are not our shepherd, the prince of the power of the air isn’t, and man isn’t. This relates to us in the Body, and only to us. Jesus is the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls (I Pet 2:25). This connects to John 10:11 where Jesus said He is the “Good Shepherd”, yet the thief enters not by the door, but another way. What other way is there? The window, the window is used to pour the blessing out when the Door is closed, yet a true son enters by the Door (Jn 10:7-9). Unless one comes by Jesus, they are a thief and a robber; including any self-righteous endeavors or religious endeavors absent Jesus.
There is the Porter, the Porter opens the Door, thus the sheep cannot enter without the Porters permission. The word Porter is the Greek Thuroros meaning A doorkeeper, or guard, it’s akin to the guards at the Tabernacle who inspected the sacrifice determining if the sacrifice was acceptable. In their case the person wasn’t at issue, only the sacrifice, in our case the Porter grants permission to those who have accepted the Lamb of God as their sacrifice. After entry the sheep are trained to hear the voice of the Shepherd, meaning the voice of the stranger they will not follow (Jn 10:1-5). This is very interesting, we enter based on the Sacrifice, but once inside it’s a training on an individual basis. We are trained by the Word in us, there comes a time when all we hear is the Word, then we can venture in and out.
Confining, restricting, dominating religious orders, whatever name they go by, attempt to take the place of the Porter by keeping the sheep bound to the pen, or under bondage to religious rhetoric. Usually the leader is either a Legalist or Wicked, who think they are shepherds, but they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Jesus wants us to be free to travel in and out, so we can go “fishing” for new converts. Therefore, Psalm 23 progresses to the pastures, the place where the sheep feed, but it’s also a place of rest (Ps 23:2). The still waters relate to the gentleness of God’s mercy, the pasture to the Bible, then we find the “paths” not “path” of righteousness, so how many are there? More than one, thus in David’s day it was self-righteousness, in ours it’s the Righteousness of God, yet God’s Righteousness has paths on the path, some may go through a wilderness, some into a cave, others along fields, others by the sea, but it’s still by God’s righteousness.
The valley of the shadow of death is not death, it’s the place where the shadow is, which is the world. This doesn’t say the shadow is over us, nor does it say death is upon us, this is a valley, a place between mountains. In either case we fear no evil, because the Rod of God’s correction, plus His Staff of guidance will lead us. Then we find the Table in the “presence of the enemies”, the word Presence means face to face, but the context is still without fear. This is extremely interesting, referring to Judas being at the table, thus Jude also tells us, “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when the feast with you, feeding themselves without fear” (Jude 12). The confidence of God in our lives means even if they are spots, we fear them not.
The finish shows Goodness and Mercy shall follow us, so why not in front of us? The word Follow means to pursue with the intent to secure, this relates to giving Mercy and Goodness have them pursue us. Therefore, it we give Mercy, it will come back shaken down and running over. The more Goodness and Mercy we give, the more they chase us.
The House of the Lord doesn’t refer to the local church, it’s the Hebrew Bayith meaning To build a Tent, generally it points to the inside of the structure, which reflects to the Holy Place and Holy of Holies. This entire process places us in the House, it also calls for a relationship with the Keeper of the House.
There are various degrees of relationships, but only one degree of fellowship with God. The old man looks at fellowship as entertainment, not so, fellowship is when two have like desires, concerns and goals. The concept is found in First John as we find we can have fellowship with the Father, if we care for the people of God in the same manner as God. If we say we have fellowship, yet we slander the brethren, we are in darkness (I Jn 2:11). There are those who say, “well I don’t think they are of the Body”, or “Paul said some things about Hymenaeus and Philetus in II Timothy, so I can talk about these people” (II Tim 2:17). Second Timothy was a pastoral letter, Paul reminded the young pastor what happens when we fail to stir up the gift of God. As far as making a self determination regarding who is, or who is not in the Body, we can’t. What to do? Preach the truth in love. On the other hand, if the Spirit of the Lord has us rebuke, correct or become very austere, then we obey. The point of course is never allow the old man to insert his agenda, which is always slanderous in nature. Slander is based on intent, not whether the thing said is fact or not. The thing said could be a fact, but if it was said with the intent to cause harm, it’s slander.
The Father desires for us to worship Him in Spirit and Truth, would it be self-centered on His part (Jn 4:23). No, it releases us from worship which is laced with the feelings of the old man. Some worship so they feel better, but it doesn’t mean they worshipped in Spirit and Truth. Some worship to impress the people around them, but it doesn’t mean they worshipped in Spirit and Truth. How can one worship in Spirit and Truth? By having the Spirit of Truth (Jn 14:16-17 & I Jn 4:6). The purpose is to be on the same plane as God, God is Spirit, that born of the Spirit is Spirit.
Relationships are established on like concerns, we can have a relationship with our church, our pastor, our theology, all fine, except it doesn’t mean we have fellowship with the Father. The Father centers on Mercy, thus if we treat people with Mercy, we will have fellowship with the Father.
Our salvation depends on a relationship with Jesus, a spiritual connection. The Good News not only put us in a Mercy condition, but gives us the opportunity to have a Grace position. This position calls for a process called the Saving of the Soul. Our souls are not Born Again, they are empowered by the Spirit to become Spiritual in nature. In John 3:7 the word Born is the Greek Gennao meaning Birth, but to the Jew it means To bring someone into a way of Life, thus we are Born Again by the Holy Ghost as He gives us the Spirit, then our souls are Converted from flesh to Spirit by the Spirit.
Jesus said, He and the Father are One, then He prayed we May be One with the Father, as He is with the Father (Jn 17:20-21). The words May and Might are permissive; therefore, we are granted Mercy to have the foundation to be One, then we enter Grace to have the Spirit in order to become One as the chosen. This entails our souls joining to the Spirit, it’s not going to be the other way around.
The chosen position is purpose for the process of justification, in the process we find the Saving of the Soul. Matthew’s account opens the door to Mercy pointing to this area, Mark’s account tells us how to obtain it, much of Luke’s account calls for the decision, then John tells us what to expect while obtaining. All the accounts center around Deny the Self and Pick Up Your Cross, which point to death, but entail Mercy, leading to Grace, opening us to the premise of being justified by God.
As strange as it seems we entered this to have Life, yet both acts of denying the self and picking up our cross point to death. The soul was connected to the flesh, yet the flesh was formed from the earth, but became corrupt into death by the fall. The Spirit is given us so our souls can change from death to life, by changing from flesh to Spirit. Paul tells us to Mind the Spirit, or put our minds on Spiritual matters.
The strongman produces and maintains strongholds; Paul told us the stronghold contains imaginations, thoughts, and soulish conclusions coming against the knowledge of God (II Cor 10:3-5). Imaginations put wood where there is no fire, or attempt to ignite fires where there is no cause. Imaginations are fables, wild dreams, snares attempting to trap our mind. They presume what an event consisted of, or what someone was doing, but the interpretation is fable based, usually giving birth to hate, bitterness, or seeking some validation. The restoration process exposes all the tares the strongman used to deceive us, all those roots of bitterness he planted, to trap us in unforgiveness. When Adam said, “it was the woman You gave me”, he not only placed the blame on Eve and God, but he spoke from unforgiveness, unforgiveness is based in the fall nature.
We were a people without hope, yet the Cross made us a people of hope. Since all things are possible with God, what was impossible for us, is possible through the New Birth. The renewed soul knows all things are possible with God, but not all things are profitable. It was possible for James and John to be placed one on the left and right of Jesus, but it was not profitable for John, James or Jesus. It was possible for the Father to take the cup away from Jesus, but it was not profitable. The unsaved soul takes the phrase “all things are possible with God” then sets it in a self-based mode, forgetting, or not caring how things from the old man are not profitable to God, or us. God does say “No” to unproductive requests, praise the Lord, He does. Before we make the claim, “All things are possible with God”, we must conclude what is profitable for God, then when we ask, we must be ready to accept the answer.
On the same note we find God will “allow”, especially when our mind is so made up we’re going to find a way to do what we’re going to do anyway. An example? Balaam, although God did show the man his own foolishness, we find God also knew Balaam was going to do what Balaam wanted to do. We can be so set on doing something we will put out fleece after fleece, ask everyone their opinion, seek only the signs and answers agreeing with our desire, while ignoring all the signs showing us our folly. Then when we fail, we blame God for letting it happen, “you could have stopped it Lord”. We can be assured of the guidance of the New Man, but it still takes our submission to the guidance. Let’s face it, how can the New Man guide us, if we’re chasing every wind of doctrine?
The New Man will not force himself on us, he is sent to Guide and Instruct, not to dominate. Jesus trained the disciples, He didn’t beat them, at times He allowed them to make mistakes, but the purpose was for them to learn. The New Man is the same, but he will not turn on us, as did the angel in the Garden. The angel in the Garden was perfect until he found iniquity, the New Man has no iniquity, He is created after God’s True Holiness and Righteousness (Eph 4:24).
The saving of our soul by the New Man brings a new way of thinking, the ability to see intent before it becomes a thought. The ability to see the trap while the enemy is still setting it. If our minds are being renewed to think as Jesus, then the other elements in the soul are also being renewed; included in our soul is our mind, will, emotions, personality, nature and aspersions. Changing habits is not the same as having a Nature change. Worldly religions follow the path of habit change, or judge holiness by habit changes. They use deeds based in self-righteousness, yet they are using the spirit of man to perform the deeds. All they do is put on a self-transformed mask to appear righteous and holy to impress others, or their selves, but inside they are still using the same fallen nature. The old man doesn’t mind being religious, as long as he remains in charge. However, as soon as the Light shines, the old nature is made ineffective. Paul’s point in Romans chapter 7 centered on this issue, using the flesh or the spirit of man to be religious, causes the Commandment, “Thou shall not Covent” to fall against the person, finding them guilty.
The counterfeit to having a renewed mind would be the use of mind power to form religious habits. It may sound strange, but what do worldly religions do? They have set rules of a religious nature, then use mind power to conform to the rules. What did the Jews do? They had the Law of Moses, but used mind power to conform to the rules; called self-righteousness, which is different from having a Righteousness conforming us to a nature. The battle for us is to submit to the Righteousness in the New Man, rather than use mind power to force the flesh to behave. When Paul found Jesus, he also found through Christ he obtained the ability to do all the things of Christ by the Christ nature in him; he no longer had to worry about the Commandment. All worldly religions are concerned about death, the Christian has a life beyond death: oh death where is thy sting, or grave where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin is the law (I Cor 15:55-56). The Law is nailed to the Cross, our sins are forgiven, we are Born Again, we have the same Spirit of Holiness who raised Jesus from the dead; thus we must believe God raised Jesus from the dead (Col 2:14-17).
We then conclude the Process does entail a wilderness; the children of Israel crossed the wilderness to obtain the Promised Land to complete the promise, but their land was still inhabited by heathens. The Promised Land for Israel was still of this earth, it was physical in nature, thus we can’t compare it to the Kingdom of God, but we can use the experiences of the children as warnings (I Cor 10:1-11).
The Tabernacle was not a product of Egypt, neither was it built in the Promised Land. Once they took possession of the land, the Tabernacle, like Enoch was no more. The Temple became the center of worship in the Promised Land, we know the Temple was built by at the request of David, approved by God through Nathan during the night. The Temple is a sign of judgment, not salvation. In our case we seek the Holy Place of the Tabernacle where the Bread of Life is found, where the Light of God is found, where the Prayers of the saints lead us to the Holiest of All. Just as there is a Zion of the earth, there is one for the heavenly Born Again saint. Just as there is a Jerusalem of the earth, there is New Jerusalem for the Born Again saint. Just as there was a wilderness for the children, there are wildernesses for the Born Again saint.
Some of us assume we have finished the race while we are still in the starting blocks. The kingdom of heaven is not the finish of the race, it’s the place of protection provided by God so we can finish the race. The Kingdom of God holds the ability to finish the race, thus we are in the kingdom of heaven, being saved by the Kingdom of God in us. Heaven is a place, God a personage, the Kingdom of God is not a place, it’s a people, but the kingdom of heaven is a place. Matthew will defined the differences, Luke will show us how the Kingdom of God is within (Luke 17:21-22). The kingdom of heaven is the womb for the those who are partakers of the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven is Mercy based, the Kingdom of God Grace based, both are required.
The Book of Acts is a testimony for or against those called Christian. The history of the early Jews is a testimony for or against anyone who enters the kingdom of heaven. One can obtain the kingdom of heaven, yet allow the self nature to rule, causing them to miss the Kingdom of God, yet the Kingdom of God holds the Greater Promise, the ability to finish the course based on the Spirit of Holiness. We are God’s glory, if we’re running all over looking for the “glory to fall”, we need to read Romans 8:18 where we find the glory is within. What is within us? The New Man.
The Cross, Grace, Resurrection and Sacrifice are all separate events, yet they are connected into One purpose for us. There are many words in the Greek for the English word One, the Greek words can mean inclusive, as the only One, or exclusive as One made up from many parts. Jesus used the term One in reference to the prophets, does it mean there is only one prophet? Hardly, it means the prophet was one of many in the One office. All the prophets formed One purpose, they were seen as the “body of Elijah” on the Mount. All those who do the Law of Moses were seen as the Body of Moses on the same Mount, but does it mean all of them are little heads glued to the Body of Moses? On the same Mount was Jesus with His Body, yet the Father said, “hear ye Him”. Does it mean we are a billion little heads stuck on the Body of Jesus? Hardly, we are called One Body, but we are members many, yet the One Faith of Jesus is One without parts to make it One. We can have One Baseball, yet know the baseball has a covering, an inner part and a core, all separate parts making the One Baseball. The Body of Christ is in like manner, we are members many, each with a calling in the Calling. We can see someone active, yet they are not doing the same job as we. If we’re not careful we can presume they’re wrong, and we’re right. When in truth both are parts in the One calling doing what God knows they will. Because the core of the baseball doesn’t get the autographs, does it mean the core is not of the baseball? If the covering says to the core, “I have no need of you”, does it mean the core is not of the baseball? Sounds silly, but there are times when we forget we are a part of the total, not the total. The concept explains how we can have the Doctrine of Baptisms, yet One Baptism. The One Baptism refers to the Body of Christ being the only element on the face of the earth with the Authority of God to baptize others in water, or to receive the baptisms of the Holy Ghost and Fire. It’s extremely precious, Jesus didn’t say, “World go into all the Body and baptize”, but He did say to His Body, “go into all the world and baptize”. Other religious organizations may call their efforts “baptism”, but they lack Godly Authority, thus they are taking a bath, or a swim, but not a baptism.
Some of us have no idea what deny the self means, much less having the concept of what the self entails. In order to be restored, we must know what we are being restored to, as well as what purpose the restoration is taking place. The saving of our soul goes right to the foundation of the Good News, but it also exposes all those times we used the pride of life, then called it faith. More important, we will have a handle on those times when we are tempted to use the pride of life instead of faith. If we keep using the pride of life we’re like the three monkeys, we see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, but we’re still a monkey.
Natural man’s most treasured possession is the self nature, but the house for the unsaved soul is the flesh, thus man spends time and money preserving the flesh to give the soul self-confidence. Why does natural man seek this “self-confidence”? To entertain the soul, to enhance the self, in the process man makes the self his god, the soul becomes the lord of the self. The self desires to make itself a hero, to make a mark on the world, to show they are someone. It’s all flesh centered, the Spirit in us is bringing us to the innocent nature of Christ, so we can have a Spiritual nature.
Take a look around, some claim to be God’s only people, yet they war continually, lie, use the world to get what they want, take great pride in their efforts, or blame others for their failures. They hate entire nations or people based on their envy, yet they are religious. Natural leaders manipulate the minds of people, yet the world thinks it’s “spiritual”; hardly, it’s demonic (James 3:15). Man making himself god is what the world calls “success”, the term “pride of life” means self-confidence, or a trust and faith in ones self nature (I Jn 2:16). The devil is still saying, “you shall be as gods”, the lie makes the self the guide to the soul. The self uses a prince called the old man, the old must be crucified before we can live. The Cross of Jesus gives us the advantage, the old man, the deeds of the old man, the wiles of the devil, and the devil become ineffective in our lives by the Cross of Jesus.
The wages of sin are death, but if we can receive a death in our place, then death no longer has a hold on us, thus the wages are paid by another so we can be Free. The physical death will take place, but it’s the second death we’re free of. The first death is a separation of the soul from the flesh, the second death is a separation from any and all attributes of God. There is the First Resurrection, then the last resurrection. The last resurrection has two parts, one unto life, the other unto damnation. Both are eternal, meaning a place where time is not a factor. Those who partake in the First Resurrection finish the Resurrection of Jesus by having the same Spirit.
The self nature was birthed by taking of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, whereas life is a product of the Tree of Life. We seek the fullness of the Life Jesus provided for us by the same Spirit who raised Him from the dead. The mainstay of the Church is Prophecy, Jesus is the Spirit (reason) of prophecy, Paul said prophecy exposes the secrets of our heart (Rev 19:10 & I Cor 14:25). When a true prophet speaks, they expose the secrets of the heart, but when a babe in Christ is exposed they either fall into self-pity, or self-justification, thus they need to have knowledge knowing why exposure is necessary. Once any of us know the purpose of exposure is not to belittle us, or destroy us, but to rid of us of hindering elements, our attitude toward exposure changes.
Exposure and damaging statements are different, Exposure brings forth the problem: damage statements cause wounds, or plant tares. Pride rejects exposure, but it will use damaging statements against others. The wounded really don’t understand the process of Salvation, they produce more self-imposed wounds attempting to preserve tares. Whether imposed by another, or self-imposed, they are nonetheless wounds. If we are told God wants to deal with our pride, yet we allow pride to jump up and protect us against the exposure, we missed the opportunity. We must take the opportunity, it doesn’t mean everyone who says something is speaking from God’s position, but it does mean we “consider” the words by bringing them to the Lord.
Paul tells us to put on all the Armor of God, yet we are also told the battle is the Lord’s, the victory is ours (Eph 6:11-13 & I Sam 17:47). What gives? Simple, the Armor of God is God’s, fitting those of God, thus we are told to put on the New Man, who is the Armor, then the battle is still the Lord’s, the victory is still ours. It’s the protection of the Lord, not the retaliation of the Lord. To misuse the Armor is dangerous, we come against many things, but the manner in which we do will tell the tale in the end.
How would we come against a ruler of darkness? What would happen if we had no idea what a ruler of darkness was? Is it a devil? Can’t be, Paul said we fight the Wiles of the devil, not the devil. What is a Wile? The word Wile means Methodology, or the Manner in which the devil operates, a policeman would call it the “devil’s M.O.”, or Modus Operandi (method of operating or functioning – Eph 6:11-12). So what is a ruler of darkness? When we see the word “ruler” we automatically want to attach some physical figure to it, but it means something controlling the mind of a person. Paul tells us they are anger, clamor, evil speaking, bitterness, wrath, corrupt communication, plus other out of control emotional traits. When anger dictates what we say, how we say it, what we do, or how we do it, it rules over us. If self-pity or bitterness control us, they rule over us. Later we will look at many others, but we see how the Restoring of our soul is a removal of the power making those elements rulers. Paul said be angry and sin not, the sin part is when our anger guides us. Rather than they controlling us, we find we can tread on them. So, does it mean we are emotionally void? No, God doesn’t want to rid us of emotions, rather He wants them saved to become useful tools, rather than ruling us.
When we gain the advantage in this area we find when anger jumps up, peace answers. When bitterness bangs on the table, joy responds. The washing of the Water by the Word is a scrubbing process to bring us to a glorious position and condition (Eph 5:26-27). This scrubbing is not automatic, it still takes our cooperation. The evidence is found in the words “might sanctify”, and “might present” (Eph 5:26-27). First the exposure, then the cleaning, but we can reject the exposure, or refuse the cleaning. We can also submit and allow the cleaning to take place, we have the keys.
God brings exposure in different ways; the purpose of exposure is to build us, not destroy us. Yet our natural minds can take the same freedom and turn it into bondage through legalism or pride. The Law of Moses accuses us, the Law of the Spirit encourages us to continue on in Jesus; however, if we attempt to discern the event by our natural minds, we end perceiving the exposure as punishment, or some attack from the enemy, or some form of criticism, but God exposes to bring us into His perfection.
We also find some who think tearing us apart is “discernment”; there is a vast difference between discerning, and being critical of people. We discern to determine what God is doing, so we know what we are suppose to do. Being critical of people is not discernment at all, it’s judging to belittle them based on our opinions (Luke 18:11-12). When the role is reversed the old nature will use self-justification to deny the exposure, or find some way to justify the exposed wile. “Everyone else does it”, “no one would blame me”, “They are prideful, I won’t listen”, all fall-nature voices attempting to avoid the exposure. When exposure comes we deal with it, we don’t attempt to avoid it. The children in the wilderness avoided it, denied it, rejected it, but they died in the wilderness never seeing the Promised Land (Jude 5).
Looking for fault in others, then saying we’re only dealing with their “problems” is not Godly. Jesus dealt with fault when it appeared, the Pharisees went out of their way to find it. The two show us something very important, Jesus didn’t look for fault, but the Pharisees were so intent on finding fault their own reasoning invented fault when there was none (Mark 7:2). They thought they found fault in Jesus, so did they? Of course not, the fault was in their own minds. Dealing with fault to rescue someone from the snare is one thing, making up a fault so we can feel superior over them another. Discernment draws the line between the natural and spiritual as it divides thought and intent.
The Scriptures mean what they say, fables begin when the old man wants the Bible to condone to his earthly knowledge. The old man uses statements like, “what Paul meant to say was”, or “what Jesus meant to say was”, or “this is doubtful”, or “we don’t think this happened”, these are axes of natural reasoning cutting the Bible into soulish pieces, so the person can reject being responsible to Scripture. The same is true with the famed “I have a revelation the Body isn’t ready for”. These are warning signs, anyone who assumes they have a revelation the Body isn’t ready for, also assumes they are the Head of the Body. Revelation is the opening of something already there, no one person has it all, the Five Fold Ministry shows parts to the Total, each adding to the other. If the person is of the Body, yet the Body isn’t ready for the revelation, then neither are they.
When someone doesn’t like a verse, they will attempt to get around it. The famed, “well, really what Jesus was saying is this….”, tells us the person assumes Jesus didn’t know what He was saying, so they have to correct Him. The old man is natural, he cannot understand spiritual matters, thus he attempts to interpret them in natural ways. The Renewing of our minds removes the natural foundation, by bringing a spiritual awareness. The spiritual mind understands the natural and spiritual, it’s the natural thinking person who gets all this confused. The entire process is to bring about the saying, That Born of the Spirit is Spirit. We were natural, born of the flesh, we imputed the flesh dead, obtained the New Man, who is forming our souls into a Spiritual nature so we can live in our true home, heaven. Our souls must become spiritual in nature to fit with the Spirit, so we can walk in the resurrected body Jesus has for us; although the resurrected body is not spirit, that which is inside of it is.
The Spirit leads us into God’s wilderness of justification so we can gain ears to hear, and eyes to see the great things of God; however, we must always look for God in order to see God doing the work. If we are in the hand of God, we’re in the hand of God; therefore, look for God first. The event may not please us, the words may not agree with us, but nonetheless we must seek the Precious, as we believe “God Is”.
Once we entered the kingdom of heaven the devil could no longer take us at his will, he is not allowed in the kingdom of heaven, thus the devil is so far from the Kingdom of God it’s pathetic. The enemy planted tares, the only method he has are the tares. The enemy will send his messengers to entice us to use his wiles, thus giving him place. Whenever we use a method of darkness the New Man will convict us, not to embarrass us, but to expose the source before we give place to the enemy. Conviction is a warning, yet we can go right ahead and do it anyway, but at least we can’t say we weren’t warned. Pay attention to the conviction, thank God for the exposure, it keeps us from doing for the devil, what he can’t do for himself.
Before the children left Egypt they hated the bondage, they hated the society of Egypt, they hated Pharaoh, yet they used the same nature against God, the golden calf proves it. We may hate the world, we may hate the devil, but as long as we are using the old nature we are still using the wiles of the devil in some manner. The wilderness is the place where we can face the old man, see the old nature for what it is, then make the decision to reject those ways, by gaining clarity to how they work. At first we are sick and tired of the manna, or the sand in our shoes, but when clarity comes we find God has answered our prayers. The wilderness brings us to a profitable conclusion through the justification process. It’s the old man who doesn’t like it, he shouldn’t, he is going to remain in the sands of the wilderness, there is no place for him in our Promised Land; therefore, we should take Joy, rather than join the old man’s pity party.
The just still live by His Faith, by His Faith we have life, boldness and access, thus we are saved from the world to enter the process with the goal of gaining the Salvation of our souls. God’s Mercy brought us into the kingdom of heaven separating us from the world: we were taken from the realm of the power of the prince of the air, removed from the place where the power, authority and seat of Satan reign, but we had damaged goods within us. There needed to be an inner healing, then a saving of what was healed. We obtained the Mercy of the Father, but we need the New Birth of Grace as well.
God uses exposure to heal us, far too often we know much less about us, than we do others. Deception is the mask of destruction, we can hate hypocrites, yet be one, and never know it. God uses a mirror at times, James says a man looks into a mirror and walks away soon forgetting what he saw, but the perfect Law of Liberty stays with us. The Mirror of God is a means whereby God will put people before us who are like us in many ways; however, the mirror is used when we have become self-deceived regarding our ways. When we tell others about these “people”, they look at us weird. Why? We are defining ourselves, “I hate my new boss, he is so controlling, by the way did you do all I told you to today? Or am I going to have to do it myself”. “I can’t stand to be around her, all she does is talk about herself, by the way let me tell you all the Lord did for me today, and all I did for Him”. In the midst of all this we see the mirror, yet at times we must also remember God will show us an elephant to expose the ant. Discernment is always the key to victory, thus there are times when we are not facing a mirror, but nonetheless we need discernment to know how to deal with what we see in order to minister to ourselves, or those in need.
We can be so self-justifying it’s pathetic, yet never know it. Someone under the anointing brings it to our attention, and we say, “they’re crazy, I’m not that way”, but then within minutes, or hours we will be caught in the very act of self-justification. Our first exposure to the mirror of God was a matter of tough love. We found we weren’t who we thought we were, but from there we knew who we were, and more important we also became aware of who we can be in Christ.
The self nature ignores who we are, lies about who we can be, and uses the pride of life in some ego based endeavor to obtain an impossible position of what we assume we can be. The day came when we fell on our face and said, “I don’t know who I am any more”, we never did, we were a mask running around in the lap of self-deception. The wilderness removes the masks, cleans away the deception, placing us in a position to be used of God.
We can’t build half our house on the Rock, the other half on the Sand. We must make a choice regarding the Foundation, which foundation we use is still our choice (Matt 7:24-26). Before we can build, the old foundation most be removed, a renovation must ensue. As the process moves along we find God uses a Golden Plow to turn up some nasty old stones, or roots we didn’t even know were there. Some are religious (sand), some worldly (sea), yet they are hindrances. The old things are not who we are, they are from the nature we used while in the world. We cut the trees down, but the Lord found the roots. However, we can make the mistake of thinking they are who we are, ending fighting the process. We have to recognize the soul in and of itself is not evil, it may have obtained evil things, but don’t forget the purpose of our faith is the salvation of our souls (I Pet 1:9). If the soul was evil, why save it? Why not create a new one? Because the soul isn’t evil, it was created by God when the reproduction of the flesh occurred (Gen 2:7). Jesus is the Reason, but we are the purpose, we don’t take pride in the issue, but it does make one humble.
In the process of the cleaning we found there were things of the darkness we hated, or things we didn’t like, but there are fleshly or worldly things we retained, because we still liked the feeling they produced. When the things we hated left, we jumped for Joy, when the things we liked were being removed we were displeased, we cried, murmured, complained, or fought the process. The old nature uses “feelings” as a trap, remember how good it used to feel? Why not do it again? The rulers of darkness have feelings, enticing elements to tingle the flesh as bait, in order to trap the mind. Pride, self-pity, self-glory, feeling superior over others, feeling morally superior, or desiring to be affiliated with a certain religious group to feel more moral than anyone else, or more special than the rest of the Body are lustful desires. Using anger to control others, or manipulation to dominate others generate feelings, but from the wrong source. Discernment by the Word in us identifies the feeling as well as the source before it becomes an act. We must understand the Cross was a massive division point, all things on the other side the Cross either died or became ineffective. Once we find the imputed dead flesh is the element seeking the feeling from darkness, we can use our God given Authority in a Godly way to be free indeed. So, is it wrong to have feelings? No, it’s wrong to have feelings run your life, or guide you into areas you should not be.
We can enter a taste not, touch not theology, and feel “good” in our efforts, but we also have fallen from Grace. However, praise the Lord this is not a “once fallen, always fallen” situation. First John 5:16 tells us to pray for a brother who has sinned, this verse has nothing to do with praying someone into the Kingdom, rather the context is a “brother”. James tells us “Brethren, if any of you do err from the Truth, and one convert him; let him know, he who converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20). This is directed at a “brother”, like Peter who denied the Lord three times, yet was told by Jesus, “and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren” we find we can fall into error, but it’s not the end, just a small detour on the path of Righteousness (Luke 22:32). We are not of them who draw back to perdition, but of them who believe unto the saving of the soul (Heb 10:39).
Jesus offends the strongman, rips apart the stronghold, exposes the foundation (Matt 12:29). The strongman and stronghold are facades, the strongman has eyes seeking self-satisfaction, the stronghold uses self-based fables seeking its own, both of these are attempting to form a natural corrupt foundation. The old man could care less if we paint the stronghold white, or hang a cross on it, as long as we keep it intact. The old man goes into a panic the second we join forces with the New Man, at the moment the union between the soul and Spirit takes place, the old nature becomes a stranger, no longer able to fool us. The Power to overcome the flesh, or old nature has been around since the Cross, it became effective for us when we believed it.
God’s Spirit bears witness to our Spirit (New Man), as Deep still calls to Deep. When there is a work going on inside of us by the Spirit it begins Deep, then works to the surface. Natural man on the other hand attempts to change the outward product assuming it will change the inward; however, in man’s case it’s just another mask, in God’s case it’s a cleaning unto perfection through Justification.
We are Transformed by Mercy, Transfigured by Grace, the saving of the soul is a transfiguration process moving us between stages until we become the Image of God’s Son. When we begin to see the hope of Salvation, the old man will challenge us, complain, get mad, murmur in his tent, gripe, or attempt to use the pride of life to save himself. The New Man is encouraging us to continue on, a battle is taking place, one which is internal, but leads to a newness based in the confidence of Christ.
Any ministry isn’t worth it’s salt unless it has the experience to back it up; many of the events we have experienced were merely teachings to prepare us for a ministry. How can we minister to people, if we can’t say “been there, done that, yet God set me free”? We need not experience the exact event someone else is going through, but we must have an experience of God’s deliverance in our lives. Talking about the experiences of others is not the same as living them. Telling someone exposure is a good thing, when all we do is avoid it, is not Godly ministry.
God removes the self nature little by little, increasing the growth of the Seed (Ex 23:30). Denying the self is denying the self nature a role in our lives, it’s the rejection of our lustful desires, natural agendas, or worldly ambitions. The self nature uses subtle ways and methods as a hidden agenda, but the Mind of Christ doesn’t play games. The old man hates to give up, he fights for control, yet he is no longer effective, the only weapon he has are suggestions. Paul said, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word (Rhema) of God (Rom 10:17), the opposite would be true as well, faith goes by hearing, and hearing by the flesh.
Knowledge comes by the Logos, but Faith comes by hearing, we need both the Logos and Rhema to gain the victory. Jesus said, “He who has an ear, hear what the Spirit says” (Rev 2:29). Faith comes, but it takes an ear to receive it. Mark 16:16-18 will show us how the disciples were upbraided with their unbelief, yet Jesus still told them to “Go”. Then Jesus told them someone would hear and believe, for those who continue to believe the signs will follow. It was important for the disciples to believe, but even if they didn’t they were still to “Go”, since someone would hear, then believe. However, we also see the disciples repented, then believed, as the signs followed them, thus it’s always possible to change from unbelief to belief, it is a matter of choice (Mark 16:18).
To protect the beam in our eye, we will form a self-deceived theology, or go about saying, “God made me this way”. What is worse is the false concept of the Body of Christ receiving all sorts of sinners, but leaving them sinners; it has to be the biggest deception of all, we came into this as sinners, in order to be saved. One cannot enter the Body and retain the sin nature as a matter of “that’s just me”. The “just me” needs to be nailed to the Cross, it has no place in the Kingdom.
Neither did Jesus bring us into this so we could brag, or boast in our religious endeavors. If we are still prideful, ego infested, seeking the self benefit, concerned about the cares of this world, using our self nature to control others, or seeking God for self-pleasure, we can be assured God didn’t make us worldly, rather the spirit lusting to envy made us worldly. We simply liked the feeling, thus we didn’t want to change. It’s scary, yet it’s exactly what makes the legalist a legalist. The difference between a legalist who says they are Christian, and a Christian, is the Christian knows without Jesus they are nothing, the legalist thinks without them, the Body is nothing.
The Christ Nature removes us from facing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by bringing the Tree of life into our lives. Adam’s Tree of Life was external, ours is internal. It doesn’t mean we won’t face danger, or face temptation, rather it means we have a source to detect those areas, with a better method of dealing with them. When man uses the pride of life to suppress the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eye, he is merely using mind control to suppress the urge, but at some point in time the urge will overtake him. Sin without power is merely a small voice of suggestion, but sin with power is an overcoming force. All the stories of the leaders who fall, the mass killers who attended church, the various people who murder in the name of God, the self-proclaimed prophets, or whackos all used the pride of life to counterfeit Grace, they all paid the price. God did not intend it to be the case, yet we are the ones with the Keys. Nonetheless God works things into the plan to benefit His children. How could the Wicked benefit us? Knowing it’s possible to end Wicked for one, the premise keeps us fighting the good fight of faith.
Jesus was betrayed from within the group, not from without. The enemies of a man are in his own household. The New Man is fully able to detect the wiles of the wicked, the Greater He is always Greater than the wile. The Word of God is Always Sharper than Any two-edged sword, it’s fully able to divide for clarification (James 1:21). The Word in us is not a Two-Edged Sword, it’s sharper than one. The first place is internal, then we will be able to discern and deal with the external. The Law of Moses worked with the external, while it ignored the internal, but the Law of the Spirit works with the internal, by imputing the external dead.
The self nature looks to the flesh, the Christ nature to the Spirit. Our souls are between the flesh and Spirit fighting a fight only the New Man can win, thus we must put on the Armor of God (New Man). When we came to Jesus, we were given the promise of life, with the opportunity to reach life more abundantly. We can only enter the promise by first obtaining life (mercy), then being baptized with the Holy Ghost to obtain the Spirit as we continually believe unto life more abundantly.
The devil can’t cross the Blood, he does send the self-transformed as messengers of Satan with their thorns (darts). Darts still need a target to be effective, no target, no damage. The saving of the soul places us in the Armor of God, while in the Armor we find God is removing the targets, while at the same time protecting us from the darts. The Armor of God works by its own power, we don’t need to wax it, or shine it, it is fully able to protect us from the wiles of the enemy.
It all began with Repentance, yet there are different types of Repentance, Judas repented himself, or entered self-repentance, he was remorseful, but only because things didn’t turn out the way he wanted. Judas saw his plan fall apart, then he sought restoration through the religious leaders by attempting to give them back the money, thus he felt he could buy his repentance. There are those who repent to avoid the immediate danger, which is also an act of self-repentance, it’s short lived. The fruit of repentance is an awareness of how sin effects us, what it does to others, and a true guilt for the wrongs caused others, including the wrong caused God. Peter looked at Jesus and knew what he did, causing Peter to weep bitterly. Judas felt remorse and guilt, but was more interesting in himself, than his wrong, thus the wording, “repented himself” (Matt 27:3). Someone once said, “So, do you think Jesus would be mad at me if I wanted them dead?”. It’s not the question, rather the question is, “Do you care if Jesus is mad, or disappointed in you?”. As a Christian our concern is how Jesus views us, true repentance takes the view of Jesus into consideration.
Regardless of who we think we were, we have all sinned and come far short of the Glory of God. However, it’s like being on the other side of the lake. We are not sin, or are we sinning, rather we have all sinned, a past tense phrase. Once we passed the Cross, we moved to the side of the lake where sin has no power. The same is true with the law of sin and death, we were under the law of sin and death even if we weren’t a Jew, but when we came to the Cross we imputed the flesh dead, in so doing completed the purpose of the law of sin and death. Now there is no condemnation in those in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Rom 8:1). What does it mean? We can place our minds on an attempt to make the flesh look holy, but if we do, we are then flesh minded (thinking of the flesh). We can put our minds on the Spirit of Christ, if we are Spirit minded (thinking of the Spirit), the flesh is no longer be a problem. The results of minding the Spirit produce spiritual people, but if we mind the flesh we have to do so second by second, the second we let up, the flesh will take advantage. Minding the Spirit causes the flesh to lose its power to deceive, the more we walk with the Spirit, the less the flesh becomes a concern. If we mind the Spirit, then we are saying we are Spirit, making the flesh is no longer active. It was completely out of the question for the Jew, since it was not possible through the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses was not designed with the Spirit in mind, rather it demanded for the doer to mind the flesh. Therefore, those with the Spirit required a New Law for the New Nature.
Under the Old Covenant the Jews felt a man who had lustful thoughts of adultery, yet refused to engage in adultery was more righteous than a person who never had thoughts of adultery. The same was true with pork, the person who desired to eat pork, but refused to, was considered more righteous than a person who never thought of eating pork. What did Jesus say? If one thinks (ponders, plans, or places their mind) on adultery they have already committed it. He wasn’t putting the Jews down, He was showing there was a better way, a way to be Free from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. The Way is Grace, the New Man, being Born Again, having the Fullness of Christ in us as the Hope of Glory. However, it is a Process (or did we say that?).
Repentance involves our understanding of our inability, with faith in God’s ability. Part of our repentance is to follow the procedure set forth by the Lord, which begins with our commitment to forgive as we are forgiven. “Well, you don’t know how many have hurt me”. No, but do you know how many you’ve hurt? “Who me?”. Those under the hand of the prince of the power of the air use his methods, we were no different. Disobedience is disobedience, yet all unbelief is disobedience (failure to believe, or think about the consequences of ones actions). A great many of us have no idea of the damage we have done to others, things said without thinking, things done without thinking, or things said for the purpose of justifying ourselves, while putting the other person in their place. What we thought was a cute, or clever saying, or something we did to defend ourselves, or even making a joke about someone were all means the enemy used to get us to plant tares in others. “Well, all I did was tell the truth”. When we were in the world we didn’t have a clue to what the truth was. We thought our opinion was truth, we went about telling everyone our opinion then called it ‘”truth”. Most of the time it generated strife, or caused wrath, then we said, “what’s wrong with them?”. We used the sword of terror, or the self-based words of corruption, just as all the children of disobedience. Of course it was all we knew, thus we were limited by our capabilities. Then the Cross of Jesus entered our lives, and Behold all things became New.
When Paul was still Saul he felt killing Stephen was an ordained Godly duty, an act God would honor, yet we know Stephen was a man filled with the Holy Ghost. Do we think Saul (Paul) knew Stephen was a man of God? Not for a second, he felt Stephen was attempting to destroy the Law of Moses, it was all Saul (Paul) needed to gain the incentive to kill him (Acts 7:58). After Paul was converted he knew the killing of Stephen was sinful, but did he carry the guilt with him? No, he knew God was able to forgive the past, making a New man out of Saul (Acts 22:20). From Saul the Christian killer to Paul the saint, really when Paul was Saul the Christian hunter he was a terrorist. The point being, instead of thinking about the hurts done to us, we need to forgive as God forgave us. The old nature turns the premise around by saying, why should we forgive? We need someone to proclaim our innocence, someone to validate us, then we will consider forgiving. The premise is how we forgive in the same manner as God forgive us; by the words of Jesus. How would we like to explain to God each and every sin we committed? Most of us have no idea of how many sins we committed, how many times we hindered someone, belittled them, mocked them, or sinned in many other forms, including using the old man to engage in what we felt were “good acts”. It’s far better to make the decision to forgive, enter God’s Mercy in order to impart forgiveness to be free indeed. It was once said unforgiveness is like taking poison hoping the other person dies.
The children in the wilderness were told by God how He was in the process of testing them, so they could appreciate and care for the rewards they would gain in the Promised Land. Yet, they interpreted the testing as punishment and presumed, “we’re going to die”. The Test secures us in the Reward, but we can’t jump over the test, expecting to land on the Reward. There is a Diligent Seeking to take place, at times it may appear as if God has left the building, but He hasn’t, we need to do some Diligent seeking, therein lays the Victory.
In the testing we are able to cast off the self agendas, then line up with the Report God has for us. The children failed to mix the Word with Faith, which tells us when we think destruction is the purpose for the testing, we’re not thinking in faith. They wanted the Prize, but they wanted God to be their slave. They wanted God to perform for them, to answer their beckon call. Their concept of faith was if they were happy, God must be. Yet we find God was not pleased with many of them (I Cor 10:5).
Jesus said, “whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt 16:25). The Greek word used for Life is the same one translated as soul, the meaning is the same. There is a paradox in this, our old “life” was a “soul-life”, not a “living soul”, as a flesh centered life depending on the soul, thus it was a “walking death” waiting to happen. The paradox? When we came to Jesus we came to die so we might live, thus in dying for Jesus we live. Instead of a walking death, we enter a walk by faith; instead of facing the second death, we find we are free of it. This paradox shows we thought we had life, but it was death, in dying we were dying, but we were granted the opportunity to impute the flesh dead, so we could have the Power of the Resurrection unto true Life.
When we entered the kingdom of heaven we became kings, but it doesn’t mean the world is subject to us, rather it means we are no longer subject to the world. The position gave us a certain supernatural power, thus when a king speaks, a law is invoked. If we use corrupt communication we are invoking evil laws into our realm, if we use words of Mercy and Grace we are establishing Peace. The principle of being a king is a paradox in its own, if we are all kings, who then are our subjects? Could you be mine? No, you are a king, could I be yours? No, I am a king, who then are our subjects? Things are our subjects; concepts are subjects as well. If we say no priesthood in our kingdom, there is none. If we say no Mercy in our kingdom, it’s vanquished. Of course we will face the King of kings regarding how we kept our kingdom order. On the other hand if we grant principalities, or areas for the things of God, we will find our kingdom filled with Godly elements. Kingdom rule has many facets, two people say they are of the Body, one swears by one thing, the other by another, yet both feel “comfortable” in their stands, how can this be? They are kings, what they condone in their kingdom, is condoned. What they reject is vanquished, it’s far better to accept the Godly into our kingdom, than the wiles of the enemy.
The Restored soul is not the same as the Saved soul, although being restored is part of the Process. There are verses to help us in the area of the salvation of our soul, First Peter 1:9 tells us the purpose (or end) of our faith is the salvation of our souls; therein we find the primary purpose of faith. Hebrews 11:1 tells us faith has a source, yet it also has a display in the present as it looks for a future goal. Faith is seen, yet Faith is the evidence of things unseen, some of us twist it into thinking faith produces the unseen. It’s not what the verse says, rather it says faith is the product of the unseen, yet faith can be seen. Faith is the Now issue, based on the unseen, reaching to the unseen, but the Now is visible. By the manner in which one uses their faith we can detect the source, some have faith in their intellect, or theology, some in their abilities, showing the source is carnal and self-based. Some have faith in God, showing the unseen is the New Man.
The “unseen” which supports or produced our faith can be present tense or future, or both present and future. The present tense is the Spirit of Truth, the unseen New Man within us holding the promises of God, the future is of course the Hope waiting at the finish of the race, yet we must run the race in a lawful manner. Faith has many elements, one of those is the assurance of whatever gift we receive from God, we treat or use in a Godly manner. Faith must begin by believing God Is, then faith must always be diligent in seeking God (Heb 11:6). The very premise of God Is shows a present tense belief, the seeking points to the future. If our faith is seeking anything other than God, we have twisted it into the self. Not very wise.
James is a book written for us, but to the dispersed Christian, who were once Jews who lived among the Gentiles. In Acts 15 James and the other apostles sent a letter to the Gentiles, the Book of James is another letter sent to the Jews among those Gentiles. To a Jew a “rich” person is one who is presented the Promise; a “poor” person would then be a Gentile. James shows there is neither Jew or Gentile, but if a Jew remains too much a Jew, they could end killing the just, attempting to save them. The premise being, one can become legalistic in their thinking by imposing regulations on others they themselves can’t keep (Acts 15:10). A hypocrite is one who judges others under them, but they do so based on the false premise they are doing what others are not. The Pharisees felt they were so holy the Law of Moses was coined after them, but Jesus said they would do the lusts of their father the devil, and they did.
In the Book of James we find the works of faith include asking for the Wisdom of God, then using it accordingly. Wisdom is the manner in which one deals with events and people, if one uses the wisdom of the world (natural man) they are using an element based in earthly (void of heavenly knowledge or awareness), sensual (soulish, void of spiritual awareness), and devilish (void of Godly attributes – James 3:15). The result of earthly wisdom is strife, envy and confusion, all products of the spirit lusting to envy.
On the other hand the Wisdom of God is first Pure, what you see is what you get, no masks, or games. Then it’s peaceable, able to sow peace, it’s gentle, full of good fruits, easy to be entreated (teachable), without partiality, and without hypocrisy (James 3:17-18). Didn’t Jesus show partial treatment toward James, John and Peter? After all, they were able to go to places the other disciples were not. No, being partial doesn’t mean picking people over others, it means exalting people who can benefit us personally. James points out the faith of Jesus showed us something, the something is also part of the attributes of Wisdom (not being partial, James 2:1-3). The family of Jesus showed up at a meeting, the people felt Jesus would show them a greater honor than others in the group, but Jesus said, “whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt 12:46-50). We also find a division, there are those who do the will of the Father (Mercy), as well as those who don’t, yet only those who do the Will of the Father are members of the family of Jesus. In either case the decision was not based on the personal benefit for Jesus, but the benefit for the person who does the will of the Father. It was also the separation point between the Just, and the workers of Iniquity (Matt 7:21-23).
The saving of the soul then demands the Wisdom of God in order to operate in the Nature of Christ, thus operating in the Wisdom places us among the Family of God. The ability is also defined in James as having the Engrafted Word in us, this is not the Bible, but the Spirit in us as the Logos, a product of the New Birth (James 1:21). We know Grace cannot be earned, but in order to do the things of Grace, one must have Grace. The Engrafted Word is the result of Grace being active as part of our soul, the Spirit of Truth is the Greater He bringing us to the point of our souls being Spiritual.
Our part in the Engrafted Word process is to put away superfluity and naughtiness, then receive with meekness the Engrafted Word which is Able to Save our Souls (James 1:21). The word Superfluity means Excess, or going beyond what is required. At times we pick up bits or pieces from the Law of Moses thinking we are better, but it’s defined as Superfluity. God tells us to do one thing, we add more thinking we’re doing more. We’re not, we have entered Superfluity, an interesting concept since rebellion often goes beyond the requirement in order to take pride in the effort. Saul did it, thus he felt he did all the Lord commanded, but he found it was rebellion as he went beyond the commandment (I Sam 15:23).
The word Naughtiness refers to disobedience, or something improper, it means not doing what is required, which is what the workers of iniquity do. The two words keep us in order, do what is required, don’t attempt to go beyond, or come up short, allow the Word to become Engrafted, then walk in the Wisdom of God as God intended.
James 2:22 tells us to be “doers” of the Word, the Word again is the Logos in us (Spirit). The word Doer is the Greek Poietes, which was translated as Poet in Acts 17:28, it means one with beautiful thoughts, or a keeper of a precept, the word comes from the Greek Poieo meaning an Action, connecting to “let him ask in faith”, meaning the desire and determination to have the Wisdom of God as a working part of ones life: or as James put it, “let patience have her perfect work” (James 1:4). So, what does it mean? It means there will be experiences in our life where Wisdom will be required, our souls will soon find the Word Engrafted works by the Authority granted us.
Patience means keeping the course until the goal is reached, no walking on the water, no turning to the right or left, but remaining steady on course; really Patience would be not going beyond, or coming short of the requirement, but a desire to reach the goal.
Hebrews 4:12 connects to James 1:21, showing us the Word of God in us is working all the time. It’s “quick” or Life based and centered, working on the things of life, not death. The Word is again the Seed of God, the same Seed the Sower planted in us, granting us the Born Again position, also known as the New Man, Another Comforter, or Christ in us the Hope of Glory. The Word is sharper than any two-edged sword, thus it’s not a sword, but shaper than one. In the Book of Revelation we find Jesus with a two-edged sword coming from His mouth, so is the Word greater than Jesus? Hold it, Jesus in the Book of Revelation is the “Judgment Jesus”, the Word in us is the “Salvation Jesus”, thus the Word in us will spare us from the wrath of God to come.
The context of Hebrews 4:12 is very interesting, it points to the duties of a priest preparing a sacrifice, the cutting away and division are not to separate, but to open up so the inner areas can be inspected, for us it points to discernment. The purpose is so we are open and naked before God, no masks, no games, just open (Heb 4:13).
Hebrews is to us what Leviticus is to the Jewish priest, we are made priests, so wouldn’t it be nice to find out what our priestly Order consists of? Yes, we will, but we also find as priests we inspect, yet give sacrifices as well, not like the priests of Old, but like those under the New Order. We give ourselves a living sacrifice, we give the sacrifice of praise, we partake in the elements of the Sacrifice of Jesus. There is a difference between praise and entertainment, just as there is a difference between worship and entertainment, just as there is a difference between prophesy, and asking God to perform.
The entire premise shows none of this is possible without the Word in us, the Logos of God is the Spirit of Truth bringing us into a spiritual nature. Once we know we are the blessed of God because we are in the Body of Christ, the only place where the words “shall be saved” are a reality, we can add joy to our faith knowing this valley has victory. Instead of counting the stripes from the last battle, we diligently seek God in all things; knowing if we’re involved in the event, then “God Is”. If we continue to look at the stripes we will become bitter, yet bitterness is the root of defilement (Heb 12:15). The old man keeps telling us “look what you’ve been through”, but the New Man says, “God has delivered you again”. It’s the point isn’t it? We’ve been through it, it’s done, it’s time to move on with the lesson in hand.
All this shows us the truth of Hebrews 4:12, “For the Word (Logos) of God is quick (alive) and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul (Psuche) and the Spirit (Pneuma) and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. There is a difference between the joint and marrow, a difference between the soul and Spirit. The Greek words used for joints and marrow are only found in Hebrews 4:12, today we know the marrow is not in the joint, rather the marrow is found in a few select bones as the blood producing agent. The joint is not the bone, but the place where two or more bones join to produce movement. Since we find the plural (joints), we also denote more than one movement. The Body of Christ needs joints to move the Body, without movement we are not a Tabernacle, but a Temple.
Between the Marrow in the bone and the Joint we find bones: without bones in our body it makes it a little difficult to “stand”. This also shows there is an “unseen” element producing our ability to Stand. The Word in us sits between elements, bringing clarity in the division, at the same time bringing us the ability to stand. Paul says the New Man is in us, yet he tells us to Put on the New Man as well, then he tells us to put on the Armor of God. Yikes, far too many clothes for me. Wait if we put on the New Man, we are putting on the Armor. The New Man is fully able to protect and teach us in the process.
The joint without the bone has no purpose, the marrow without the bone is useless, they each need bones, or they lack purpose. Our souls cannot define the intent, or expose tares, or heal itself, but the Word in us is always fully able to accomplish the tasks. In the process we need to identify elements, things we called “friends from the past” are often hidden time bombs waiting to destroy us. The old man attempts to hide intent by projecting a false intent. All thoughts have an intent, thus intent is a reason for the thought. Most know their thoughts, few if any know their intent. The Word in us will separate the thought from the intent, we will be able to see why do things. Some of us have a thought, it sounds right, even wise, but what is our intent? The thought and intent are different, the thought is the method we use to set the plan in motion, but the intent is the impulse behind the motive bringing the thought. The intent can be self-based, or Christ based. The thought tells us little, the intent tells us much.
The phrase, Dividing Asunder, comes from the Greek word, Merismos; this word is also found in Hebrews 2:4, only translated as gifts. The definition of Merismos is a separation to detect the difference, without dividing the elements apart from one another. By the Greek word Merismos only being used twice, both times in the Book of Hebrews, it tends to show it’s a Priestly related word. The “gifts” in Hebrews 2:4 in the phrase, “bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost”, thus it could read “separations of the Holy Ghost”, either would be correct, since the Merismos is by the Gift of the Holy Ghost in us; therefore, the Merismos is only conducted by the Holy Ghost gift of the Holy Spirit in us, no book, no formula is going to give us this precious attribute of God.
The Word in us will separate for clarity to bring us into the Unity of the Faith, but the Word will not Divide the Body. The Word in us will correct, but it will not attack someone. The Word in us will expose, but it will not slander. The Word in us is all God, but it’s not all God is. The Word in us is centered on Salvation, not Judgment. We have the Mind of Christ, but we don’t have the “Mind of the Lord” (I Cor 2:16). The Mind of the Lord knows more than the Mind of Christ, although one might say, “they are the same”, they are not. Christ is not the last name of Jesus, it’s His title, just as He is Lord, He is Christ. We have the Mind of the Anointing (Christ), yet it’s limited to the function alone. The New Man, or Word in us has two functions, to Witness Jesus, and to save our souls. The call and anointing in the New Man is so strong and powerful in those two regards, we find if we hinder, grieve, or vex Him, He will turn and become our enemy (Isa 63:10-11, Eph 1:13 & 4:30).
The broken Body of Jesus is not an act of God, rather it’s caused when the Wicked attempt to divide the Body through strife by introducing doctrines of men, or devils. It’s really no secret the Body is divided into more parts than there are countries. However, the Church is not divided, neither is it in trouble, or feeble.
The Wicked made Jesus their Savior, they are saved from the world, they even had the Knowledge of Jesus as Lord and Savior, but they are still in bondage to the flesh (II Pet 2:18-22). They lay in wait to deceive, thus they have deceived others so much, they are deceived by their own deceivings. This explains Romans 8:1, there are those in Christ who walk after the flesh, but most walk after the Spirit. The Wicked teach the traditions of men as doctrine, they twist verses, use verses out of context, in order to prove an un-provable point. The doctrine of devils is not teachings about devils, it’s what devils teach, which is unbelief. The Word in us will discern false elements, or traits of unbelief and doubt, while giving us reasons to believe. The Word is Progressive, always moving forward to the goal, yet not casting off what is good and right. Although the Broken Body is not a product of God, we find God worked it into the plan, just as He worked the vessels of dishonor into the plan.
An act of Merismos would be like the dove in the sacrifices we studied in the Old Testament, they were divided, but not completely parted. Rather they were opened so the inside becomes evident on the outside. This is what the Merismos does in us, what is hidden becomes evident to our minds, before it becomes an act. Confidence comes when we know for sure it’s God, rather than a mask of self-confidence. Another Greek word containing Merismos as a root word is found in Luke 12:51 as the Greek Diamerismos meaning a clear cut parting between items, thus the addition of the Greek Dia shows the division to separate the parts, where Merismos shows an opening for clarity without separating the parts. We don’t want to pull the soul from the Spirit, we want to detect which is which while they are yet joined. The Spirit never listens to the flesh, but the soul will from time to time, the Word makes the clarification for us.
Jesus said He came to bring diamerismos between the father and son, mother and daughter, but this refers to the Old and New Covenants, not our natural families. In the wilderness we are separated from the Old, by gaining power and knowledge of the New. We only “wilderness wander” when we hinder the process, the New Man is determined to get us to the Promised Land.
The Greek word for Discerner in Hebrews 4:12 is Kubernetes, this is the only place where we find this Greek word, it means To judge clearly, or To judge with the intent of instruction. It connects to, “he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ” (I Cor 2:15-16). Division is Godly judgment, Jesus separates the goats from the sheep, thus the Judging going on in us helps us with judging things externally. We no longer judge people, but we do judge things. When we know the “thing” is ungodly, we don’t participate.
Within the Born Again Believer we find the Word taking the masks off the hidden elements of danger, exposing those spies who came in to destroy us, yet claimed to be our “saviors”. We learn what we thought was confidence turns out to be pride. What we thought was protection for our hurts turns out to be unforgiveness. What we thought was clever, turns out to be corrupt communication. These all help us in the division of natures, the more we join to the New Nature, the more the old nature dies off.
Pride will hide behind most anything, even the false assumption of since we’re in the Body, we can do no wrong. When we have a “corruption eruption”, yelling, screaming or belittling a person, then say “Well God wanted them to know”, we lie. God wanted someone to know something, but it was us, not them. It was those corrupt things we’ve been hiding from, which all of sudden appears for us to see. Self-justification is the mask used by pride, we will use all sorts of excuses, even “righteous indignation”, yet the source was bitterness, or anger, or pride retained. We even formed the thought of, “we were right and they were wrong”. We assume being right gives us a right to hold unforgiveness, but we can be factually right, yet spiritual wrong. There is a way which seems right to man, but the end thereof is death; we can be right, yet dead (Prov 14:12).
The saving of the soul also entails the saving of our emotions, our emotions in and of themselves are not evil, but when emotions use the authority of the world they will control us, becoming rulers of darkness. The old man uses emotions to express himself, he could care less if the emotion out of control causes damage. Not only do the wild emotions under the power of the old nature hurt others, they end hurting us as well. We lose our temper, we yell, then we hit something, or someone, or do something destructive, indicating anger ruling over us. God brings emotions to the surface to expose the self nature, not glorify it. The saved emotion is a benefit, saved emotions allow us to praise the Lord joyfully.
The Spirit which is of God gives us great insight to the soul, the only way we can objectively view the soul is by the Spirit. No two wildernesses are the same, each path has different steps, but in all cases it’s the Spirit who accomplishes the task. Each point of faith was established from the foundation of the world just for us, each event brings us deeper into a relationship with Jesus. The New Man in us is a specific creation, just for us, all the victory is built in, all the effort to win is built in, it’s possible through God, it always is.
The Greek word Psuche is translated as soul and life, from this word we get the English word Psyche. The early Greeks understood man had a soul, but they exalted the soul of man as a god. Natural man hasn’t changed, he still exalts his mind as a god. Intellect still gets the best job, still exalts man in his social position, still seeks self-glory. The Greeks had many names for their gods and goddesses, Psyche or Psuche was one of those names. The unsaved Psuche is still the natural life style, based in the pride of life.
The lost soul is dangerous, the unsaved soul is deadly, there is a difference. The lost soul is still in the world, but the unsaved soul is one who comes into the kingdom, but refuses to accept the Spirit. The unsaved soul can’t tell the difference between the knowledge of the world, or the Knowledge of God, between the wisdom of man, or the Wisdom of God. The old self nature wants to get to heaven by its own merits, it wants to sit on the sides of the Mount of God by its own power and abilities. An attempt at the spiritual without the Spirit of Christ ends in witchcraft, even if there is some success, it’s still by the flesh and short lived.
Jesus told the Pharisees, “Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me” (Jn 5:39), and “I Am the bread of life: he who comes to Me shall never hunger” (Jn 6:35), and “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53). Here we find two elements not one, we must be the Bread, but we must have the Blood. Mercy and Grace are two elements, yet like the Bread and Blood they are connected, relating one to the other, while remaining separate. The Body is not Grace, since Grace is by the Blood of Jesus as the New Covenant, thus we enter Grace by the Blood, we enter the Body by the Mercy of God. When we gain the Spirit (Grace) then we have the Passport to come boldly to the throne of Grace (position) to obtain Mercy (condition), and find Grace (the position to maintain the condition). The prayer of faith gains mercy to heal us, but it’s Jesus who forgives our sins and raises us (James 5:13-15). However, if our actions show we are not discerning the Lord’s Body, or if we are making a religious rite out of the Lord’s table, we are open to the chastening of the Lord. It isn’t bad, since He chastens those He loves to keep them from being condemned (judged) with the world (I Cor 11:31-32). It’s time to worry when we know we’re playing mind games with God, yet we are not being chastened.
We must know by now no one is granted Grace without receiving the Spirit, and no one is Born Again unless it’s by the Holy Ghost (I Jn 3:9 & Rom 8:1-11). To find Grace we must come to the throne of Grace, but one can’t find Grace without obtaining mercy, and mercy entails forgiving others as God for Christ’s sake forgave us (Eph 4:32). God didn’t forgive our sins for our sake, He forgave our sins based on what Jesus said, thus our good works, or lack thereof had nothing to do with it. Once we enter the kingdom, we find this is Covenant, we do, God does: God does, we do, part of our duties is for us to deny the self, and pick up our Cross, as we seek the Kingdom and His Righteousness, then God will give reward us with the things.
On the surface the denial of the self seems easy enough, but when we dig into it, we find the price each of us must pay in order to reach the ability to follow Jesus. We can’t follow Jesus without the Spirit, if one doesn’t have the Spirit, they will attempt to make Jesus follow them. We are told to resist the devil steadfast in the Faith (I Pet 5:9), yet Jesus said “But I say unto you resist not evil” (Matt 5:39). The difference between the two statements is the word Faith. We can’t resist evil by mind power, or will power, rather we resist by submitting to the Spirit (I Pet 5:10). Putting our minds on the tares, evils, and corrupt matters isn’t going to vacate them. Putting our mind on Jesus, and seeking the fullness of the Spirit will remove us from the evil. Sitting in the mud battling the dirt isn’t victory, but allowing Jesus to pull us from the mud, then submitting to the cleaning action of the Word is victory.
The wall of pride is formed around our soul, it’s a stronghold we formed to protect the strongman (self), each brick is laid with corrupt mortar. Each of those bricks is made from soulish elements we thought were important, or concepts based in the wrong power and authority. The brick of self-righteousness is one, the brick of ego another, the brick of manipulation another, the brick of control, and so on. Within the stronghold are things we assume are treasures, those elements we don’t want anyone to know about. In many cases they consist of elements we don’t want to know about, so we hide them in corners. How can it be? Any of us can be self-deceived regarding some past pains, or thoughts, even areas which might be plain to others, but not to us. There are also tares planted directly by the enemy, some we planted in ourselves at the suggestion of the enemy, or they came with the flesh through the sin nature. On the same note, someone said something from the wrong source, we received it, then planted a tare in our soul. Jesus said the enemy came while men slept and planted the tares, but the tare was not exposed until it grew. The metaphor “slept” means unaware, someone said something, it took effect, as they planted a tare in us. A tare lacks the heart of the wheat, but they will grow as they form a root system. A “tare” is merely a plant appearing as wheat, but lacks the kernel, which is the heart or usable part of the wheat. A tare will fool even the elect, until it opens so the emptiness can be seen.
The Parable of the Wheat and Tares goes to the end times, but it also shows us how the enemy works. The tares are the works of the devil, in the Parable the tares are people, but it’s not the only thing the enemy plants. We are sent to destroy the works of the devil, Jesus already destroyed (made ineffective) the devil (Heb 2:14). It doesn’t mean we destroy people, thus the parable shows there are Good and Bad in the same field, just as there are Good Fish and Bad Fish in the same net (Jude 22-23). The Parable defines one field, in the field we find God planted some Wheat, but the enemy planted Tares then left, giving us the method of how the enemy works. The Parable above all else shows the enemy plants, then leaves. Often we see the result of the enemy, yet we think the enemy is still around; however, the enemy is gone, the result remains. We are not demon possessed, we picked up tares known as demonic hindrances absent life, they are centered on death. This method is one we find all the time, the devil knew the possibility existed for any of us to accept the call, thus he planted as many hindrances as he could. When the Wheat started to surface, the Tares were obvious. Don’t forget the tares have no heart, they are sent to choke and hinder the process. The workers of the field couldn’t remove them, it would take something connected to the “spiritual realm” (angels); thus the New Man is fully able to identify and remove tares. However, this is a Covenant relationship, it still takes our permission. The Parable also shows us how God planted Wheat, in our case the first wheat was the measure of faith, then we entered the Kingdom to receive the Stronger One who is fully able to heal and save our souls.
The enemy heard “He restores my soul”, then set out to put as many roadblocks (gates of hell) in place to stop the process, yet before he placed one, God had a way around or through each one for the gates for those who Love God, or are called according to God’s purpose. The enemy planted the tares, consisting of self-traits, misconceptions, pride, ego, pains, anything to cause us to miss the premise of being restored, yet anything not planted by our heavenly Father will be uprooted.
The saving of the soul is not a change in personally, although it may happen, but more than likely it’s the perfecting of our personally by ridding us of all the manipulation, nasty tones, or undue harshness. While we were in the world our soul followed the character of the world, the developed personality was formed by disobedience, thus causing our personality to be tainted, or corrupt. All these areas of darkness gave us a nature, supported by the old man (flesh). One day we prayed for God to save us, when God answered we entered panic. For some of us we didn’t like His method of restoration, the fight started. If anyone wants to see their enemy face to face, they need only look in the bathroom mirror. The old nature fights the things of God, often by calling the things of God of the devil. The old man would love for us to remain religious, to stop us from being Born Again. The old man will devise traditions, assuming we automatically gain the Spirit in water baptism, yet the Book of Acts shows two different baptisms, one in water, one by the Holy Ghost. Nonetheless, once we are Born Again our position changes dramatically, so much so the old man can be put off as easy as we take off our coat. It began when we submitted to the Cross, everything the old man used against us was nailed to the Cross, thus when we received the Spirit we received the Power to overcome. When the children crossed the Red Sea Pharaoh became powerless, but the ways of Pharaoh carried on. The wilderness was not to destroy Pharaoh, it was to remove the ways of Pharaoh from the minds of the children. God was training them to rule the Promised Land, not like Pharaoh ruled Egypt, but as God would rule, in Mercy. It was easier to get the children out of Egypt, then Egypt out of the children. This gives us the reason for the wildernesses we face, to rid us of Egypt thinking.
We get a better idea of the word Soul when we recall the English word Psyche comes from the Greek Psuche (soul). The study of the Psyche is called Psychology, termed the study of the thought processes of the mind of man; however, if this is applied by the natural mind of man it’s the blind leading the blind, or the corrupt teaching the corrupt how to be more corruptible, or the spirit of man teaching the spirit of man how to use the power of darkness through the soul, hardly Salvation (I Cor 2:11-13); however, by the manifestation of the Spirit we find a soul saving a soul. Psychology is still a study, not a performance, the word means “Study (logy) of (o) the soul (Psyche); who needs to study the soul, we need it saved. Any time anyone natural attempts to save man, the result is not salvation, but destruction. This is not against “psychology”, rather it shows Jesus said no man can save his own soul, which also means no natural soul can save a natural soul. Rather than run to a natural soul to heal our souls, we must have the Spirit which is of God, who will not exalt the pollution, He guides us to the solution. The New Man is not studying our souls, rather he is saving our souls.
Light always has power over darkness, God proved it in the very beginning. When we enter a room we don’t turn off the darkness, we turn on the light. When we leave the room we don’t turn on the darkness, we turn off the light. Therefore, the evidence shows Light has more power than darkness. When we want to destroy pride we don’t use the pride of life, we enter humbleness; therefore, humbleness has much more power than pride. Pride tells us humbleness is weak, but pride is the second biggest liar in all the world. Pride will tell us we must have some great ability in us, so great God couldn’t help but call us into the Kingdom. What ability? Control, Manipulation, Debate, Bitterness, or Natural intellect? Why would the old man say those things? To keep the power of the old man involved in the process. God gives us the Ability in Grace, the Spirit is fully able to train us, guide us and bring us to the result without any help from the old man. If we want to destroy rebellion, we submit to the New Man, if we want to destroy bitterness we obey the Spirit, if we want to destroy anger. The Witness is still the Water (Mercy of the Father), Blood (the Word), and the Spirit (Gift of the Holy Ghost), the soul is not the Witness, it’s the treasure being saved (I Jn 5:7-8); therefore we find natural man uses the lost soul to dominate the lost soul, hardly victory or freedom.
The areas of submission or love seem difficult at best, but whatever the Spirit tells us to do, He has also given us the ability to complete. The Spirit would not tell us to love one another, if it were not well within the realm of possibility. He would not tell us to submit, if it were not within our power to do so. Of course it depends completely on having the Spirit of Truth in us. Submission is not being someone’s doormat, rather it’s avoiding debates, arguments, in many cases allowing things to continue on their God given course.
When the Process, the Word begins to divide and separate, our souls say, “What is this? some blessing, I’m being cast down”; however, in those moments we find the truth of, “My soul melts for heaviness”, and “my soul is melted because of trouble”, but we also find, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, Praise ye the Lord”. Our soul thirsts for God, when the Living Water came our souls wondered, maybe even feared what was going on. During those times we can ask our soul, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why are you disquieted within me? hope you in God: for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the Health of my countenance” (Ps 42:11 & 43:1-5).
There are those, even in the Body who object to the premise of the saving of the soul, but it seems those who oppose the loudest, are those who still use the old man as their guide. They want Salvation, they simply don’t want to pay the price. They are the ones who jump and shout when they get God to do something they want, but they are also the same ones who attack when they don’t like what God is doing. We are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of them who believe unto the saving of the soul. If we just know the process, we will join in. The Method God uses for each of us is individual in nature, thus no two methods are going to be exactly the same. We are individuals, thus God works with us one on one, the command of “Follow Me”, is also predicated by “what do you care what I do with him, you follow Me”. Denoting how the Lord deals with us as individuals, if He was dealing with us all the same the command would be, “watch them, to see what I’m doing with you”. Paul told us to watch how he follows Christ, but it was not to follow him, but use him as an example of one following Christ (I Cor 11:1).
Some of us think Jesus receives us as we are, but plans on leaving us as we were. Truth says, Jesus received all of us as we were, but He plans on bringing a change into our lives by the Spirit. Why even give us the New Man if the old was sufficient? Desiring change without wanting to be changed is error. We read of the common everyday men named, Peter, James, Mark, Paul, Stephen, Philip and others, but we see how the Spirit changed these men into mighty workers for God. Yet, some of us have exalted them above measure, placing them far above us, but we did so to have an excuse not to be like them. We entered the lie of self-justification by saying, “oh it’s too bad it’s passed away, I can’t be like them now”. We have the same measure of faith they had, the evidence given us in the Bible proves how the Holy Ghost still plants the Seed of God. The Seed is still the Holy Spirit, thus we have the same opportunity to be changed into useful servants by the Spirit. God is still looking for someone who will deny the self, pick up their cross and follow Jesus. How can we ignore so great a cloud of witnesses?
The old man is the third biggest liar, he gets his information from pride, the second biggest liar, pride gets his information from the spirit of disobedience the first biggest liar. The spirit of disobedience gathered his information from the devil, the father of all lies. If our soul remains natural it will follow the voices of liars, causing us to reject the purpose for our faith. The old man is the first to say, “do you think the Bible is really true? Has God really said?”. When we accept his words, we begin to form our mind around them. Rather than believe the Bible, we question, or challenge it. We then hold to words of other unbelieving people who wrote their unbelief, then we lose the very foundation for our faith. There are the unbelieving out there who question the Bible, but using the words of unbelievers never negates our unbelief. Everything produces after its own kind, unbelief seeks words of unbelief, faith seeks faith; whichever we seek tells the tale.
It’s not strange, we followed the voice of the stranger for years, but then we changed positions from darkness to light, from bondage to freedom. Now we can discern the voice of the stranger, from the voice of the Great Shepherd. When God tells us our vision we say, “well now, let me look and see what others say about it”, or “brother I need confirmation on this”. Some of us are told directly by God, yet we tell God, “well, I don’t know, I better pray about this”. Pray about it? God just told us, who are we going to pray to? Sound silly? We all do it, God speaks and we wonder if its God. Some of us hear, and ask, “is it you God?”, we’re asking God if it’s Him? Some believe the devil talks all the time, yet God doesn’t talk at all. We must have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying, especially when we seek the saving of the soul.
The Saving of the Soul brings the soul to the one place where we find joy, peace, confidence, a place to become completely useful for the work of the ministry. Our souls were designed by God to be happy, willing and joyful servants, they were not designed to be their own master, nor did God design our souls to follow death. In the Beginning Adam was a “living soul”, the designer’s purpose. It was Adam who caused death to enter the world, not God. Although we know there was no life on the earth when God saw the void darkness, we also know Adam was the first to have moral choice. When Adam left the Garden and started the world, yet the planet was here prior.
Unbelief takes on all sorts of shapes, one is seeking the perfect formula. One to remove all question, but it also removes faith. Self-deception attempts to master the program with formulas, or theological jargon producing failures and frustrations. Someone does something by faith, we attempt to copy them looking for the same result, but they did it by faith, we’re not. There is a process God has ordained to bring about the result, His way is the only way in which we find victory. God may have us use another person as an example of following Jesus, but our method is still faith, not formulas. The Way of God is Spiritual in nature, to follow the way one must have the Spirit.
Another Greek word we run into is Pneuma translated as Spirit, Ghost or spirit, and once as “Life” in the Book of Revelation; there it doesn’t mean the image of the Beast is spiritual, rather it means those who once had life bartered it off to the image of the beast. From Pneuma we get the English word Pneumatic, or air driven; for example, the air filled tires on our automobile are called pneumatic tires. From the Greek Pneuma we get the Greek Pneumatikos meaning Spiritual, or Spirit Driven. Pneumatikos and Charismatic are basically the same, they keep us from being automatic (self-driven, or self-motivated).
However, from Psuche comes the Greek word Psuchikos meaning The natural nature of man, referring to the old man, who is automatic, or Natural (sensual). A close kin to Psuche is Pseudo (false), the unsaved Psuche leads one to being a Pseudo teacher, but the saved Psuche brings one to Charis Pneumatikos. If that born of the Spirit is Spirit, if the process was not open to man until Pentecost, then no man had a Spirit from God until the Spirit was given by the Holy Ghost (Jn 3:6 & 7:39). This shows the spirit of man is not from God, it becomes the spirit of disobedience, yet we in the Kingdom have the Spirit which is of God (I Cor 2:11-12).
The world tosses the words Spirit, Spiritual, Faith and Create around like water to dilute the importance of the words. If man already has a spirit from God, why seek God for the Spirit? If man’s measure of faith can accomplish the goal, why follow the faith of Jesus? If all dogs go to heaven, why bother? The devil brings his lies to trick us into tossing away (perdition) the promise, rather than believe unto the promise (Heb 10:35-39). There is a war going on, but for the most part the battlefield is within.
The Greek word Logos is translated as Word, or the spoken Word, or the Word used once, Jesus is the Word (Logos) of God (Jn 1:1). John 1:1 tells us the Logos was, thus when the Logos became flesh the door was open for us to have the Logos inside us so we can bring the Rhema. The Logos is the discerning knowledge of God from God, the Rhema is the ability for the Logos to function. The Logos and Rhema are different, the word Rhema means a series of words, or a connection of Logos to Logos extended to bring ability and clarity to the Logos, thus the Rhema brings the clarity and ability of the Logos. Hearing comes by the Rhema, thus the Rhema is also an attitude to hear the words of life and Spirit (Jn 6:63). For those who are Born Again they see the Logos as the Authority, the Rhema as the Power. The Report in heaven is not “Father, Jesus, Spirit”, it’s “Father, Word and Holy Ghost”; whereas the Witness is the Water, Blood and Spirit.
The Logos in us will divide and discern, while the Rhema applies the ability to finish the course of the division and discernment. It’s one thing to know something is wrong, another to fix it. Since the Logos is in us, meaning the Rhema is the action of the Logos, we find Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Rhema to give the Logos the Ability. Before there can be a Rhema of God, there must be the Logos, and the Logos (Jesus) projects the Rhema. Jesus (the Logos) said the Words (Rhema) He speaks are Spirit and Life (Jn 6:63). We tend to call the Bible “The Word of God”, but the Bible says Jesus is the Logos, thus the Bible testifies of Jesus. The disciples called the Bible the “Scriptures”, not the Word. The Scriptures are holy, being holy have defined themselves as Scripture, and defined the Logos of God as Jesus. Therefore, Jesus is the Word made flesh, thus to confess Jesus is come in the flesh, is to project the Logos in us by the Rhema. Jesus as the Word said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me”, thus showing the connection between the Logos and the Spirit. We also find there is the Rhema of God, and the idle rhema of man. There is the Logos of God, and the logos of man, just as there is the wisdom of man, and the Wisdom of God, and just as there is the knowledge of man, and the knowledge of God. Man’s logos is self based, producing idle rhema by the spirit lusting to envy; it stands if the envy is incapable of doing good, then the lust which produced it is also incapable of doing good, meaning the spirit who produced the lust is incapable of doing good. Without the Word in us discerning and separating we would use the idle rhema of man, thinking it’s spiritual, the world does it all the time.
There are elements called the “works of the flesh”: Uncleanness, Lasciviousness, Idolatry, Witchcraft, Hatred, Variance, Emulations, Wrath, Strife, Seditions, Heresies, Envyings, Murders, Drunkenness, Revellings, and Such Like (Gal 5:19-21). It doesn’t take long to discern how these elements are works of the flesh really begin mental in nature based on envy. These works are the result of something, they manifest from a source, thus fighting the manifested works doesn’t mean we have overcome the source. On the other hand, the Fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, and Temperance, Against which there is no Law (Gal 5:22-23); meaning the Law of Moses is opposed to the flesh. The Fruit identifies the tree, the tree identifies the source. In both cases we find the manifested evidence points to the source. In many cases we are in the process of the New Man removing the corrupt tree by the New tree.
Self-pity is a form of manipulation, a method to arouse the emotions of others, or trick them into giving us pity, allowing us to feel self-justified in our corrupt position. Self-pity wants to change the event to please the old man, Jesus called it a product of Satan (Matt 16:23). Having pity on others is much different from self-pity, when self-pity begins to come upon us, we must rebuke it, or it will fall into depression, from depression we fall head long into the pit of despair.
Compassion is felt for those who want to leave their position, pity is for those who don’t want to leave their position. Both compassion and pity are Godly, but only if they are applied to others with the intent of completing God’s will. Self-pity lacks the desire to leave the position by using, “woe is me” to justify itself. Self-pity is the personification of self-deception at work. When we pity our self, or tell others, to pity their self we are seeking the things of man (Matt 16:23). This same premise is true in telling others to believe in their self, we are never told to believe in ourselves, which is self-confidence based in the pride of life (I Jn 2:16). We are told to Believe in God, thus we have a Choice of what to believe, or even to believe. Whatever we believe becomes our foundation, faith is the projection to a hope, but our belief informed us of the hope. If we believe in ourselves, our faith will be self-based, it will fail in the time of crisis. Belief is not the unseen producing faith, but it is the springboard by providing information toward faith. Without Belief, Faith lacks direction. We read the Bible, we believe the promises, we act on those promises, thus our belief in what was written became a springboard to our faith to reach for the promise. Consider the destruction of unbelief, if we make the choice not to believe, our faith reverts itself to making up it’s own hope, then flying off in many directions, none of which is toward God.
This brings us to the two areas of our Will, we have a Will to do, or resist. The Pharisees used their Will to resist, but they used it to resist Jesus. Their Will to do, was used to bring about the Cross. They used both areas in reverse of the intended purposes. When we resist the devil we do so by doing something of God completely the opposite of what the devil is tempting us with. Our Power to do is found in the Power of His Christ, thus we do the things of Christ by the Power of Christ. We resist the devil by doing the things of God, this is seen in the phrase Resist the devil and he will flee from you, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, for God resists the proud, but gives Grace to the humble. Humbleness is a weapon of our warfare used to defeat Pride, as Pride becomes the calling card of the devil.
If we go after our soul to destroy it, we would be involved in a form of self-annihilation. It’s not our goal, self-annihilation leads to attempting to save our soul by using the fall nature. Neither do we want to lose our identity, rather we want to find our true identity in the character of Christ. We found we were not who we thought we were, in some cases who we were made us sick, now it’s time to find who God says we are.
Blessed means, a reason to be happy, in the midst of the fire we have a reason to be happy. If we don’t reach for it, we won’t find it. Any of us can die of thirst while looking at a glass of water. Personality is found in the soul, Character is found in the heart, if we merely change our personality, we are self-transformed, we need a Character change, to bring a personality suitable for the work of the Lord.
Tares cannot be removed by hours of natural psychotherapy, one can cut the top off a tare, but only the Word in us can remove it. Neither do we want to analyze, scrutinize, or exercise the old man, nor do we want to use our ability to remove a tare, it only produces more tares of a different nature. Jesus said unless we take care of the beam in our eye, we can’t help our neighbor with the twig in their eye. If attempt to puck out the twig with natural resources, we will only produce telephone poles in the person. God gave us the manifestation of the Spirit for a purpose, not merely to speak in tongues or prophesy, but to assist others in those one on one contacts (I Cor 12:7-11).
Replacing hurt with anger is not the saving of the soul, pushing unforgiveness down deeper isn’t freedom, learning “to live with it” is hardly freedom. We want to identify the methods of the old man, then stop entertaining, or exercising them. We must know when to say, “no Satan”, and when to say, “thank You Lord”, while not confusing the two. We must ask for, and receive the Spirit, then submit to the Spirit to become spiritual in nature. We need a New Heart, God will deliver it, if we ask.
In order to identify the soul, we must be identified with Christ. Each person is different, the Spirit is the only one who knows us, or knows how to remove the tares; therefore as the Holy Ghost is our Comforter, He has given us Another Comforter as the New Man. Jesus has come to us in the Spirit of Truth, thus the Spirit of Truth is the Greater He in us, the New Man, Another Comforter, the Ability and Power to complete this task before us. The New Man has the Joy of the Lord, the Joy is given so our Joy might be full (Jn 15:11). The New Man will Testify of Jesus, then we shall Bear Witness (Jn 15:26-27). God is Spirit, yet we have the Spirit which is of God, we can’t forget we are not God, but praise the Lord, we have the Seed of God in us by the New Birth.
Don’t forget the “word of our testimony” is not what we say about us, or what we say about Jesus, it’s what others say about us. Do we have to tell them we’re Christian? Or do they recognize our ways as being Christian? The disciples were first called Christian in Antioch, they didn’t go about telling others they were Christian (Acts 11:26, 26:28 & I Pet 4:16). It takes the Spirit, not constructive criticism to build a sound foundation. On the other hand we can count on the messengers of Satan to come with words of slander, to disrupt the word of our testimony, it happened to Jesus, and Paul.
When we use manipulation on our mate or on the congregation, they will adjust their actions to fit our thinking, rather than adjust their actions to fit the mind of Christ. We can’t judge others from our presumed position, neither can we judge others from our known position. Our Spirit filled witness removes excuses for anyone who is called, whether they are outside the kingdom or standing in the doorway. Jesus used people most of us won’t talk to, He used a woman who had been married five times before, yet when He talked to her, she was living with a man, not her husband. Most of us wouldn’t let her in the front door, but did Jesus cast her out? No, some of us would and have, but Jesus didn’t, He used her to evangelize an entire town. Jesus picked a man so full of demons, so much so they were called Legion, as soon as the demons were cast out, Jesus told this man to preach to his home town. Jesus picked a woman who was freed of seven devils to proclaim, “He is risen”. In each case the people sought change, then submitted to being changed by Jesus. They made a decision, their choices backed up their decision, they were set free. Jesus accepted these people in their condition, forgave their sins, changed their condition by granting them mercy, then He sent them to proclaim, preach, or act on His behalf. Jesus took a bunch of ignorant, unlearned fishermen, a lonely tax collector, and an outcast hot headed Pharisee to begin the Church. However, they were changed by the Power from on High to become very useful.
Today we have many learned men who tell us we don’t need the Spirit, or prayer is magic, or worse, they tell us the events recorded in the Bible are “doubtful”. A person with an experience with the Holy Ghost far out weighs a person with an opinion. These areas are not something we “try”, since the word “try” indicates no decision has been made. We can’t “try” faith, we can’t “try” Grace, we must make the decision, then allow the choices to follow our decision; therein we will find the joy of the Holy Ghost planting the Seed. Many of us fail because we “try” faith, our failure comes because we want to see something before we make the decision. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of something not seen, thus if we demand evidence to see before we apply faith, we will never gain: we try on clothes, we do faith.
Jealousy is the fear of losing something we think we possess, there is a spirit (strong attitude) of jealousy, this spirit is coupled with the emotions (Numb 5:14). Jealousy couples with anger forming thoughts to protect a supposed possession, even if we have to destroy it to keep others from having it. Envy is wanting something someone else has, or wanting something someone else has the potential to have, but envy refuses to walk the same path to get it. Envy will war to stop the person who does have it, even if it means destroying them in the Name of God. Wanting something someone else has, yet willing to walk the same path to get it, is not envy, if it was the case we would all be in trouble. God is a Jealous God, but in His case He owns all things, we find He also protects them, a much different form of jealousy than man’s.
Evil based envy can seek the anointing, the revelation, position, witness, light, ministry, blessing, or faith of another, but refuse to follow the same lawful means to obtain those benefits. Envy will fake it, counterfeit it, but when the real appears, it will react and come against the real to protect the fake. Many of the attacks against those who have the Spirit of Christ come from the envy of the person who is void of the Spirit, or from one who has failed to continue to believe. The religious rulers delivered Jesus to Pilate based on their envy, yet the Pharisees didn’t heal the sick, raise the dead, or preach with authority, but they did preach and teach. They were not Anointed Teachers, they taught what others said the Bible said, or talked about the Law or history, but they never understood the mysteries. There is a difference between someone who teaches history, and someone who teaches the Bible.
The envy of the Pharisees coupled with their pride caused them to attack the Anointing, rather than seek it. Korah wanted the position of Moses, but he refused to walk the same path to obtain it. The result was the ground opening to swallow him and his followers. God did a “new thing”, Korah found out some new things are not always pleasant things. Envy will cause us to rejoice in the fall of another, or we will cause the fall of a brother or sister who disagrees with us.
Most of the areas of the flesh we pass over, or equate with other cultures or times; witchcraft is not just putting a bunch of needles in a doll, rather it means anyone who uses natural means to reach for a spiritual condition, whether they obtain it or not. A witch doctor will use natural elements to join with evil spirits, to produce some self-based supernatural reaction. There are degrees of witchcraft, but any witch uses the deepest power of the devil, thus when the natural mind of man uses the spirit of man, witchcraft is the result.
The three realms of the physical, natural, and spiritual have been present on this earth since Pentecost, but the wicked are in no way, shape or form spiritual in nature. There is the super-physical and supernatural, the disciples operated in the supernatural power in the Name of Jesus before the Cross by healing the sick, and casting out devils, but the spiritual power is purposed to save souls, something they didn’t have until they received Power from on High. The supernatural power in the Name of Jesus is based in Mercy, the Spiritual in Grace. The disciples were not Born Again before the Cross, yet they cast out devils and laid hands on the sick, we have no excuse.
The Spirit brings three simple steps for us to be corrected and restored. First comes the revelation as the Spirit brings Light to our souls to expose the things hindering us. Next comes the transfiguration, as we make the decision to agree with the Spirit as the Process begins by the Spirit removing the Old by bringing some attribute of the New. Lastly is the manifestation, or the completed effort, when the Spirit finishes the work. Each of these are matters between the individual and the New Man. Every time a tare goes, the wheat grows. The self based soul hears the revelation, but uses the pride of life in some feeble attempt to make the tare appear as wheat. It’s an act of self-righteousness which never reaches the manifestation. We submit to the Lord based on our love for Him, if we love Him, we will do as He says.
There are warning signs of the self attempting to take ground, they are the deeds or wiles of the devil, what are they? A list to add to the list given in the Welcome Lesson includes: self-reliant, self-seeking, boastful, independent, prideful, self-motivating, self-centered, hard, hateful, self-worship, self-awareness, self-sufficient, self-pity, self-love, self-pleasing, self-willed, rough, clever, opinionated, pushy, demanding, trusting in one’s natural talent, ability or gift, manipulative (using anger, guilt, intellect, body language, affection, position or fear to get one’s own way), holding unforgiveness, unbelief or doubt, or seeking ways to gain revenge whether personally, or through prayer, using the power or authority of the world, or using the natural mind of man to accomplish spiritual matters.
We will be amazed of the things the Holy Ghost will show us, but it’s only when the Blade appears allowing us to see these things. We are still saved by Grace through Faith, not of own. Simply allowing God to do what God does by submitting to the New Man brings the Godly result.
We can now answer the question, “who can be saved?, by saying, “with man it’s certainly impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible for those who believe” (Mark 9:23). The Good News is Good, knowing what the Spirit is doing changes our sorrow to joy, rebellion to cooperation. Anyone can follow doctrine, tradition or the experiences of others, but God is looking for those who have faith in Him, those who are willing to make the decision to believe in God’s vision, those who receive and follow the Doctrine of Christ. Our goal is to reach the place where we can proclaim, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me”. Our Season is one of faith, hope and love in the Spirit. Is there proof Jesus is seeking a one on one relationship? Yes, it’s called the Gospel, or Good News, yet it begins with the Cross.
By Rev. G. E. Newmyer – s.b.i. les10 Rev11/©2003
