Pride leads to disobedience and carnality
Humanity has always wrestled with submission and obedience to the truth by taking life’s moral lessons into their own hands as a result of self-righteous pride, which is what the events leading to Adam and Eve’s eventual demise as spiritual novices suggest (1 Timothy 3:6, Proverbs 16:18, 1 Corinthians 15:45-49). Pride induces natural people to depend on their own perceived abilities to do good, understand, gain wisdom, and succeed in life, but we forget that God is the source of life, morality, power, knowledge, and the diverse abilities placed in individuals, and so we are often misdirected because of our different desires and education, which affects our reasoning abilities. We therefore need to humble ourselves to the truth of God’s Word, especially regarding issues related to morality where self-righteousness becomes endemic in religious people due to a lack of understanding of God’s grace, even though they know that God is graceful (Romans 10:1-4).
Though God imparts knowledge through intuition, fellowship, and conscience to our soul via the human spirit, it’s the soul that ponders on choices and makes decisions when applying that knowledge to our circumstances as we experience life in the natural environment. In other words, the visible natural world experienced by our five senses and our intellect, and the invisible spiritual world of morals, fellowship with God, and intuitive knowledge are analyzed by the soul, and a choice is made based on personal behavioral preferences or even social or financial benefits. The soul is, therefore, the catalyst for developing our character because it makes the choices stemming from both sources, i.e. knowledge from God’s Spirit and/or knowledge from what our five senses perceive in the physical world. The problem is that we use emotions and feelings when reasoning so that the decision is pleasurable to the soul and the flesh but not necessarily right for the greater good. What I found is that people, including myself, often tend to choose what appears pleasing to themselves and glamorous in the eyes of others which pushes us down the road of pride and carnality (desires of the flesh). That’s why the Holy Spirit (God) inspired the Bible (Word of God) to assist us in making the right moral choices, and not those choices that only appear outwardly good, flatter people, or puff us up (1 Corinthians 8:1). Unfortunately, most people make decisions based on what they feel might give them recognition and reward because of pride, as opposed to what’s right for the public at large, and therefore the reason governments and many businesses are corrupt and fail to serve the public/customers adequately.
Words are spirit and life or death
Words are spirit and life or spirit and death (John 6:63), so when we listen and follow our spirit or the Word, we follow God (life) and remain in God’s image and likeness and therefore strengthen that belief in our soul (mind, will, and emotions) through repetition, which becomes endued with love, joy, peace, etc, which is the fruit of God’s Spirit Galatians 5:22-23. In other words, even though the soul is made in the likeness of God, it still needs to develop spiritually by walking in the unity of the spirit as we experience challenges in physical life here on earth, as I believe God tests all His creation with challenges that can make us deviate from our moral obligations or God’s instructions, in which case, the soul takes a different path to the spirit and starts to become carnal through reasoning as it focuses on probabilities and doubt as it is led by the five senses instead of God’s spirit.
To hear and follow God is to have confidence that what we do is accurate and right, thereby generating peace and rest for our souls, instead of anxiety, frustration, and strife through reasoning, which normally comes when challenged by others, who through pride, want to promote themselves and debase others. Also, when diverting from God’s ways through reasoning or questioning the validity of God’s Word, we walk with another spirit (death) that is not of God, and thus we corrupt our soul and spirit because we are no longer walking by God’s Spirit which can result in our soul (mind, will, and emotions) being subjected to selfishness, jealousy, hatred, unforgiveness, offense, etc, and eventually the potential for crime.
Of course, our character comprises a mix of righteous and unrighteous aspects depending on choices made, nevertheless, once we have started accepting the unrighteous aspects of life we have started the slippery slope that can snowball until we walk in a spirit completely devoid of God’s moral qualities. We are spiritual beings, meaning that we are influenced by invisible spiritual forces, and thus it is the power of whatever spirit we accept through faith that empowers us to mold our beliefs and character, whether for good or for evil or a concoction of both good and evil. The latter is what I believe all people have been conditioned to become, knowingly or unknowingly, by the influence of the invisible world, resulting in destruction and death reigning on Earth.
We must be born again
To overcome our evil ways, we must be born again and therefore put on the new man and throw out the old man (Ephesians 4:24), meaning that we must renew our mind by discarding old habits and by listening and doing the Word of God to influence our soul in the right direction. The problem however is that our souls and bodies remain unchanged by the born-again experience because they have not been saved or regenerated as it is OUR responsibility to renew them by walking with God. This means that the soul has to make choices, either by continuing in the old ways or by renewing the mind to God’s ways, which takes time and dedication through learning the Word of God and thus growing in faith for our new walk in life. So God is responsible for giving us a regenerated spirit and the Holy Spirit to assist and empower us to overcome challenges, but we are responsible for renewing our souls (minds, will, and emotions) by the Spirit and Word of God.
The soul is the instrument by which God gives mankind free will to decide the course of action for to build character, and that’s why He gave us responsibility through the soul. Therefore we can only be saved in our souls (mind, will, and emotions), and truly stop sinning, once we start to understand and willingly walk by the Word of God, which is why God’s grace is extremely important to assist in our spiritual progress as our carnal souls align with our spirit. In other words, even after being born again, we will continue to sin out of our weaknesses as we (soul) grow spiritually, but by God’s grace condemnation is removed through confession (1 John 1:9) because God is just to forgive, Who sets us free and gives us peace and rest so that we can move forward into more righteous behaviors by the Spirit of God, and not by the law because the law makes us fall from grace, see Galatians 5:3-5. This freedom and rest will be impossible for someone who tries to be righteous by fulfilling the law of Moses as guilt and condemnation will be endemic and hamper progress because no one can fulfill the whole law at all times. Grace is therefore needed so that we can feel free from the sin we commit to continue our moral development without feeling guilty every time we remember our actions which affects our progress, and it is the blood of Jesus that clears our conscience from that guilt. The blood of bulls and goats could not clear man’s conscience because animals cannot stand in the gap for man and they do not have a conscience like man (Hebrews 10:1-4). However, God allowed animal sacrifice as a temporary measure to atone for sin until the faith came through Jesus Christ, who stood in the gap between man and God and cleared man’s conscience of sin.
Salvation starts with the regeneration of the human spirit (born again) when we confess and repent of sins and receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour by which we see and enter the kingdom of God here on earth, which God freely gives and wants for everyone, but is it up to us to renew the soul (mind, will, and emotion) by learning the Word of God and developing a relationship with God. Water baptism is also beneficial as a demonstration of faith to the public and God representing our death our past sins and our resurrection to a new life. It is most important to be baptized by the Holy Spirit if we are to walk in power in service to God so that the captive can be set free, and who will give the glory to God. If a person’s soul walks in agreement with the human spirit placed in us by God, it is obvious that that the person has maintained a relationship with God because the soul’s qualities conform to the human spirit’s qualities and thus has life, but when we do not have a relationship with God the soul’s qualities do not conform to the human spirit’s qualities because it veers towards another spirit where death is born through sin.
Spirits are forces (powers) behind our thoughts
Spirits are forces or powers behind every sanctioned moral belief and action, and its associated emotions and feelings, that can hold us in freedom if they are righteous beliefs from God, or in bondage if they are unrighteous beliefs from evil spirits. Please note that not all unrighteousness comes directly from evil spirits because we are taught by many people and thus we may have developed a belief that is wrong or evil from the day we are born. Morals come into every sphere of our lives, whether in personal behaviors, relationships, working life, or recreation. It is what we believe and obey that attracts a particular spiritual force in our minds, whether God when we do what’s right or the evil spirits when we do what’s wrong. That’s why God is a God of faith, therefore, do what’s right to be bound to God as there is no such thing as a person being independent of spiritual influences whether inherited from our parents or gained from our experiences and teachings. In other words, the flesh is not able to reason or make decisions as there is no intelligence in matter, it’s the soul that makes choices, whether initially sourced from one spirit or another that comes into our thoughts whereby we reason and make decisions. That’s why God told Moses that He set life and death before them, and told them to choose life, see Deuteronomy 30:19. Once we choose an aspect in life to follow we are choosing the spiritual force or power behind that aspect based on faith, which makes us either spiritual (from God) or carnal (from the devil). That’s why we should choose our friends and spouses carefully.
Because Israel did not want to listen to or obey God, even though God tried to instill trust in them through love, signs, and wonders, He gave them laws to direct them away from evil spirits that would afflict them due to sin through breaking the law. In other words, the law was added to Abraham’s promise of inheritance by faith to assist them in helping themselves to walk righteously though God knew they could not fulfill the law, but it was their choice.
Questioning the validity of God’s Word brings temptation
Had no angel fallen from heaven to earth (Revelation 12:1-2), Adam and Eve would have had no temptations as there was no other spirit being to entice them away from God’s ways. For example, if a child is taught certain ways of life and that child has absolutely no other influences, including influences from the seen and unseen realms, that child will only know what was learned and become empowered by the same spirit (power/ability) that influenced the teacher. The child would have no reason to question the teacher’s direction because his knowledge would be stable and life would be consistent and without contradictions. That is how God was influencing mankind to remain righteous, but we know that in today’s society, many wealthy people are trying to establish the same methods that God used but not for righteous reasons, but rather, for personal gain because the human race is a fallen entity. Of course, once the child is introduced to other people and starts to observe the natural environment, the soul of the child starts to become influenced and potentially diverted from the original teaching, i.e. the spirit (power/ability) that was behind certain of his beliefs, emotions, and feelings may start to break down depending on how the child receives and accepts the veracity of the new information. Therefore human beings and their flesh profit nothing because it is the spirit that gives life or death ( John 6:63) and thus we become what we believe based on words that change our spiritual outlook associated with emotions and feelings which are often the problem.
Such was the case with Adam and Eve who, through pride, tried to be like God in understanding good from evil, which was not God’s plan for them, which is why He told them not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge because God knew that a fallen angel (the serpent) would try to divert their destiny away from God. Something has to exist in the spiritual realm (heaven) before the physical world can be influenced, and in this case, sin was initiated in heaven by fallen angels and then passed onto mankind through deceit by awakening pride in man. Does this mean that pride would never be awakened in man if no angel had fallen? I believe that the potential for pride is always there if mankind decides to exclude God from their lives, even without being influenced by spirits. This indicates that angels can be tested by God and therefore mankind will also be tested because God chooses what kind of people and angels belong in His Kingdom of Heaven. I have no idea why God didn’t imprison those fallen angels when they fell, but we can all have a good guess knowing that God tests all His creatures, however, it would be interesting to see what mankind would do without such influences. Once Adam and Eve’s innocence left them by questioning God’s authority through pride and thus trying to be righteous like God through their abilities (namely laws), they sinned, and the spiritual influence that began with them, passed onto their descendants. We know that the spiritual influence stems from evil spirits that remain in families through the generations and pass on certain traits to descendants. People will often say, “You starting to get your mother’s bad habits” because that same evil spirit has passed those traits to that person after the death of the parent, and this can continue throughout their generations until someone decides to follow the true God. We call these evil spirits “familial” or “familiar” spirits.
Adam and Eve’s spoken laws passed onto their descendants and I do not doubt that some were from understanding God’s ways, but others were based on personal beliefs through preferences or guesswork as life challenged them. I believe that this is how many religions started to get formed as religious groups split when something did not suit them. That’s why some religions allow eating meat and others do not, some believe in Holy wars but others believe in peace, some believe in monogamy and others in polygamy, some believe in many gods and others in one God, some use physical idols (deities) as a reference point of God but others do not allow this, some believe in astrology and other do not, some use laws to be righteous while others understand that only God can be righteous and make us righteous by faith, etc. It was only in the time of Moses, and therefore through Israel, that God eventually gave the written law to establish and consolidate the true ways of God for mankind to truly understand what God’s righteousness is all about, but God prefers that we follow His word out of love, just like in the garden of Eden before the fall, for God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Our rest is in God
Adam and Eve had a conscience, which is part of the human spirit, which infused their souls with God’s morals thereby eliminating the need to ponder between good and evil, i.e. not having to reason between good and evil gave them personal rest or peace as there was no need to judge others or prove their righteousness by the law, i.e. they did not have to do righteous works based on the law, but only be obedient to God through faith. They had intuition in their spirit to hear from God Who directed them in whatever was necessary, therefore, reasoning to identify morals or the best course of action in their activities was not necessary, and thus they could rest in God’s providence, provision, love, joy, and peace, stemming from the Tree of Life which represented Christ. They could also have fellowship with God as reflected in Genesis 3:8-14. Had they followed their conscience, intuition, and God’s instructions through fellowship, their soul would have remained in unity with their human spirit, and therefore they would have maintained God’s image and likeness as they remained rested and in peace even though they experienced challenges in physical life. Their rest and peace were in obeying God as they were led by the Spirit of God via the human spirit or by God’s audible voice, i.e. man’s true rest is not a Sabbath day (Colossians 2:16-17), but faith in God and His Word that empowers the individual to walk in unity with God’s Spirit without any form of stress because God is the provider, the giver of knowledge, and the infuser (imparter) of the fruits of love, joy, peace, etc, in our soul. In other words, if we can merely listen to God and do what He says, we will have no worries because things will fall into place and we will rest in God. Eden means “delight” and represents the condition of their souls based on the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) in God’s presence and they rested whilst they experienced life in a physical body.
The Sabbath day came much later only because of disobedience which prevented Israel from entering God’s rest. God’s rest is spiritual, meaning that everything we do is based on divine direction and peace because we are not anxious or stressed when doing our chores because we know God is with us and directing us. It’s only when we depend on our ability without God’s input that we start to stress or become anxious due to uncertainty about what we are doing. Of course, once we are successful at what we do, the stress diminishes though tight deadlines may rekindle stress and anxiety. God gave Israel the Sabbath (Saturday), which is a physical rest that is very necessary to rest the body, but it was a shadow or model of the spiritual rest that would teach them that they can only truly rest in God’s presence, and that’s why they were told not to do any chores on the Sabbath except to pray and meet with God, however, they stopped all good deeds on the Sabbath because they did not realize that the rest was for the advantage of man, ie: good deeds to assist their fellow man was acceptable but religion got the better of them as power through pride induced them to control the masses. The rest was also physical because God knew that no one could rest spiritually when they were trying to fulfill spiritual laws without the indwelling Holy Spirit. After all, laws bring guilt and condemnation when not met, and believe me, we cannot meet all the laws all the time. Those who say they can are liars unless they demonstrate their walk in this life as Jesus walked. Today, Christians have the indwelling Holy Spirit which brings rest every day as long as we are in God’s presence, but we can choose a day of the week to rest physically, which also makes sense.
Once mankind falls into the destruction that comes with pride, they lose their rest in God as they separate themselves from His Spirit and start attracting other spirits based on the desires of the flesh and fall into the trap of reasoning to identify the best course of action for their activities or what might be morally correct, resulting in stress, anxiety, frustration, and potential illness, and never coming to a resolution. Today, we are still learning right from wrong as governments flip-flop between rules and laws to curb crime and corruption but ignoring the fact that they are sometimes the culprits, and sometimes the instigators. We also see campaigns to somehow make people refrain from or accept issues such as LGBTQ, hate crimes, racism, abortion, gender-based violence, entitlement, religious wars, climate change, transgenderism, etc. Whether political or financial, these campaigns sound great at first glance, but they also generate hatred and segregation in societies, sometimes far worse than the problem they are trying to resolve. I see some of these campaigns, sponsored by the wealthy or governments, as a means to divide public opinion and to conquer people through cloak-and-dagger methods, and therefore to receive more support from those that would normally oppose them.
Law and compulsion versus grace and free will
The fact that Adam and Eve chose to disregard God’s direction indicates that God gave mankind free will and therefore the choice to obey and follow God, as obedience through compulsion is not God’s modus operandi as laws do not, and cannot, create a willing heart within the individual, i.e. people who are forced to do something through laws to prevent punishment do not necessarily do what’s right out of desire or willingness, but rather, out of fear, guilt, or to appease someone, and are thus never really changed in the heart. Governments today are at sixes and sevens when refining laws to make people fit into their paradigm shift or to curb crime, and laws keep changing with new governments and obvious loopholes that cannot always be closed. It is a mess, and yet, self-perceived intelligent people cannot come to grips with the reason for this dilemma that they face when the answer stares them in the face, and most of them are Christian presidents who should be ashamed of themselves. We know that most of them pay lip service to God’s Word but succumb to a man’s word depending on who has the most power through wealth. The truth, however, is faith in Jesus Christ through the born-again experience, where the Holy Spirit changes our hearts over time as we learn His Word and ways, and as the Holy Spirit sheds love in our hearts because it is love that conquers the desire to sin, and also because those that are forgiven have much to be grateful for and therefore love more (Luke 7:40-50), i.e. God’s goodness leads people to repentance (Romans 2:3-4).
Laws are not for those who follow God willingly but for lawbreakers (1 Timothy 1:9) which is why God instituted them through Moses for the faithless believers of the time and the posterity of unbelievers in the world. That’s why God never gave mankind laws until over 2,000 years later, but only as a last resort when the Israelites demonstrated a lack of faith in God and His Word during Moses’s exodus from Egypt. This is why Paul states in Galatians 3:17-19 that the law was only added to the promise because of transgressions, i.e. the law was never part of the promise of God to Abraham, and to us by extension, because God wants to change hearts through love and by demonstrating His glory to activate faith, instead of through compulsion. Even after witnessing so many miracles, Israel preferred to obey laws out of self-righteousness (Romans 10:2-4) through a mediator rather than to have faith in God (Exodus 20;18-19).
Today, we have 2 major overall doctrinal differences in the church; 1) those who believe in Jesus Christ but remain loyal to Moses’ law through self-righteousness, and 2) those who try to follow the freedom given by the grace of God through Jesus Christ’s faithfulness who fulfilled all righteousness of the law for us (Matthew 3:13-15). The law was given through Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, see John 1:14-17. Does grace mean we can sin? Absolutely not! It does however mean that we have died to sin when we were baptised in Christ Jesus and the Spirit of Christ in us gives us the ability/power to refrain from sin out of love for God and His Word when we start to realise His goodness towards us. This can take some time as we sort out our minds with God’s Word and personal experiences. People do not seem to understand that when we try to fulfill the law by our strength (works), we are saying that we do not need Jesus Christ’s finished work of the cross because we are good enough to do the right thing. If you are that type of person, ask yourself if you can be consistently good (righteous) in thought and action. If so, you can do it without Jesus, then why even believe in Jesus, because Jesus is only for those whom He made righteous through faith in Him by His grace, and not by our works of the law? See Ephesians 2:8-10. Many legalists think that sin is only when we physically carry out a sinful act, which is true in the Old Testamentment, but in the New Testament, Jesus changes the cultural beliefs with the sermon on the mount when He says, in Matthew 5:27-28, “If you commit adultery you sin, but even if you look at a woman with lust in your eye, you sin”. Therefore mental sin was introduced as well, and therefore confession involves both.
Every legalist I know sins, but they will not admit it until they get caught, but they will be the first to point fingers at those who admit sin. Admission of sin will only come to those who are free in Christ because of Jesus’s faithfulness, by which He gave us the grace to be righteous by faith and not by the works of the law (Ephesians 2:8-10). The problem is that legalists believe that once we know Jesus we must stop sinning, but that is far from the truth as proven by Paul’s letters, and also by God in the Old Testament, see Judges 3:1-4. We must understand that although we have received the spirit of Christ, God still tests us in the soul, which is why our soul is not saved in the new birth, because God uses those problems to change us, just as He used the nations to test Israel in Judges 3. So when we catch someone sinning, we should refrain from pointing a finger but rather help the individual understand God’s ways. In other words, God has purchased us (body, soul, and spirit) with Jesus’s blood (Ephesians 1:14), and saved our spirit when we were born again, but has not saved our bodies and souls and thus we still sin until we renew our minds (Romans 12:2) and the spirit of our minds (Ephesians 4:22-24). That’s why Peter says in 1 Peter 4:18, “If the righteous are hardly saved, what will become of the ungodly?”, referring to the fact that our souls and bodies have not been saved because it is an ongoing process until Jesus returns. Our souls and bodies will only be saved at the second appearance (Hebrews 9:28, Philippians 3:15) but our souls are in the process of being saved in this life, and at this point no one I know has made it. Can we get our minds renewed and therefore saved to the point that our bodies are also transformed into glorious bodies in this life? 1 Peter 1-9 seems to indicate so, however, upon inspection, I realized that this only happens at the appearance of Jesus Christ, so we have to read from 1 Peter 1-7-9. In other words, Peter seems to believe that we cannot get our minds fully saved until Jesus reappears the second time. However, if Enoch did it, there is a possibility that we can also do it, except that in this day and age, we are far more spoilt through comforts which significantly increase the desires of the flesh, and physical life is very attractive to the flesh and soul. Enoch must have had some good teachings from the early days because they were still spiritually astute from God’s lessons to Adam and Eve. In our current timeframe, our souls may desire God, but they are in one way or another attached to this carnal life because of comforts, wealth, and excitement, through technology, sports, etc, I believe though that we should be able to break through with the assistance of the Holy Spirit because of the work of Jesus Christ, see Romans 7:21-8:4. Nevertheless, I wait for the new Heaven and Earth which Jesus will usher in and be transformed, which I believe will be in our lifetime.
Humans can achieve wealth without God
Before returning to Christianity, I certainly was an example where pride inspired me to become self-sufficient in everything instead of trusting God’s provision and direction for my life because I thought I was clever and righteous enough, as long as I was not caught out doing the wrong thing (we are all legalists when in the world). As an unbeliever, I lived in a world where laws were the yardstick by which we were all measured and thus we were forced to behave in a manner conducive to acceptable norms in society, whether they were right or wrong, or even though we did not always agree with them. I had zero understanding of God’s grace and providence and the freedom it brings, and thus continuously struggled to do what was right as the storms of life regularly hammered me from pillar to post. The problem is that what is right in one man’s religion is not necessarily right in another’s, therefore, God must be confused or schizophrenic, or is it because we allow our carnal souls to follow our desires and invent “pseudo gods” or “pseudo truths” to suit our agendas instead of real truth? The latter is true, of course. I nevertheless succeeded to a point but did not realize that God held me in his hand at all times.
Human beings can therefore be successful without following God, as proven by the building of the tower of Babel when God said that man can achieve anything when working in unity (Genesis 11:5-6). Satan also knows that and uses people with wealth to achieve his goals. This unity is a virtue that comes from God in the human spirit, but man uses it for self-glorification through pride as in the Babel story, where men wanted to be recognized without involving God and giving themselves the glory, which is why God changed their languages and dispersed them. The gifts or abilities God gives mankind through the human spirit are never removed or canceled because His gifts are without repentance, see (Romans 11:29). Therefore, today I know that my personal perceived success was not solely attributable to myself and my cleverness, but rather to the human spirit God had placed in me that directed my soul and thus my life. Also, it was the Holy Spirit in the first months of my return to Christianity that made me aware of the favor God had given me which allowed me to retire at age 42 so that I could learn the Word of God. Of course, we have to work hard in learning to understand and gain knowledge, but the power to do so rests in the spirit within man. Those who give up the learning process are allowing the soul to override what the spirit is prompting them to do, and thus carnality takes over because people generally want the easy road in life. In other words, when we know we should do something and decide to ignore it for whatever reason, know that it is the spirit of God prompting our soul through the human spirit.
God is our source of life, love, peace, and joy
We may ask, “But why does God not just let us get along with our lives even if He is not involved, because we can achieve great things, even on our own? We can indeed achieve great things on our own but the consequences are separation from God Who is the ONLY SOURCE of true love, joy, peace, prosperity, eternal life, etc, which are permanent when walking with God. The world wallows in what they think is prosperity, love, joy, peace, etc, not realizing that they are temporary because they are carnal (driven by the desires of the flesh) and fade as soon as the odds come against them because they depend on those things to please them. In other words, they are in bondage to the physical things of life because those things make them feel important, intelligent, or famous, however, those things are temporary, unlike the spiritual things of God that are eternal. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand this simple principle. A Christian may go through tribulations or persecutions because the world hates Christians because of what evil spirits instill in unbelievers, but their joy, love, and peace are permanent and never fade as long as they are in Christ. It is okay to be wealthy because having money is not sinful, however, it’s how people see and use money through pride that makes them greedy, lustful, or even evil, see 1 Timothy 6:10 which indicates that it is the LOVE OF MONEY that is the root of all evil. Having said that, not all people have been ordained by God to be wealthy businessmen for His Kingdom, therefore every believer needs to listen and understand what they have been called for. This takes time and dedication. By not doing so, believers can be deceived by chasing money instead of their calling and thus become anxious and disgruntled with Christianity. God makes us rich on the basis that we have shelter, clothes, and food (1 Timothy 6:5-10). The important thing is that God will provide and we will never be in want (Psalm 23:1-2) if we are not greedy people who covet every other person’s wealth.
We must understand faith is based on the spirit that we walk with, even though we are unaware of this, therefore, if we allow ourselves to invoke negative thoughts, emotions, or feelings such as jealousy, hate, greed, selfishness, etc, we walk in agreement with an evil spirit which is a force or power behind such thoughts, emotions, feelings, and also death. God has no negativity in His spirit and thus He never gives us those thoughts, emotions, and feelings because to walk by God’s spirit is to walk in the emotions and feelings of love, peace, joy, etc. It then means that if we are negative, we will walk by what evil spirits conjure in our lives, though we are not aware of them because we think that negative thoughts and feelings are merely natural phenomena. That’s why our thoughts and feelings need to be reigned in to conform to the Word of God (Romans 12:2) to prevent calamities in the future, see Colossians 3:2 and 2 Corinthians 10:1-10. We have to choose between life and death because our only choices are to either follow God (life) or follow the devil (death), see Deutronmeony 30:19. We must understand that the flesh profits nothing, or has no ability of its own, it is the spirit in us that we received through our beliefs that make us what we are through the soul which makes our choices, therefore choose Go(o)d not (d)evil.
God is a spirit (John 4:24), not a carnal man (Numbers 23:19), and therefore if we want to walk with God’s Spirit we need to know and believe God, therefore, the question we need to ask is what kind of life do I want in this life and the next; 1) peace and eternal life, or 2) anxiety and eternal judgment? Eternal life is to live in peace by the spirit of God while eternal judgment is to be bound to the things we always desired of this carnal world which we cannot break free from, which is why Jesus said, “It is better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to enter hell with both eyes, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched”, see Mark 9:47-48. In other words, if we sin it is better to pluck out one eye (not meant literally but as an example) and have one eye in this life, rather than have two eyes but end up in hell where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Worms are scavengers always foraging for food, representing sin/desires (worm) that people are in bondage to which does not die, and thus the person will continue in this bondage in the next life, therefore, my interpretation of this is that spiritual scavengers (sinful people) will always be bound to their sin and seeking to satisfy their burning desires (fire) but never getting satisfaction or relief from the thirst of the desire (not quenched).
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus has a similar concept in Luke 16:24, where the rich man was in hell and wanted Lazarus to cool his tongue with water because of the torment caused by the flames. This does not mean the rich man was thrown into fiery flames because it was only the torment of the mouth (tongue) that he wanted to quench. If your whole body is in the flames of fire, you would want water to be poured all over, not just on the tongue, which is therefore symbolic. The rich man had more than enough money in his natural life but did not feed Lazarus who was poor and hungry, and therefore the judgment was that he would experience some need in the mouth (water in this case) to alleviate the tormented tongue (symbolic). The interpretation of this person burning in hell is not sound as I believe that God does not put people into real fires forever, although sinners go into the lake of fire, which I believe represents the permanent separation from God, where they will continue in their carnal desires which will not be satisfied and therefore they will have no relief. The Word of God uses fire as an example to purify gold which represents the purifying of believers from a sinful nature to a righteous nature through life’s challenges. Therefore the man in hell wants to be relieved (fire is not quenched) of the thirst that he has for his sins (worm dieth not), and thus wants water on the tongue (figure of speech) to relieve himself from the thirst of his sin which keeps him engulfed in the flames of his desire. Unfortunately, any individual who does not believe in Jesus Christ or has a sinful life is separated from God in the next life and no one can relieve them of the desires.
In His Image
Adam and Eve’s belief that they could be like God by their own perceived abilities resulted in disobedience as pride welled up in them, but the knowledge regarding their human capabilities, based on the human spirit that God had placed in them, was also misplaced, which indicates that they were not spiritual but carnal (natural) as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:42-47. Though they were made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) they were not the exact copy (exact image and likeness) of God, such as is in the case of Jesus (John 3:34 & Hebrews 1:1-3) Who had the fullness of God’s Spirit which induced His soul, and therefore flesh, to follow and obey God’s voice, which is why He said, “I only do what I see my father do” (John 5:19). Therefore, Jesus grew up in line with God’s Word as the Holy Spirit gave unction, and therefore direction, and also as He experienced physical or natural life whilst learning the Word of God in the Jewish religious tradition.
Though Jesus’s spirit was in the exact image and likeness of God at birth, His soul and flesh still had to experience the challenges and temptations of physical life in the same manner we all do, as proven by His desire for God to remove the life (cup) He had been given as He meditated on what He was about to experience regarding the cross and His separation from the Father (Luke 22:42), and also as proven through His success in overcoming temptations in the wilderness in Matthew 4-1-11. Hebrews 4:15 states that Jesus was tempted as we are and yet was without sin. Jesus, nevertheless, did what the Father had asked of Him, and it was this obedience that maintained Jesus in the exact image and likeness of the Father through submission to His will because it is the soul (mind, emotions, and will) that makes us who we are as individuals through the choices we make, i.e. Jesus could have chosen to reject the cross and leave humanity in perdition, but His will (soul), maintained by the power of the spirit, remained in the exact likeness of God the Father and was thus obedient through subjugating His soul to the Spirit of God. When Jesus transfigured on the mountain in Matthew 17:1-2 He proved He was the son of God as the glory (spirit) was shining from Him, indicating that He could have metamorphosed into a spiritual body if He wanted to, but he also knew He had to save mankind from sin, a difficult choice which is why Jesus sweated blood when He prayed for the last time on the Mount of Olives, see Luke 22:44. Had Adam and Eve remained obedient to God, they would have also metamorphosed into a spiritual body as the manifest sons of God, and earth and everything in it would not have been subjected to futility, see Romans 8:16-23 which also says that we will be co-heirs with Christ. Before sin entered, humanity had to go through the fire (testing of desires) in physical life and remain in God’s Spirit through obedience, but once they sinned, God had a predetermined plan to remove humanity’s impurities, as through fire, as God tests all His creations, including angels.
“Image” therefore refers to the spiritual attributes of a person as given by God, and possibly the form (shape) of a man to be similar to God’s form, though God is not made of flesh, however, likeness refers to the character that the person has or develops based on personal choices via the soul and the flesh, as we experience life in this physical world. I say this because Jesus was in God’s exact image as per Hebrews 1:3, referring to His spirit. Note that the scripture only refers to God’s exact image, not the likeness. Spirit in the body does not change as it is God’s purpose in man, however, the soul needs to develop in conformance to God’s likeness which Jesus achieved through obedience, but as a child, He still had a lot to learn as he walked with the Father and could only be in God’s exact likeness once He was ready, which I believe was when he went into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and thereafter start His ministry. The spirit that God places in the human body does not change either because it is in God’s image, but the soul does change depending on circumstances and thus we may never be in God’s likeness. Once the soul diverts from God’s ways it is considered disobedient as it becomes carnal and evil because it attracts other spirits besides God, and therefore needs to reconcile to God by learning God’s ways all over again, meaning that spiritual development of the soul becomes necessary so that we can walk in the light (God’s knowledge) as opposed to the darkness (knowledge of evil spirits). Of course, Jesus’s obedience was first proven as a young boy up until He was 30 years old, which is why He received the Holy Spirit upon Him for ministry at John’s baptism because God was pleased with Him (Matthew 3:16-17). In other words, Jesus was tempted and had even more challenges than a normal human being, but He overcame life’s struggles because He was in God’s exact (express) image (Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:15), referring to the fact that the fullness of God’s Spirit was in Him, which gave Him the power to overcome challenges and temptations through subjugating His soul and body to God’s Word. Jesus could do this because He was God incarnate in the flesh and therefore had the power (ability) to do so.
Adam and Eve therefore needed to maintain their spirituality by allowing their soul and flesh to follow God’s ways and therefore any given instruction, in the same manner Jesus did, before embarking on a venture that saw them cut off from the root of life (God). Once they diverted from God’s ways, and followed Satan, who was the fallen angel whom people believe was called Lucifer in the Garden of Eden, they had to relearn or develop the soul to get in line with God’s Spirit once again. For a person to develop spiritually, the soul (mind, emotions, and will) needs to understand and be obedient to God’s ways so that the soul and spirit start to walk in unity, meaning that a relationship with God is imperative. When two are gathered together in Jesus’s name, (Matthew 18:20), He is there with them, however, when the soul and spirit of a person are walking in unison, we can say that we are truly God’s sons and daughters because the soul is perfectly obedient to God, which I believe is what Jesus proved through His life and the power He demonstrated.
The problem with not believing in God or His Word is that it separates us from Him because our soul ignores the human spirit, which then becomes dormant as the soul takes over through the desires of the flesh (carnality) and thus attracts other spirits instead of God’s Spirit. We are therefore no longer in the image and likeness of God as the spirit is dormant and the soul is corrupted. Of course, this does not apply to all aspects of our life but walking with Satan in any area of our life is problematic as it is difficult to break free from bondage to any particular spirit that strengthens sin in our lives. Our children and future generations inherit sin our corruption through our genes and bad teachings. To break this cycle is very difficult unless we dedicate ourselves to God and His ways. A spirit is an abstract force or power and binds us to anything that we believe in and act upon, whether good or bad, which is why God is a God of faith because what we have faith in is what we walk in and become. For example, if someone is a jealous person, that spirit of jealousy will have a hold on the person until the person decides to stop being jealous which may take much pain. Because the person has a spirit of jealousy, that person no longer walks in unity with the Spirit of God in that specific area of their life because God has no jealousy in Him. For example, people become friends because they live by the same spirit through common beliefs, i.e. it is not common for a person who hates a certain thing to walk in friendship with someone who loves that same thing. Even when a person overcomes jealousy without God’s involvement, the potential for the jealousy to return is extremely high because God was not involved in removing the evil oppressor of jealousy. In other words, the evil oppressor becomes dormant until its next opportunity, which is whenever the person is once again tempted to become jealous. Only by having faith in God and His righteousness, not ours, can we be permanently delivered from such emotions or feelings through prayer, because in this way we glorify God Who is our deliverer and savior.
The soul needs to be subjected to God’s Word
Even Jesus had to learn obedience (Philippians 2:8) as the son of man and the son of God because the soul and flesh desire carnal things and thus He was also tempted by the things of the world, but because He had the fullness of God’s Spirit in Him, He overcame but still had to subject His soul to God’s Word. This is why He told someone “Why call me good, only God is good” (Mark 10:18), referring to the fact that God’s Spirit in Him was the enabler of doing good, not His soul or flesh, which validates the scripture that the flesh profits nothing but the spirit gives life (John 6:63). So Adam and Eve had to develop their souls through experiences and subject it to God’s Word just as Jesus had to, but the difference was that they did not have the full measure of the Spirit of God and thus failed to be obedient.
We may then say, “It is not fair, how could we achieve obedience with only a portion of God’s Spirit in us?”. This is true because mankind was born natural (carnal), however, God did not give man the fullness of His Spirit because He desired man to have free will which makes us unique individuals, and free to have a relationship with God or not, otherwise, we would all be an exact copy of God (Jesus) in a body, Who Himself is an individual as the Word of God (John 1:1), whose purpose was to come save the world as God in the flesh (John 1:14) because He is God. Even the Godhead of Father, Son (Word), and Spirit have different roles, just as we do, although they are all cohesive in the oneness of God concerning divinity, holiness, and righteousness. No one else can be part of the Godhead as omnipresent, omnipotent, or omniscient, however, God created us to be individuals for His Kingdom with specific purposes which each individual needs to identify and follow as they hear from God. I guess diversity is the spice of life. Imagine if we could make people exactly like ourselves. Would that not be boring or would we not be acting like control freaks? Is this not what Hitler did to control the world or what the WEF is trying to achieve today?
Many people think that when they are followed and people do exactly what they request, they are somehow superior or deserving of recognition. The opposite is true because when we can get along with others, do the right thing, serve people, and give them freedom, regardless of our differences, we have matured and become more like God Who does the same for us. The WEF does not realize it, maybe just a few do, but they are being led by Satan who is replicating the unity of men to control the world as in the times of Babel, or in the times of Babylon, or even in the times of Hitler, but their outcome will not be in their favor. This is obvious when we see the consolidation of businesses and governments by the WEF as the puppet master who is trying to control the population through their food, their news, their information, their health, and especially their energy. I feel that this is a last stab by the devil to control the earth, its population, and its resources, but the main goal is to get Christians to follow them by making their life difficult and imposing a new idiotic universal religion that will come soon, but the time is not ripe as yet. The truth is that Satan knows his time is coming and therefore if he can delay the second appearance of Christ by turning humanity away from God, he will buy himself all the time he needs, i.e. God will not come if the world rejects Him because He gave the earth to mankind and will not take it away because His gifts are without repentance. I do not think that those who are in charge know why the devil has given them favor with wealth, but their time will be up as soon as they are not needed.
Even David subjected his soul to God’s Word as in Psalms 42:5 and 43:5. Every human being that loves God and desires to live in His ways will need to subject His soul to God and die to self-ambition, build a relationship with God, and allow the Word of God to direct their life. Paul put it succinctly when he said that he had died to himself and though he lives, it was Christ living in Him (Galatians 2:2). In other words, Paul had subjected His soul to the service and obedience of God, i.e. his soul no longer dominated his human spirit but was a servant to the Spirit of God Who communicates with a man’s soul via the human spirit and by the Word of God.
Genesis 2:7 says that God breathed His spirit into man and He stood up a living soul, meaning that the soul was influenced by the spirit to behave and act out God’s purpose in mankind, but obviously through free will. Some people explain this as the consummation of body and spirit which then creates the soul in man, or the spirit in a body becomes the soul. I do believe that the soul takes on the attributes of the spirit in the consummation of body and spirit but the human spirit remains in us, otherwise, how would we be able to be born again by the spirit? The soul does not change during the born-again experience, meaning that the mind, will, and emotions remain the same, which is true because that is what we all experience, therefore the spirit remains in the body, whether the soul listens to it or not. I believe that the spirit (subconscious) and the spirit of the mind (subconscious mind) form the inner man and that is what goes to God when we die.
Before sin took place, man’s soul followed God obediently because they could hear God, whether audibly or through the human spirit until they were fooled into believing they could be like God, however, they WERE like God, but not exactly like God, which by implication means that pride induced them to depend on their own perceived abilities, thereby leaving God out of the moral equation. I believe that they took the statement “you can be like God” as being “you can be exactly like God” because of their inexperience in the natural world as they were still developing their soul through many challenges and experiences.
We all know that we desire to make life comfortable and successful, which is the main reason many try to follow a god or become spiritual like “god”, in the hope of overcoming challenges and fulfilling personal desires, hence, resulting in the diversity of gods that mankind has created because people are naturally different. There can only be one God with one standard otherwise strife and confusion will be the order of society, which has been proven over and over again through religious wars, but God is not schizophrenic like mankind, though sometimes mankind does it unknowingly. Today, fools are trying to create a universal religion by consolidating all religions into one, which I call the “covert religious war”. This is mankind trying to create a make-believe god instead of believing in the true God. If you are someone who agrees with this, then your faith has always been in question because there are many differences between religions which would be impossible to accept if you are a true believer in your current religion. However, we all know that mankind plays lip service to religion because their intention is merely to act righteous and respectable in the eyes of others because of grandstanding or perceived personal and financial benefits.
You will notice that those who accept many religions always refer to Christians as bigots because we only accept our one true way of life, though they never call anyone else a bigot. I prefer “Way of life” to “religion” because religion seems to indicate that men try to be godly when they have no ability in themselves to be so. People who call Christians bigots think that because they are open to every religion they are somehow more broad-minded and therefore more intelligent or flexible than the rest through pride, but the truth is that they are confused or schizophrenic because they seem to think that they can live a contradictory life. For example, if they get involved with a Hare Krishna they will agree with only eating vegetables, but when eating with a Christian they will eat meat. When speaking to Muslims they will agree with holy wars, but with Christians, they will believe in making peace and not war. Who do they agree with? Nobody, except to appear good or broad-minded in the eyes of others when man is no good without the true God. Politicians love this type of hype because they fool people into believing in their goodness and thus improve the voter base. What they do not know is that Satan has worked well in their lives, even though it may have been through other people’s influence.
See what I mean about confusion, rather, it is more likely stupidity, because all they want is to satisfy their flesh by people glorifying them in their cleverness and broad-mindedness when in fact they are far from clever or broad-minded as their reasoning is childish at best. They then try to convince others into their “broad-minded” approach and become more bigoted than the Christians whom they insult, not realizing the absurdity in the reasoning behind their beliefs.
Carnality comes from being driven by the Five Senses
We are earthen vessels (made from dust or the elements) and there is no ability in us without the human spirit that gives us life, morality, and knowledge to direct the soul, however, when we learn exclusively by the five senses through reasoning and omit the power of the spirit in us, we are bereft of peace as the trials and tribulations of our experiences in the natural environment cause stress which leads to many social anomalies, and also mental and physical ailments. The desire for material things results from only using our five senses and not God’s spirit (spiritual sense or sixth sense) within us and thus we become carnal beings fighting like animals for territory and control over the earth’s resources. That is what wars and politics are all about because those who control the resources of the world, whether food, information, news, healthcare, and especially energy, control the people.
My own experience from the secular business world is that they train people using the slogan “survival of the fittest” and use the dynamics in the wilderness to impress their staff on how to behave like a “powerful and strong” lion and not like a “weak and meek” gazelle to gain market share. Although this is symbolic language, there is no doubt that people become more aggressive in their personality and outlook as they look for recognition and reward through bribery and bigger deals regardless of whether they are capable of administering the business or not, thereby reducing customer service levels. They echo “it is about the customer” in unison, however, it is not really about the customer but about the bottom line (profits) and how they can control others.
I remember when one of my best friends at the time of my being employed in an insurance company, was bragging about how they removed a benefit from the customers’ retirement policies but did not remove the fee which was implicit in the administration costs. He attributed this to management acumen and cleverness in doing business, but the last time I checked, that is what I call daylight robbery to an unsuspecting customer base. This made me sick in the stomach and it’s no wonder that people have become ravenous for possessions, to control others through deceit, personal beliefs in superiority, and pride to achieve the goal no matter who is trampled or squashed along the way. This same “best” friend hoodwinked me when I introduced an analyst/programmer to his team, I knew he needed the person, but he redirected the person to another team within the company. In this way, he got the commission for the introduction, and of course, I got nothing. Fortunately, I was never bitter about it but that was when I started doubting his integrity. Pride abounds in those who are materially driven with greed, lust, and self-centeredness being the order of the day.
However, when we use God’s Spirit to hear what is expected of us, and we are obedient, we allow God’s life force, morality, and power, to flow through us, like a hosepipe allows water to flow without any encumbrance once the tap is opened. Those who can humble themselves and submit to God to that extent will be used by God to their full potential, just as Jesus was, but those who disregard God will be used by another spirit based on what they believe and accept, hence, the reason we have so many problems in this world because what is not of God is of the devil.
Sin caused man to need spiritual development
Mankind was made in the image and likeness of God because they had all the necessary attributes in the human spirit which influenced the soul with God’s knowledge and morality, however, mankind needed to maintain their spirituality in the soul by listening to God while they experienced life and its challenges in the natural environment. Therefore Adam and Eve had the potential of remaining like God if they kept their obedience to His Word but they would never be in His exact image and likeness. Only Jesus was fully God as the Word of God when He was with God before His incarnation and was fully God during His incarnation (John 1:1), but it is the Holy Spirit that can be everywhere at the same time in every believer which is why Jesus said that He would go away and send us another comforter (Holy Spirit), see John 14:26, John 15:26 and John 16:7. The Holy Spirit is the Advocate, Helper, Comforter, Teacher, Anointer, and the one that gives us the gifts and the ministry and the fruit of love, joy, peace, etc. In other words, we need the Holy Spirit to develop spiritually and we can only receive Him because of what Jesus did.
Because we have free will, the soul, which consists of the will, mind, and emotions, is the driving force behind our personal decisions even though it is prompted by the spirit, and it is the soul that decides the course of our beliefs, behaviors, and therefore character. The soul therefore is what drives our individuality because of the choices we make, and also because of the varying gifts God placed in our human spirit whether we are aware of them or not through the soul. The more we listen to God’s Spirit the more spiritual we become based on His Word which shines His light on our life, however, the more we listen to the five senses the more carnal we become because we walk in the darkness due to ignorance of His Word. When the soul walks in tandem with the prompting of the human spirit we can say we are walking in full obedience to the Spirit of God, and thus the soul is the servant of God because it submits to the will of the Father, and therefore the soul no longer has dominion over our choices because it is in full submission to the Spirit of God.
Therefore, when God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness”, He knew that man still had to develop His soul through challenges experienced in natural life whilst learning to be what God purposed for him to be on earth through free will, whilst remaining obedient to God, and thus remain in His image and likeness. It is this free will given to mankind that either makes us or breaks us, and I believe that angels are tested in a similar way, which is why rebel angels fell from heaven to earth and have become a problem for humanity. To make all men in the exact image of God would be pointless as I can imagine myself communing with someone that God made similar to me, I may as well speak to myself in a mirror.
The soul is therefore the decision-maker in the development of our character whether we decide to close the gap between ourselves and God or ourselves and the devil. Most people opt for the latter without realizing what they did or even the implications of their choices. Our choices, because of free will, are therefore of extreme importance and pave the way we operate individually and as a society, whether in good or evil ways.
The battle is for our thoughts
The quality of our thoughts, which are part of the conscious mind (soul), is therefore imperative to building good character because they either break us down or build us up, which is why Paul says that we should always set our affections on the things above (spiritual/heavenly) instead of things of the earth, see Colossians 3:2. In 2-Corinthians 10:1- 7 Paul states clearly that we do not fight flesh and blood but evil spirits (principalities and powers) in high places and tells us that we need to pull down our vain imaginations and erroneous knowledge to the obedience of Jesus Christ. It is our knowledge and imagination that either make us or break us. We, therefore, need to understand that our thoughts are made up of good and bad points where the bad results in sadness, depression, jealousy, hatred, etc, and are thus sourced from evil spirits, whether directly from ourselves, those we learn from, or passed down through our family tree, however, the good thoughts such as love, joy, peace, etc, are from God’s spirit. We therefore need to resist the bad thoughts (James 4:7) and turn to God to make the devil (bad thoughts in this case) flee. We also need to bolster the good thoughts to increase our joy, love, and peace.
The important point is that we become bound to what we believe in the heart and act upon, whether good or evil, as words have the power to transform behaviors over time, which is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 that He plants the seed (Word) and Apollos waters the seed (Word), but its God that gives the increase. The Word of God is planted by the first person who teaches the gospel, and other people water by reiterating the same points, which is also true when we read the Word of God, but the increase is given by God because only God knows the heart and mind of people and when they are ready for the increase. If this is so with God’s Word, then this is also true with anything that counters God’s Word, i.e. the more we believe and act upon principles outside of God’s Word the closer we walk with the devil, whether we are aware of it or not.
Our moral compass
Whether we obey or believe in God or not, we need to understand that whatever good aspects of a moral compass we possess or whatever abilities we have, it is because we willingly follow those attributes that God placed in our spirit and what we learn from God’s Word and personal experiences, however, where lack of morality or abilities are evident, we have acquired them out of life’s challenges and struggles due to issues such as peer pressure, greed, lust, laziness, people pleasing, pride, jealousy, hatred, etc, and God’s direction was ignored or never understood. Nevertheless, challenges and struggles reign in our lives due to either a lack of knowledge or outright rebellion as a result of pride, carnal desires, and self-righteous behavior.
The root cause of all evil is pride and self-righteousness
I maintain that crimes such as murder, stealing, or any form of destruction, are not the problem in themselves, but only a symptom of another problem, i.e. get the root cause sorted out and crime will vanish. The root cause of crime is normally strife, contention, lust, hatred, jealousy, etc. It can also be due to despair through lack of understanding, education, finances, or other emotions and feelings (James 4:1-4), but these are also a symptom of an even greater problem that needs to be resolved. The root cause of such emotions and feelings is actually pride and self-righteousness as they seem to go together, see Proverbs 13:10, Proverbs 16:18, Proverbs 21:4, and Romans 12:16. That’s why God exalts the humble and resists the proud as humility does not generate pride or self-righteous behavior that leads to negative emotions and feelings and therefore the eventuality of crime, see Matthew 23:12.
It is the spirit that gives life
Our flesh bodies have no ability of their own though they are wonderfully designed to operate and live in conjunction with God’s breath (Spirit), see John 6:63 and John 15:4-6. Think about it, does the material composition of the body such as blood, bones, and flesh, have any ability to think or behave in the way it does? Impossible, that is why a spirit is necessary to animate this design that God created. It is God’s placement of the human spirit in us that makes our lifeless bodies breathe and live, and it’s the Word of God and knowledge in our spirit that gives us an understanding of moral values and the ability to learn new things. As a simplistic example, the electricity and the operating system of a computer can be compared to the spirit in a person, where the electricity gives power to the computer (similarly, the spirit gives the breath of life), and the operating system controls everything else (similarly, the spirit gives the ability to learn and do all things), including the execution of applications to run a business system, a medical system, a retail system, a manufacturing system, etc. We can therefore say that the applications or programs that run on the operating system equate to the soul and the physical computer equates to the body. Without electricity and the operating system, the applications and the computer are lifeless just as the soul and body will be lifeless without the spirit.
People understand that mankind has the ability to create complex things like computers, but somehow they think a body, that is 1 million times more complex, created itself through evolution. Where and when did living cells or microorganisms get the intelligence to develop a whole body with approximately 30 trillion cells that work in perfect unison? Did microorganisms even have the foresight to design the pathway of evolution to its intended final design or its current state, which many proclaim is a billion years later? What nonsense, that would be even more impossible given more time because the variability of genes decreases with time because of the loss of alleles in the mating process. If a dumb collection of microorganisms has that ability over time, then how come clever scientists cannot create anything from the existing living cells and microorganisms to manufacture another human being or animal, or even create microorganisms from scratch? Are microorganisms with no reasoning ability more intelligent than human beings who have reasoning ability? Having no common sense or logical way of explaining these things, evolutionists use the bottomless black hole of a billion years to explain the evolution of life as if there is some logic in that, i.e: when they cannot explain or prove something, they create an environment or answer that no-one can understand, including themselves, and therefore they hope that by repetition their followers will be foolish enough to take the bait.
A body is made up of flesh, bones, and blood, which are lifeless and cannot think, though they might be a collection of living cells, however, the ability to think comes from the spirit and therefore also the soul as mankind experiences life, we are therefore vessels with gifts and abilities made for God’s use here on earth, but we have free will, and God will never take that free will away. We must decide whether we desire to walk with God or not, and that is what determines our hope of a fruitful destiny in this life and the next life.
Ignoring God’s words of wisdom, is essentially pride in our soulish abilities to do what’s right as opposed to discerning God’s righteousness etched in our hearts and souls via the human spirit, and we thus become self-righteous through pride instead of glorifying God Who has placed a portion of His spirit in us by His Word, i.e: the Word of God (Bible) declares that we were made in His image and likeness and thus any righteousness or ability demonstrated by humanity is sourced from the portion of His Spirit which was placed in humanity, i.e: the flesh profits nothing but God’s Word is spirit and life John 6:63, and also the truth. When we, therefore, brag about our accomplishments we are giving ourselves the glory and ignoring God Who is the Giver of the gift of life and of our abilities through the human spirit, and this results in our ever-increasing pride or self-righteousness which is unrighteousness in itself, see John 7-18. You might say, “I learned what I know on my own”, which is true from the soul’s perspective as we learn and experience life, but the ability to learn anything and to discern morals comes from our human spirit, and God never takes that gift away, regardless of whether we believe in God or not.
Many people will say that a child who has a gift beyond his years has acquired it in a previous life and has therefore retained it through reincarnation. If someone therefore does not remember anything from a previous life, does it then mean they were not a reincarnation? If so, then the majority of the population has not been reincarnated, why? Surely they should also remember. What is the percentage of those who believe they are reincarnated versus those who are not? Is it 0.01% or 0.001%? I know no one who believes they are reincarnated, so I guess that the percentage could be smaller. The truth is that God placed that ability in the person’s spirit and it filters through to the soul as they experience life, thereby recognizing their strengths and weaknesses. Some people never even find the gift God placed in them, either because they are lazy or never tried anything different to identify their strengths.
Many will say that reincarnation is proven in the Bible because Elijah came as John the Baptist, however, the truth is that John the Baptist came in the same “spirit” and power as Elijah but they were still two different physical people (Luke 1:17). God gives similar spiritual gifts to different people for His purposes and it is pretty obvious that Elijah and John the Baptist played very different roles though they were both obedient to God. Reincarnation would assume that Elijah’s gift should have passed onto John the Baptist, however, John the Baptist did not even do one miracle though his spirit was the same as Elijah’s in the desire to follow God, i,.e. God uses the spirit in a person for different purposes though they may have the same qualities.
The reason some people believe that they are a reincarnation is mainly due to familial spirits (disembodied spirits) being in the family for many generations and therefore occupying the body of the person who thinks they can recall episodes from a previous life. The fact is that the evil spirit influences thoughts in the person’s soul because they have opened themselves spiritually to the wrong spirit or they inherited it from their ancestors. Familial spirits, named as such because they remain in a certain family, move from generation to generation and have the ability to communicate with the person via dreams or even voice, and thus confuse the person with characteristics of someone else in the family as if it was them in a previous life. God is Spirit and speaks to us, and therefore anyone open to spiritual phenomena can also hear evil spirits who normally try to fool us. I will always maintain that a prophet is not a prophet until all his prophecies of the future are manifested because even familial spirits (evil spirits) will tell the truth of past and current events through so-called prophets. People who say, “How did you know that about me, you must be a prophet” are in line to be fooled by anyone (spirit) who knows their family. The devil can always tell the past and the present of a person, but not always the future though he might take a good guess because he knows the trend in the family. The Word of God is clear in that if a prophet’s words do not come to pass, we do not have to be afraid of that prophet, see Deuteronomy 18:22.
If Adam and Eve walked their lives according to God’s will or planned destiny for them, death would have no reign over them because they would be walking with life (God) itself. Walk outside of life (God) and you acquire death, that’s why Jesus said that we must abide in the vine otherwise we can do nothing. It is as simple as that because any walk outside God’s Spirit or in non-conformance with God’s ways is death. God is life and the giver of life, however, when we do not believe or have no faith in God we separate ourselves from God because we walk outside the power of the life-giver (God), and therefore, we walk by what we experience in our natural environment or some make-believe god which has no power to give life, but only confusion and a plethora of religions and infighting. God is not schizophrenic and therefore not the author of many religions with many different rules that create confusion and therefore hostility, leading to wars. God is love, and therefore the Creator of all things will always teach humanity a uniform and consistent way of life in all aspects of life, whether religion, eating habits, morals, etc.
Sin does not separate God from mankind
God does not separate Himself from us because of sin, it is humanity that separates themselves due to self-condemnation which is why Adam and Eve hid themselves. In other words, if we could sin without guilt and condemnation, due to our innocence or lack of laws, and still have access to God, mankind would not have known death, which is why Genesis 3:22-24 says that God sent Adam and Eve out of Eden from His presence (garden of Eden means delight because they delighted in God’s presence) otherwise they would live forever in sin, but God did not want mankind to be sinful forever because God wants a people to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven to be with Him in righteousness, so God told them to leave the garden and protected the way to the garden, until such time that He was ready to send mankind the Messiah/Christ.
In Eden, they were innocent of sin because they didn’t understand good from evil but followed their hearts and God’s voice. In other words, if they sinned by doing something unprecedented through lack of understanding, there would be no guilt or condemnation, but somehow God would instruct them in the right direction without imputing guilt or condemnation. Even Cain was warned not to let sin consume him even though Cain was not innocent regarding sin because he knew of sin at that point. This highlights God’s grace throughout the Bible because He gave Cain protection. If we read carefully or are led by the Holy Spirit we realize that God was graceful even to the stiff-necked Israelites, and more so in the time of Jesus and beyond. This grace is consistent with the saying that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever in Hebrews 13:8. God’s grace was available from the beginning, but it does not mean that we have a license to sin because we died to sin when we were born again, and His goodness leads us to repentance, see Romans 2:4, and also because we open doors to evil when we consistently sin. See 1 John 5:18 which says that if we do not sin the wicked one does not touch us.
However, when pride raised its ugly head and they used their own perceived ability to understand good from evil, it was evident that they did not need to have faith or trust in God to learn or do what was right, and inadvertently cut themselves off from the root (God) that provides life and knowledge. They then hid from God because of guilt, but being a forgiving and graceful God, He covered their sin with animal skins as only the blood of a living thing can become a substitute for mankind’s sin because life is in the blood. Nevertheless, animal blood can never cover sins permanently because it cannot clear the conscience of man, i.e. animals are not made in the image and likeness of God and thus do not have a conscience like man. Therefore the significance of the blood of Jesus is paramount in that the life of the soul is in the blood, and therefore Jesus was made like unto his brethren in spirit, soul, and body, allowing the blood to wash sin away permanently and to clear the conscience of mankind.
That’s why in restoring humanity to God with the first appearance of Jesus Christ, believers have received grace to the point that sin is not imputed against them because God knows that it is impossible for humans not to sin, until such time that their hearts are transformed through the Holy Spirit, just like Adam and Eve’s hearts were being maintained spiritually through the tree of life (Christ). Jesus’s death on a tree is a reflection of the Tree of Life except that Jesus had to die to give others life. God knows that mankind can live forever, regardless of sin or not, but He does not want us to live in the perpetual sin of rejecting Him or His Word for eternity because He wants a relationship with mankind, which is the reason he created mankind, so He takes His presence away, or should I say, we reject His presence, and therefore death reigns and God initiates alternative predetermined plans to restore mankind to Himself. Mankind can pray and be absolved of any sin except the sin that results in death which is the unpardonable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit and rejecting God or His Word, for the Word is God. When we have no faith in something, we turn away or reject that thing, that’s why 1 John 5:16 says that there is a sin that kills, and that sin John refers to is a lack of faith in God, whereas all other sins are not unto death because for they can be forgiven.
Our carnality requires salvation
As human beings, we were created into carnality (desires of the flesh) where we are driven by the five senses with the aid of the human spirit which is God’s life force in us, giving us the ability to learn, understand, discern and communicate with God, thus directing us morally in everything we do, whether we work, play or rest. Humanity, however, focused more avidly on the physical aspects of life through the five senses rather than the spiritual awareness of God’s Word/voice in the heart, and thus we allowed our physical abilities, desires, and reasoning to overwhelm the human spirit which stopped prompting us because the soul did its own thing which negatively impacted our behavior. It’s easy to understand why this is so as the physical environment is extremely compelling when our desires are aroused through sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, whereas the voice of the heart needs to be discerned because it is a low voice that often appears to be just another thought. We, therefore, veer away from God’s providence as pride takes its toll and independence becomes a stronghold. When we become independent, we no longer need God and either become atheists or manufacture other personal suitable rules that make some god more realistic for our needs or in line with our understanding, and hence, many religions are born as many splits from the original and subsequent ones are formed. We therefore create an environment of sin that separates us from God due to a lack of faith or belief in the true God.
When we reject God or His Word and life becomes distressful, salvation becomes essential for eternal life instead of eternal judgment, and that’s where Jesus Christ as the “light of the world” becomes imperative to living a life full of peace, love, and joy in this life and the next. Jesus is the Word of God that was manifest or incarnate in a human body (John 1:14 – the word was made flesh) and is, therefore, the knowledge and wisdom of God in a human body who became our “light”, whereby we renew our mind by the knowledge of the Word of God.
Most of Jesus’s teachings were about changing mindsets such as the “sermon on the mount” in Matthew chapters 5 to 7 and saving His people from the destruction of the Jewish world in Matthew chapters 24 which happened in 70 AD when Rome retook control over Israel 40 years after Jesus’s crucifixion. These 40 years were given by God to test Israel regarding their turning around by believing in Jesus through His disciples who mimicked Jesus with signs and wonders, which is a comparable account of the 40 years of testing Israel’s faith in the desert through Moses and the miracles he did, where those that did not believe died and therefore never saw the physical Kingdom of Heaven represented by Israel after Canaan was conquered. The status quo of unbelief remains and future expectations of wars, disease, famine, and strife continue to harass the world. One just has to look at history and see all the wars that have taken place to see that history repeats itself due to mankind’s greed and insatiable desire for power.
The physical land and the people of Israel were merely a physical “model” or “shadow” that represented the true spiritual Kingdom of Heaven and of God respectively, that Jesus ushered into existence through His ministry, death, and resurrection. The ushering of the Kingdom of God within the believer by Jesus Christ took place after His death and resurrection when He appeared to His disciples and breathed the Holy Spirit on them, see John 20:22, and the power of the Kingdom of Heaven was given to them when the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues, see Acts 2:1-4. The true Kingdom of God and Heaven was never the physical Israel, however, the physical events, personalities in Israel, and enemies within and outside were used as a model or blueprint to teach believers about the true spiritual kingdom which is unseen. My opinion is that God knew that most people would not spend time with Him and learn of Him, therefore, He devised the written Word (Bible) based on detailed events in the visible physical kingdom to express and teach about the real spiritual events of the invisible Kingdom which was ushered in by Jesus Christ. Today, people still do not read the Bible holistically. The Kingdom of God has come but we keep on postponing it to only after death and after Jesus reappears. Of course, in this physical life, we will always have struggles and tribulations, and thus we do not have a perfect life as we expect in the new Heaven and Earth where righteousness dwells at the second appearance of Jesus, nevertheless, the kingdom of God has come and it’s up to every individual to decide the extent to which they walk in the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of this secular world.
The Holy Spirit is what we receive when we are “born again” to assist us in understanding and entering the kingdom of God which is a spiritual kingdom, not a physical earthly kingdom. That’s why Jesus said that the kingdom of God does not come with observation but is within us, see Luke 17:20-21, and see Romans 14:17 which explains that the Kingdom of God is righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Kingdom of God is abstract or of a spiritual nature, not physical, and thus has to do with our thoughts, beliefs, and disposition. Therefore, if we are born again, we can see (understand) and enter (experience) the kingdom of God (John 3:3-10) right here on earth where love, joy, peace, etc, is the heavenly atmosphere, tone, quality or mood of the Kingdom of God within the believer because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus was not talking about dying to enter the kingdom but rather that they needed to be born again so that the Holy Spirit could help them change their mindset and hearts to hear God and be saved from the coming onslaught of the Romans, and the same applies in today’s world as we wait for Jesus’s appearance. To inherit the Kingdom of God, however, is when we possess the kingdom in the next life as flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and neither can a corrupt person inherit incorruption, see 1 Corinthians 15:50.
The foundational reason for humanity’s pronounced focus on the physical aspects of life, as opposed to the spiritual aspects, was that human beings were not created in the exact image and likeness of God and were thus carnal. This is proven in 1 Corinthians 15:42-49 where it clearly states that Adam was not spiritual but natural (carnal), but the last Adam (Jesus Christ) was the Lord from heaven (spiritual), i.e. Jesus had the fullness of God’s Spirit at the time of birth where human beings only have a measure (portion) of God’s Spirit at time of birth. We are therefore born to learn life’s lessons in the physical world predominantly as a soul (Genesis 2:7) driven by the five senses, but also by the spirit to assist in our united walk with God, which strengthens our soul’s resolve each time we obey. The problem that humanity faces is how pride influences our choices which can either improve life, destroy life, or maintain the status quo of mediocrity.
These choices we make either direct us to the purpose of God for us on earth or we choose our destiny that can be seen by the very environment we have created in this world, where greed, poverty, lust, killing, and destruction are glaringly prominent in various places.
The purpose of God for humanity on earth is that of transformation (metamorphosis, if you wish) from mortal carnal beings, who are obsessed with material life, into immortal spiritual beings, where love, peace, and joy reign, where God is the imparter or giver of these blessings, and therefore the source of power that gives growth in the stature of the human being, both physically and spiritually.
We can therefore say that God created us to develop physically and spiritually to understand and enter His kingdom of righteousness, love, joy, and peace, right here on earth, and thus be transformed into spiritual beings to inherit eternal life in the new Heaven and Earth where righteousness dwells. Just as a seed has to die to produce wheat, barley, flowers, or any tree, so a human has to die to self-desire to inherit the kingdom as a spiritual being, whether here in our physical bodies in the current Heaven and Earth, or in the new Heaven and Earth where we will inherit glorious indestructible bodies.
We all currently die, but there will be a time at the last trumpet when those living in Christ will be transformed, and those who have died in Christ will be raised, see John 11:23-26 and 1 Corinthians 15:50-55. Then death will be defeated when we receive our glorious bodies in the new Heaven and Earth. Is there a chance that individuals who follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly will be taken up before the last trumpet? Enoch was a man without the indwelling Holy Spirit and yet he was taken up, so the possibility is there, but it is the only scripture that indicates so. Also, Jesus did not have to die but He did so to save humanity and reconcile them back to God. Many mistakenly think that Elijah was also taken, but that is not true because he wrote a letter to King Jehoram in 2 Chronicles 21:12-15, thus proving that he was placed somewhere else even though the prophets tried to find him and could not. Elijah had already given Elisha the mantel when He was placed elsewhere, which is why Elisha was the prophet when Jehosaphat, father of Jehoram, teamed up with Edom and Israel to fight Moab.
It is self-desire through our carnality that keeps us bound to this physical life which attracts sin that leads to physical and spiritual death, however, when we are selfless by living for others by the Word of God, we are released from the bondage of physical life which attracts sin, and God transforms us from within.
The process of salvation is, therefore, the re-focusing of the fallen human spirit, soul, and body, from carnality to learning to walk in tandem with God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit is given to us as a helper, comforter, teacher, and advocate to achieve what God originally intended, which is for a carnal human being to be transformed into a spiritual being, whether we are still living or dead in Christ at the last day, and only God knows the timing of that day. To initiate the salvation process we should repent and confess our sins, receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Finally, we should also be baptized in the Holy Spirit Who endues us with power.