The Referee

2 Corinthians 5 main theme is our mortal body and our immortal body. There are some nuggets in this chapter on the spirit,  soul, body and heart. After Adam and Eve sinned and died spiritually, they were also going to die physically. God never meant for us to be eternal, immortal,  in this earthly body, see 2 Corinthians 5:1 and Ephesians 1. God made us of dirt, of the earth. So we have an earthly body. But God put a heavenly element in us, a spirit which is the breath of life. Our spirit is heavenly. Then God gave all of us a free will, a mind, a soul. Our soul referees our body and our spirit.

How do I know our soul referees our body and spirit?  All the scriptures on faith. The just shall live by faith. We walk by faith not by sight. Without faith it is impossible to please God. How many times Jesus said, Your faith has made you whole. We know faith is  “believing” something we can not see, Hebrews 11:1.

When you believe something you believe in your mind, your soul. Believing starts in the mind and moves into the heart. That’s why with faith, all things are possible with God. So when God created us, he gave us an earthly element, our fleshly body. God then gave us a heavenly element,  a spirit. Then God gave us a soul, a free will, our mind. Our mind referees our spirit and body and is only limited by what we believe.

When you use your free will and believe God, that’s faith. They had Jesus with them, we have the Holy Spirit in us and God’s word. What limits us? Our mind, the referee. Remember,  scripture says all things are possible with God to those who believe.  If you truly believe in healing and you speak God’s word, have elders pray anoint with oil, or just by faith ask God, God still heals people.

The only thing that will limit you from victory over issues, is your own mind. The mind is the key and that’s why Satan attacks our thoughts and God tells us  Isaiah 26:3 KJV. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee : because he trusteth in thee.”

You have to ask yourself, what are you allowing to go into your mind? What you allow into your mind is planting seeds in your mind and all seeds bring a harvest. Your mind is referee to your body and your spirit. 

People “say” they believe God’s word but when put through a test where they have to speak and claim God’s word they make excuses. Is it they do not really believe? I don’t think so. Some people are like Gideon,  they want to lay out a fleece. Others just believe God. Unbelief limits God only to the person with the unbelief. Look at Romans 3:3, ” For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?”  Verse 4, “God forbid: yea, let God be true but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings,…” Friends,  when you believe God and you speak God’s word over you, your family and friends, over your life, others, even some Christians, will speak against you or what you are believing God for and Satan will try to convince you that you are wrong but let God be true and every man a liar and we know Satan is a liar and the father of lies.

The key to the referee? The Holy Spirit. When you decide, with your mind, to listen to and believe God and his word, your mind gives up the referee status and makes God the Holy Spirit the referee. And that is how we live in the spirit Galatians 5:25. How we walk in the Spirit Galatians 5:16. And how we are led by the Spirit, Galatians 5:18.

Until next time my friends. 

The Referee - Your Mind/Soul

Our Flesh Fights Our Spirit

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

Surely God knew Adam and Eve were going to sin because God knows the end from the beginning. Our earthly house, our flesh, our body is made of dirt. It is from the earth, not heaven. But God gave us a spirit and soul. Our spirit is heavenly and our flesh is earthly. When you think about this, really think about this we get a clear picture.

God gives us life. He gives us a spirit that is heavenly and puts that spirit in a body that is earthly. Then God gives us a soul (mind, will, emotions) that is eternal. Our soul/mind determines what kind of a life we will live in the flesh from earth and how we decide about the heavenly. Our mind is caught in a tuggle war.

The flesh fights against God, see
Romans 7:14-23 KJV. “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
[15] For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
[16] If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
[17] Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
[18] For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
[19] For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
[20] Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
[21] I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
[22] For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
[23] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

So our flesh fights against God and our spirit wants everything from God. And who wins? The winner is decided by the soul, your mind. We are to renew our mind and bring our thoughts into subjection to the word of God. Therein lies the battleground.

When you think about how many different thoughts we are bombarded with every day, it is amazing. So we have to sift through the thoughts like wheat and cast out the thoughts that go against God’s word.

The flesh wants whatever it can get. So when you stop living by what your flesh wants and you bring your mind into subjection to God then you are letting the spirit man take over. And when your spirit takes over your mind, you start to speak what God’s word speaks. And when you start speaking what God says, your life will change. Even if you don’t see it right away, you keep speaking God’s word. Why? Because we know God can not lie. Need an example?

Wayward children. God promises us if we train up our children in the way they  should go, when they are old, they will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 Even if your child gets off track, don’t confess that with your mouth, confess God’s word. It may take years, but don’t give up. Remember the time frame from the time Joseph had the dream until his brothers bowed to him? What, about 30 years? Or Israel leaving Egypt wandered 40 years in the wilderness because they murmured and complained against God?

Why does God take so much time? The fining pot. That is the testing period to see if we will quit and give up. Or like Abraham,  will we have faith and trust in God?

Until next time.

 

The Thought Exercise

Did you ever put on a shirt inside out? It just didn’t look normal, did it. As a Christian,  that is exactly what we are suppose to do, live inside out. Now you take someone who has lived “right-side in” and tell them now, live inside out, you can see how family and friends might think there is something different about you, right?

When we renew our “inward man” our spirit man day by day, that is exactly what we are doing, living inside out.

Not only are we to renew our inward man daily (  2 Corinthians 4:16 KJV
“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”) But we are also to renew our mind daily (Ephesians 4:23-24 KJV  “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
[24] And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”) That is living inside out.

So how do we live inside out? We have to capture our thoughts. Most people, Christians and heathen,  live right side out. They do as the world does. They live by what they “think”.

Ephesians 2:3 KJV “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

Notice we all, all the world, lives fulfilling the desires of their flesh and their mind!  No one lives by their “spirit man”.  But once you get saved, that changes. Now you are to live by your spirit man,  inside out. Galatians 5:16, 18, 25 KJV “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” And how we do that is by capturing our thoughts.

So here is an experiment.  Did you ever notice when you first wake up in the morning you usually do not have anything on your mind and within a minute or two, you start thinking about what you have to do for the day? Then all these thoughts start popping into your mind? Capture them. How? Tell yourself NO, I am not going to think about that now. Then deliberately think about something good. And keep thinking about that something  good. And when another thought tries to push that good thought out, say no, and keep thinking on that something good. All of this will take no more than 5 minutes and you will begin to see that yes, you can capture your thoughts and replace bad thoughts with God’s word and good thoughts.

This takes practice but if you will do this for one week, you will see a change. Then every time, throughout your day, when you get a negative thought or bad thought, a worry thought, a fear thought, tell yourself NO, and think on good thoughts, God thoughts, God’s word. And in doing this, you will be able to capture your thoughts and refocus them on living inside out.

Until next time my friends. Have a blessed day and capture your thoughts.

Spotting Deception

As we in America gear up for an election I thought it is a perfect time to explore the soul more. No I am not going to tell you who to vote for or support, that’s your choice. But if we are going to be “led by the Spirit ” we need to know how to “hear” the Spirit. My mentioning the election is only for example purposes.

Why do people change their mind? We know our mind is part of our soul. We also know it is our soul (including our mind) is what goes to heaven or hell. It is the soul that gets saved when we believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Speaking of Jesus, Peter says,

1 Peter 1:8-9 KJV  “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
[9] Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”

So why do people change their mind? All of us who are really saved thought differently before we got saved. We believed what we were taught as a child. But we came to a point where we decided we wanted to know more. So we searched out “things” to learn.

Just as we sought out information about God, about Jesus and how to get to heaven, we also search out truth regarding political candidates and many things in life.  Let’s face it, no one likes to be deceived. How would you feel if God told you how to get to heaven and when you died, you didn’t go to heaven? You would know God deceived you. But we know God is truth and can not lie.

Hebrews 6:18 KJV ” That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:”

But people do lie. And Satan is the father of lies.  John 8:44 KJV “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

How do we know who is lying to us? Evidence. What have they said and what did they do. People speak lots of words but they do what’s in their heart and mind. When it comes to saying we hate sin and then we turn around and sin in the flesh, we understand the battle of the sin nature we were born with. But when a person says something and they are trying to convince you and me of their point of view,  how do we know if they are lying or deceiving us? Evidence. Look at their record of “deeds”. What have they done? How do they live? Is God in their life? What do they say about Jesus?

Mankind looks at the outward things. An example would be candidates may have a lot or done good things. But as God looks at the heart, we too need to look at the heart and not judge on outward appearances.  Did the person do things for personal gain, do they have a record of honoring God, what is their private life like. Once we look at all facets of their life and what they have done, we are in a better place to not be deceived by fluff, extravaganza, money or words.

Thoughts by candidates are placed into our mind just as a thought is presented to us by God, Satan, family, friends, coworkers and others. We process the thought and decide if we believe the thought or not and if action is needed, we act on the thought. When we act on the thought it is now in our heart.

Once the thought is in your heart it influences your soul, your mind, will and emotions.  Remember,  the heart is the gateway to the soul. So hearing the Spirit lead and guide us into all truth, we need to have God’s word as our foundation and then look at evidence.

So as this political season winds up, ask God who you should support and use God’s word as your guideline, look at the candidate’s evidence, what they say verses what they have done and was there personal gain motivating their decisions,  has the person lied before, if yes – about what and how often and pray asking God to give you his wisdom, not your thoughts. Our thoughts are limited to the scope of our knowledge and understanding only. God’s wisdom is infinite.

What Are Your Desires

People struggle with faith verses works, why do I do things I hate, why do I say things I should not say, and all of this is a clear indication that man is 3-fold like God is 3-fold. But God, is God. Man is God’s crowning achievement. Paul discusses this in 1 Corinthians 15:39-49 but Romans 7:14-23  really explains.

In your flesh dwells no good thing, Romans 7:18. Your flesh is a house for your soul and your spirit. Your flesh wants to do things the flesh desires or likes. Paul lists these desires of the flesh in Galatians 5:19,20 and 21. ( It isn’t pretty ).

But the amazing thing is your soul &  spirit. When you make a decision and set it in your heart and mind/soul, that you believe God and want to be saved and receive Jesus Christ as Lord & Saviour, you really change. You see – Ephesians 2:1-5

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
[2] Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
[3] Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
[4] But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
[5] Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”

You see, when you get saved, your spirit (not your body and not your soul/mind) but your spirit is quickened, made ALIVE unto God, before it was dead unto God.  So when I got saved, my spirit was made alive unto God, my spirit is born again (John 3:3,5,6,7) the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) comes into my heart and makes my praise, worship, faith, reverence and worship alive unto God.

Many times churches and denominations try to force the flesh to change. They want an outward showing of the flesh doing good things in “their” eyes. You’ve heard it like I have, do this, don’t do that. Friend, there is nothing good about your flesh or mine, it sins and desires to sin. The question is, who are you going to feed and let control you, your flesh? Your soul/mind? Or your spirit through the Holy Spirit in you?

Saved In Your Mind or Heart?

Remember in Trust Someone You Cannot See I said I did not love God or Jesus when I got saved? I got saved out of pure selfishness, I did not want to go to hell. We are never told to love God to be saved, we are told to believe God – to believe and receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. Just as a baby born into a family, the family comes to love that new baby. When we believe God and get saved, God gives us a new family. We hope to bring our earthly family into God’s family with us because we love our family.

It is not what you think in your head, it is about what you think in your heart. Remember the thought process and how it works. A thought comes into your head, you ponder the thought, determine if it is good or bad, decide to believe or reject the thought. If you reject the thought, if it was a good thought from God, you harden your heart. If you decide to believe the thought, it goes into your heart, whether the thought is good or evil, it is based on if you believe the thought.

Clearly, what is in your heart comes out your mouth. And what is in your heart are thoughts you have decided to believe, whether good thoughts or bad.  And that is why man’s heart is deceitful and desparately wicked. Man can have bad or evil thoughts in their heart.

Remember in Romans 10:9,10, salvation is a heart matter not a head matter. Jesus Christ can be in someone’s head but not in their heart. You have heard the saying, There will be a lot of people in heaven you didn’t think would be there, or There are people you thought would be there and are missing?

That’s because some people have Jesus in their heart but fear talking about him and fear living for him. Others talk the Christian talk but do not have Jesus in their heart. Then as the parable of the sower in Luke 8, some never shut up about Jesus. So how do we know what group we are in? Jesus gave us some tests we could look at.

Test 1: If someone says they are a Christian, but they have no fruit or  evidence, then clearly they have Jesus in their head and not their heart.

Test 2: Examine their walk. Look at their life, is it ungodly? Listen to what is coming out of their mouth. What do they talk about? Are they always talking about things in this world? Are the negative? Do they talk about money all the time? Do they talk about God and spiritual things? Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks in Matthew 12:34.

Ask yourself, is Jesus Christ in my head or my heart? I pray you will invite him into your heart to be your Lord and Saviour.

Heaven's Record the Scriptures

Until next time. Have a blessed day.

Dirty Thoughts?

Recently, a lot of attention has been given to mental illness. Question: Is mental illness a disease of brain matter or is it thought (s) related?

Thoughts come into into your head/mind (Daniel 2:29) affecting the soul (mind, will and emotions). These thoughts you reason out. Once you decide what to do with the thought, the thought gets into your heart (affecting your spirit) and what is in your heart comes out of your mouth (lips, tongue, your speech), see Job 20:2. Remember when Jesus said, Matthew 12:34-37

“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
[35] A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
[36] But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
[37] For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Question: The thoughts that get into your head, your mind/soul, how do they get there and where do they come from?
Have you ever been praying and had a terrible, ungodly thought? We all have. Did you ever ask, where did that thought come from? Just ask yourself, where did the thought come from that got into Eve’s head?  Who planted the thought in Adam and Eve’s head?

Remember, Satan planted a seed thought in Eve’s mind/soul. (See our post Why Satan’s Tricks Work Today ). The seed thought was reasoned out by Eve, she acted on the thought expecting the result to be they will be as gods. What was the result? Shame (Gen.2:7) they knew they were naked. Fear (Gen. 2:10) So what did Satan’s seed thought produce? Shame, fear and spiritual death. Is that what Satan told Eve would happen? No. He told her they would be as gods. So Satan lied to her. And he does the same thing today, he lies to you, he tricks you, he deceives you.

Thoughts come from God, from family, friends, people and Satan. These thoughts are seeds planted in your mind/your soul. See the parable of the sower in Luke 8:11-15.

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
[12] Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
[13] They on the rock are they , which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
[14] And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
[15] But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

Whether the seed thought is good or evil, when you start to reason out the thought and what the result would be, the thought gets into your heart. Once the thought is in your heart, you will act on the thought.

The key is when you get a thought,  determine if it is a good thought or evil thought. If you don’t know, ask yourself, does this thought offend God, go against God’s word, help my spirit, soul or body. That is why Paul calls it, warfare. We battle thoughts.

Until next time.

        
Never quit on God

Your Soul Is The Prize

We covered our spirit and body in the last post. Now we will look at our soul. Our soul is our mind, our will and our emotions. Our soul/mind has thoughts, desires, imagination, conscience (knowing right from wrong), memory, reasoning and affections.

Your mind/soul is bombarded with thoughts everyday, every hour, every minute. Your thoughts are based on imaginations, memories, affections. and when you have a thought you have a conscience – knowing right from wrong – another words is this a good thought or a bad thought. Your mind/soul then reasons your thoughts – you try to reason is this good or bad, should you do this or not, how should I do that thought.

Then once you have a thought, your conscience (part of your soul/mind), determines if the thought is good or bad and you reason how to act out or not act out the thought. Let’s say the thought is a good thought –
You want to learn more about God or
You want to spend more time with your family or
You want a job promotion.
You will start to imagine how you could do that thought and then you will reason out the ways to act on that thought until you get the thought to a point where you believe in your heart – you can do it. Once you start doing your thought, you have set your affections on whatever the thought produces (more time with God, more time with family or a job promotion).

Let’s say the thought is a bad thought. The process is the same as a good thought but the outcome or result is different.  Acting out a bad thought causes guilt, shame, condemnation. Guilt, shame and condemnation are all emotions of the soul.

Once you have a thought, the thought can get into your heart (the gateway to your soul/mind) and you act on the thought. Let’s look at some examples – Satan and Adam & Eve.

Here you have an Archangel named Lucifer who was in heaven, in charge of music and he had a position of authority. But then God created man and gave man dominion/authority over all the earth (see our post Understand How & Why God Made You ).

So Lucifer gets a thought in his heart and he acted on the thought. How do we know this? God tells us in Isaiah 14:12-16. Notice verses 13 & 14,  “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
[14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

Lucifer said in his heart (gateway to the soul/mind). The problem with Lucifer’s thought was he is a created being. God created him. God put him in charge of music as an Archangel with authority. We know this from Ezekiel 28:13-18. So as a created being,  Lucifer’s thought to be God was foolish because Lucifer did not create anything or anyone, God did and as God is the Creator God rules.

We will look at Adam & Eve next time and their thought to rebel.

Looking At Your Inward Man

I have really struggled with how do I present this material in a way that will help my readers. I’ve prayed about this and asked the Lord how do I do this Lord? So I’m going to lay a foundation first.

I’m going to start with Romans 1 verse 1 where the Apostle Paul is addressing the Christians, the saints/believers, in Rome. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. Which he had promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

So regarding our Lord Jesus Christ we see according to the flesh he’s from the seed of David and declared to be the Son of God and he had power according to the spirit by the resurrection from the dead. This clearly shows that Jesus Christ had a body and he was declared to be the Son of God and he had the mind of God he knew God and other scripture shows he is God in the flesh and he had a spirit.

The verse I want you to write down is Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. Hebrews 4:12 says. ” For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and morrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. If I were to look some of these words up in the dictionary I might read Hebrews 4:12 like this for the Word of God is quick – alive and powerful meaning able to produce great things and sharper than any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder or separating into parts the soul and the mind and spirit or spiritual man and of the joints and marrow – connected body parts and is a discerner – sees the difference between – of the thoughts and intents of the heart – the state of our emotions. So in plain English the Word of God is alive it’s not just some type on paper and it is powerful it can produce great things but did you notice all of the different parts of the body that are in that one verse? You have the soul, the spirit and the body, the joints and marrow you also have thoughts and intents of the heart.

We see we are made of of a body that has a spirit and soul and somehow our heart affects all of them. When reading Scripture, notice how many times you find the words soul or mind, renew your mind or scriptures about the flesh or the heart or the spirit you’ll be amazed when reading through scripture how these different parts are identified. Now I don’t know how all these other Bible versions express this but if you look at the King James Bible there is a clear distinction between spirit, soul, body, thoughts and heart and when you unlock the Scriptures for each of those areas it will unlock a plethora of truth to you and help you.

I am, with God’s help, going to try to explain how this all fits together. Have a blessed day. Until tomorrow when we will pick this up.

Spirit, Soul and Body Chart

Here is a chart to help you understand the spirit, soul and body of mankind. Feel free to use this chart but credit Heaven’s Record.

 

Man’s spirit, soul, and body chart