Human Spirit Article in all five parts

The Human Spirit, God’s Spirit and Christ’s Indwelling Spirit

This will be an attempt to understand these three aspects of spirit in conjunction with what is spirit, also the spirit realm and find the answer of just what is true spirituality. I will occasionally quote from Knoch’s book, Spirit, Spirits and Spirituality but I recommend to all, the reading of it as “spirit” is a very complicated subject perhaps because we are of the earth and thus are soilish and have a soulish nature and also in Gods Word and in our vocabulary “spirit” is used for that which is invisible.

What first prompted this study is wanting to understand the human spirit and because we hear so much today about being spiritual, I also wanted to define spirituality?

It is taught today by most religions, that humans are either an eternal spirit clothed in flesh which passes on to another life or realm at the death of the body or as explained by most sects in Christendom, humans have an immortal soul or spirit within the body which leaves at death, going either to heaven, purgatory, or hell. In this study we will rely only on what Gods Word tells us happens at death, and what it tells us the soul is and is not and what is the human spirit.

I also read and hear so many today talking about spirituality and or being spiritual but it is evident most do not understand Who the True God is or that mankind needs the redeeming work of the Savior Jesus Christ….and so they do not believe in a personal God and Savior…so, can they still be spiritual?

Gods Word is our measuring stick for finding truth, but very few in this world will let His Word be the last word. As Paul says at Romans 3:4, “Let God be true, yet every man a liar.” Humanity has fallen prey to the lies and myths perpetrated by the spirit world under Satan which began with Eve in the Garden of Eden and has continued down through the centuries and mostly through religion.

I feel many who speak of being spiritual may have confused spirituality with soulishness and so this needs to be explored in Gods Word and hopefully clearly defined for us.

Paul explains that humanity being flesh and soulish is completely natural, with these words, “Now the soulish man is not able to receive those things of the Spirit of God, for they are stupidity to him and he is not able to know them, seeing that they are to be spiritually examined.” 1 Corinthians 2:14.15.

So what or how are we to, spiritually examine things if we are soulish? Paul also answers this for us as he continues in Verse 16 speaking to those called into the Body of Christ with these words, “Now he who is spiritual is indeed, examining all, yet he is being examined by no one. For who knew the mind of the Lord? Who will be deducing from Him? Yet we have the mind of Christ.”

Also a very short verse which says it all… is to back up to Verse 10b “Yet to us God reveals them
through His spirit, for the spirit is searching all, even the depths of God.”

So we are clearly told in order for the soulish person, which we all are, to be able to understand spiritual things we must have the mind of Christ as it is God doing the revealing. So our next question should be, how do we get the mind of Christ?

It is not something we on our own can acquire, it is given to those God has chosen and Paul again simply answers this for us at Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who blesses us with every spiritual blessing among the celestials in Christ according as He chooses us in Him before the disruption of the world, we to be holy and flawless in His sight, in love designating us beforehand for the place of a son for Him through Christ Jesus;”

Paul clearly stated that God chooses those who are in the Body of Christ and gives them every spiritual blessing and one of these is having the mind of Christ which is what Paul explains is in reference to also having the indwelling spirit of Christ, at Ephesians 3:17 “Christ to dwell in your hearts” Please also read Galatians 2:20 where Paul says “living in me is Christ.”

I think this passage also explains further…as to the mind of Christ and Christ to dwell in our hearts as Paul said here, living in me is Christ, how or what this means. Paul next says in Verses 19b,20 “Now that which I am now living in flesh, I am living in faith that is of the Son of God. Who loves me, and gives Himself up for me.” Paul said the faith he was living in was not his own but that is of the Son of God.

It seems the indwelling is tied with out being of Jesus Christ’s faith…and this is in relation to Him as the Son of God. We need to differentiate between faith in or faith towards with the faith of Jesus Christ or the Son of God…the preposition “of” implies His faith and not our own, in Him. We must understand the differences with faith in each administration.

Those of Israelite heritage needed to exercise faith in Jesus to accept and believe that He was their promised messiah and because signs were given by their God Jehovah all through out their experiences with Him…in order to instill or enable their faith giving them the ability to believe…which is the meaning of faith! Jehovah did not require blind faith…He proved Himself to the People that He had chosen to be His servants, His witnesses…..His People.

For those placed in the new administraiton we are told not that God gives us signs but that God gives each a measure of faith Romans 12: 3b.

Paul also says the new administration is a new creation at 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 6:15 as such the Body of Christ became Gods temple. Even though in the very beginnings of this new administration…Saul and those placed in the new administration were given signs because they were chosen during the dispensation of Holy Spirit for Israel and that is because the first members of the Body of Christ were also called out of Israel….a remnant of Jew became the bride church and a remnant of Hebrews, those of Israelite heritage, Jews and the sons of Israel not practicing Judaism with these the beginning members of the new administration as the Body of Christ.

Saul was a Jewish Pharisee; zealous for the Mosaic Law was called by Christ to be the apostle to the new administration and his assigned territory was the nations outside the land of Judea…where the sons of Israel lived…these sons were from the scattered 10 tribes. God was faithful to the promises given the fathers…as He began the bride church under Jesus and handed over to Peter and the 11 through a remnant out of Israel…and also the Body of Christ…began with a remnant out of Israel!

Paul states several times that the saints in this new administration are of Jesus Christ’s faith and I feel this means we are given a measure of His tried and tested and unfailing faith. When we are vivified we will be filled with God’s Spirit and will never sin again. While here on the earth we remain in our sinful and dying bodies and yet we have been made the temple of God and given the indwelling of Christ, also said to be given the mind of Christ.

What else could these things mean but that we are given His Faith, His indwelling spirit gives us the enduring faith to believe because it is His faith…we are of the faith of Jesus Christ…of… is a preposition meaning the faith of belongs to Christ. This is what enables us to believe and gain an understanding of the spiritual things from His Word.

So then, along with being given His faith, this also means given His righteousness, His allotment and the list goes on. Please read through…Romans 2:27, 3:22; Galatians 2:16, 3:22, 25; Ephesians 3:12, 13; Philippians 3:9 and 2 Timothy 3:15.

With what we have also read in Romans 8:16, being given the mind of Christ, as well as the indwelling of Christ and being given His faith, His righteousness, His allotment in the heavens we can see that these are the spiritual blessings Paul spoke of at Ephesians 1:1-3 and also that they are limited to the chosen saints of the new administration called through Paul’s evangel of Grace for the nations.

Galatians 3;22b “that the promise out of Jesus Christ’s faith may be given to those who are believing.” Here Paul is explaining the righteous standard they are given in his evangel is not out of Law but out of Jesus Christ’s faith; remember Christ fulfilled the Law for those of Israel who had been under that law. The Judaisers were challenging Paul’s evangel of grace, as they clung to the Law.

So Paul in this chapter of Galatians is comparing the Law with the promised messiah being Jesus and so this was the coming of faith through Him and His faith. The first promise of this messiah or redeemer was given at Genesis 3:15 and also later with the promise given to Abram that by means of his seed would all families of the earth be blessed.

These promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ as Israel’s messiah and as humanity’s redeemer….He is the only One able to fulfill the law and the prophets and also annual the death curse on humanity inherited from Adam. Christ’s sinless life and death paid the price for all humanity…..as the redeemer of Sin and death, His death paid for humanities release from death and His rousing is what gives us justification acquittal of all sin and this will also be given to all humanity as all will come out of death. Romans 4:25

Paul also tells us “God dwells in a temple” made up of “the saints” that He has chosen and placed in the new administration. 1 Corinthians 3:16 “Are you not aware that you are a temple of God and the spirit of God is making its home in you?” CLV

This is also what Paul said concerning these things at, Romans 8:9,10 “God’s spirit is making its home in you, Now if anyone has not Christ’s spirit, this one is not His…..the body, indeed, is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness. Now if the spirit of Him, Who rouses Jesus from among the dead is making its home in you, He Who rouses Christ Jesus will also be vivifying your mortal bodies because of His spirit making its home in you.” This tells us the body is dead because of sin, yet those chosen by God for the new administration are given God’s spirit and thus have life guaranteed.

So through these few passages of scripture we have learned that we believe not of ourselves but because we were chosen and given the faith of Jesus Christ, the mind of Christ, and the indwelling of Christ, Gods Spirit dwelling in us as His temple. This is in contrast with Israel’s administration whose home law was the Mosaic Law Covenant, and with it they had the promise of righteousness through law keeping while…Paul’s evangel given for the new administration has the home law of GRACE which gives righteousness or justification outside of the Law of Moses, because of Jesus Christ. Acts 13:39

So in the past with Israel as God’s chosen nation, the other nations were on the outside looking in…enemies and without God. In the present day, new administration, by means of Paul’s evangel, God is choosing individuals out of all the nations of the world, while the rest of humanity is again on the outside looking in. The world is unaware of this dispensation of Grace or that God is conciliated to it through the cross of Christ…2 Corinthians 5:17-19.

It is very clear with what Paul has written in the passages we have been considering and there are many more to add to them…that humanity as a whole does not have the indwelling of Christ or His Faith given to them and thus the spiritual things of God’s Word are not able to be understood by them.

This choosing of God of some and not all for the new administration has nothing to do with being a good or bad person, if we recall Paul said that actually God chooses the lowly and stupid of humanity to demonstrate His Grace through. 1 Corinthians 1:27,28. It has to do with God’s Plan of the ages and the creating of a new administration in contrast to the old of Israel, based on Law keeping, this new one is based on GRACE. Just as Israel, was chosen out of all the nations by Jehovah for the purpose of giving a witness to the other nations of Gods righteous standards.

Grace is the witness today for humanity of Gods love for His creation and that He is working out the salvation of all humanity….by first imputing His righteousness to the new administration through Christ’s work on the cross and which will eventually reconcile all His creation.

The promise given to Abraham the father of that nation was through his seed all families of the earth would be blessed…that is still a promise in operation. So the other nations will one day be blessed through Israel and the rest of humanity will be blessed through both of these administrations so none will be left out in the cold.

The Body of Christ temporarily replacing Israel as Gods People. With the nation of Israel, He resided in their temple, evidenced by the Shekinah glory. With the new administration of Grace begun under the apostle Paul we are told that God in spirit resides in its members and not because they chose Him or deserve it, but because He chose them and gave them all of these spiritual blessings that we have been discussing for the purpose of bringing Him Glory in the on coming eons. The rest of humanity will also be blessed with salvation, and grace in those coming eons.

Now, another question has arisen from this passage in Romans, Is Christ’s spirit separate from God’s Spirit? If so, how can this be, if Christ is the form of God and we believe in One God wouldn’t there just be One Spirit also? Why does Paul speak of Christ’s Spirit and God’s Spirit in the same paragraph as though they are separate spirits and if they are not, why doesn’t Paul explain that they are one spirit?

But before we try to understand the two spirits spoken of in this passage in Romans, I feel we should first look at humanity, and come to an understanding of just what is, the soul and the soulish nature. The correct understanding of the soul is essential as it is the basis for correctly understanding spirit. This will be a lengthy section as we look at soul, soulishness and human behavior. Human behavior is that which is natural to the human and humans being living souls is the soulishness of all humanity. As Paul said the soulish man is unable to understand spiritual things without Gods spirit.

We will also later on look at, spirit, Gods, Christ’s, and the human spirit and lastly because so much is said today about being spiritual, I want to look at and try and understand just what is, true spirituality.

The Soul, Soulishness, the flesh and human behavior

It is said in order to correctly understanding Gods Word; the first step is to find the first usage of a word under consideration in the scriptures, because the first usage gives the correct definition for that word throughout the rest of God’s Word. There are no contradictions in Gods Word, when correctly translated and rightly divided which is as it should be if God is the Author of the scriptures.

So our first subject is the Soul, and its first use in the Old Testament and is from the Hebrew word, of “nephesh”. This Hebrew word was first translated as soul, but in later passages the translators chose to use other words such as life and creature being two of the several other words used incorrectly in the King James Authorized Version. By using these different words the simple truth about what a living soul is has been lost or clouded over.

So our rule or guideline is that the one Hebrew word nephesh was first translated as soul in the creation account of Adam and thus nephesh should always be translated…as soul. So we might ask, why does the KJAV use so many different words?

The KJAV is not a concordant translation; concordant means to find one word in the English language that gives the definition of the Hebrew or Greek word and then to consistently use that word. This gives the student confidence in the translation, not needing to repeatedly double check to see what the word was in the original language.

The KJAV translators chose to make it their prerogative to decide what God might have meant and thus used different English words for the one Hebrew word, in the case of soul and in many others instances. The choices made were based on the theological theories of the time….thus perpetuating the lies and myths which our own Apostle Paul warned us to watch out for.

This was actually interpreting on their part and not translating…something the Bible Student wanting to find truth must carefully avoid….we are the safest when we let Gods Word interpret itself for us and the beginning of that process is to see how the original word was first used in God’s Word, so comparing scripture with scripture.

This is why I like to use good study Bibles and I mostly use Bullinger’s Companion Bible, because his notes in the margins point to the definition of the word as used in the original language, alerting us that the translators may not have made a good choice with the word they chose to translate it into.

Also I use the Concordant Literal Version as it tried to consistently use an English word that best fit the meaning of the Hebrew or Greek word used.

So on the word soul in the New Testament, using the language of Greek it is, psuche meaning “cool” defined or explained by Knoch as “the sensation, resulting from the combination of an organic body with breath or spirit,” We have heard the expression “a breath of fresh air” used in a literal and figurative way to describe someone who was very pleasant to be around.

In order to understand just what is the soul we need to go to the creation account to look at the first use of the word soul. In this account we find it used in relation to the creation of the first man in Genesis 2:7. We are told that Adam was created out of the soil (dust is not an accurate rendering) of the ground and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Adam became a living soul.

Two words here given are first Breath which is the Hebrew word, “nshamah.” The second word given is Soul which is the Hebrew word “nephesh.”

So we are told breath was given, but note there was no mention of spirit in this passage, but we will find that breath and spirit are closely linked in the scriptures and in this study hopefully we will see why even though they are two different words, breath is nshamah and so basically this would be in relation to the breathing process which is the moving of air into the lungs, the taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. As noted the use of spirit is missing in the creation account and with the description of Adam becoming a living soul and this is something we need to be aware of and try to understand.

The Hebrew word for spirit is Ruach and in the Greek language it is Pnuema and as such they are described in the scriptures also with words which signify invisibility and the movement of air; air, wind, blast, blow. So, this is how the comparison to breath can be seen, as it also is invisible, moving air, but we must recognize that two different words in the Hebrew language are given for spirit and breath. So that means even though they are similar in how they are described they are two different elements.

I think we must remember that the human must breathe in order to live, and so “breath” is the air or oxygen needed by the living to sustain life. A good basic definition of “spirit” for us to remember would be “invisible imperceptible power, action and in relation to God, intelligence.” The air we breathe and the spirit are both invisible that is what makes them similar and yet they are different elements.

This invisible spirit is separate or different from the spiritual body which the spirit beings have, they bodies or forms which are invisible to us but visible to each other and at times they have revealed themselves to humanity. The scriptures tell us the angels or messengers are men and have the human form. Christ appeared as a Man and that is the form of God of which we are copies of. He has a spiritual body and would be a spiritual Man…we are promised a spiritual body when we are snatched away to meet the Lord in the air…Paul says we or our bodies will be changed and will be images of Him.

But we must always keep in our minds…God the Spirit or God Spirit is…. has no form in that state, this is the unknowable God of John 4:24……the image and form of God was Jehovah and then Christ.

The God of John 4:24 is absolute Spirit, imperceptible power invisible power and intelligence….which is manifested through or by Jehovah God who is our Christ and He is the Form of God, the visible manifestation of the invisible spirit, the Person of God, the only God we will ever see. As we have been discussing in this Study Manual Four, God is Spirit and God the Spirit took on Form to reveal Himself to His creation…He is One God and One Person!

In this study we want to understand the two words used in relation to the creation of humanity, breath and spirit because in some scriptures they seem to be linked because of the similarity of both being invisible and their being evidenced by the movement of air and so sometimes breath has been translated as spirit and since nshamah is not Ruach, for spirit…it would then be important to consider the context of each verse where breath is translated as spirit.

Two examples where breath is rendered spirit from the word nshamah are Job 26:4 “To whom hast thou uttered words? And whose spirit (breath) came from thee?” In this passage the context is the words given to Job by his friends and when words are spoken, breath is expelled but perhaps also the thought that the spirit of the speaker is in the breath or the motives being revealed by the words?

Proverbs 20:27. “The spirit (breath) of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” A candle is light and that light fueled by a flame of fire; which is energy…the breath brings in oxygen which is an element of energy needed in the entire body.

If you have the Companion Bible you will see in the margin notes, that the Hebrew word is “nshamah” for breath and it was in these passages from the Hebrew scrolls and not Ruach for spirit….but the translators chose to use spirit anyway. In Appendix 16, of the Companion Bible, there is a list where nshamah, for breath has been rendered spirit throughout the KJAV. Don’t let this confuse you, as the context usually helps to clear up what was being spoken of…literal breath, the human spirit or the spirit of God…but this is just another example of why we need to have a good study Bible like the Companion Bible.

Something else very interesting is said in Job 33:4 “The Spirit of GOD hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” The word Spirit is Ruach and the word breath is neshamah.

Also the Concordant Literal Version is a tool for us to use as it is based on the concordant method of translating scripture by bringing into the English the more literal meanings of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek of which the scriptures were originally written, so always good to compare it with the KJAV.

The Concordant Literal Version translates Genesis 2:7 in this way, “And forming is Ieue Alueim the human of soil from the ground, and He is blowing into his nostrils the breath of the living, and becoming is the human a living soul.”

It is very important for us to make note of what was said in the creation account as well as what is not said. We read of “the breath of the living” and in this verse, as I said, breath is nshamah and so basically this would seem to then be the breath, air, or oxygen; in the breathing process as humans need oxygen to live, while as said previously nothing was said of spirit being given to Adam. But obviously, the spirit of life from God was needed for Adam to live as there is no life without it. There are a few possibilities to explain where or how Adam received the life giving spirit.

Perhaps the spirit of life was in God’s breath imparting life to Adam; or the breath of the living may have been used figuratively since God does not breathe oxygen but Adam would? Or perhaps the spirit of life was already in the cells of Adam’s body and the breath from God meant the beginning of the breathing process in Adam, giving him consciousness which was necessary to become a living soul?

It might also help us to understand the breath of the living, if we talk a little bit about how essential oxygen is to the body, yes; we all know we can’t go very long without breathing. But what each breath of oxygen does in the body is really amazing, as each cell must have oxygen and it is used in a combustible way to produce energy very similar to the combustion in the engine of an automobile.

So in the human body, oxygen is used and needed in connection with the spirit or the life force within each cell which is a form of electricity. This is why paramedics can restart a heart by giving it a jolt of electricity also we can note that in the giving of CPR, they also breathe or push oxygen into the lungs. The combination of the electrical energy in the cells and the oxygen causes combustion, the energy of life in each cell of the body.

The breathing process of the human body is also a way of cleansing out toxins through exhaling. The combustion process is also our metabolism; when it is increased through exercise the body takes in more oxygen and burns more fuel stored in order to produce energy and this is the burning of calories. That is the positive side of breathing while the negative side is once the oxygen is used it is then a negative and must leave the body. Think of a car, accelerate the speed, it uses more fuel to go faster and a car also must release the spent fuel…so it has an exhaust system, but plug the tail pipe and the car can’t function.

Oxidation is spent or burnt oxygen and to the body could be likened to what rust is to metal and thus the human’s need to get rid of it is important. One way is consuming antioxidants, many fruits and berries provided by our Creator help the body cleanse itself through the liver and colon. The body is design to function in all these areas and myriads more…the body just does its thing.

We are not conscious of what the body needs to stay alive other than the basics, oxygen, food, water, sunlight, sleep….but the human brain knows what to do with all these things internally. We are so complex and so wonderfully made it never ceases to amaze me. Later in this article I will give some more information on how the mind and brain works which is like a computer, preprogrammed to run our bodies and as living souls comprised of flesh and blood is what makes us humans, soulish.

But for now, what I want to explore is the importance for Adam to begin breathing with the possibility that the life force as God’s spirit was already in place in the cells of his body.

It is made abundantly clear in how the creation of humanity is explained for us in Genesis 2:7 that man comes from the soil but there must be some significance in that there was no reference to spirit being given or used in the creating of Adam. Maybe, the simple explanation for this is to explain or show us that the creation of humanity was very different from the creation of the invisible world of spirit beings.

Those living in the spirit realm were first created by God and obviously from, invisible spirit materials, they were given an invisible spiritual body while humanity is specifically said to be taken out of the earth, from the soil of the ground and so has a visible, physical body and this is why it is also said to be soilish by Paul at 1 Corinthians 15:47,49. Again we must note nothing is said of man being spirit.

Now what also shows us that there was a deliberate omission of “spirit” in the account of Adams creation, is that early on in Genesis 1:2 we are told of “the Spirit of God moving over the waters.” It is also noticed that nothing is said about the spirit in creating the lower animals either and they too come from the soil and must breathe oxygen to live.

We next read of the spirit in Genesis 6:3, and so finally we are told it is the spirit which gives life in that this passage says, “Gods spirit would not stay with or in humanity for the eon as he is flesh and his days are numbered to be 120.” So we are now told of the presence or operation of God’s spirit within humanity. The 120 years were not speaking of Adam’s life span as he was already 810 years old when that was said and so it was said in relation to the years left for Adam before the coming flood. Adam did die before its arrival as we know all humanity except for 8 souls drowned in that flood, Noah and his family.

We might read this in the CLV Genesis 6:17 “And I behold Me bringing a deluge of water over the earth to wreck all flesh which has in it the spirit of the living from under the heavens. All that in the earth shall expire” So this is in reference to all life on the earth which breathes oxygen as obviously, the flood did not harm the fish in the seas The King James renders this verse as “I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall die.”

So we notice the difference is the breath of the living from the spirit of the living, but in the notes given by Bullinger, he show it is the word spirit, or Ruach.

The more literal rendering could be used as, the spirit of the living as the “the spirit of the living shall be wrecked because the living breathe oxygen and of course would drown in the flood waters, giving up the spirit.” Or maybe we could say it this way, “all those living will expire because of the flood waters who have in them the spirit and are breathing.” These are the two main elements, Gods Spirit as the life force, and the breathing process.

God’s Word clearly explains that Adam was not a spirit sent from heaven to the earth, he was of this earth made from the soil of the ground, just as all life on this planet. This is our first hint at what is meant by soul and soulish and Paul also used the expression…soilish at 1 Corinthians 15:47. The soilish aspect is important to first see because the prevalent teaching in the world is that man is a spirit clothed in flesh. Man is not a spirit but Adams body came from the soil of this earth and given the breath of the living by God and that body became a living soul….nothing said of spirit being given or of being one.

In considering the statements made regarding how God started Adam’s life we need to remind ourselves that God does not breathe oxygen, having no lungs which need oxygen. In the scriptures terms are used about God which relate to how humans are built and live and what we know about, humans cannot see the spirit realm and have no comprehension of it other than what we are told in God’s Word.

Human terms are used in a figurative way in relation to the imperceptible spirit we call God. Humanity was designed by God to live on this earth and needing oxygen, water and food to sustain life. God breathed…signifies the life giving breath needed by Adam to become a living soul, thus conscious. So that term describes the beginning of the process of breathing.

Since none of us was there it is hard to say what exactly occurred. But we do know that oxygen sustains life, but by itself does not impart life and so it was not the initial spark or cause of life. As previously said there are two possibilities…the spirit of life was in the breath God breathed into Adams lungs or the spirit of life was already in place in Adams cells. All we are told is that he was made from the soil and given the breath of the living and Adam became a living soul.

God programmed into Adam for his descendants receive the spirit of life from the father’s sperm igniting the female ovum and the life in the sperm immediately brings that ovum/egg to life. DNA takes off with the multiplying of cells and building the body and the brain into a person and within days that person developing in the womb by means of the DNA which is like a giant blueprint, has decided, the design of that person, male or female, tall or short, the coloring of the hair and eyes and so much more.

There is an example of the spirit being in the breath, when Jesus is said to have blown or breathed onto His apostles in John 20:22. This occurred after Jesus was resurrected and was gathered with them. He breathed, exhaled or blew on them saying, this was the imparting of Holy Spirit for empowerment. So again, the spirit is associated with the movement of air, blowing, breathing and signified the means for giving of power to His disciples.

Jesus after His resurrection was a literal Person, standing in their midst, Who no longer needed lungs to breathe oxygen as He was then in an immortal body, yet we are again given a description of something we can visualize, breathing or blowing and so it is described that He in His vivified body, breathed on them, signified the giving of Holy Spirit for power.

Jesus told them, they had then received power and that they could forgive sin and also not forgive it…in other words they were given the authority to judge, to condemn someone’s sins. He also told them when He was gone He would send the comforter… Holy Spirit…Power and comfort…strength and gentle acts of the Spirit.

We can read about their dealing with sin using this authority later on in Acts 5:1-11. In this account the apostles chose not to forgive Ananias and Sapphira for lying about the monies they had received from selling their land. The lie was that they had donated it all when they had not. But we also see through this passage that the Apostles were being directed by Holy Spirit. With His physical presence gone, He also sent the visible manifestations of Holy Spirit to them on the day of Pentecost….Jews required signs as proof of God’s presence and favor and so they were given them.

So in getting back to our understanding of what is soul and soulishness….Adam was formed from the soil the elements of the earth and the blowing into his nostrils, by Ieue the Elohim and this began the breathing process and Adam becomes a living soul. Keeping in mind nothing is said of spirit being given even though we know it had to of been part of the process as spirit is the source of life.

The description of Adams creation tells us of what kind of creation he was, not of heaven but of the earth and so the soul of living humans is associated with the earth from which the body came and a living soul has the physical senses of which are manifested in and by the body…sight, hearing, smelling, taste, touching along with emotions, feelings, which are soulishness and so we could also say, human nature or what is natural for a human…that which is of the flesh and or physical.

Perhaps Paul can help us to see that breath and life are not necessary the same things. Acts 17:26 “He Himself gives to all life and breath and all.” Obviously life comes from the Spirit of God, He is the source of life…all life….on this planet the animals including man must breath…thus oxygen is provided by God to sustain life…but again oxygen by itself does not give life.

These same ingredients were used by God in the creation of animals of which we are told that Adam gave them their names. The King James translates the animals as living creatures instead of living souls even though it is the same Hebrew word, as was used for Adam as a living soul, “nephesh” and so the animals should have been translated also as living souls instead of living creatures.

The KJAV translators’ of God’s Word tried to differentiate between man and the lower animals because the common theology amongst Pagan and so called Christians which was that man has an immortal soul. In that theology, animals did not and so they chose to use creature instead of soul. For centuries in Christendom it was taught that man had an immortal soul, but later when it was proven easily by scripture that the soul is mortal and dies that doctrine was switched by many to the immortal or eternal spirit within man.

Science has proven humanity is of the animal kingdom, in that we are made from the soil and must breathe oxygen to live, also needing food and water and sunlight to sustain life. The exception between humanity and the lower animals is that only was it said in the creation account of God’s Word that man or more correctly is the word “anthropas” for humanity was being made in Gods image and also we read that Adam was given dominion over the animals.

There is some confusion as to what is meant by that phrase, made in the image of God, and so it helps to see how it reads when it is more accurately translated from the Hebrew as, “Let Us be making humanity” in the image of or in Our, the image of the Elohim, this terminology, be making, is signifying a work in progress. We are not yet the finished product. The account in Genesis first has to do with the physical form given to humanity, as having the same shape or form of the Elohim which did this creating work also having some attributes of the Creator…but humanity is not spirit, just like the lower animals…made from the soil.

Another thing I find interesting is that after the one verse Genesis 1:26 which says let Us make man in Our image….the next verse is in the singular, Verse 27 says “And creating is the Alueim humanity in His image” This is interesting but a side issue the reader may do more exploring of on their own, our purpose here at this point within this study is to first define just what a living soul is so lets continue

We are told by Paul that Christ existed all along in the form of God, and Christ was the Ieue Elohim at work in Genesis. Ieue being the name of God, translated as Yahweh in the Hebrew and as Jehovah in the English. We are also told that Elohim appeared to humans in the Person of Jehovah. That form is described as the human form in the Old Testament scriptures as already discussed in this Manual.

We are also different from the lower animals in that our brains have a design distinct from the lower animals. Animals are pre programmed to live a certain life, said to be instinct and for this reason they do not question their life or try to change it. They do not ask questions, such as Who created me, is there a God or why am I here…or where am I going when I die or what is death? Humanity does ask these questions; animals are just what they are.

We are also, just what we are, as humans, living souls with a soulish nature but we were given the ability to educate ourselves and with that comes the desire to know our Creator, to ask questions and search for answers and strive to better ourselves. This is because we are not yet the finished product, the soulish life is not the final destination for humanity. Through this life humanity is being taken towards that which is spiritual because as flesh we are naturally soulish unable to understand that which is spiritual.

Through the process of learning good and evil as death doomed, mortal souls which do not have an immortal soul or spirit, that is why humanity needs the redeemer…a Savior to rescue them from these bodies of death. Jesus Christ did that for us on the cross, but this is only spiritually understood by those chosen by God and given the faith to believe and so understand that need and that fact, but to the soulish man the idea of a man coming from heaven and dying the death of a criminal on the cross, is stupidity.

So when the process of our being made into the image of God is concluded that is when humanity will be given immortality. God is spirit and form and that too will be our final or completed state, right now we are merely forms which die, the human sprit is not immortal when the body returns to the dust and the soul goes to sleep so also with it the human spirit.

But we are promised that one day, that which is corruption will put on incorruption and that which is mortal will put on immortality. If we already possessed immortality in any form….why would we need to put it on? Also Paul back's this up with his words at 1 Timothy 13-16 “Christ as the King of kings and Lord of lords, He alone has immortality.”

This is the purpose and need for a redeemer as was promised in Genesis 3:15. The process from death to life is where all of humanity is being taken by and in Christ and when that is accomplished, humanity will be completed, we all will have been made into the image of God…Elohim, the Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:53,54

The belief of an immortal or eternal soul or spirit has been wrongly believed and taught from the very beginning of religion from Adam and Eves descendants on down to our day and no matter how it has been added to or arranged, that belief comes from one lie, the first lie, told in the Garden of Eden when Satan said to Eve, “You will not really die…but become like God” Genesis 3:4,5

God had told Adam that if he ate from this one particular tree…the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in that day you shall die” or literally it reads “to die shall you be dying” They began to die the same day they ate the fruit and they did die in the day or age of their creation.

Satan had inferred to Eve that God was not being truthful with them and so that tree became desirable as something she did not have and so she wanted what it was said to represent and she ate of the fruit of that tree and also gave it to Adam and he ate also. For that transgression, they were expelled from Eden and to keep them from the tree of life which it would seem then, the tree of life could sustain their lives.

Many believe that Adam and Eve died spiritually that day, but again we must recognize that nothing was said about the spirit in the account of their creation or of being given it or of losing it, when the sinned. The simple fact is that they were told they would die in the day they ate from that tree and they were clearly told they would return to the ground from which they were taken. Genesis 3:19

This term, in the day you eat you shall die is not understood and so stories have been created to explain it, one being they died spiritually. The original Hebrew gives us the answer, “in the day you eat of it, dying you shall die” and so that very day they began to die. They also lost their innocence, they then had their first lesson of good and evil as they lost their physical home in the Garden of Eden, but nothing was said of losing spirituality or of a spirit within them living and going to heaven or hell at their death, another invented story.


Posted by: Wolveshater Aug 1 2009, 10:45 PM
Adam and Eve were simply told they would die and return to the soil from which they had come.

And so Adam and Eve then dying passed onto their descendant’s what was in their DNA, death from the Sin, their transgression of disobedience…going deliberately again what God had told them. That is the original sin and not sex ….again another invented story.

All humanity dies and all humanity sins and so all humanity needs redemption from the curse of the Death and the Sin. Humanity sins as a result of the dying process in our bodies. We are born dying and thus we sin, read Romans 5:12. Death is the payment for the Sin inherited from Adam and Eve. Romans 6:23 “For the ration of the Sin is death, yet the gracious gift of God is life eonian in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

Thus dying pays the price for sin, but, it does not pay the price for redemption out of the state of Death or in other words to be released from the bonds of Death. If humanity had an immortal or eternal spirit why would there be a need for redemption from death. Christ purchased all humanity and in fact all of Gods creation with His sinless blood which did not have in it death! Christ took us out of Adams lineage of death and placed us in His lineage of life. Some might ask, how then did or could He die…?

Jesus Christ’s Father was the Holy Spirit…the invisible imperceptible intelligence we call God. He generated Himself into the womb of Mary thereby He was not contaminated with death from Adam. We are told by Jesus, that He willingly laid down His life…no one took it from Him. John 10:17,18 Paul also concurs at Galatians 2:21..saying Jesus Christ “gave up His life for us.”

The false teaching that man is an eternal sprit or has an immortal soul or spirit is bypassing the provision of God through Christ to release humanity from the curse of sin and death! They twist the scriptures to teach Christ will save you from hellfire…which is a despicable lie in more ways that one. The first lie, is part of every Pagan Religion as they taught man was a spirit clothed in flesh and that the spirit lives on after the flesh dies, from there came many different variations, sound familiar?

Yes, Christendom also teaches that man has an immortal soul or spirit that lives on after the death of the body. They also teach that humanity can in some way, “redeem themselves,” from damnation either to hellfire or annihilation and thus earn their way into heaven. Oh they will deny this but a close examination of the explanation of their doctrine of salvation will show us that is exactly what they teach.

The denominations of Christendom tell us that there is a formula for salvation…just follows these steps, and you will be saved, “walk to the altar and repent of your sins, be baptized and attend church regularly, giving of your tithe and these things will gain you entrance into Gods favor”

While Gods Word when correctly translated versus interpreting and then rightly divided tells and shows us over and over that man is not capable of redeeming himself, by any means of his own, no formulas, no way, no how! Humanity needed a redeemer and it is God, Who must redeem humanity and that has been His plan all along. Paul tells us humanity was involuntarily subjected to Gods plan in Romans 8:20-23. Have you noticed how much powerful information is found in Romans 8?

We have also been told in the scriptures plainly stated about living souls versus dead souls.
Ezekiel 18:4 “the soul that sins shall die.”

Also Psalms 33:19 “To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in a famine.” These and many more tell us that a human is a soul and can die thus is not immortal. Death is an unconscious state and is not another life or a passing on to live in the spirit realm or in another life form. We are told the condition of the dead in Ecclesiastes, 9:5 “The living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything.”

There is no consciousness in death! This same writer also clearly states the death of humanity is the same as the death of animals. Now if man had a spirit that lived on how could he describe death in such a way? Ecclesiastes 3:19 “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust and all turn to dust again.”

Getting back to the Garden of Eden, there were two very important trees spoken of in Eden, the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and the tree of life which both of these were created and planted in that garden by God. It was no accident; both those trees fit within and are also symbolic of the purpose of God for humanity. The human pair would fail and thus begin the process of learning good and evil not only for humanity but also for the spiritual realm watching God’s creation of humanity on planet earth.

Adam and Eve were created in a state of innocence not capable of understanding what was good without the contrasting of evil, and so there was no appreciation of how good their home in Eden was until they lost it. No appreciation that the Elohim which created them also communed with them in person daily until that too was lost. It is natural for humans to take for granted that which is good and complain about what is bad…..we are soulish and want the soulish comforts.

So for Adam and Eve, what they had, in innocence, was what it was, it was good and safe but did not even realize that as they knew nothing different. Humanity is still in the process of learning good and evil for the purpose of educating not only humanity but the entire Universe and with this education comes the realization of God, of not only Who He is as the Creator but of His long range goal of building a family in which He can dwell in all throughout His vast Universe. Through His plan of the ages, all His creation will learn as to why God the Spirit is very much needed in their life.

The other important tree in the Garden of Eden was the tree of life, it must have had the ability to sustain mortal life and keep them from dying and so Adam and Eve had to leave the garden and they were denied access to the garden and that tree, also their descendants were not allowed access to it as the entrance to the garden of Eden was guarded by two cherubim with flaming swords.

We read of life giving trees again in the last book of the Bible which are said to heal and sustain life. And so at the beginning of Creation was the tree of life and at the end of man’s journey as mortals, in the book of the unveiling, John saw the tree of life, translated as log of life in the CLV. So in the first and last books of Gods Word, like bookends are the life giving trees with the story of sin, death and redemption told in between. Genesis 3:23,24 and Revelation 22:1,2.

So we have seen in the creation account that the human body was made from the soil and brought to consciousness by the breathing process or we might also say life was ignited by Gods breath which began the breathing process in Adam and thus his heart began beating and blood coursing through his veins and Adam became conscious thus he was a living soul.

I thought I would briefly mention Eve’s creation….again the translators have clouded the account of her arrival in Eden. It is commonly said; God took a rib out of Adam and formed Eve. In the actual language…it uses a word which can be defined as either a cell or vulvular or angular organ as being what was removed from Adam. It is shocking to most to be told that Adam was bisexual; in that within him were both the male and female organs.

What was removed from Adam was the female reproductive system. This is why in marriage, it is said that the man and woman become one, this also why men and women think differently…woman taken out of man…meaning man does not have that which is female.

When we read the account of Eve’s creation from the Concordant Literal Version we see the Hebrew language gave a different explanation than that of a rib being take from Adam. Genesis 1:27 “And creating is the Alueim, humanity in His image. In the image of the Alueim He creates it. Male and Female He creates them.”

Then we go over to Genesis 2:21,22 “And falling is a stupor on the human, caused by Ieue Alueim, and he is sleeping. And taking is He one of his angular organs and is closing the flesh under. And Ieue Alueim is building the angular organ which He takes from the human, into a woman, and bringing her is He to the human. And saying is the human, this was once bone of my bones and flesh from of my flesh. This shall be called woman for from her man is this taken.”

Death is said to be a return, to what? Not to the spirit world but to the element from which man came out of, the soil. Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of your face will you eat your bread until your return to the ground from which you were taken, for soil you are and to soil are you returning.” How plain is the truth! So in the account in Genesis, of the creation of humanity, we are told how they were created and with what materials.

We are told what death is, a return to its origin, the soil…a return to dissolve back into those materials of the soil. This is so simply and clearly stated in Gods Word and never is anything else said in its pages to contradict what was told in Genesis. It is man made religion or dogma that has confused the issue of creation and all because humanity continues even down to our day to believe Satan’s first lie, as it was told to Eve and thus she was deceived.

Adam was awakened to life, he did not exist before and so in God’s Word, death could be viewed as the opposite of the life he was given. Death is also described with words that are likened to sleep. Sleep is an unconscious state and is something humans can relate too, and understand as we go to sleep every night. If Gods Word was understood correctly there would be no questions as to where are the dead, and what happens at death or what is humanity’s spirit.

But, I would like to add here that it is important to not merely say life and death are opposites as not all life is conscious, the plant and vegetable world has life and yet they do not have consciousness. So the Biblical definition for death as God Himself said, when He passed sentence on Adam and Eve, “from the soil were you taken and to the soil you will return. Again the scriptures clearly give us the definition of death as a return to the soil and the soul becomes unconsciousness or non existence.

In the scriptures, the death state is likened to sleep; Jesus said Lazarus was asleep when he was quite dead as his sister feared he would stink. John 11:11-13. Stephen was said to have been put to repose, when he was killed at Acts 7:60. David was said to be still reposing, in other words he was still in his tomb and not in heaven as is wrongly taught in Christendom. Acts 13:36. Paul speaks of the firstfruit of them who are reposing at 1 Corinthians 15:20 and Peter also agreeing, that the dead are asleep or reposing with these words, “For since the fathers were put to repose, all is continuing thus from the beginning of creation. 2 Peters 3:4

As I have said, the terms used in scripture concerning death all have to do with something we experience every night, sleeping or reposing. Likewise all the terms used in the Bible for waking up from death correspond with our experience of waking from sleep. Being roused, becoming conscious of our surroundings hearing sounds and feeling our body again, and rising, we stand up and begin the day, we are literally resurrected every morning as the definition of the word resurrection is to stand up.

In the resurrections, the spirit of life from God will be given to whatever body God has chosen either the terrestrial for those raised on this earth or the celestial glory with a spiritual body for those in new administration called to heaven. With the spirit, whatever body is given, the soul is roused, woken up, the senses, or the consciousness returns and the body will the stand up in resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:40,41

Unconsciousness or a deep sleep is what death will be like, this is the absence of soulish sensations and is why death is described as a return…to the soil, from which the body came. In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament those who die are said to go to Sheol, to the place of the unseen, and so the dead are placed in the ground or in a tomb, no longer to be seen by the living or to be conscious of their own surroundings. Without the body and the spirit the soul can no longer exist.

In the New Testament Sheol has been translated by the Greek language as Hades and with the English it was translated as Hell. When we investigate the roots of the word Hell we see it is tied to the original German word of Helo…which was a place in the ground where vegetables were stored. So the original meaning for the word, hell, had to do with things being placed in a root cellar, in the earth and this was not a place of fiery torment.

So again to find the definition of Sheol we go to the first usage of it in the Hebrew language as I said earlier, God’s Word gives us many answers by doing this. The Hebrew word, Sheol, is defined as the unseen as the place where the dead go whether they die at sea or are buried in a grave or placed in a tomb or are burned up in a fire, as in death, the body dissolves, returning to the soil or to the inorganic matter from which it came and thus it is no more seen by the living.

The definition of Sheol is given for us at Psalms 16:10 “Thou will not leave my soul in Hell (literally Sheol as the grave) nor allow your Holy One to see corruption” KJAV Remember Hell is the English translation of Sheol.

This passage shows us a couple things, first that the soul is tied to the body with the use of the word, corruption and secondly, that Sheol is where the dead body was placed, in this case, either the grave or a memorial tomb. This was a prophecy of Jesus Christ not being left to rot in the tomb but being raised out of death. His soul, or His life did not remain in the sleep state and His body did not see corruption or decay in Hell…or literally Sheol, the unseen place as the abode of the dead.

The term memorial tomb is something we all have heard used and that is a Jewish term, as the understood that the dead were being kept in Gods memory until the time when their redeemer would restore life to them. So they understood that they were promised a resurrection from the dead. This is what the scriptures teach and what the Jews believed before they were corrupted with pagan beliefs based on the first lie….you don’t really die.

For the Jew, to be considered worthy of a resurrection, at death they were placed in a memorial tomb, this meant they were being kept in Gods memory until resurrection day. While the criminals were thrown, dead into Gehenna, the dump ground for refuse out side the dung gate of the city of Jerusalem. This is where we find fire not in Sheol but in the dump ground, it was kept burning with sulphur added to it and to prevent disease from the rotting garbage, dung and the dead animals and criminals thrown there. These criminals were not considered worthy of a resurrection…but perhaps they forgot Daniels words at Daniel 12:1,2 of “the just and the unjust both are said to rise out of the dust”

Over time man distorted the true meaning of Sheol as the unseen place where the dead are placed into the pagan myth of hellfire. The translators of Gods Word led by the theologians of the day, changed the truth of Gods Word to a lie, the first lie of Satan, the dead don’t really die, but instead, that the good go to heaven and the bad to hell. Completely ignoring how God Himself explained death in His Word as a return to the soil for the body with the soul in a state of unconscious likened to sleep.

We read the passage in Psalms which was speaking of Jesus death and not being left in the death state in Sheol or the tomb to corrupt or dissolve back into the soil. Men have changed Gods Word to fit their theological false beliefs of a place where the dead are rewarded or punished…in heaven or hell. Obviously that mythological place of punishment in Hell would not have applied to Jesus Christ and so it was not referring to hellfire but to Sheol the unseen place or abode of the dead. So one might ask where this myth originated. With pagan religions inspired of course by Satan to defame God, but the Jewish picked up this false doctrine while living in Babylonian captivity for 70 years.

Before Jerusalem was conquered by Babylon, the Jewish rabbits had one Talmud after they were released they had two and some say there is also a third. The Talmud is like a civil code book in which the rabbis wrote concerning their dealings with the people, how they counsel them in different problems and also how they reasoned on doctrinal things. So that is the origin of the Babylonian Jewish Talmud .

That Talmud describes this mythical place of hell or a place of fiery torment and was the teaching Jesus was referring to when he gave the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus. Just the other night, 2008 I heard Billy Graham warn those not coming to Christ would suffer in hellfire as he is also deceived by this myth, he was describing it as though he were reading from the Babylonians Talmud.

Contrary to what is taught, by Christendom, Jesus did not teach hellfire, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, he took that myth from their Babylon Talmud as it was being taught by the religious leaders of Israel and of which some were standing in the crowd listening to Him that day. His words were meant to humiliate them in front of the common people whom they had terrified with that lie adopted from pagan religion, especially from their time in Babylonian captivity.

Jesus was telling those religious leaders, standing in the crowd and wearing their purple robes professing intimacy with Abraham that they instead were going to that fiery place of punishment they were symbolized as the rich man while the layman of Israel would inherit the promises of the fathers and who were symbolized by the beggar being taken to the bosom of Abraham.

But, I am sure you have also heard the verse in Psalms 16, explained as meaning that, Jesus went into Hell to preach to the wicked people of Noah’s day, who were there, suffering. This is just another lie added to the lie of Hellfire and to the first lie. Jesus spoke to the spirits in Tartarous and not to the souls of dead people. Peter speaks to after Jesus was resurrected visited the spirits in prison at 1 Peter 3:19 “being gone to the spirits in jail also, He heralds to those once stubborn, when the patience of God awaited in the days of Noah while the ark was being constructed.” Is it not plain by now, that we are not a spirit clothed in flesh, but we are living souls, mortal flesh needing saving from the death and the state of death

These spirits are being kept in a prison by God and so Jesus spoke to the sinning messengers of Jude 6. Humanity is never referred to as a spirit or spirits in the Word of God.

Summing up what we can learn from the Genesis account concerning our first parents, Adam and Eve. The account teaches us they were made from the soil and became living souls and did not posses an immortal soul or spirit. We learned they began dying in the day they were created…the day referred to not a 24 hour day but would fit in with a 1000 years are as one day to Jehovah. 2 Peter 3:8. We are told that Adam was 930 when he died and so Adam and Eve lived for hundreds of years but their bodies did break down and they did die in the day in which they ate the fruit Peter gives that number in relation to his previous words concerning the days of Noah and the flood.

Adam and Eves bodies held a far greater strength than ours do today and so they lived a long time, another reason would be in relation to the world they lived in at the time was protected from the direct rays of the Sun due to the cloud cover surrounding the earth which coming down rained for 40 days and 40 nights and the historic flood of Noah.

After the flood life spans became shorter until we get to the time which is said foretold as a basic life span of three score and ten at…Psalms 90:10. Although Bullinger’s notes says, “these words are applying to Israel in their trek in the wilderness as a shortening of the life span, the forty years of wandering was to allow the adults who partook in the sin of rebellion and idolatry at Sinai to die off.”

I recently heard a spiritual teacher state that there was no death, he also state he was no part of Christendom or of any man made dogma and yet he still believed man was a spirit clothed in flesh and that at the dissolution of the flesh the spirit continued to live as part of God. He too deceived by that first lie….but to his credit, he recognized that all life comes from one source, spirit as God, or the Universe as some prefer to phrase it as they do not believe in a Personal God or a need for a Personal Savior as they cannot comprehend God interacting with His creation.

He based this on his belief that there is one source of life in the Universe and that One Source is eternal and thus he reasoned the spirit within humanity coming out of that One source of spirit must also then be eternal. He is very close to the truth but fell into the trap laid by Satan with the first lie. While Christendom believes God created all things out of nothing when the scriptures clearly state that all came out of HIM as the invisible imperceptible spirit and through and by means of the form of God, Jesus Christ.. Colossians 1:15-17

For us to comprehend that God is Spirit, unknowable and that all creation came out of Him is not easily comprehended, even for believers. But we must remember what Paul said, to the soulish mind, Gods Word is stupidity…it does not make sense to the soulish mind; it can only be understood spiritually. Because God the Spirit is unknowable and is spirit and not a spirit, that spirit does not have a spiritual body, the omnipresent spirit is everywhere in the Universe and without form.

That imperceptible, invisible, intelligent spirit generated itself a form to reveal Himself to His creation. Jehovah was the form of God in the Old Testament and in the new Jehovah appeared in flesh and blood. The form of God and Gods image is Christ but this truth also needs the spirit of God to enable the soulish mind to comprehend and or accept this. To spiritually understand and come to a realization of the truth of Who God is Please read, Ephesians 1:17, 4:13: Colossians 1:9,10; 2:2. 1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Timothy 2:25

And so that particular spiritual teacher I mentioned above taught that the body dissolves at death but the spirit within moves on, or passes on. Have we not heard that term used by Christians …so and so has passed on…instead of more correctly has died and or has gone to sleep.

So, he recognized that an outside source, God or the Universe gives the human its spirit and thus it does comes from the eternal spirit and so then reasoned humans must also be or have an eternal spirit within this body of flesh. But what is not understood correctly is that which is eternal is not the human spirit, but the Spirit of God, as the source of life. He was partly right, all in this Universe comes out of the One Spirit we call God but all things are not eternal. I would have to ask since the same spirit gave life to the lower animals and the plant and vegetable world do they too possess immortality. I think most would say, no.

We must rely on God’s Word for the answers and it teaches that the belief of man being anything but mortal and that death is not really death is also based on the first lie told Eve.

Let’s not confuse the human spirit with the Spirit from God, which is the life force as given to Adam even though not directly stated in the creation account. Nor should we confuse the human spirit with the Spirit of God said to dwell in believers as the indwelling of Christ. God’s Spirit is the cause of our human spirit having awareness or life but when Gods spirit is withdrawn the cause or force of life, the human spirit ceases to exist and yet will be kept in Gods memory.

The life force in Adam was passed down to and through His descendants by means of the procreating process, but it is not our consciousness. Our consciousness is tied to our soul with the sensations from our human senses, hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling of which these affect our emotions and our thinking processes. The indwelling spirit is given as a mark or seal that we belong to Him and to the new administration and it guides our minds into spiritual understanding of His Word.

Again when we go to God’s Word we find that it tells us consistently throughout the whole Bible, what happens at death; the life force from God leaves the body and returns to Him and the body returns to the soil.. Ecclesiastes 12:7 “Then shall the dust (soil) return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God Who gave it.”

Now the word, spirit which is said to return to God is Ruach…as His Spirit or the life force from Him as the imperceptible spirit that which is eternal. John 4:24 When it is withdrawn from the body the living soul dies, becoming a dead soul. The human body of flesh decays and dissolves back into the elements it was made of, found in the soil and as such there is no longer a human spirit without a living soul.

Our human spirit is ignited by the force of life from God first put into Adam, and passed down to succeeding generations through the procreating process. And so in the womb at conception the life force from God ignites the human spirit within the body that is being formed into a person and becomes a living soul. Without the life force from God the body is dead, it is spirit and the body which produce a living soul and the human spirit.

The 12th Chapter in Ecclesiastes describes the aging process of humanity in symbolic or figurative terms ending in death with the return to the soil and the force of life, the spirit returning to its source. At the end of this article I will add the whole chapter and give Bullinger’s notes on it….they are poignant and we who are…seniors…will appreciate the meanings of those descriptive words.

The spirit which returns to God who gave it should not be understood as a spirit or our spirit going to heaven and being with God but as the life force which imparts life which is God’s eternal energy and that energy does not dissolve with the decaying body, it just leaves the dead body or is left over when the body dies and the soul goes to sleep. The eternal spirit being invisible energy from or is God, but we might liken that spirit or force of life to flowing back into the whole of the source, this is the imperceptible spirit, invisible energy, power…able to give to life that is what is eternal.

So again to review, the soul is our senses and emotions felt within the human body and so death is a return of the body to the soil and the Soul ceases to exist any longer and is likened to sleep in Gods Word in order for us to understand death by means of something we do every night. When we are asleep we are unconscious as to those soulish senses, we are not aware of our surroundings or the passing of time our soul or senses are unconscious, unaware that is what death will be. But while the Body is alive….while we are asleep…there is a part of our brain which never sleeps, known as the unconscious mind it is running our bodies without our knowledge or awareness but it is fueled by the life force from God and once that energizing force leaves the body….there is no conscious or unconscious mind.

Science speaks of the life force working within the brain of the human body as our unconscious mind or the involuntary system. It is said to be unconscious because we are not consciously aware of it or in that we do not consciously tell it what to do. We might think of it as being an electric current linked to an appliance, we do not see the electricity but we see what it produces.

Also another illustration is something on auto pilot we do not operate it, we can fall asleep and it continues on course. Our bodies run by themselves…we don’t tell it to breathe or the heart to beat or the 100’s of other functions which are necessary to sustain the life of the body, they are at work while we are awake and while we sleep….but cease to function in death.

All of these functions were programmed by God the spirit into the atoms and molecules which make us who or what we are. Everything around us in this world are also composed of these same atoms and molecules, each particular creation whether a tree, a flower, a dog or cat, a bird, a fish, a rock or a human, each has it own particular arrangement of those atoms and molecules. God is the designer of all these things.

If humanity had been given immortality in any form at all at creation, why would there have been the need of a tree of life? As “Life” would have already been within the body, as something which is eternal or immortal does not need an outside source….it is self sustaining. Nor would there have been a need for the cherubim to keep the transgressors, Adam and Eve from access to the tree of life.

Death is inherited and it is what causes sinning…or falling short, missing the mark of the Glory of God, which would be eternal life or immortality. If we had an eternal spirit, I don’t believe we would be able to die…that eternal spirit could keep the body alive. Christ had the eternal spirit and that is why it is said He gave up His own life. His body was mortal, just as human as you or I, but His body was not tainted by the Death and the Sin and His own human spirit was a result of that sinless soul and He was also given the full measure of spirit from God the Spirit. John 4:24

That Spirit we call God dwelt in Jesus as He was the perfect sinless specimen of humanity untainted by Adams sin. Jesus died because it was necessary for Him to be the sacrificial lamb for all of humanity. He was saving or redeeming humanity from the death, inherited from Adam, without a Savior humans would die, never to rise again. Jesus had to lay down His human life or give it up of His own volition. It could not be taken from Him. John 10:18 “No one is taking it away from Me, but I am laying it down of Myself. I have the right to lay it down and I have the right to get it again”

Jesus Christ was the example of a spirit led human with true spirituality. He was without sin, yet humbled Himself to leave His glory and deity in the heavens and suffer reproach and a humiliating death on the cross. Philippians 2:5-8 While he was on this earth in the human body, never relying on His own human wisdom but always referred to Gods Word for counsel and the Spirit to show Him all things, in this way was the Spirit His Father.

God’s Word has the spiritual things, needed to understand God and is the source of truth and of spiritual wisdom but as Paul said the soulish man cannot comprehend the spiritual things of Gods Word with out the help of Gods Spirit. We are given a measure of faith, Romans 12:3b

Contrary to popular opinion, God was not taken by surprise when Adam and Eve transgressed by disobeying His warning, to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He created and planted that particular tree and placed it in Eden. He is the One Who also created the serpent and also created the one speaking through that serpent if indeed a snake was visibly seen and doing the talking which I doubt. But the point being God created Satan, as the adversary. Job 26:13 tells us of the creation of the crooked serpent and John in Revelation 12:9 verifies the crooked serpent as the ancient serpent called, Adversary and Satan.

There are those who teach Satan fell ….but the scriptures seems to indicate he was created to be the adversary which would certainly place the responsibility upon God as the Creator of all for all that followed his creation. But either way….If God had not planned these things, how can we trust Him to solve them? If God’s hand are tied by mans will and the power of the adversary….both of which He created….I think we are all in big trouble. I prefer to trust in an All knowing, All powerful God and as such is the Overseer of the adversary…allowing only what is needed for His Universe to learn Good and Evil with the sole purpose and outcome is that all one day will be reconciled to Him!

God as the creator and life force of all things was well aware of what He was doing and what the first human pair would do as the soul is governed by the soulish senses. It was all in His purpose! How do we know this, because we are told, long before sin entered the universe, that “Christ was the lamb of God foreknown before the disruption of the world.” 1 Peter 1:20 Before the Sin, had occurred, God had the lamb in place as the sacrifice for all sin and the means to redeem humanity from the death…this process also designed as learning for those in the heavens and to reconcile the spirit realms.

Thus God put in place the solution for Adams transgression long before Adams’ creation and before his sin became a reality. As Paul also tells us, the new administration saved through Paul’s evangel of Grace was, “chosen in Him before the disruption of the world.” Ephesians 1:1-3 so we were chosen and placed in Christ before sin ever was!

I suspect even before Satan was created to be Gods adversary. Satan’s role was to teach humanity…good and evil by opposing God. Good needs the contrasting aspect of Evil in order to be appreciated. In the entire universe, we have the positive and the negative energies which oppose but that opposition is what make all things work…even in our human bodies we have the positive and the negative energies with that opposing interaction is going on in every cell of our bodies.

Within God’s design for humanity, is given the human nature and as we have discussed that nature is what is also said to be soulish as living souls. Also within the soulish nature is the human will.

Now what Adam and Eve did is said to have been an act of Free Will while I feel perhaps we should view it as the human will…based in the soul which desires that which is soulish. The Free Will doctrine I feel is more understandable when defined as man being a free moral agent which implies God has no control over the human will. This is not what God’s Word teaches but again that doctrine is the theology of man made religion and tied also to the first lie, of an immortal soul or spirit.

Religious theology has misunderstood the freedom God gave humanity as not being absolute freedom but being placed within boundaries pre ordained by Him as the giver of life…thus a relative freedom in which God as the Creator and through Christ as the redeemer can exercise His will over the human will at anytime He so chooses. Acts 17:26 “He makes out of one (man) every nation of man to be dwelling on all the surface of the earth, specifying the setting of the seasons and the bounds of their dwelling”

Humanity has boundaries…governed by the physical laws in this Universe, one example is gravity, the human body cannot defy gravity and fly at will, it will crash to the earth and be killed. The human body needs oxygen to live and so cannot live under the water or in outer space. Man has invented machinery and increased the boundaries and to some extent is successful but when those machines fail, men die.

I think it is important for us to acknowledge that humanity does have a human will, without one how could we make choices with the point being that we are to learn from those choices right or wrong which is the learning of good and evil. This is not the same as Free Will taught by Christendom and also Pagan religions. Free will is a doctrine of theology, which wrongly teaches God will not go against our will, and that we cannot be saved unless we choose to let God save us.

God does allow humanity to make choices within the bounds He has set and perhaps there are boundaries for those as chosen saints? We will find out one day just how involved was He in our life while here in the flesh. Paul the apostle for the Body of Christ clearly teaches that God does the choosing and the calling. Just read Ephesians the first chapters and take a highlighter to all the phrases which show us that this is Gods work and not ours, nothing is left to chance or to our soulishness.

In Ephesians 1:1-14 Paul explains God Work in this new administration as “He chooses us, designating us beforehand for the place of a son, make note of all the things God does or gives, His grace, He lavishes, His will, He purposed for the laud of His glory, sealed with Holy Spirit…given an earnest of the spirit, His calling, His allotment, His power, His strength.” After this partial list of many of the things God does to and with us and without consulting us Paul continues in the next few verses to sum it all up with these words, “His workmanship or achievement are we” Ephesians 2:10.

The error with the Free Will doctrine is thinking that humanity chooses to serve God or not, and that He would not impose His will on anyone uninvited and that we must prove our faithfulness through works in order to be saved. This does not agree with His Word given us by Paul our Apostle as we can read at 1 Corinthians 12:6b “God, Who is operating all in all” also Paul said “Who can thwart His intention.” Romans 9:19 Much more could be said and shown about Free Will but that is not the topic of this article so will not do so here, suffice to say humanity has a human will which is governed by its human nature, which is soulishness as living souls descended from Adam.

Adam and Eve are an example of being faced with a choice, whether or not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. God had told Adam of that one particular tree he was not to eat from it or he surely would die. Genesis 2:17 So we ask the question, did Adam know what death was?

He certainly had no personal experience with death and we are not told if he had witnessed the death of any animals. But the more I think on this question the more I feel he must have seen animals grow old and die or why would God have told him he would die, if it was something he had no knowledge of? The problem arises in understanding the creation account and the time involved with Adam is Christendom has put forth the literal 6 days being 24 hours long. We are told God brought all the animals to Adam to name…which could not be done in a 24 hour day. Names are given which describe the bearer of that name…wouldn’t Adam need to observe the animals to find a fitting name for them? This again is another study for another time…..lets get back to Genesis.

Now the account says in talking to Satan that Eve said God said not to eat or touch the tree Genesis 3:3 and yet we did not see touch in the record of what God said to Adam. Bullinger’s note say, “this sentence was added” but he does not say by whom, did he mean the translators or did he mean that Eve added that part, if it was her did she hear it from Adam or embellish on her own? I don’t have an answer for this as yet.

But back to choices, Eve made a choice based on a lie and so we are told that “Eve was deceived” by Paul at 2 Corinthians 11:3 She was tricked, but Adam knowingly made his choice as again, Paul tells us this at 1 Timothy 2:14 “Adam was not deceived.” So, Adam also made a choice, based not in ignorance but on whether to obey and not eat of the tree or to stay with his wife, Adam wanted to keep his wife, she was flesh of his flesh and so his choice, was a soulish choice, based on a soulish desire and this was what governed his human will. He also had been told by God he was to cleave unto her and so we might also factor that into his belief…that he should stay with his wife.

You and I today are governed by our beliefs learned from childhood on coupled with our genetic dispositions. Add to that our education and our environments all these things form our beliefs and govern our human will…..many choices we make in this life are a reaction of all of the above. And God full well understand this as the Creator. So, this information from God’s Word is the beginning of our understanding of just what the soul is and of humanities soulish nature which operates through the senses, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching, these are physical actions and reactions which create physical or soulish desires. We are tied to our soulish nature and the term creature comforts come to mind. We want what pleases us or feels good to our soul, our senses or what tells us that which, we perceive will please us!

Paul says something interesting about the will at Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God who is operating in you to will as well as to work for the sake of His delight.” According to Bullinger’s notes, the word for will in this passage is “theio and means to wish or desire, and is the emotional element which leads to the consequent action. It is therefore stronger than boulomai, (deliberate determinations) because the natural impulse is stronger that the reasoned resolve.” Isn’t this telling us, the saint having God’s spirit within is being guided to wish or desiring to be led by the spirit and not our soulish impulses? Without the spirit of God the soulish desires lead.

God is in control and His Word states that all humanity will be redeemed from Death and Sin and His Universe will be reconciled to Him not because He will force it as a tyrant would, and not because He threatens hellfire or annihilation for those resisting Him….but because He has not only allowed humanity to learn Good and Evil through experiencing it, but that this is His plan, and for the very reason to lead all to the point of such a weariness of the flesh and spirit and will that they will want…Him to fill them with His Spirit and thereby be healed!


Posted by: Wolveshater Aug 1 2009, 10:47 PM
Thus as Paul tells us at 2 Corinthians 15:28b” what His purpose and His intention are, that
“God will be All in all.”

So we have seen so far in this study, that humanity was created out of the soil and given the breath of the living by God, and man became a living soul with a human nature tied to the physical senses and the human will forms in each person, whether a weak or strong will, but with our will we make choices and behave in accordance with it governed by our senses as our own unique soulish character or nature.

We learned in the creation account that God promised to redeem humanity from Adam and Eve’s death sentence at Genesis 3:15 and we have learned from Paul that God is working all out for those chosen and placed in the new administration of grace, that our salvation does not depend on our own effort. If it did we could never achieve it, we would be no different from Israel, and we would fail miserably.

Nor does the reconciliation of the Universe depend on humanity or angels, but, on Him as God in Christ the Creator, our redeemer, our Savior, He is doing all the work! “Not by My might nor by My power but by My spirit, saith the Lord.” Zechariah 4:6

Just because God is not actively intervening in the worlds affairs with visible signs as He did in the past ages….does not mean that He is not working things out behind the scenes. Paul tells us that God decides who will rule or govern on this earth and we are to respect that. Romans 13:1

No doubt Paul was thinking of Daniels words on this matter…Daniel 2:20-22 “Blessed be the name of Him Who is the Alue, from the eon and unto the eon, for the wisdom and the mastery, they are His. He is altering the eras and the stated times, causing kings to pass away and causing kings to rise, granting wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those knowing understanding.”

More on the complexity of humanity and soulishness

As said earlier the differences between the lower animals and humanity, is the human brain which is very complex. It is said that modern computers are designed after the human brain and so we might view our brain as the computer which runs the body and hidden in that brain is what is called the mind.

I have always been interested in human behavior, the different personalities and why communication or lack thereof seems to be at the heart of this world’s inability to achieve peace within their own species. When we look at the lower animals they are living their lives in the way they were created to do so…while man struggles and is far more vicious in genocide that the most ferocious of animals.

Yes, of course we know the Sin causing the Death are behind the human race being death doomed and until God brings all to life this will continue. But amidst Sin and Death are mankind with its human nature which is soulishness and a very large part of the problem. The human mind is very complex with several elements at work in it, which are a referred to as the conscious, unconscious and subconscious mind. So I looked up the definitions of each, to see if that would help to identify what each does.

Webster’s Dictionary defines, the Subconscious mind as: “existing in the mind but not immediately available to consciousness. The mental activities just below the threshold of consciousness as an unperceived source of conscious emotions, fantasies and dreams.”

The Unconscious mind is defined as: “Not knowing or unaware, the part of mental life that does not ordinarily enter the individual awareness yet may influence behavior and perception as in slips of the tongue or in dreams.

The Conscious mind defined as: “perceiving, apprehension or noticing with a degree of controlled thought or observation, the quality or state of being aware.”

It is said, that the sub-conscious mind never sleeps, but is always recording information, even things we do not notice or are aware of when we are focused on something else but it is recording all that is going on around us. Also it is said that when we sleep it is awake and that is how the self help tapes can be played while one sleeps. Or also the use of subliminal messages in music can encourage the customers to buy things which are why there is a law against stores using them.

Advertisers are very aware of this and so have used subliminal message hidden in photographs that we don’t really see with our eyes, but the minds eye does see them and again it is illegal for advertisers to use these methods but many do until there are caught.

The sub-conscious mind has no morals or judgment it just records information and stores that information like an encyclopedia or a computer, for the conscious minds needed use and it will prompt the conscious mind when a situation arises that calls for some particular information which is stored in the mind. This is the source of information many people misunderstand and think God is talking directly to them or worse yet some other spirit.

This is also where people will get that feeling that something is familiar or what they call De Javu….it is not memories of a past life, it is merely information stored by the unconscious mind which had not been noticed by the conscious mind, but some incident or question causes the mind to bring forth that information and it seems familiar somehow.

The similarity with the sub-conscious mind and the unconscious mind is that we are not totally aware of there workings, but part of all that which has been pre programmed into our DNA and our brains in the unconscious mind directs the bodily functions we don’t even think about…we just breathe, unconsciously and go about our day unaware of all the bodily functions that are going on….unless something goes wrong with one of them, then we are alerted that something is not working right by our senses…..either feeling uncomfortable or in pain.

The unconscious mind is also said to be the involuntary system. The voluntary is that which we think about and then do things manually so to speak. And yet, if we think about it, how quickly the thought and reactions are made in the body….we are sitting and decide to stand up and walk to another room…did we have to tell our legs to take over or start working in order to transport us there….?

No the slightest thought or wish is all that is required for the body to move, it obeys that thought. We do take our bodies for granted until something does not work right, or we feel pain and then we begin to notice things are not working correctly….this is the learning of good and evil…losing what we took for granted in our youth.

The conscious mind is where we are aware of what is going on around us and where we are doing our thinking, feeling and doing from…but we can actually be unconscious while conscious. Have you heard the expression, “lost in thought” and while we are doing so, we were not really aware of our surroundings or of someone talking to us? That is descriptive of being unconscious while conscious and this is something once we are aware of, we might find ourselves doing more of than we had realized. This again is because our body basically functions from the unconscious mind and so it can do its thing even while we are lost in thought.

The conscious mind is also where we process information and make judgments from but many times we may not realize why we judged a person or a situation or acted or reacted in the way that we did. We all have said, I was just not myself or that person was just not their self today, said because some behavior seemed out of the norm for us or them. The unconscious may rise up an emotion or a reaction to someone or an incident from how our mind had been programmed from childhood, it is like what they call an involuntary reaction, like when the doctor hits your knee and your leg kicks.

This is also where the ego lives and how it has been educated from infancy, taking in all the information around it, they say a child by age 5 has set their course by what they have been taught…now that is scary! The ego is what we perceive as our identity, it is our belief pattern of who we think or believe we are, and so we use labels to describe ourselves based on our education and experiences and etc as well as this is the cause of the labels we attach to others….good or bad.

An example of the labels we might use to identify ourselves, our gender, our name, our occupation or the roles lived in this life. What we have been taught becomes our belief system…such as identifying with a particular denomination…By saying I am a Catholic or Lutheran, the person’s identity becomes tied to that particular organizations belief system. Thus this is the same with politics, philosophy and etc……labels become titles which identify us and others. When we use a label to describe someone negatively this is judging, a label which complements them, is praising them and a derogatory label is judging them unworthy in some way….this is something to think about.

This is why it is so important for a believer in God and Christ to have His Word, embedded in our minds, His standards are righteous thus healthy and sound, in other words good for us and His counsel will help us to recognize labels for what they are and His Word helps us to recognize wrong behavior, actions and reactions. I always wondered about the passage which said it was wrong to call another a fool…Matthew 5:22b.

In the Concordant Version the word is stupid and comes from the Greek for moron or mentally tasteless. The context of that passage has to do with judging one another and although given by Jesus and spoken to those of Israel, I am sure the principle has a universal application. The word Raca in the passage is Aramaic and expresses the emotion or scorn of a disdainful mind. Paul tells us we are not to judge one another also at Romans 14:13.

We know the meaning of judge is to set things right, but that is Gods job not ours except in our own personal life…to point to someone else’s flaw or error and label it or them stupid or worse is allowing our ego to tell us that we are superior to that person and thus we are worthy to offer them a rebuke or correction.

The key for us in understanding ourselves and others is to become aware of how our mind works and why and this awareness helps to subdue the ego as it is part of the soulish nature, in other words we become more aware or conscious of our thoughts and actions and we then can relate them to what we learn in Gods word as what is right conduct or sound behavior fitting a saint.

This is especially important for us who have been chosen by God for this new administration, we haven’t been left adrift in this insane world but God has given us a guide book and so we must read our instruction manual, Gods Word, and especially the information given by the Apostle Paul’s letters for the new administration. If we want to spiritually understand God Word and take to heart Paul’s evangel of Grace then we will come to understand how God has dealt graciously with us and so in turn we must learn how to deal graciously with others even those we may not like. Ephesians 4:30-32

In regards to our conscious mind and being lost in thought. If you would like to also see how active your mind is, in doing what we call thinking…just close your eyes and attempt to clear your mind and stop thinking by having no thoughts in your mind….you will find how our minds runs amuck all by itself….it will return to the past and rehash some event or it will run into the future with what you would like to do or have. Take a few breaths and try to stop thinking, you will see that it is very hard to do. How often have I been in prayer and then find myself off in some other thoughts not related to talking with Him? Our mind seems to have a mind of its own…!

We are not even aware of how much our mind will wander off to some other place, to the past or to the future, thinking of what needs to be done next and how to do it. Once becoming aware of this activity of our mind it then becomes noticeable. It is very hard to stay in the present moment. It helps to do so by focusing on our breathing, take a moment or two and count each breath and for awhile our mind will focus on the inhaling and exhaling of our lungs and our mind will actually get a moment or two of peace and quiet. But I have found that after the counting becomes mechanical or a habit I keep counting and the mind still wanders off to somewhere else and then I realize that I have lost count.

The only way to not let the mind wander off and not think about the past or the future is to focus totally on the present moment…on what we are doing at that very moment. Thinking about what we are doing each step of the way or of the task. If you are like me, while I am doing one thing I am usually thinking of the next thing which needs to be done and how I am going to do it and then after that the next thing and on it goes and so I am not paying complete attention to what I am doing at the moment and so I usually mess it up. I even catch myself reading and thinking about something else at the same time?

The human mind and how it operates is very interesting! This is all part of the soulishness and the fleshly nature of humanity which is how God designed the human nature, and the human mind. I hope this little side trip has briefly shown us how so very complex the soulishness of the human mind is and the way it is programmed from infancy on…reveals to us the reasons behind the diversity of belief’s in this world and comes all the insanity we read of and see going on in this world and why it is very hard for a person to change their beliefs and will resist truth when presented to them, the egoic mind resists because that is their very identity being challenged.

Because of this, I was curious to see what I could find in the scriptures about our thinking….and found it referred to as the “thoughts of the heart” at Hebrews 4:12.

In the Concordant Keyword Concordance under “thought “ several words are given having to do with thinking and the first word given was apprehension and so I looked it up and apprehension is defined as MIND-effect, “to apprehend, mental perception.” So apprehension has to do with the way we think, how we apprehend situations or information, these are our mental perceptions. Let’s now look at some of the verses that use…the word apprehension.

Such as “But their apprehensions were calloused” 2 Corinthians 3:14. Or “the god of this eon blinds the apprehensions of the unbelievers so that the illumination of the evangel of the glory of Christ, Who is the Image of the invisible God, does not irradiate them” 2 Corinthians 4:4. These things are spoken of first those of Israel in unbelief and also about unbelievers perhaps in general, let’s now look at how Paul uses this word in relation to his disciples.

Paul warned of the craftiness of Satan at 2 Corinthians 11:3 He feared for “the corrupting of his disciples’ apprehensions.” Also Paul counsels his disciples to focus on the Lord always as he says “Do not worry about anything, but in every thing, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, that is superior to every frame of mind shall be garrisoning your apprehensions in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4-7.

Another passage to look at is, 2 Corinthians 10:4,5 “For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful to God toward the pulling down of bulwarks; pulling down reckonings and every height elevating itself against the knowledge of God, and leading into captivity every apprehension into the obedience of Christ,” Paul is talking here of a spiritual battle against those who oppose the truth of his evangel.

Yet lets note, just like in Ephesians 6:12 in both these passages Paul says we are not warring against those of the flesh. Those who are soulish are led by their flesh and so their apprehensions are not able to discern that which is spiritual and thus they are easily deceived by Satan and the doctrines of demons. This is the snare of religion…a set of rituals or creeds which program the minds of those in that religion so much so that they are not able to apprehend a truth when it is clearly laid out in scripture. It is not our job to fight with them over what we believe the scriptures are teaching.

In one instance Paul instructs us to once or twice give our thoughts or information from Gods Word and if it is not accepted or even given some consideration we are to cease our efforts and not let the human soulishness of both of us…take us into arguing and debating over who is right which is discouraging and not uplifting and inevitably breaks fellowship. Titus 2:9,10

Paul also wrote in 1 Timothy 4:1,2 “Now the spirit is saying explicitly, that in subsequent eras some will be withdrawing from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and the teaching of demons…”

This is not referring only to the occult or what is obviously contrary to God but those doctrines are extensive in Christendom sects and so this is extremely important for us to recognize just as Paul stated that the whole world lies under the power of Satan…2 Corinthians 4:4 his influence has permeated this world, its religion, its politics, and it philosophies, the doctrines of demons are a part of everything in this world. Organized religion is the systematizing of the deception Paul warned of in Ephesians 4:14. Paul earlier words of not warring against the flesh are given because it is not our job or our responsibility to fix the world or to save anyone in it…those are Gods jobs and He is more than capable.

Let’s look at some of these words Paul used in 2 Corinthians 10:4,5, he first said we are not warring according to the flesh and this is because we are a spiritual entity, given every spiritual blessing in the celestials and so our war is spiritual, needing to understand that the fleshly soulish beliefs of humanity are in opposition to God. Our Security is being in Christ…through Gods Grace.

Another word he used, “Bulwarks” and these were strongholds built to hide behind for protection from their enemies “Reckonings” come from the word “logismo” as words or men’s sayings at Romans 2:15 and also translated as imagination, comprehensions, reasoning. These words having to do with the thinking and reasoning mind of humanity which is governed again….by the soulish nature.

The next phrase, “Height elevating itself” would be by humanity, the soulish knowledge elevated in opposition to Gods. Paul says our weapons against the barriers put up by the soulish mind is the knowledge from God which is of course found only in His Word.

It is by means of His Word and His Spirit that the chosen saints are able to take into captivity every apprehension that is in opposition to God and His spiritual things. This begins with us, taking captive the false beliefs found within ourselves, and are of this world, of the soulish flesh and of the doctrines of demons…to take them captive would mean to remove or subdue them, into the obedience of Christ. Why and How?

Posted by: Wolveshater Aug 1 2009, 10:49 PM
Why, because the chosen saint is justified by Christ and therefore God is making them His temple by means of the indwelling of Christ. How? By means of His Word which tells us the Word and His Spirit are the tools we use as our sword of the spirit…able to cut through or separate what is of the flesh from what is of the spirit. With our sword we are able to subdue the enemies of truth, not people, not demons but the lies and myths perpetrated by Satan through his soulish dupes, religion, even the religious systems of Christendom which profess Jesus as the Savior.

Since we are not to wage war with the flesh, again this means we must work on ourselves…becoming aware of the lies and myths and not falling victim to them. Yes we can share what we have learned with others…….if they are teachable…but to pursue endless arguments and debates hinders our own growth and in fact may hinder those whose beliefs we oppose in finding the very truths we have found.

We must understand that it is human nature to resist that which is different or disagrees with what is perceived as truth as an established belief pattern. It is God’s Spirit that can pierce through the soulish nature. We may have the honor of being used by Him to help others and if we trust Him we will do our own work on ourselves and when and if He brings someone across our path to share with….we will know it was God doing the work and not ourselves.

So the point being we have at our disposal the tools by which we can understand and in a small way control the soulish nature by focusing on the spiritual things of God and in that way we will grow in wisdom and knowledge of Gods Word strengthening the spiritual mind we have been given. And at the same time we need to rest in the fact that we are human, soulish by nature and will have a fight until we are freed from the flesh…comforted by the knowledge that this battle, has already been won by Christ for us…the chosen saint who is under no condemnation for failure. Romans 8:1

Getting back to the human brain and how it works, our mind takes in information from birth, records all of our experiences and all that we are hear, see, smell, taste and feel and also what we are systematically taught. We are programmed by our parents, friends, teachers, by our educational experience, and any other outside sources such as books we read, TV and Movies. As well as all that is going on around us which our unconscious mind picks up and stores for future use. We are not even aware as to the full extent how that Satan and the doctrines of demons has permeated this world with the lies and myths which can be found in absolutely everything we see and hear every day.

All of this information which has been stored in our minds since birth is also linked with our genetic disposition, our inherited traits and personalities. All these things work together and affect how we act and react to others and to life’s situations; in short all of the above determines what kind of person we become. We also must understand these differences and that all of humanity does not process information in the same ways, which adds to the diversity of human soulishness and yet also the basic similarities….but we are all kin of the same race, belonging to God as His children.

The human brain has two hemispheres, the right and the left. Most of us use or favor one side of our brains more that the other. This has nothing to do with intelligence it is just one side works more in processing information than the other side. There are tests one can take which show which side of the brain is dominating. We all use both sides of the brain to some extent in processing information and so we may have several talents or abilities coming from either side while some of us will use both sides more evenly that others and there are actually mental exercises which can be done to strengthen the weaker side of the brain. But we can see from this how this affects the personality of each of us.

The Left Hemisphere…is where the analytical skills are, the use of language and communication skills, the use of numbers or mathematics, things that are orderly have structure. The person which is left brained likes to use words and is usually able to communicate quite well and likes things to be logical and orderly. They are usually good readers and spellers.

The left brainers are slow to make judgments as they need to gather all the details and to arrange them in an orderly way to find the conclusion or reach the big picture. This side of the brain is also the observer, watching life, able to watch people, without judgment liking to analyze human behavior. The left side of our brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa.

The left side of the brain is also where the ego lives, this is the sense of who we think we are based on our learning as we grow up. Remember this has been programmed from birth by our environment. So the ego is how we identify ourselves, such as, “I am, Carol, a woman, a mother, an artist or a good cook or not, or I am getting old and fat” these are some of the things I identify myself with and this is my ego or identity by which I judge myself by and if I let my ego take charge I would judge others but the standards my ego has imposed on me. This is the side of the brain that is thinking all the time and where we might say the noise in our head comes from. This is the side of the brain which also governs speech.

The Right Hemisphere is the creative side, artistic, and also where the intuitive skills are along with the ability to understand the whole picture first, and then maybe looking at the details second. The person who is right brained will usually make snap judgments collecting the facts later and find out they may not have deduced correctly. Although it is said they do have a good overall sense of the whole. The right brainer likes to actively participate in whatever is going on around them. It is also the right side of the brain where it is said, peace of mind is found.

Both Hemispheres are connected by nerves and communicate with each other by exchanging information. That is why if we are using both sides of our brain we will be able to be analytical as well as creative and etc. This condition of how the brain works is proven science and has to do with how we learn so much so that tests are used in College to help students understand the way they process information as well as for their instructors to understand the student’s way of learning.

It seems the basic educational system leans towards Left Brain thinking which in the past has left the Right brain thinkers in the dust so to speak but now with this knowledge, many colleges are having all students tested to help the right brain student and their instructors to understand the different thinking of each of the students.

The human ego is another interesting study and what I found most interesting about the ego is that the beliefs we develop throughout our life are what we identify ourselves with and so when someone tells us what we believe, is wrong or in error the ego resists and will fight back as it perceives this as a threat to the identity of themselves as the person they believe they are. So extreme is this that to the ego to be wrong means I don’t exist. I think this shows us how important is needed the Spirit of God to help the soulish mind accept they have had wrong information and to be able to make changes in the beliefs.

So our first clue for when our ego is reacting is the soulish nature is affected and usually with frustration or the resisting of what is being said by another and progressing to anger. This again is because the ego has told us that our beliefs are our identity, this is not true as they are only beliefs, but the soulish mind resists…Gods Spirit can help us to be relaxed in the truth of His Word which we are to use as our guide into all truth.

The political and religious ego is what has been behind all the wars mostly based in religion and even Christianity who should have known better has done some of the worst atrocities in the name of Christ, turning to torture and murder of those who did not believe the way they deemed to be…the only way or the only truth. Knoch made an interesting observation in one of his books on this, how the so called Christian nations have the most military might of all the nations and have been involved in the most wars which is so contrary to what Jesus taught…who they profess to believe in and to follow.

Keep these things in mind the next time you decide to tell someone their religion is all wrong and wonder why they get mad or the friendship is over. A person has to be searching on their own for truth before they will be ready to listen to something new or different and this then constitutes a teachable person ….which is one who will ask questions and then want proof and will put forth the effort to learn.

In my experience it is best to keep quiet and let the Lord lead, He knows who is ready and He will spark the conversation. This is how we can lead the peaceable and quiet life of 1 Timothy 2:1-4. Paul said this would be good for us…In fact it is quite interesting how much Paul talks about peace, this can been seen if we turn to Page 219 of the Concordant Keyword Concordance under the word PEACE…a good study would be, for us to read all the times Paul wrote of it. But for this study, I brought in this information on how our minds work as I feel it shows us another ingredient as to our human nature, our soulishness and why we have diverse personalities and why we will always find some people that we will be compatible with and others we will not.

So for the believer in a Personal God and a Personal Savior, indwelt by Christ and who is a temple for the Spirit of God, I hope we can see why it is especially important to feed our minds daily with Gods words which are the spiritual things the soulish nature can not understand or appreciate but because of the uniqueness of our calling…we have been given the help needed and so we are able to appreciate.

We are told by Paul to think on “whatever is true, whatever is grave, whatever is just, whatever is pure whatever is agreeable, whatever is renowned…if there is any virtue and if any applause be taking these into account. What you learned also and accepted and hear and perceived in me, these be putting into practice and the God of Peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8,9 Paul speaks a lot about peace…wishing it on others and promising we can have it if we follow this counsel.

In Verse 7 he said, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God that is superior to every frame of mind, shall be garrisoning your hearts and your apprehensions in Christ Jesus.” A familiar expression is peace of mind, focusing on spiritual things is what gives it.

Parts 3 - 4 and 5 available...

Posted by: Wolveshater Aug 1 2009, 10:52 PM
PART 3..

These words from Paul always remind me of the Psalmists words at Psalms 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God”

Bullinger’s notes on the psalmists words state that “Be still” means to “Desist…cease your efforts” Here is an example where these words were literally for the psalmist an Israelite encouraging him to trust in Jehovah and yet we can take a spiritual lesson from them. In many things in life, resisting or fighting only worsens the situation, while accepting what we have no power to change brings peace of mind instead of frustration and as the psalmist we learn to trust God and when we step back from situations we might be delighted in how God will work it out …Be still and know that I am God. I love that term.

There is a saying, what one resists will persist...this is because the more we fight the more what we fight…fights back; it is a cycle of energy. To break that cycle we need to cease resisting or fighting. If we accept the situation as it is…with the attitude of, it is what it is…with no energy feeding it, it will begin to dissolve. Resistance takes energy and can spiral into our becoming the very thing we are resisting. Again this is all to do with the how the soulish nature of humanity operates in that realm.

When we are in prayer, and when we recognize that we do not have the answers or strength and give it all to God, the peace that Paul spoke of becomes ours…because in those moments we have let go, desisted from our own efforts or struggles in the flesh and accepted where we are, or what it is and that is when we enter the realm of spirit by acknowledging that He is God and we are flesh and need Him.

This brings us to the Human Spirit, and so we ask again, just what is it?

So we now understand the soul and the soulishness of humanity and the complexity of the human brain and mind, these things are what motivate us as fleshly, soulish, mortal, humans. Our next subject to understand about humanity is the human spirit and the question concerning just exactly what it is and where it is. Paul speaks of the human spirit in this way, “For is humanity acquainted with that which is human except the spirit of humanity which is in it? 1 Corinthians 2:11

Humanity has always been interested in the spirit world and also wanting to be independent of their Creator. To be like God, having an immortal spirit and thus unable to truly die means just that, He would not be needed nor would we have to answer to Him. There is a lot of confusion about life and spirit and so we read and hear it taught that “we humans” are spirits clothed in flesh and that it is the flesh which dies while the spirit is immortal or eternal and passes onto…wherever or to whatever depending on the particular theology of each person, sect or denomination of Christendom.

Notice the non scriptural term….passes on in relation to death, instead of what we have learned is the scripture explanation for death, said to be a return and to a state of unconsciousness.

Christendom teaches, the immortal spirit passes on to heaven or hell, and paganism has the belief in a reincarnation, the passing on to some other life form…human or animal, insect, you name it, while others teach the spirit leaves the body joining the spirit world and can be communicated with….through mediums or spiritual teachers. When in fact those being communicated with are not their dead relatives but spirits impersonating them and thus the deception which began with Eve in the garden continues. The spirits are among the group of sinning messengers following the adversary of which some are already locked away in Tartarous. Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4,5

The deceiving spirits are able to give the human inquiring about their dead loved one, basic information about them as the deceiving spirits have been here before man was created and so have all the information needed to pretend to be a dead relative; or to trick people into believing they have had past lives…this is another reason why they are said to be deceiving spirits! 1 Timothy 4:11 Under Satan as God’s adversary …their job is to deceive humanity following Satan’s example with Eve.

All of these false doctrines are taught by those who claim to be spiritual and or said to be spiritual teachers. But by denying Gods Word as inspired by a Personal God they fall into the group we read of at the beginning of this study as those who are, “soulish and not able to receive those things of the spirit of God, for they are stupidity to him and he is not able to know them, seeing that they are to be spiritually examined.” 1 Corinthians 2:14.15.

Even believers can be deceived…whatever we take in with our soulish senses, see, hear, read and or study becomes part of our minds and over time….we are indoctrinated….the spirit within can be buried by the man made dogma’s and the demands made by the soulish feelings can quench the spirit. Soulish emotions are pandered to by the denominations or by getting involved in a certain political party or philosophy on life, all these things can suppress Gods truth. Thus Grace is given to the chosen how else could God have a faithful remnant through which He will be glorified.

For the most part the spirituality which is taught and practiced by these teachers is tied to soulishness, of making the body through the senses feel good. For the most part meditation and the relaxation techniques are good for the body and the soul, helping to relieve stress and find some peace of mind, in a hectic world, and because our minds are very active more so that most of us realize. But this is not being spiritual it is tending or ministering to the soul.

Prayer is a form of meditation, talking to God relieves the stress of the day or of situations, taking the minds focus from self to someone or somewhere else. But these are still soulish practices as we are looking for relief or guidance for our soul and in our soulish life and are not the spirituality the Bible speaks of. Religion is also of the soul and not the spirit but we will look at what is true spirituality later on in this lesson.

Knoch explains the human spirit on Page 39 “In studying the spirit of mankind and indeed, all animals in the sacred records especially the Hebrew Scriptures we find it closely associated with the breath. The spirit is the link between breath and life. This is hidden from the reader of the Authorized Version. In speaking of the scope of death by the flood, it reads ‘all in whose nostrils was the breath of life,’”

“Genesis 7:22. It should read ‘everyone which has the breath of the spirit of the living in his nostrils.’ We all know by experience that our life depends on breathing. To expire means death. But we also know, from the Scriptures that the spirit is the only source of life. Hence it is easy to see how logical the order of the term in this notable phrase, the breath of the spirit of the living.”

“For the air we breathe, combining with elements in the body, process the power or spiritual energy on which life depends. Breath is used in the scriptures as synonymous, in some sense, with spirit. As the presence of one involves the other, and breath is a cause of which the conscious human spirit is the effect, there is good ground for their association.”

The body plus oxygen and the life force from God equals a human spirit and man is a living soul.

Knoch continues and gives another good explanation of the human spirit in the book we are quoting from occasionally on Pages 41, 42 I have added my thoughts in parenthesis, and so Knoch simply states the human spirit as being “the power generated is the spirit (in the womb with the union of the sperm and ovum) which ignites with the body to give life and sensation, or soul.”

Knoch also said, “the human spirit is energy, power, a force generated by the combustion of the breath and the body” (The fetus in the womb is supplied the needed oxygen from the mother through the umbilical cord) Knoch explains, the use of breath in the creation account and our need for oxygen in this way, “The breath, it seems, undergoes a chemical change, which may be compared with combustion. As the air rushes into a fire and transforms the coal into heat and energy, so the breath combines with the substance of the body to form spirit, the energy which is evident in action, in life, and in intelligence.”

So that energy is what we call the life force from God or God’s Spirit and it is what gave our body the human spirit, through the giving of energy and life within our cells making us a living soul which then possess the five senses, soulish sensations and consciousness to our body. The life force from God gave our human spirit its life which united with the body generates into a living soul. So there is no human spirit without a body. What happens to the human spirit at death? It too ceases to exist; and so we must not confuse the human spirit with God’s Spirit which is what many have done by believing the human spirit is eternal, it is not it is human, and humans die

When a person dies, the soul and human spirit, cease to function, and cease to exist, thus it is said that they have perished, the body decays or sees corruption. The soul is no longer conscious and the energy from the human spirit is gone, both need a body and so death being an unconscious state is likened to sleep in the scriptures, the body decays returning to the soil from where it came. The life force from God is no longer present…but it does not die as that force is eternal….. But, that force is not our human spirit or our consciousness.

The spirit uniting with the body is what gives us conscious life, but there is no human spirit apart from the body and the soul. Knoch explains it like this, “the power generated is the spirit, which unites with the body to give life and sensation, or soul”

Knoch also said, “Man is essentially soil and the spirit is not a separate personality from the flesh. But a force generated by the combustion of the breath and the body. The body of man is not merely a home of the spirit, but an essential factor in the production of his spirit. He can have no human spirit without a body and breath.” Page 42 “Spirit, Spirits and Spirituality”

I read once, years ago, that the worth of the human body when dissolved down to its elements was about 5 cents, it is maybe more today as metals have gone up in price since then, but there is not much value in the elements we are made of.

The false notion of an eternal spirit as a separate entity from the body and soul within humans is where the belief of reincarnation comes in and where, sad to say, Christendom claiming to represent God and His Word teaches that man has an immortal soul or spirit that moves on either to heaven or hell at the death of the body ignoring that Paul stated Christ alone had immortality, 1 Timothy 6:16.

What is misunderstood by most is that the eternal spirit gives life to the flesh and when the flesh dies…that igniter of life the life force which is from its source, God and thus is described as returning to Him. This is the Only Eternal One and that spirit only can give life and restore life. As we learned in this study, all comes out of God or in other words out of the Spirit of John 4:24, the unknowable imperceptible, invisible, intelligence, not a spirit, but the energy of all life…the Spirit which reveals Himself or itself by means of a form…the Form of God…Jehovah Who is Christ. Philippians 2:5-7

That spirit is what all the universe is out of is also maintained or it has its cohesion in Christ, the form of God….. it is being held together by means of the intelligence and energy of the spirit of God.

The only way I can try to understand this is to just say, the entire Universe is God the Spirit! As it all came out of Him and is made up of spiritual matter, which can be both invisible and visible and without Him it would not be or function orderly. God’s Word speaks to us in human terms or through the human viewpoint of what we know and can understand with our soulish minds and that is why we are simply told, when the body dies and returns to the soil, the life force returns to God Who gave it at Ecclesiastes 12:7. Humanity is mortal!

So, the human spirit is a result of the life force from God and is the energy which gives life to the body and we are living souls. Since it is the spark that gives the body energy and life, it is then involved with the entire person, conscious and unconscious. I think we should be able to see by all of this, how the human spirit is not a separate entity living within our body, but it is us, as what gives life to the soul and body and all of it’s operations while still breathing.

This is because the life force from God is energy which came out of imperceptible spirit; it is not our human spirit as a separate entity or personality from our soul and body. The spirit needs a body and a body needs the spirit in order to be a living soul. This is the essential difference with a human being and a spirit being…Satan wants humanity to think they are both?

We might make a comparison between spirit and electricity, our homes are wired for electricity…which is linked to a main source far away and when that main source is interrupted our house loses power, thus it becomes dark and nothing requiring electricity will work. Or, when we enter a dark room until we flip the switch there is no light. The life force from God is the main source of power which gives life, our spirit is like flipping the switch and our body is alive. When the switch is flipped on we are a living soul and when flipped off….the power to the body is gone and the person is then a dead soul.

So hopefully we are putting together the pieces of the puzzle as to the human body, soul and spirit and coming to the understanding that humanity being mortal is soulish made from the soil with a human will and a human spirit. We see that the human spirit and the human will are tied to the soul and the soulish nature. The human spirit is not a separate entity or personality within the human body that lives on when the body dies. It might also help us to also look at how the human spirit is described in the Word…with characteristics which are soulish….and this would not be so if it was an immortal or eternal spirit.

Spirit is also used of feelings, actions and reactions made by the soulish person, as the spirit of something perhaps, the invisible motive.

In the Keyword Concordance under “human spirit” there are a number of verses, Mathew 5:3 speaks of those, “poor in spirit.” Ephesians 2:2 “the spirit now operates in the sons of stubbornness.” James 4:5 “the spirit which dwells in us longing to envy.” 1 Peter 3:4 “A meek and quiet spirit” A spirit of stupor… Romans 11:8

Also in the Keyword Concordance are listed some more under the heading of “personal spirits.” Luke 1:80 “staunch in spirit” indicating an inner strength. John 11:33,34 Jesus was moved by Mary’s grief and was troubled in His own spirit and even wept” This was compassion and empathy for Mary even while having the power to end her grief. In Acts 19:21 we are told that Paul, “pondered in spirit about going to Rome”

This was obviously Paul’s thought processes as he pondered in his mind the planning of a trip. In this instance the human spirit was involved with his desire a soulish thing to go to Jerusalem and to Rome and with his mind, in laying out the details of that trip. So these verses help us to see how the human spirit is involved with how we think in the planning of things or to deduce things that is analyzing as well as feelings deep within, such as determination, stubbornness as well as those which we would also link to our emotions such as empathy and compassion.

So what is meant by the words in Hebrews 4:12 of “a parting of soul and spirit.” It seems by this verse that the spirit and the soul can be in opposition to each other and yes they can…but this passage is not speaking of the human spirit, but that…the flesh fights the spirit of God, plain and simple. Let’s read the whole passage. “For the word of God is living and operative, and keen above any two edged sword and penetrating up to the parting of soul and spirit, both of the articulating and marrow and is a judge of the sentiments and thoughts of the heart.”

Knoch points out in His commentary on this passage that, “The soul has to do with the physical senses. It usually is confused with the spirit. Only the word of God is able to judge whether an action is spiritual or soulish.”

Or what of Jesus words at Matthew 26:41 “enter not into temptation, (or trial in the CLV) the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”? This was said by Jesus before His death when speaking to His chosen disciples such as Peter, who had fallen asleep not recognizing this, was the night their Lord would be taken from them. When the flesh is tired or hungry or in pain…the ideal intentions may not be strong enough to subdue the flesh.

Today even though we are in the new administration we are human, and thus soulish and even with the indwelling of Christ we will find it hard not to heed to the flesh’s demands. This is all part of our learning good and evil and suffering for Christ through the humiliation of these bodies of flesh and so we long for the day when we will be released from the weakness of the flesh and become fully spiritual. But I do believe the spirit of Christ helps our spirit as Paul prayed for us to have a spirit of wisdom. Ephesians 1:17b It is important to understand the two things which are the foundation for spiritual understanding and wisdom….Gods spirit as Christ’s indwelling and Gods Word correctly understood through rightly dividing and testing the things which differ.

Paul explains the learning of good and evil in this life will be far outweighed in the glories yet to come at Romans 8:18-27 “For I am reckoning that the sufferings of the current era do not deserve the glory about to be revealed for us. For the premonition of the creation is awaiting the unveiling of the sons of God. For to vanity was the creation subjected, not voluntarily, but because of Him who subjects it, in expectation that the creation itself, also shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

“For we are aware that the entire creation is groaning and travailing together until now. Yet not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the spirit, we ourselves also are groaning in ourselves, awaiting the sonship, the deliverance of our body. For to expectation were we saved. Now expectation, being observed, is not expectation, for what anyone is observing, why is he expecting it also? Now if we are expecting what we are not observing, we are awaiting it with endurance.”

“Now, similarly, the spirit also is aiding our infirmity for what we should be praying for to accord with what must be, we are not aware, but the spirit itself is pleading for us with inarticulate groanings. Now He who is searching the hearts is aware what is the disposition of the spirit, for in accord with God is it pleading for the saints.”

This is the Spirit of God as the indwelling of Christ which intercedes for us and we read earlier where Paul tells us that Christ is the mediator at 1 Timothy 2:5-7 “For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and mankind, a Man, Christ Jesus, Who is giving Himself a correspondent Ransom for all (the testimony in its own eras,) for which I was appointed a herald and an apostle I am telling the truth I am not lying, a teacher of the nations in knowledge and truth.” Paul has not said the mediatory work of Christ is finished….he says it is still needed by mankind.

Knoch explained that verse with these words, “The saints have been redeemed…but the rest of mankind still needs the Ransom, it will operate until all are reconciled.”

This passage must also be taken in the context of the previous Verses 3, 4 which is where Paul testified to the facts, that “God is the Savior and wills all mankind to be saved and come into a realization of the truth.” The following verses then explain and maybe primarily are for those of Israel who had the mindset of their special relationship to God and so Paul is telling them, God is saving all mankind through their, Israel’s, messiah Jesus Christ. He wants them to see the bigger picture…not just their part in it.

Add to all of that what we are told by Paul has been made available to the chosen the saint, in this new administration. The relationship with Christ and given His allotments, faith, righteousness, justification and in the future to be sharing His glory and through Him, God’s influence, God the Spirit!

Yet the chosen saint without the understanding of Paul’s evangel rightly divided will not truly comprehend the truths of Gods Word. The Spirit of Christ and of God do not automatically give us the information…we must spend time, a lot of time in His Word in order to fill our soulish minds with His Words and that is how we access the mind of Christ, and then His spirit within can guide our spirit in the understanding of the sound words and counsel, meaning the healthy words from God, specially that which is written for those in the new administration…from the Apostle Paul through a spirit of wisdom we learn to appreciate all the spiritual things the soulish mind finds to be stupidity.

We are also told by Paul of the contrast of the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:19-21 give us the “works of the flesh, as adultery, prostitution, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, enchantment, enmities, strife, jealousies, furies, factions, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness’s, revelries”

Paul said “For the flesh is lusting against the spirit, yet the spirit against the flesh”. So how are we to understand this? This is not our human spirit that the flesh resists; it is the Spirit of God and Christ’s Spirit dwelling within us. We could also look at what Paul said were the fruit of the spirit. Verses 22-24 “ Now the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control: against such things there is no law”

The flesh needed to be given laws to know how to govern itself or others as the soulish person is governed by soul…even the chosen saints still living in their fleshly, earthly bodies are governed by their soulish senses and emotions and find it hard to yield the fruit of the spirit. Contrary to what is taught in church, when they say, If you accept Christ you will then become a good person.

We are what we are…we can strengthen the influence of God within us by means of, His living Words, the inspired scriptures as the writer of Hebrews said. But that spirit from God does not automatically change us or make us into better persons, God’s spirit works with our conscience and helps us to see who we are and where we have failed. It can help us to understand Gods Word which outlines what is right and wrong. But we will still struggle as long as we live in these soulish bodies and that is why Grace is needed and given to us and why we are said to be given the firstfruit of spirit. Oddly enough the true understanding of God’s Grace given us has more effect on subduing the soulish nature than any laws ever could or any promises of rewards for good behavior ever have.

Humanity was created by God to be human, fleshly, soulish, as the vessels used by Him to
instruct the entire Universe about Good and Evil and thereby to reveal Himself, as the Creator and Owner of all and also that He is Love, Light and Spirit

Since we die and the bodies decay and the person does not return to consciousness until the resurrection, some then wonder what sort of a body we will be given in the resurrections. We read Paul’s words, for those in the new administration, when he said God will vivify your mortal bodies at Romans 8:11. Implying to me, that the body we have now will be returned but made immortal not needing what the fleshly body needs to live, like blood so no need for a heart, lungs, or a digestive system designed to nourish the fleshly body as we will need no outside sources of oxygen, food and water to stay alive. We will be given a body, with the human form but it will be a spiritual body made immortal, vivified which indicates life within oneself.

The spirit of God the energizing force in the new spiritual body we will be given….I believe is part of the superiority of those bodies and that the spirit beings of the Universe do not have….most likely, they derive energy and life from another source…perhaps light and may be why the sinning messengers are locked away in a gloomy place?

Knoch explains the spiritual body which will replace these fleshly bodies very nicely in his book; Page 71 “The use of the word spiritual in place of figurative has given rise to the idea that nothing corporeal (physical body) can be spiritual. That this is not the case is evident from the Scriptures concerning the resurrection body said to be a spiritual body in 1 Corinthians 15:44. If we should say that we were roused and vivified spiritually in Christ, this may suggest that the spirit alone was involved. But rousing cannot take place without both body and spirit, for it comes only as a combination of the two.”

Paul spoke of two kinds of bodies with two kinds of glory in 1 Corinthians 15:40,41 of the terrestrial body and the celestial body…they will be spiritual bodies vivified by God’s spirit, but not spirits. 1 Corinthians 15:40, 41. Israel and most of humanity will be resurrected on this earth…given a terrestrial body and glory while those placed in the new administration the body of Christ will be raised with the celestial glory and body suited for living in the celestial realms. As Paul states at 1 Corinthians 15:38 “Yet God is giving a body according as He wills.”

The word vivify is used in relation to the return of spirit…as life…while resurrection is used in relation to the body standing up but first comes the rousing of the soul from the sleep of death. Vivify, having the meaning of, giving life beyond the reach of death conferring immortality. As Paul also explained it as the “putting on of immortality” at 1 Corinthians 15:53,54.

Also Paul’s words at Ephesians 2:5,6 “(we also being dead to the offenses and the lust),God, vivifies us together in Christ (in grace are you saved!) And rouses us together and seats us together among the celestials, in Christ Jesus, that in the oncoming eons, He should be displaying the transcendent riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Also Colossians 2:13b “He vivifies us together jointly with Him”

Again to repeat, the terms used in scripture which are given to us by God concerning death all have to do with something we experience every night, sleeping or reposing. Likewise all the terms used in the Bible for waking up from death corresponds with our experience of waking from sleep. Being roused, becoming conscious of our surroundings, hearing sounds and feeling our body as it returns to consciousness, rising, we sit up, we might yawn and stretch and then we stand up and begin the day.

In the resurrection, the spirit will be returned to the newly created or changed body by God and the soul will be roused, the senses, consciousness returns and the body will stand up, as the meaning of the word resurrection is just that. Paul also said God would be vivifying your mortal bodies at Romans 8:11b.

I spoke earlier of how I had felt from this verse that we can expect that our bodies that we have now to be our bodies when raised in the resurrection, but vivified, given the immortality of the celestial glory needed for life in the spirit realm, as the Body of Christ is called to heaven. We will be who we are only better and so will recognize and know others. 1Corinthians 15:53,53 and at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

But Knoch felt it applied to our state now but I don’t see that our mortal bodies have been vivified even figuratively but if so, then if figuratively it is still not until the actual time when these mortal bodies will be made immortal and so I am not sure if I understand what he meant and will need to research this more. Meanwhile…for those of the bride church, and the prophets of Old and the faithful of Israel, they will be raised on this earth in the millennial kingdom with Jesus Christ, immortals also.

This is said to be the resurrection of the just by Daniel 12:2 John 5:29a and also said by Paul at Acts 24:15 and John at Revelation 20:4b 5. In this passage John speaks of it as the first or former earthly resurrection for the just and Verse 5b speaks of the unjust class as the rest of the dead raised when the 1000 year millennial year of Christ ends. Paul spoke of the unjust being raised to the judging and John also explains about the unjust class in Revelation 20:11,12.

That time of judging is not the end of the story as the rest of the dead will also benefit from the Ransom of Christ in the oncoming eon, the Day of God as they come to a realization of that truth, they then will also receive immortality as Gods Word promises that all humanity will be vivified and this happens when God is All in all as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:28.

So now that we understand the Soul and the Soulish nature along with the human spirit, Lets now look at Gods Spirit, and Christ’s Spirit….do we as chosen believers have three spirits within?

Knoch defines “spirit” for us on Page 154 of an article in the 1989 UR Volume 80 as “the invisible, intangible power of all life, action and intelligence.”

Posted by: Wolveshater Aug 1 2009, 10:53 PM
When we read Romans 8:9,10 earlier, the question came up about the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ and of Knoch’s comments on this verse stating that “we have three spirits” This sounded odd to me at the time yet Paul listed them as though they were two separate Spirits as he also has said we have the indwelling of Christ and we are the temple of God.. For those who believe God the Spirit is a Person and Christ is another separate Person, like Knoch did, their answer would be, yes, and as he expressed it, God’s Spirit and Christ’s Spirit are two spirits separate from each other plus our own human spirit…make three? If we believe the spirit of God and the form of God are One God and One Person…then Gods Spirit is the indwelling spirit of Christ….and is seem simpler to understand.

But, let’s read that passage in Romans 8:9,10 again. “Yet you are not in flesh, but in spirit, if so be that God’s Spirit is making its home in you. Now if anyone has not Christ’s Spirit, this one is not His. Now if Christ is in you, the body, indeed is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness. Now if the spirit of Him who rouses Jesus from among the dead is making its home in you, He who rouses Christ Jesus from among the dead will also be vivifying your mortal bodies because of His spirit making is home in you.”

This passage definitely speaks of both Christ’s Spirit and Gods Spirit as though they are two separate spirits, these are Paul’s words, not mine and so we must try and understand what and why this was said in this way by him. It is up to us to harmonize this with there being but One God. So let’s analyze the facts, God’s Spirit gives life to all that lives in this Universe as all came out of that spirit. Christ is the form of God through which all creation came into being

Knoch in His Concordant Commentary on Page 237 on Verse 9 explains it this way, “All who believe Him are indwelt by God’s Spirit. Christ, by His Spirit is in us. Consequently, our spirit is life yet our body being absolutely unresponsive to their presence, is death. Thus while we have but one body, it is the home of three spirits…Gods Spirit, Christ’s Spirit and our human spirit. As a result the spiritual force at our disposal is far greater than the flesh.”

Now we remind ourselves that Knoch held to the belief that the Father and the Son were two separate persons and this I believe has colored how he explains what Paul said in Romans 8:9,10.

Let continue reading the rest of Knoch’s comments on this verse, Page 237. “Our own spirit is the seat of our new life, because of righteousness. Christ’s spirit gives us communion with Him. Gods spirit gives us power over our dead bodies, just as, in the case of Christ, He roused His body from among the dead. He is able to vivify these death-doomed bodies, so that they respond to the dictates of the spirit. Mortal bodies as such are dying, in a physical sense. Their vivification cannot refer to the future resurrection, but to the present power of God’s Spirit to use an utterly unresponsive, hostile instrument, as our bodies are, and constrain its members to do the bidding of our spirits.” Next, Knoch said, “God’s spirit gives us power over our dead bodies…”

So in trying to understanding his comments, it would mean Christ’s Spirit gives us communion with the One we call the Father, the imperceptible spirit. This is understandable as it is because we are in Christ all that His life on earth and all that His death and resurrection accomplished is spoken of as His allotment in the celestials with the Father, that imperceptible spirit. Paul tells us that we have been given Christ’s allotment with the Father, the imperceptible Spirit. Thus we then have this relationship with God in spirit through Christ which gives the new administration, “ every spiritual blessing in the celestials.”

How do we explain the way it sounds like Paul is separating God’s Spirit from Christ’s Spirit in Romans 8 and in many other passages? My only answer is that just as we recognize the One God reveals Himself in different modes, and so we should also attribute the sprit spoken of as to the mode which is operating…So God the spirit operates through the modes and forms performing the work of not only Creator but also as Savior. Christ as Jehovah in His pre human mode revealed God the spirit to the People He chose to be nation of servants and witnesses in the Old Testament and that was the form of God then and now He occupies also the mode of Christ… as the Form of God more is revealed about our Creator and Savior. Colossians 1:14-20 Philippians 2:5-11 review these passages and then compare to Hebrews 1:10 “By many portions and many modes of old, God, speaking to the fathers in the prophets, in the last of these days speaks to us in a Son.”

In relation to Gods Spirit we might ask what were some of the portions and modes….a burning bush, the rock, Shekinah glory in the temple, fire coming out of heaven …a pillar of fire…a pillar of clouds leading the Israelites through the wilderness, thunder and smoke. Jehovah appeared and spoke in human form and Jesus Christ entered humanity in a flesh and blood body and dying on the cross, He was raised from the dead and walked and talked among His disciples appearing and disappearing in different forms before returning to heaven to take back His glory, that He had previously left in the heavens in order to lay down His life as a Man in order to redeem, ransom, and save humanity from sin and death.

I think it simply means our approach to the unknowable spirit of God in the absolute is only by means of and through Christ, the knowable Person, the image of the spirit, the form that spirit assumed to reveal Himself to His creation …..which is Christ in the relative sense. Christ of course is filled with the Spirit of God, so the same spirit is presented to us through God’s form.. Is not this the same as saying we are in Christ instead of saying we are in God? We deal with and through Christ as our approach to God the Spirit. John 4:24

The use of different names or titles for the One Spirit is in connection to the different offices fulfilled by Christ in His role as the Form of God which reveal the imperceptible Spirit we called God or the Father out of which came all things even the One Who reveals the invisible Spirit to us by means of visible manifestations and actions.

While those of us who believe in the One God to be made up of the imperceptible, invisible, God is Spirit of John 4:24 and is not a person, but it is the spirit which generated and fills the form of God, His form, and that is the Person of God. Paul told us, that Christ is the form of God spoken of at Philippians 2:6. These two elements, spirit and form together comprise the One God and One Person, and not two persons….As Jehovah said over and over…I am One, there is none other besides Me.

Since there is but One God, so in the absolute, there is but One Spirit, this is the imperceptible spirit of John 4:24. So this would also be the spirit of Christ or Christ’s spirit. So how are we to harmonize, Paul’s words which sound like he was referring to two Spirits, by the use of two different titles in relation to the spirit given believers? Christ’s Spirit and God’s Spirit? I think the answer again lies in the use of the different titles, denoting separate offices or work being done by the One Spirit.

God’s Spirit is the spirit of John 4:24 and Christ’s Spirit in relation to being the form of God, His spirit was Gods Spirit. But it was and is Christ’s achievements in redeeming humanity, by first leaving His glory and taking on the role of a flesh and blood Man. In that mode of the Son, he was as human as you and I and so He would also have the human spirit within His soul and body. But the one difference is, He was without Sin and also had full access to the imperceptible unknowable spirit of which He referred to as His Father. So Gods Spirit was always within Jesus Christ.

In the mode of the Son, He was dependant upon that Spirit; it was not unknowable to Him as it is to the rest of humanity. Jesus testified that only He was out of the bosom of the Father and only He could perceive that Spirit not as a Person but as the source of all things. We also will come to know the imperceptible Spirit in our vivified bodies. We will be filled with it and perceive Him then as Christ did and does.

So understanding God’s Spirit would be referring to the imperceptible spirit of all intelligence, power and action and not referring to the form of God which is Christ. Yes the spirit of the Form of God is Gods Spirit but just as “God” uses many modes and roles, offices and each has a separate title perhaps spirit is associated with each title or office used in the roles revealing Himself to His Creation.

Until reconciliation is completed and God the spirit of John 4:24 will be All in All there will be a need for titles, offices and modes such as the titles of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, Priest, Prophet and many more Christ is fulfilling I feel it is safe to say all are energized by the same spirit.

We must understand that we receive different things from the different titles and or modes being used. Yet with the understanding that all roles, modes, titles belong to the One God in His work of revealing Himself to His Creation. Simply to give an example…Gods Spirit gives life but we are told that all life came through Christ the Form of God, the form used by Spirit. Christ’s Spirit gives justification, based on His work as a Man, and cleanses the saint for God’s Spirit to dwell in as His temple on earth today during this administration. We cannot have one without the other.

Perhaps Paul used the terminology he did in reference to God’s and Christ’s Spirit because we are in the book of Romans and as we learned in our study on the beginnings of the Body of Christ, that Paul as a Jew was discipling many of those who were of Israelite heritage. Those who were the sons of Israel had requirements to meet that a Gentile being discipled by Paul did not. Such as, those of Israel first needed to repent of their national sin which was being unfaithful to Jehovah and breaking their covenant with Him by going into idolatry. Jesus was the messiah promised to Israel and so John’s baptism was for those of Israel only.

As Gentiles we do not repent of the national sin of Israel which was why gentiles were not baptized with John’s baptism. We do not confess Jesus as our messiah as He is not our messiah but those of Israel were required to do so. Romans 10:11-13 So for those of Israelite heritage to regain favor with their God Jehovah they needed to repent of Israel’s sin and accept Jesus Christ as their messiah and recognize Him as the Son of God and publicly declare this.

This passage in Romans has been wrongly applied to all believers as proof of their salvation when in fact Paul is speaking to the sons of Israel, like himself and this was also during the dispensation of Holy Spirit when the rule was still being followed to the Jew first.

The basis of Paul’s ministry is Jesus Christ, and began during the dispensation of Holy Spirit and during that time he followed the rule to the Jew first, so his first obligation was to present Jesus as the messiah of Israel as well as the Son of God. His ministry was to the sons of Israel and the nations, of which is where many of the sons of Israel from the ten tribes lived. As the Apostle Paul, he began early, teaching that belief in Jesus Christ gave them justification outside the Law of Moses. Acts 13:39

It is in Christ only, that the saint is declared righteous and justified, acquitted of all sin. Saul was the example of this, as grace was given him so that he also could teach the grace of God to the new administration he was commissioned to be the apostle Paul for…the early members were primarily the sons of Israel….God took yet another remnant out of Israel to begin the Body of Christ with.

Paul also explained in Romans of how God was grafting in Gentiles from all nations into the root, of the Olive tree which was Israel. These so called Gentiles for the most part were of Israelite heritage but living in the other nations and were not practicing Judaism. They had turned away from God to idols centuries earlier when the 12 tribes of Israel split into two kingdoms.

Many of Hebrew heritage were being called out of those nations, by God, through Paul’s evangel into this new administration and in Ephesians 3:6 he calls this group of mixed nations a joint body. By being placed into this joint body, by God, the Gentile also receives these spiritual things, grace, justification from God through Christ with those of Israel. God can only inhabit those who are cleansed of sin by being justified in Christ.

That is what I feel Paul must be explaining in this passage in Romans 8:9,10 which is that before God’s Spirit will make its home in a saint they must have Christ’s Spirit as it is His work on the cross which has conciliated God to the world and reconciliated the chosen saints. If Christ’s Spirit is dwelling in a person, the flesh of that person is likened to being dead to sin. This is because those chosen by God have been moved from Adams lineage of sin and death into Christ’s lineage of life. 1 Corinthians 15:22 He paid for the sins of all humanity purchasing them with His blood, but not all are yet justified.

The saints are given the spirit of life from Christ when placed in the new administration which is the firstfruit of humanity, graced with justification…and this guarantees a complete harvest for God of all mankind purchased by Christ’s blood. Also the saints are a firstfruit of the spirit, this is a new life as a new creation, of which only Paul writes of, for those ones placed in this joint body the new administration of grace…are imputed Christ’s righteousness thus justified and are a new creation..

It is not our own righteousness as we have none of our own to boast of but it becomes ours by proxy, it is His, Christ’s righteousness given to us and this then in turn makes us acceptable to God as cleansed vessels while still living in these bodies of humiliation and soulishness…that is why Paul says our bodies are dead to sin, and why Paul said we died with Christ and were raised with Christ and are seated in the heavenlies with Him. This is figurative of the spiritual blessings given to us even now while we are still in the flesh. Ephesians 2:6

We have the Spirit of Christ in that we are given His righteousness and that makes us suitable to be the temple of God. I do not believe there are two separate spirits as I believe in only One Person as the One God. But it is the form of God which is Christ, Who is the Person of God and it is He which did the work through which we are justified….Christ is a title, the anointed one of God sent to do the redeeming and saving work This is what I feel it means by having the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God. So there is but One God and so it is logical that there is but One Spirit, but operating under different titles, roles, and modes in doing different work for humanity.

In Romans Paul is explaining how a person comes to know God in the absolute, since God is imperceptible, unknowable spirit. It is through Christ as the form of God that all in creation will come to know the imperceptible spirit….as the goal and plan of the ages is for God, the spirit to be All in all which means He will dwell within all humanity and in fact in all beings in His Universe. This will also be when the words will be fulfilled of God tabernacling with mankind and there will be no more death or tears or mourning. 1 Corinthians 15:28, Revelation 21:3,4

In this Study Manual of the One God, hopefully we have established that the Elohim of creation was the form of God and is He, Who later presented Himself as God Almighty to Israel in the Old Testament. We also read at John 1:1-18 that God, whose name is Jehovah was the Word of God that became flesh. Paul established for us that Jehovah emptied Himself of his deity or glory as God and was born as a human being in the mode of the Son, Hebrews 1:1,2 as the person of Jesus Christ at Philippians 2:5-8.

The only way to know the Spirit of God is through the form of God, which is Christ. It is the form which does the revealing through the work He performs throughout the eons. Christ in the flesh went to the cross and died, it is His blood that purchased us and imparts new life to death doomed humanity.

So perhaps if we view Christ’s Spirit in relation to the work He did as Man and also what He took back when He returned to heaven, the glory that He had with the Father before coming into the world as a Man. It is Christ that we have a personal relationship with as He is the Person of God we come to know through the written word and through the spirit of God which enables us to believe because we are given the gift of faith…and it is logical to me that the measure of faith were receive is of Jesus Christ’s faith.

The scriptures tell us very little about the imperceptible spirit, except that it is unknowable and that all came out of Him as Spirit but through Christ as the Form of God. Colossians 1:14-20

We are also told by Jesus that no one but He has seen or heard the Father, the imperceptible Spirit. John 5:37,38 and 6: 46,47

God’s word tells us all about Christ from creation onward, first as Elohim as the Creator and later as Jehovah the Most High God of Israel and then as the Son of God, Jesus Christ. So before and after the earthly advent, God the Spirit is revealed to us only through the Form of God…which is Christ.

In the absolute, God the Spirit is unknown to us, yet, Paul said his disciples in the new administration are the temple in which God can dwell today, but are we aware of His presence? Were we ever aware of the things we are told have been done within and for us by Paul, without our knowledge or asking us? No, it is the written Word of God which explains to us what has been enacted on our behalf through the spirit. The soulish mind cannot apprehend the spiritual things in Gods Word, we only accept what we read in Paul’s letters because we have been given the faith to do so, and the spirit within us aids our belief.

We are also told by Paul that we are sealed, given the earnest of the spirit, given Christ’s faith and justified by being given Christ’s righteousness. Do we feel any of things within our bodies or are they only spiritually discerned?

Yes, that is what Paul meant when he said we were given the mind of Christ and have His Spirit, we are then able to accept what the Word has told us, we don’t feel it or totally understand it but because of the spirit within us we say yes, or amen, to these words from God as they are not stupidity to the chosen saint as they are able to spiritually discern them…but these things are understood by those who are not yet chosen, as they are soulish, having none of Christ’s or Gods Spirit.

Their lack of understanding is not their fault, it is natural for humanity and as soulish beings not gifted with faith to find these things stupid…without the spirit of God…humans are spiritually insensitive and cannot responds to Gods Word with any sort of spiritual understanding.


Posted by: Wolveshater Aug 1 2009, 10:56 PM
Part 4

Is God’s spirit in and or available to humanity in general?

God is the creator of all humanity and as the life giver He is the Father of all in the absolute viewpoint. He is also the Savior of humanity. His Plan of the ages is to bring all humanity into a spiritual relationship with Him as true children of God. During the ages, to all He has given the gift of life and He continues to give gifts in the form of sustenance to the wicked and saint alike….we all enjoy the sunshine and refreshing rain and the food grown in the earth and much more.

He has ordained several programs called dispensations or administrations throughout the eons and the generations of humanity and of which He chooses a portion of humanity to enlighten. In the oncoming ages this will continue until all have come to know Him and all in the graves have been brought forth. In this way God is involved with humanity in general as all came out of Him and all belong to Him.

In regards to the rest of humanity we can read the promise, that “God, Who is vivifying the all” at
1 Timothy 6:13. Paul also said, “In Him (Christ) shall all be vivified” at 1 Corinthians 15:22.

Paul also talks about humanity as a whole in Acts 17:22-31 Paul is addressing some very religious people, so religious they worshipped many gods and had a statue inscribed to the unknowable God . He says to them that he represents that unknowable God. “To Whom, then you are ignorantly devout, This One am I announcing to you. The God who makes the world and all that is in it, He, the Lord inherent of heaven and earth, is not dwelling in temples made by hands, neither is He attended by human hands, as if requiring anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all.

Besides, He makes out of one (Adam) every nation of mankind, to be dwelling on all the surface of the earth, specifying the setting of the season and the bounds of their dwelling, for them to be seeking God, if, consequently, they may surely grope for Him and may be finding Him, though to be sure, not far from each one of us is He inherent, for in Him we are living and moving and are, as some poets of ours also have declared, ‘For of that race, also are we.’ The race, then, is inherently of God; we ought not to be inferring that the Divine is like gold, or silver, or stone, a sculpture of art and human sentiment.”

Before I continue with the rest of this passage…lets stop here and make note of how Paul has interchangeably been describing Christ’s work with the Spirit of life. He is speaking to Gentiles who did not need to hear of the messiah of Israel and so he first lays out the premise of Who this unknowable God is even though Paul is leading up to identifying this God to be Christ. Paul has been talking of Christ’s pre human work as their Creator.

Paul says this is The God, the unknowable God. He doesn’t separate or differentiate between the form and spirit! Paul continues with Verses 30,31 “Indeed, then, condoning the times of ignorance, God is now charging mankind that all everywhere are to repent, forasmuch as He assigns a day in which He is about to be judging the inhabited earth in righteousness by the Man Who He specifies, tendering faith to all raising Him from among the dead….” Now Paul speaks of the Man, Jesus Christ being raised from the dead.

But notice also that underlined term….tendering faith to all! Through Christ all humanity will receive the spiritual blessings the Body of Christ has received in this era as the firstfruit of the spirit. Now some in the crowd at hearing of the resurrection of the dead, jeered Paul in their soulishness as what he spoke of was stupidity to them but there were some who wanted to hear more and some became believers. Verses 32-24

Paul has told us in this passage in Acts that God gives life and breath to all and the sources of continued life on this planet are sustained by Him. He is not far from any of humanity in that all came out of Him and so does not that makes all humanity part of God? Paul even agreed with the poets who had said, humanity is of the same race as God, some say this should be translated as we are Gods kin!

God is working for the redemption of all humanity and will not rest until all have been reconciled to Him. But right now in this era, God is working with the new administration and membership is given by God only and so as far as humanity in general is concerned they have not yet been given the spiritual blessings of the indwelling of Christ and so don’t qualify to be the Temple of God…yet. The Body of Christ is the firstfruit, as the wave offering in Israel symbolized their crops would be successfully harvested and so our choosing guarantees a complete harvest of humanity for God in the coming eons.

Recognition of Christ as the Savior is the only way to life with God…the unknowable imperceptible spirit of John 4:24. This is not something we do on our own, God does the choosing and thus this is revealed to us through Christ. Ephesians 1:1-3 It is only through the form that we meet the spirit. Paul spoke of it as the indwelling Christ, with His faith given to us which as we have discussed before, is why we cannot help but believe…It is not anything we have done on our own.

Romans 8:9,10 “You (those chosen in Christ) are not in flesh, but in spirit, if so be that God’s spirit is making its home in you. Now if anyone has not Christ’s spirit, this one is not His. Now if Christ is in you, the body, is indeed is dead because of sin yet the spirit is life because of righteousness.” So this is the criteria set in scripture for God’s spirit to dwell within a human being, it is first through those chosen in Christ! And that is why it tells us we have both God’s Spirit and Christ’s Spirit as chosen believers in the Body of Christ are declared righteous because we are given Jesus Christ righteousness.

In Romans 8 Paul made it clear that one must have Christ’s Spirit in order to be the temple of God which would imply a belief in Jesus Christ as more than just a good man and that we have a Personal God and not an anonymous Spirit that we are unable to identify with. Paul is speaking of something that has being given to believers and not to humanity in general.

This is tied to first having Christ’s Spirit and so this is in relation to those who recognize that Jesus Christ is their Savior. It is through the Son that the believer has communion with the Father. Again these are not two separate Persons, but One Spirit operating through the form of God and in the One Person, Christ…..He as the Ransom, paid for all mankind with his sinless blood. He brings the believer into reconciliation with the Father…which is the Spirit of John 4:24.

The chosen saint is given the ability to not just believe in God but to believe God! His word has told us we are of the soil and are a soul and not a spirit clothed in flesh. Do we believe God’s Word or the lie fostered by Satan and the religions of this world? His word has told us that death is a return to that which the soul came from, the soil and not the spirit world. Do we believe God or the lie fostered by Satan which says there is no real death? Those lies deny a personal God and the need of a Saviour.

The saint recognizes the need for a redeemer from death. That is what salvation is through Jesus Christ as our redeemer. Also to believe He provided inspired scriptures for our learning and understanding of Who our God is and of His purpose for creating humanity along with the understanding that at the end of the story of creation, is promised a happy ending, because we have been told the end of the story which is…the reconciliation of the entire Universe….then all will be filled with God the Spirit…this is what is meant by God all in all at 1 Corinthians 15:28. Only then will we be a spiritual body and free from death and sin.

As to the question does God dwell in all of humanity?

The answer would have to be No. This does not mean that God does not love all humanity as He does, He is still their creator and everyone is precious to Him and so it does not mean that they won’t be saved, as they will. All that God is doing throughout the ages, is designed to bring salvation to the entire race of humanity, not one person will be left out. God has revealed Himself through different modes and by means of different dispensations and will continue to do so until His entire Universe is reconciled to Him…all that He does, leading to that one purpose, is His will and intention. Please again review these passages. Philippians 2:4, 1 Timothy 4:19-11, Romans 9:19

God created the nation of Israel first in earthly time in order to reveal His righteousness standard through and by means of the Law Covenant all information given on how to live a proper life in dealing with each other and their relationship to Him as their God and husbandly owner. The Covenant He made with them was likened to a marriage contract which they agreed to keep. Their failure was no surprise; it was to be expected and was foretold early on by Moses as recorded in Deuteronomy 30:1-8.

God later through the apostle Paul created a new administration with the evangel of Grace in order to demonstrate His Grace through. The chosen saints in this new administration are the firstfruit of the spirit and of that Grace which throughout the coming ages and by the different programs He has foreordained; all in His Universe will be reconciled to Him and when that is accomplished is when Paul’s words will be fulfilled at 1 Corinthians 15:28b “God will be All in all.” God will then be able to dwell in His entire creation fully.

So is God involved with humanity as a whole and if so, how? Yes, in that, it is His spirit which operates in all of humanity as far as giving them life and maintaining that life as in all of His Universe. All that man has discovered and accomplished comes from the intelligence of His Spirit which is omnipresent throughout His creation and is omniscient, having all knowledge.

Life is a gift from God, and we are told, He could at any moment withdraw His spirit and humanity would expire! We are told this at Job 34:14,15 “If He set His heart upon man, if He gather unto Himself, his spirit and his breath; All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.”

We are also told that all has its cohesion in Him, Colossians 1:17, meaning Christ as the Creator holds it all together…we should not for one minute doubt that it is God by means of the imperceptible omnipotent spirit which is the essential essence, of Christ and it is that spirit, His power and might keeping this universe running, it is that spirit which is also sustaining and maintaining all life in it.

In relation to humanity, being created in His image, characteristic given which are of His image. Intelligence, the ability to reason, the desire to create, human nature with a natural conscience, the human will, the soulish emotions to love and care for others to procreate and to love and protect their children. God gave humanity these things to enable them to compare themselves to their Creator.

God also provided a beautiful earth with wonders and sources of food unlimited. His Creation delights the senses of humans in their soulishness and engenders praise in the spiritually minded. The natural blessings of this earth are shared by all. All of these things in creation, nature and life testify to man of the divine intelligence behind their own life and the life of the Universe. So much so that Paul was inspired by God to pen these words.

Romans 1:19-22 “For God’s indignation is being revealed from heaven on all the irreverence and injustice of men who are retaining the truth in injustice because that which know of God is apparent among them, for God manifests it to them. For His invisible attributes are descried from the creation of the world, being apprehended by His achievements, beside His imperceptible power and divinity, for them to be defenseless because know God, not as God do they glorify or thank Him, but vain were they made in their reasoning’s and darkened in their unintelligent heart.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 “Now the soulish man is not receiving those things which are of the sprit of God, for they are stupidity to him, and he is not able to know them, seeing that they are spiritually examined. Now he who is spiritual is indeed, examining all, yet he is being examined by no one. For who knew the mind of the lord? Who will be deducing from Him? Yet we have the mind of Christ.”

This should also help us to understand the nation of Israel, they were not indwelt by their God

For those of Israelite heritage their faith was always aided by visible manifestations of the invisible spirit, called Jehovah in His dealings with the forming of the nation of Israel and after the death of Jesus as the Holy Spirit, through the gifts being given, of healing, language, prophesy knowledge and etc. Yet the soulish mind took these visible signs for granted and resisted God.

When the dispensation of Holy Spirit ended the gifts disappeared also, so the means to faith was only by God giving it to His chosen and justified saints called into Paul’s evangel. Many then fell away as they needed the physical elements to believe. I think we should be able to see the giving of faith was essentially needed in order for God to have a remnant of faithful believers always on the earth.. God gives it to us and being in Christ, it is He Who fills the requirements not us…we merely receive the benefits freely given. And so it was necessary to be given Jesus Christ’s faith. He has proven His faith as a Man, His faith will never fail even if we in our soulishness fail as we will do.

I have come to feel through this study that I now understand the enormity of the Faith a believer has been given. We have it and so do not understand the thinking of those who don’t. Like all good things we as humans take for granted what we have and complain about what we don’t have or what we have lost.

In reading the beliefs of the spiritual teachers in what is termed the new age movement I have noticed for the most part they are nicer and kinder people that most…Christians are. They do not have a religion teaching them to judge others and many are in the humanitarian mode of thinking. They teach all came out of God and that God is in all life even more so than Christendom does, who thinks God made everything out of nothing. They recognize that there is an intelligent force behind the Universe and yet cannot relate to the concept of there being a personal God and of course would not see any need for a savior since they accepted the first lie…that man does not really die.

I first thought that there being more humanitarian than most so called Christians was because they see the evil of religion based on man’s dogmas, even politics, groups of people getting together and thinking they have the truth and or there way is the only way and so hate and judge those who do not agree with them and the new agers wanted no part of it.

But an awareness just came to me…..we have been given something so incredible I don’t know if I have yet found the words to adequately express it. We just take it for granted…this ability to believe in the face of the world’s unbelief?

Being chosen by God for the new administration of Grace and given Jesus Christ’s faith enables us to believe in a Personal God and a Personal Saviour. God first loves us and His spirit communicates that love by creating a personal relationship for us with our Creator. Reading His Word becomes His words to and for us and speaks to our spirit enlivened by Gods. This relationship only comes to those chosen by God in the new administration today….but it is the firstfruit which is the promise of what will one day belong to all humanity.

In the oncoming eons, humanity worldwide will be privy to the manifestations of God once again through signs and miracles …of the kind that will leave no doubt in anyone’s mind as to their being from the God of Israel, Jehovah. Later, when Christ arrives and sets up His Kingdom, signs will continue worldwide as Israel evangelizes the world to Christ.

In the Day of God which follows the millennial reign it is said “lo! The tabernacle of God is with mankind, and He will be tabernacling with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them. And He will be brushing away every tear from their eyes. And death will be no more, nor mourning, nor clamor, nor misery; they will be no more, for the former things passed away.” Revelation 21:3b,4 He will not rest until all humanity is reconciled and so how will God Himself be with mankind?

This will be when God is All in all…1 Corinthians 15:28 which means that the invisible imperceptible spirit of John 4:24 will dwell in every person in the Universe fully. His spirit will be their spirit and so they will have direct access to Him through the Spirit.

The Person of God is that which is visible as the form of God, and was identified by the name of Jehovah and it is He which entered humanity as the Son of God and as the son of humanity in order to redeem and reconcile His own creation. This is how Paul explained it… the Son hands the reconciled kingdom to the Father that God the (Spirit) may be All in all.

So with this in mind, we must keep in view that while the form of God in His emptied state lived on earth as Jesus Christ, He was in the mode of the Son of God and also as the Son of mankind. As a flesh and blood human being, Jesus would have the spirit of humanity but in His sinless perfection He was given a full measure of the spirit of God…not filled with another person but with the imperceptible force unknowable to all except Christ.

The dispensation of Grace, the new administration, the new creation, the Body of Christ

During this dispensation God is choosing and calling a remnant of humanity into the new administration, whose home law, is Grace. Paul tells us at 1 Corinthians 5:19, that God was in Christ conciliating the world unto Himself” Verse 18 “Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation”

Paul also explains more of our conciliation at Romans 5:10,11, Colossians 1:20.

During the Grace dispensation because of the choosing of a remnant of humanity from all nations for the new administration as the firstfruit of the spirit, God is not imputing the world’s offenses to them. He is not visibly intervening in human affairs but that will change once the new administration the Body of Christ who are said to be ambassadors of conciliation are removed from the earth or in other words called home to heaven to begin their ministry of conciliation in the celestial realm.

This allows Christ to resume His role as Jehovah, the God of Israel and to return to the unfinished business of their calling to be His servants, His witnesses as His People in covenant relationship whose ministry is to be the witness to the nations and eventually through Israel the earth will be reconciled to God in Christ..

Today in the new administration, God gives the chosen saints a realization of the truth and they are reconciled to Him through Christ. Ephesians 1:17-20 “The Father of glory may be giving you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the realization of Him, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened for you to perceive what is the expectation of His calling and what the riches of the glory of enjoyment of His allotment among the saints and what the transcendent greatness of His for us who are believing in accord with the operation of the might of His strength which is operative in the Christ.”

Colossians 1;6b “which you hear and realized the grace of God in truth…Verse 9b “that you may be filled full with the realization of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” Verse 11b growing in the realization of God..”

The Indwelling of Christ’s Spirit

We are indwelt by Christ’s spirit as members of the Body of Christ, and said to be the temple of God as today God dwells in the Body of Christ. Again mediated on the figure of the Body….we are said to be Christ’s Body, and He is the Head of that body. In other words He is the brains of this body…He directs the body and as His own body nurtures it with spiritual guidance. God dwells in Christ and thus in us as we are His Body and temple. Ephesians 2:19-22 and Ephesians 3:16 “Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith”

In relation to believers, given every spiritual blessing, Ephesians 1:1-3

1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we obtained, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God that we may be perceiving that which is being graciously given to us by God, which we are speaking also, not with words taught by human wisdom, but with those taught by the spirit matching spiritual blessings with spiritual words.”

Also Romans 8:9 Gods spirit homing in you, Also 1 Corinthians 3:6 “The earnest of the spirit”
2 Corinthians 1:22 “The sealing of the spirit” Ephesians 1:13 “God delegates the Spirit of His Son into our hearts” Galatians 4:6 “Communion of spirit” Philippians 2:1

Posted by: Wolveshater Aug 1 2009, 10:57 PM
We are told by Paul that we have direct access to the Father, as the imperceptible spirit because of the indwelling of Christ which gives us His righteousness and that makes the Body of Christ and its members suitable to be the temple of God today in this era of Grace.

Paul tells of the significance of these spiritual things in Romans 8:15-17 “For you did not get slavery’s spirit to fear again, but you got the spirit of sonship, in which we are crying Abba, Father! The spirit itself is testifying together with our spirit that we are the children of God. Yet if children, enjoyers also of an allotment, enjoyers, indeed , of an allotment from God, yet joint enjoyers of Christ’s allotment, if so be that we are suffering together, that we should be glorified together also.”

Paul also tells us in Romans 8:34 “Christ Jesus, the One, yet rather being roused, Who is also at God’s right hand, Who is pleading also for our sakes.” We don’t need intercession for sin as we have been justified in Christ and so what is Christ doing for us…most likely answering the adversary who would be pointing to our failures in the flesh. He was successful or so he thinks in depriving Israel of their earthly blessings through their failures and would also like to strip us of the promised glory. He obviously does not understand the Grace in which we stand.

There is also another figure of speech used in this passage that Christ is at God’s Right hand, human terms used as God the Spirit is invisible, imperceptible spirit and does not have hands and so how do we explain Christ standing at His right hand. By understanding the figure it represents, in scripture, the Right hand signifies God’s power, and Christ standing signifies what? A priest stands to officiate; standing also signifies getting ready to act.

There are passages which speak of Christ sitting at the right hand of God, most are in relation to Israel. What does sitting signify? Waiting, and also in the role of a judge or a king we see them sitting ready to officiate. So we can view standing as a figure of readiness….while sitting a posture of waiting. Lots more study should be done on this subject also.

Also Paul told us in this same Chapter 8 and Verses 26,27 of how the spirit within us seems to be acting in a mediatory role with these words. ”Now similarly, the spirit also is aiding our infirmity, for what we should be praying for, to accord with what must be, we are not aware, but the spirit itself is pleading for us with inarticulate groanings. Now He Who is searching the hearts is aware what is the disposition of the spirit, for in accord with God is it pleading for the saints.”

Notice that first phrase I underlined…our flesh may be asking for something not in accord….with what must be…so the spirit within the believer correctly pleads for us. Notice the second underlined phrase; pleading for the saint…..is this not the role of a mediator?

Paul also tells us in Romans 8:34 “Christ Jesus, the One, yet rather being roused, Who is also at God’s right hand, Who is pleading also for our sakes.” We don’t need intercession for sin as we have been justified in Christ and so what is Christ doing for us…most likely answering the adversary who would be pointing to our failures in the flesh. He was successful or so he thinks in depriving Israel of their earthly blessings through their failures and would also like to strip us of the promised glory. He obviously does not understand the Grace in which we stand.

That role is not to intercede for forgiveness of sin or to intercede for favor…we have been given those things so our needs are met in the spiritual realm but our soulishness does not know how to always pray in accord with God’s will or truth And what we truly need is to grow in spiritual understanding.

I also wonder if as said earlier, Satan would be challenging the errors made by the His saints. Christ is our shelter, for there is no condemnation for those in Christ. Romans 8:1, also Nothing in this world nor anything on Paul’s list of those things which are in opposition to us, Christ covers them all, and so none of what those in the spirit realms may say or do will remove us from His love…Romans 8:35-39

So I can see how, the Spirit of Christ has to do with our position in the Body of Christ, we are one with Christ thus the imperceptible Spirit is able to commune with our spirit in a relative sense now while we are in our flesh but when we will be raised to live in heaven with Christ we will be dealing directly with that imperceptible spirit in the absolute sense just as Christ always has.

Remember, He is the image of God and we are being made into that image also…and so when we are vivified and glorified with Him we shall also be images of God. Perhaps then the Spirit of God within us now could be said to be our standing with God?

Notice, the term is that we are the Body of Christ and not the Body of God…yet if Christ is the form of God and the visible manifestation of God aren’t we talking of the same Spirit? Yes, I think so, but explained by different operations as signified by the different titles.

Because all of humanities dealings have been and will be again are with the Form of God which is Christ. While the imperceptible spirit, as God’s Spirit does its work quietly and unseen even by the chosen saint. These things are stupidity to the soulish mind, this is what Paul meant when speaking of coming to the realization of these things and having spiritual understanding, and this is gained only by being given it by God and verified by His Word.

So again, if we separate the roles, modes, titles and…the spirit of each, yes, it is the same spirit in the absolute sense but through different operations it is in the relative sense as this is where humanity operates, in the relative.

In that passage in Romans 8:9,10 it speaks about our mortal bodies being vivified which in Knoch’s comments he did not apply that as a future event when we are resurrected but to our spirit now as to the spirit of God having power over our dead bodies, I think I understand what he is saying but yet, every time I fail to manifest the fruit of the spirit I ask myself how much power did the spirit have over my mortal body just now? I wonder then, if the power lies in the fact that we are under no condemnation for these failures.

This is how Chapter 8:1 began, and ends, reassuring us of that very fact. Those of Israel could lose their calling if their faith wavered, but there is not fear of that in the new administration of Grace…its saints receive a special salvation not because they deserve it or have earned but because Grace displays His Righteousness.

I feel that sounds like the ideal and yet wonder if true in the relative reality of where we live now. The part of our minds and soul which are affected by the indwelling of Christ seems to be our human spirit which wishes for the ideal but yet do we really ever fully achieve it? In the previous 7th Chapter of Romans, Paul talks at length about what is spiritual and what is fleshly and the struggle he had between the two and if Paul struggled how can our bodies be that responsive to the spirit?

And so, I also have wondered if Paul words were telling us with what kind of bodies we would have in the resurrection that our mortal bodies will be vivified made immortal as he also says, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Corinthians 15:53,54 Which would also show, the teaching of humans having an immortal spirit which moves on out of the body at death is not true. While Knoch explained it as though our bodies were vivified now in that they become responsive to the spirit of God because of this unique relationship with have with God in and through Christ.

Romans 7:18-25 “For I am aware that good is not making it s home in me (that is, in my flesh), for to will is lying beside me, yet to be effecting the ideal is not. For it is not the good that I will that I am doing, but the evil that I am not willing, this I am putting into practice. Now if what I am not willing, this I am doing, it is no longer I who am effecting it, but Sin which is making its home in me. Consequently, I am finding the law that, at my willing to be doing the ideal, the evil is lying beside me.”

“For I am gratified with the law of God as to the man within, yet I am observing a different law in my members, warring with the law of my mind, and leading me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. A wretched man am I! What will rescue me out of this body of death? Grace! I thank God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Consequen6tly, then, I myself, with the mind, indeed, am slaving for God’s law, yet with the flesh for Sin’s law.”

This long explanation of the warfare of the spirit and flesh is then summed up with the next 10 words. Romans 8:1 “Consequently there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.”

Now, I feel we should not struggle over the different spirits being referred to by Paul as repudiating our belief that there is but One God. Paul stated that there was but One God and yet by means of Holy Spirit we will read over and over…of Christ’s Spirit and of Gods Spirit, and the Holy Spirit! We must accept what the Word tells us is true along with how we learned to understand God’s Word which is always to rightly divide and test what differs.

This also must be done within the context of the passage and discerning the subject matter of it. If we truly believe that Holy Spirit dictated the inspired words and in doing so, used different titles for spirit isn’t it then up to us to accept it and understand why?

There is One God and so there is only One Spirit but that spirit is obviously as diverse in it work as the forms and modes God the spirit has used identified by the names and titles used to reveal Himself through and not just that He is God, but what kind of God He is and what all He has done in creation as well as in bringing creation into a relationship with Him. To speak of different spirits in relation to different offices which God uses does not conflict with His being One God or there being One absolute spirit. God is not confined nor is His Spirit confined, but free to reveal Himself however He chooses.

So with that said….unless I come across some more information I am at this point, going to rightly divide the Spirit of Christ which is tied to the forms He used and thus is the relative aspect of God from the absolute Spirit of God. Remember, what John 1:18 told us, about the Word which we know is Christ “The only begotten God, Who is the bosom of the Father, He reveals or unfolds Him.” God, spirit is, and is unfolded to us through Christ.

We receive different things from each, from Christ, we are given what He earned as a righteous human and from what His death on the cross accomplished for humanity and what is given to us placed in the new administration now during the dispensation of Grace as the firstfruit of the achievements of Christ in His human form. This was accomplished by the mode of God, in the role of the Son. What we have received from God’s Spirit is the relationship with the Father through the Son…the Christ and taken from being the children of God to being the sons of God. Romans 8:15-25 In the custom of that era, a child was a minor, needing tutoring…a son of was considered mature and thus the heir.

Chapter 8 of Romans is all about, the spirit or the flesh. Verses 1-4 “Nothing consequently, is now condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. Not according to flesh are they walking, but according to spirit, for the spirits law of life in Christ Jesus frees you front the law of sin and death. For what was impossible to the law, in which it was infirm through the flesh, did God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sins flesh and concerning sin, He condemns sin in the flesh, that the just requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who are not walking accord with flesh but in accord with spirit.”

Maybe we could view the Spirit of Christ in relation to the spirit of Christ’s work, which is what has justified us and that is how Christ’s spirit indwells us. It was Jesus Christ who fulfilled the Law as a Man and not us and yet Paul said the law, was being fulfilled in us who are walking in accord with spirit. For me this does not mean we are spiritual but that we are walking in Jesus Christ’s Spirit and the spirit of His work on our behalf….we walk in everything that is His and wouldn’t that include His faith.

We are told that is God’s Spirit which does the choosing of us and it is the death of Jesus on the cross, purchased our freedom from Sin and Death. If we keep separate in our minds, that which is of the unknowable imperceptible Spirit from which that same spirit fulfilled by means of His form, Christ in the mode or office of the form of God. Same spirit operating in different offices….The Father and the Son two of the most important roles, offices or modes…of the One God.

Let’s read more in this chapter, looking at the contrasts between those in flesh with those, said to be walking in spirit. Verses 5-8 “For those who are in accord with flesh are disposed to that which is of the flesh, yet those who are in accord with spirit to that which is of the spirit. For the disposition of the flesh is death, yet the disposition of the spirit is life and peace, because the disposition of the flesh is enmity to God, for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither is it able. Now those who are in flesh are not able to please God.” God can only be pleased with those who are justified, acquitted of all sin. Right now, that applies to only the Body of Christ. We are reconciled to God…this pleases Him.

And so once again lets read Verses 9,10 “Yet you are not in flesh, but in spirit, if so be that God’s spirit is making it home in you. Now if anyone ahs not Christ spirit this one is not His.” God was in the mode or role of Christ conciliating the world unto Himself. In order to have the spirit of conciliation with God we must also have Christ, as He is the way to God, the unknowable, imperceptible spirit.

Verse 16,17 “The spirit itself is testifying together with our spirit that we are children of God. Yet if children, enjoyers also of an allotment, enjoyers, indeed of an allotment from God, yet joint enjoyers of Christ allotment, if so be that we are suffering together, that we shall be glorified together also.”

Now again in relation to what Paul meant about God’s Spirit in His chosen saints, lets look at another passage, 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Are you not aware that your body is a temple of the holy spirit in you which you have from God and you are not your own for you are bought with a price.” Christ purchased us, paid the price for Adam’s Sin and for our sins, which is for all humanity. But not all of humanity have been chosen for the new administration. They will be chosen throughout the other coming administrations. Paul also speaks of us as the temple at 2 Corinthians 6:16b. “For you are the temple of the living God…”

A thorough study of the evangel given to Paul for a new administration shows a unique relationship with God through and in Christ. This is referred to as the secret economy or new administration and also said to be the Body of Christ and as we just read, it is God that chooses these saints and places them in Christ and why Paul says we are the firstfruit of the spirit. Not the only fruit or the last….but the first…given Christ’s Spirit (role of Son) so that God’s Spirit (role of Father) can dwell within. So this is why, the spiritual things of God are stupidity to the soulish person. Being, in Christ, qualifies the saint to be the dwelling place or temple of God on earth while Israel and her temple are inactive.

This relationship is found only in Paul’s evangel and for those saints called into the once secret new administration of which Paul became the apostle for and so this secret was not known or taught by the 12 apostles chosen by Jesus for the bride church. Keep in mind the different title or name given each group of saints, the bride signifies a relationship likened to marriage while the body of Christ signifies oneness with Him.

We must follow Paul’s instructions about rightly dividing at 2 Timothy 2:15 as this is essential in understanding how unique the new administration was in his day and still so today. So we will only find information about the Body of Christ in the letters Paul wrote, Romans through Philemon. The very name, the body of Christ shows an intimacy with Christ, He is the Head with the chosen saints being His body.

This new administration through Paul’s evangel replaced Israel and her literal temple, and so is God’s temple today. First, because Israel was divorced by Jehovah for unfaithfulness and He no longer dwelt in their temple allowing it to be finally destroyed in A.D. 70. As long as the new administration is reigning in Grace on this earth, Israel will remain lo ammi. Not His People…in covenant relationship, but God is faithful and His Word promises over and over that they and their temple will be restored not by their own efforts but…. by Jehovah their God.

So, secondly because Israel was no longer His People, which is a temporary condition, but while they are not, He created the new administration through which His Grace would be revealed, this is the dispensation of Grace, the opposite of the dispensation of Law displayed through Israel. When the Body of Christ is complete and called home, the dispensation of Grace will be over and God will again turn His attention back to Israel. That nation will be restored by Him under the Law Covenant once again which will mean big changes for this world. For the complete story on this ask for Manual Two.

The saints chosen by God, through Paul’s evangel for the Body of Christ have been sanctified in their relationship to Christ, they are given His Righteousness and His Faith and thus are declared righteous or justified which means acquitted from all sin and that is why God is able to dwell within His chosen saints today as His temple.

It has nothing to do with the faithfulness of the saints who are in the new administration which is another great contrast with the body of Christ and the nation of Israel. In Grace, the saints are chosen and placed in Christ; it is His faithfulness and His righteousness which makes these saints a temple for God, displaying His Grace!

Posted by: Wolveshater Aug 1 2009, 11:00 PM
Part 5

It is important to comprehend why He is able to dwell within the temple made up of saints, which is because of Christ and His work on the cross and not for anything we as individuals have done to earn it. God chooses individuals placing them in Christ giving them His faith and His righteousness, thus are justified which means acquitted of all sin and thus become His temple.

We did nothing to earn this, in fact Paul tells us we are not special in and of ourselves as to why we are chosen, at 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 “For you are observing your calling, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh; not many powerful, not many noble, but the stupidity of the world God chooses, that he may be disgracing the wise and the weakness of the world God chooses, that He may be disgracing the strong, and ignoble and the contemptible things of the world God chooses, and that which is not that He should be discarding that which is so that no flesh at all should be boating in Gods sight. Yet you, of Him, are in Christ Jesus, Who became to us wisdom from God, besides righteousness and holiness and deliverance, that according as it is written, He who is boasting in the Lord, let him be boasting.” It is our calling and choosing that is special.

So those called into this new administration have nothing to boast of, except to boast in Christ, as they did nothing to earn or deserve their being chosen and placed within this body. He did all the work and we are God’s achievement for His glory. 1 Corinthians 1:31. 2 Corinthians 10:17 and Ephesians 2:10

In this Study Manual and through our study of Who is our God, we have looked at the different efforts done by men down through the centuries towards the explaining of Him, Whom we call God. We have looked at the Trinity Doctrine as first put forth by Athanasius as well as another explanation given by Arius concerning God, the Father being superior and Christ as the Son, not being of the same substance and who also interpreted only begotten as meaning the Son was created and that these two theories were debated over a 50 year time period in the 2nd and 3rd centuries after Christ.

We also looked at another teaching in those same centuries and called Modalism or Sabellianism. These are two titles given to how a man named Sabellius living at the same time period as Arias and Athanasius who tried to explain God. He had rejected the triune concept put forth by Athanasius and the Arian view and was excommunicated for trying to teach his view on the Father and Son.

Sabellius viewed the One God as one person, Who revealed Himself through different modes such as Father, Son and Holy Spirit instead of through two or three persons. This is what Clay Kent and Alexander Thompson and others believed concerning the One God ands so are accused of teaching Modalism.

Actually this word mode is scriptural; found in Hebrews 1:1,2 “ By many portions and many modes, of old, speaking to the fathers in the prophets, in the last of these days speaks to us in a Son…” While the words of trinity or triune are not found in the scriptures, neither is the word representative used in conjunction with the form of God, or of Christ being said to be of a different substance from the father which fits with the Arian viewpoint and teaching. Both of these are men’s words in explanation of Who they believed the Father and the Son to be…this is not a proof of anything just something to think about.

We also looked at Knoch’s explanation of the Father and Son which seem to be to be along the lines of how Arius taught with the Son representing the Father, the Father only is Deity and Christ is not. What did Arius mean by not of the same substance? God the Father is Spirit and the Son of God was a generated form out of Spirit thus felt to be matter and inferior and not of the same substance. So we are talking spirit versus matter.

Keeping in mind the old Gnostic teachings in regards to creation, they believed that all matter was evil and or inferior to God the Spirit. So we ask, if the form was a separate person created as all other spirit beings in the heavens have been then this would be true. But, we are told this form was begotten, in fact only begotten God and so if the form is the personification of the invisible, unknowable spirit we call God, I then do not believe Arius or Knoch were correct.

I have established at least in my own mind that those views are not accurate as we have struggled to keep to the premise stated throughout all scripture…which is that there is but One God, as the first cause or source I feel it would also be correct to view that Spirit as the Holy Spirit and as the absolute God, Who was and is invisible, inaudible and thus unknowable. John 4:24 “God the spirit.” Knoch points out this should be literally translated as…Spirit God is.

I have read where Knoch agreed with this and then in another place states the Holy Spirit is not God but the power of God. I wonder at how to separate the imperceptible spirit into a Person and then into a separate Power? If that imperceptible spirit is the four Omnis and that means the intelligence behind the power where do we make a separation?

Is not Knoch not then saying the holy spirit is the power of the form of God and yet he also said they are two persons…what he has said is confusing. For my mind, it is far simpler…to understand that the One God is, The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, three modes invisible spirit and visible form, but One Person…with a form which has unlimited access to the imperceptible spirit, thus all power.

This is the One, we also refer to as the Father and yet we have learned that the form of God first known by the titles of Elohim, El, Eloah and then was known by the name of Ieue, or Jehovah is in the Old Testament as the Creator and as the God of Israel. Isaiah 63:16 calls Jehovah their Father and also at Isaiah 64:8 it speaks of Jehovah as their Father and they were the clay. Father tied to Creator as the giver of life. Elohim, Jehovah gave life to humanity and also created and gave life to the nation of Israel.

Four hundred years after Israel is cast away, and divorced by Jehovah, thus needing redemption we read of the birth of Jesus Who proved to be the Christ as recorded in what is called the New Testament. Paul tells us that Christ was the Form of God and had existed all along or inherently in the form of God.” Philippians 2:5 and that He was the image of God in Colossians 1:15

Jehovah entering humanity in another mode and Jesus Christ was the manifestation of Jehovah in the flesh and in prophecy of the coming messiah which was Christ. Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon His shoulders and His name shall be called the everlasting Father, The prince of Peace.” This should help us to see that Jehovah fulfilled the roles of Father and of Son. In the mode of a Son, Christ redeems humanity from Adams Sin, thus becoming the Father of a new humanity….The Body of Christ is said to be the firstfruit of the spirit and is a new creation now…while the rest of humanity will receive that spirit through the coming eons.

We also read that Holy Spirit is said to be the Father of Jesus at Luke 1:35 “Holy Spirit shall be coming on you and the power of the Most High shall be overshadowing you; wherefore also the holy One Who is being generated, shall be called the Son of God.”

Holy Writ…states that, the Spirit, Jehovah and Jesus Christ are the Father, is it not obvious we cannot have three separate Fathers? These three titles are used by One Father and are the One God.

So, as the first cause, God, Spirit is and He gives spirit, which is the life force out of Himself as the spirit of life to all things. All the components found in creation are of the same substance coming out of spirit and becoming matter, visible and invisible, organic and inorganic. The basic components of atoms and molecules produce form or matter and there is both invisible matter and visible matter.

There are different formulations of this spirit and becoming matter. So if the Form of God was generated out of Spirit…wouldn’t Christ be of the same substance as the Spirit from which He was generated? A visible form seen by those in the spirit realm and through the manifestation of the human form, the form of God which was Jehovah could also be seen by human eyes in Old Testament times.

You see the premise of those early Fathers and which is still taught today in Christendom is that God created everything out of nothing! That then would agree, with Arius, that the Son was a different substance from the source of life or His Father. But Gods word tells us “all came out of Him, (the spirit) and through Him the form,” which is Christ. Colossians 1:20 While humanity was taken out of the soil…a different arrangement of atoms and molecules from Christ and the world of spirit beings.

The human father begetting a child gives to that child from his own substance as a human being. Why would God use the titles of Father and Son if the Son was of a different substance from Him as Father? If we change the premise, which is the basis or foundation of an argument or position from which one works on or adds to…the answer most likely changes.

The true premise is that the Son came out of the “Father” out of the bosom of spirit as spirit the source of life as did the entire Universe but we are told all that came into existence came through Christ. Colossians 1:15-20 Christ was not created; He was generated out of Spirit which is what Revelation 3:14 means as the creative original.

All created come through Christ. All in this Universe was created with the building blocks of spirit….atoms and molecules as the basics. Now if we look at the diversity in around us in creation of which we only see some…not all and much we have not even seen and since all came through Christ…in other words He had access to the building materials He must have had something to do with the design of each. A different arrangement of molecules and atoms and that becomes a different creation, within the invisible realms and in the visible realms we have the animal, vegetable or mineral kingdoms.

My personal feelings about whether to capitalize Spirit or Holy Spirit

Now in the Concordant Literal Version we will notice many times…spirit is not capitalized nor is Holy Spirit. As we discussed earlier…the word was translated as it in the first five verses of John 1 and yet John tells us in that same chapter that very word became flesh and so I have a hard time understanding how an “it” becomes a person?

I wonder if that thought is still tied to God creating out of nothing instead of creating out of the already existing spirit. Yes, a literal word that is spoken is an it, but did God turn a literal word into flesh…I don’t think so, but that is what is taught in Christendom in relation to God creating the Universe out of nothing, just that He spoke and bam it was there!

Human flesh is made up of molecules and atoms taken from the soil and energized by the imperceptible spirit, an invisible form of spirit we could identify as spiritual energy out of which all in this Universe came from. The spirit of God is the source of this energy created by arranging the building blocks with different formula or arrangement…but the fact is that the building block of this Universe tied with the mathematics are out of the intelligence of the imperceptible unknowable spirit we call God. The building blocks are tied together and energized by His spirit which is now explained by science as invisible matter…while our world and all flesh is explained as visible matter.

Revelation 3:14 explains that Christ is the creative original…or the origin of all creation which agrees with Paul’s words at Colossians All came out of spirit and through the form of God as generated by that spirit for the purpose of creation and becoming knowable to its or His creation. In order for invisible imperceptible spirit to speak….it generated itself a form with vocal cords and a mouth and its creation being made in that image also ears to hear and a heart and mind to know and feel.

So with the use of the word, in John 1:1-5 explaining, the invisibility of God the spirit, unknown until manifested through the form of God, as a word is first a thought and thoughts are invisible to others, they are in the mind as unspoken words, until they are spoken or released from the mind and by means of the vocal cords and mouth they then become an audible spoken word or we might even say visible to the minds eye through the hearing of those words..

The word of God, the image of God, the only begotten God all are titles and descriptions of Christ as….the form of God which speaks for the unknowable imperceptible spirit….and why Jesus said He came from the bosom of the Father …that imperceptible spirit and that only He had seen and heard Him as that spirit is His spirit. Jesus said no one has seen or heard His Father except for Him….this is why. Read John 1:18 and then turn to John 5:19,20, 36—38; Next read His words after His resurrection to Thomas and Philip at John 14:5-14. After reading these passages and this Manual about Who our God is, I am hopeful that we are understanding that Jesus Christ was not created and is not inferior to the Spirit as a lesser being, but are grasping the differences with His being the creative original, the patter for all conscious life forms in this Universe.

The Holy Spirit generated a Form for the purpose of becoming the channel of His creation…..all in this Universe came from Spirit and through the form of God….of which all has its cohesion in HIM, Christ.

In getting back to Johns words on the Word of God, for me I have trouble with how this was translated and it feels to me to be denying, that the word when first spoken of by John was not Christ and that the word which all along existed as the form of God. Without the form there would be no word or words. Before the form of God there were no others. I can understand using, the word it, when in relation to a literal spoken word, and the human spirit and with the figurative uses or characteristics such as spirit of stupor, spirit of timidity, a ferocious spirit, a meek spirit and in relation to created spirit beings but not in relation to the Holy Spirit….the imperceptible invisible spirit we call God?

But when it is relating to God as the word which John did say that very thing, God was the Word, I have trouble with, the use of it. Again I feel that is tied to the belief that God spoke and bam something in creation instantly appeared…instead of the origin of creation begging with and in the Christ…Who spoke the words which brought about the progression of creation…which is more likened to the description given in Genesis of periods of times….said to be days. But I do not believe to be 24 hour days…but undetermined lengths of time. Just as you as I might say….in the day of my grandfather meaning his lifetime…not one day of his life. A deeper study of the six days of creation, is in the works.

So these are the reasons why I have a struggle with not capitalizing spirit when it is referring to God or Christ or Holy Spirit. It is hard for me not to do so as I personally feel all references to Him deserve capitals. That Spirit is said to be the God which is all knowing, thus this is not mindless energy but is the intelligence of creation, Omniscient. As well as we have discussed all the other Omnis which scripture applies to that Spirit…the absolute God, the source of all things? So I am not comfortable with, it in relation to HIM nor not using capitals and or not using the article the in front of Holy Spirit? Is not God, The HOLY Spirit?

In the Concordant Literal version it is explained why the translator decided not to capitalize holy spirit or spirit, it was not because of the law of the language, Knoch admits it was a personal decision in deciding to remain neutral? In my search for why this was done, I have read that some of the older manuscripts are written in all capitals; Hebrew is usually that way, YHVH is the tetagramatin and is the letters for Gods name, the vowels needing to be supplied. While other copies of the scriptures have been found written in all small letters. So again it seems to have always been either the custom or left up to the translators and the laws of the language being used for when to capitalize and when not to.

In the English language we capitalize names of persons, places and things as well as the titles of a person. Such as, Mr. Brown or Dr. Brown…or the President of the United States and etc. So it is my personal choice to use capitals for God and if the absolute God is Spirit, I feel in order to distinguish Him as the Most High God and Spirit from all other spirit persons, a capital is needed. God has used many modes and titles describing His work in His Universe…such as Elohim as Creator, all in this Universe came out of God the Spirit……….is not the Holy Spirit, the God of John 4:24…God spirit is?

That Spirit is Omnipresent which means that it is not contained or restricted by form thus can be and is present everywhere at all times and at the same time, IT is the life force and the intelligent force which holds it all together and maintains all in His Universe. Paul used the word cohesion in Colossians 1:17.

Also, that Spirit is Omnipotent. Within is all energy and all power thus the source and cause of all. So that Spirit is and that Spirit knows and that Spirit does…..! I just have a hard time not capitalizing spirit, when it is speaking of God or the Holy Spirit as that is the source of all life animate and inanimate. That absolute, unknowable Spirit is personified in the person we know as Christ. Thus Christ is God, the form in which the imperceptible Spirit dwells and operates within and through,

Jehovah entered humanity as Jesus, the Man with a human spirit as well as being filled with the “Fathers” which would be the absolute, imperceptible spirit and not a Person as the Father. So does He still have the human spirit? Or since He has returned to the glory He had with the Father the Holy Spirit does He also have the human spirit along with the invisible spirit which we call God or the Father? Something to think about in His role as Son of Mankind and perhaps the answer will come to us as we continue.

As Jehovah, the imperceptible spirit filled Him as being His spirit and also was available for use throughout all creation and with His dealings with humanity and in the spirit realm. We have an example of this in the account in Genesis 19:24,25 “And Ieue rains on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulphur and fire from Ieue, from the heavens.” This perplexed me for a long time but I am now thinking that this incident is giving us the example of Jehovah, in the form of God standing on the earth with Lot and Who spoke to Jehovah, the absolute Spirit in heaven…..It was the form and the spirit working as One Person, One God.

We do not read of Lot being confused by this incident nor do we ever read where anyone thought there were literally two Jehovah’s or that there was a Father and a Son dealing with them! They understood the visible God and the invisible spirit of God, as His power which they knew there was no hiding from Him. “Am I a God at hand, saith LORD, and not a God afar off: Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Saith the Ieue.” (Jehovah) “Do not I fill heaven and earth? Saith the Ieue.” Jeremiah 23:23,24

Also Amos 9:2, 3 “Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall Mind hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search them out thence; and though they be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them”

Psalms 139:7,8 “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou are there”

Also, 1 Kings 8:27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain three: how much less the house that I have builded?” Isaiah 66:1 “The heaven is my throne and the earth is My footstool;” These are speaking to the absolute Spirit….which is the spirit of Deity and fills up completely the form of God. The form is Who appeared to humanity as Jehovah and as the Christ…the knowable God. Philippians 2:5-8

We are told that Christ, was given the spirit without measure at John 3:34 and so was it at His disposal during His ministry which explains His references to the Father, and the time He spent in prayer. As He left His deity in the heavens, while entering humanity as a Man, He was dependant on the Father, or Holy Spirit thus being a spirit led and filled man, the pattern for which all mankind will become in the oncoming eons or ages.

He was dependant on that Spirit so much so that when the spirit left Him on the cross, allowing Him to take upon Himself all the sins of humanity and the entire Universe, past present and future and then to lay down His life, and thus die, He felt the lack so strongly in His humanness He cried out, sounding as though He felt abandoned. We must try and understand that He would need to endure that death as a man unaided by the Father or Spirit. There are many other reasons given for His saying, “Father why have you forsaken me” so I won’t go into them here.

What is Spirituality

I found it very interesting in how Webster’s Dictionary defines spirituality as “1. Something that in ecclesiastical law belongs to the church r to a cleric a such. 2. Clergy. 3. Sensitivity or attachment to religious values. 4. The quality or state of being spiritual.” I have underlined the only one of the four definitions which I feel applies to Gods Word.

Keyword Concordance Page 283 has this to say, “Spirituality is being spiritual and from the Greek word “pneumaticon” literally blowic, defined “as having the qualities of spirit” So what then are the qualities of spirit which would relate to humanity?

It is obvious from our study in Gods Word that humans are not spirits clothed in flesh as we are told that humanity was created out of the soil and so are described as being soilish, fleshly, carnal and soulish and Paul also told us that “the soulish man cannot understand spiritual things unless given the mind of Christ.” We are not a spirit clothed in flesh…or else we would not be said to be soulish.

We have seen from the scriptures having the mind of Christ comes because of being chosen and placed in the new administration of Grace. These saints are said then to be indwelt by Christ and are a temple for God. This gives these chosen saints the opportunity to understand the spiritual things from God as revealed in His Word. So it would seem then that true spirituality would be tied to spiritual understanding of God and His Word which is hidden from the soulish mind. God’s Spirit by means of Christ’s indwelling are essentially required for understanding the spiritual things of God and His Word.

So could we say true spirituality was the understanding given in His Word which gives the record of Jehovah as the Christ and in the role of the image of God which is the form of God. Paul told us Christ is the Creator and through Paul’s evangel we see revealed His ultimate purpose for humanity. That knowledge can be found only in His Word, the inspired scriptures, the correct understanding can only be found with the aid of His Spirit. God is Spirit and the source of all spirit and so true spirituality would be to not only recognize that fact but to have access to Him.

To deny a Personal God and a Personal Savior denies that which is spiritually understood by those given the faith of Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:16 Philippians 3:9. This is not faith in Christ but the saint placed in the new administration is given the faith to believe. One of our many spiritual blessings, Ephesians 1:1-23

A simple way to view this is to understand what comes from God as spirit would be spiritual while that which comes from humans who are souls would be soulish. Unless humans are relating that which is from God as found in His Word in their search for spirituality, only then is a soulish person speaking the spiritual things from God.

So I am sorry to say, in my view the spiritual teachers of today who claim to be spiritual and who explain how to acquire spirituality no matter how well meaning they are, are really dealing with soulishness and that would not be true spirituality. They do not believe Gods Word, as inspired by a personal God nor do they use it as the measuring stick or guidelines for all beliefs and most of all, they do not recognize humanities need for redemption thus a need for a Personal Savior.

What is taught by Christendom and the great religions of this world along with the modern version taking the name of the New Age movement, all are alike in that for the most part their idea of spirituality is what pleases the “soul” and the needs of the soulish person. Even though some of these turn away from organized religion and its man made dogma which is good as all organized religion falls into Paul’s warning of the systematized deception but they unknowingly have a religion all of their own.

By having a belief pattern in opposition to Gods Word starting with the first lie and believing man is a spirit clothed in flesh and so not accepting death as a return to the soil from which humanity was created, they believe man is an eternal being just the same as Christendom which is a myth.

This is the snare of Satan in which most all religion have fallen into, based on that first lie told to Eve. There are a few sects today who recognize there is n hellfire and also the true state of death but most of them teach annihilation of the unbelievers, this too is another man made error not found in God’s Word. But the self proclaimed spiritual teachers of today that I am speaking of do not recognize death as a reality but just a passing on to another life, world or sphere…and thus they feel humanity needs nothing to be redeemed from when in fact Gods Word teaches that humanity needed redemption from the death and the Sin and thus Jesus Christ became the lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.

So it seems to me, true spirituality must be based on the truth God gives in His Word. It also seems there is more to being spiritual than Webster’s definition and perhaps Knoch has defined it better, as “having the qualities of spirit” and so this led me to Paul’s words given in Galatians 5:22-26 concerning the fruit of the spirit. Wouldn’t the fruit of the spirit be qualities of spirit?

“Now the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self control: against such things there is no law. Now those of Christ Jesus crucify the flesh together with its passions and lust. If we may be living in spirit, in spirit we may be observing the elements also. WE may not become vainglorious, challenging one another, envying one another.”

The fruit that is listed as qualities of spirit would be visible in the flesh….Paul is saying there was no law for these but his words of observing the elements refers to the Law given to Israel, telling them how to live morally and honorably with punishment when they failed. But Paul is saying if the saint is living in spirit and cultivating the fruit of the spirit of which love was listed first… then there is no need for a law to order the flesh to do what is right. Jesus also said love sums up the whole law.

Becoming spiritual does not happen immediately upon believing or by recognizing that one has been chosen by God and placed in the Body of Christ. We are still living in these soulish bodies and with our minds, which have been programmed and educating by this world of which very little in this world is spiritual. We can read in Gods Word what is right and what is wrong…and yet will still fail because it seems to me the fruit is not always displayed as a lasting thing within humans, believers or not. But as believers educated in Gods Word, we are always aware of when we have fallen short!

This is where the believer in order to mature must do something and that is to study Gods Word…without it one will never mature and never truly understand the things of God which are spiritual and spiritually given. Nor will the spirit within be given what it needs to mature or be strengthen without study of His living Word the scriptures. This does not mean going to church and listening to someone telling us what God wants from us or the learning of man made doctrine and creeds or the following of any formulas or steps towards becoming a better person in order to earn Gods favor.

No, this means we become aware of our soulishness and through our personal study of Paul’s letters written to us, that we come to appreciate the spiritual blessings we have been given in Grace and by means of prayer we commune with our God and by means of our study of Gods Word, we are letting the spirit teach us. Paul spoke many times of the conflict between the fleshly and the spiritual, in any conflict physical, mental or spiritual that which is stronger will overcome. If we want to subdue the flesh we must strengthen our spirit and there is no other source than Gods Word and by being His temple.


Posted by: Wolveshater Aug 1 2009, 11:01 PM
Notice what Paul said to the early believers in Corinth. 1 Corinthians 3:1,2 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual but as to fleshy as to minors in Christ. Milk I give you to drink, not solid food, for not as yet were you able. Nay still, not even now are you able for you are still fleshly.” What is fleshly…Paul is saying that where there is jealousy and strife that is walking according to man…or the flesh…!

Later in that same letter he says to them, 1 Corinthians 14:37 “If anyone is presuming to be a prophet or spiritual, let him be recognizing that what I am writing to you is a precept of the Lord. Now if anyone is ignorant let him be ignorant!” This statement follows Paul’s counsel given concerning their conduct, especially when coming together as an ecclesia…and so it indicates that being spiritual is tied to behaving in a mature or orderly way. This would indicate then that the spirit of Christ within the believers has subdued the flesh to some extent?

This is also why he later tells his disciples in Ephesians 6:10-17 the warfare is not with flesh…or in other words the rest of humanity, but the warfare is spiritual fighting the stratagems of the adversary….which are lies and myths…and the creeds, dogmas of man indoctrinated by those lies. We are not to allow our flesh to be inflamed in endless arguments over doctrine with others….we are to cleanse ourselves first of all error and then to stand in the truth, God then may use us to teach others.

Romans 7:14b “For we are aware that the law is spiritual, yet I am fleshly, having been disposed of under Sin” In the context of this passage, Paul is talking about how humans are under Sin, it makes its home in the flesh of humans. He says, the Law is spiritual referring to the Mosaic Law which contains righteous standards for living, but the flesh does not heed God’s Law and principles easily, the flesh has a law of it s own.

The believer has been acquitted of all sin, but has not yet been vivified which will end the sin in our fleshy bodies. So we have a war to wage between the flesh and the spirit given us by God as Paul stated about himself at Romans 7:18-20 “For I am aware that good is not making its home in me, (that is in my flesh,) for to will is lying beside me, yet to be effecting the ideal is not. For it is not the good that I will that I am doing, but the evil that I am not willing, this I am putting into practice. Now if what I am not willing, this I am doing, it is no longer I who am effecting it, but Sin which is making its home in me.” In other words, Paul’s spirit knows what is right, but sin is still in the flesh, thus the conflict.

Verses 21-23 “Consequently, I am finding the law that, at my willing to be doing the ideal, the evil is lying beside me, for I am gratified with the law of God as to the man within, yet I am observing a different law in my members warring with the law of my mind, and leading me into captivity to the law of sins which is in my members.” He speaks of the man within…this has to do with his human spirit in relation to the leading of the indwelling of Christ’s Spirit and thus being the temple of God.

The believers human spirit is aided by Gods Spirit and yet the flesh is not easily subdued, I also noticed how Paul links the human spirit with the mind as he says the law of my mind….wanting to do what is ideal or that which would be spiritual…but the flesh has a law of its own…this is why we are justified in Christ…and cannot be condemned by our dying flesh and the sin present within our bodies.

These words are followed by more words with give us comfort….Verses 26,27 “Now similarly, the spirit also is aiding our infirmity, for what we should be praying for to accord with what must be, we are not aware, but the spirit itself is pleading for us with inarticulate groanings. Now He Who is searching the hearts is aware what is the disposition of the spirit, for in accord with God is it pleading for the saints.”

Romans 8:6 “For the disposition of the flesh is death, yet the disposition of the spirit is life and peace….” If we let our flesh rule our life….we will literally live a dead life as far as having the fruit of the spirit as Paul said it is what gives us a life lived in peace. Understanding our calling removes the guilt and fear of failure…..and why as Paul said we should deal graciously with others because of how gracious God has dealt with us….we did not earn our calling into Justification and we have no right to judge the weaknesses and failings of others,.

Galatians 6:1 “Brethren, if a man should be precipitated, also, in some offense, you, who are spiritual, be attuning such a one in a spirit of meekness, noting yourself, that you, also may not be tried. Paul addressed his disciples as…you…who are spiritual and so this is in relation to the truths they have been given understanding of….walk worthily of those truths and Paul emphasizes this next.

Galatians 6:7-9 “Be not deceived, God is not to be sneered at, for whatsoever a man may be sowing, this shall he be reaping also, for he who is sowing for his own flesh, from the flesh shall be reaping corruption, yet he who is sowing for the spirit, from the spirit shall be reaping life eonian. Now we may not be despondent in ideal doing, for in due season we shall be reaping, if we do not faint.”

Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ Who blesses us with every spiritual blessing among the celestials in Christ, according as He chooses us in Him before the disruption of the world, we to be holy and flawless in His sight, in love designating us beforehand for the place of a son for Him through Christ Jesus in accord with the delight of His will, for the laud of the glory of His grace, which graces us in the Beloved:”

Spiritual blessings…are those things which pertain to the spirit as blessings given to the saint while still in the flesh and those which are promised and receiving at the snatching away, also when appearing with Christ at the Dais.. Romans 14:10 2 Corinthians 5:10 1 Corinthians 3:12-15

What many today speaks of as being spiritual, such as religion according to Webster’s definition, but instead is soulish….things which causes the person to feel with their soulish senses. Other things that are said to be spiritual or a spiritual experience…again are soulish, such as poetry, beautiful music watching a sunset or sunrise, the things in nature which delight us and bring us a feeling of peace or awe, these are soothing to the soul and appeal to our soulish senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touching….feelings of the soul. Yes the things of nature can inspire appreciation for the Creator but they do not impart spiritual understanding of God’s Word unless the Spirit of God is also present.

The things of this world which please the soulish nature are soulish blessings, must of what Israel is promised in the kingdom on this earth. But those things are in contrast to the spiritual blessings Paul wrote of, for those called into the new administration, which is a long list. Life eonian, immortality, grace, acquittal of all sin and offenses, the sealing is security in the calling and placement in the Body of Christ. The earnest of the spirit is a down payment, of spirit, given in part, as the promise of a full payment or reward in the celestial realm. Also the suit of armor for spiritual protection in this world.

We would not even know about these things had not Paul written them down for us as we do not feel them, nor can we see or touch them. They are known spiritually by means of the spirit within, given to us by God when choosing and calling us into the Body of Christ. We learn of these and our calling when we read God’s Word and we believe His Word because He also gives us the faith to do so. The word is the piece of our armor we can physically see and hold. Yet we need the spirit of God to truly understand it. Again to remind us within all these things, Gods does all the work….we are His achievement or workmanship. When we read and understand what the spiritual blessings are we may feel something in our soulish mind and senses, such as awe, or happiness and appreciation of God and Christ…..but the spiritual blessings themselves we do not feel….they are spiritually discerned…or understood and appreciated.

Paul also talks of spiritual understanding in Colossians 1:9,10 “Therefore we also, from the day on which we hear, do not cease praying for you and requesting that you may be filled full with the realization of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, for you to walk worthily of the Lord for all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the realization of God.”

In Galatians 5:16-26 Paul gave a list of the works of the flesh which he compared with the fruit of the spirit…..when reading that passage we can think about when those works are present in our own life or conduct of what is in control…the flesh. Paul said as long as we are in these fleshly bodies we will act fleshly at times no matter how much the man within would like to do otherwise, but we are not to become despondent when we fail as the spirit of Christ within intercedes for our infirmity…our infirmity is the flesh and the soulish emotions.

When Paul spoke of the fruit of the spirit….love peace, joy, meekness patience…he did not say these were spiritual but were fruit of the spirit…the spirit is able to help us cultivate fruit which subdues and calms the soul…this is what Paul means when he says we should walk in the spirit and live in the spirit. Also the fruit of love can be viewed at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Human feelings or actions and reactions are then described as either fruit of the spirit or works of the flesh.

Paul linked spiritual understanding with the realizing of the will of God and growing in the realization of God…which would mean, believing Gods Word, in Him and His Christ not only as a Creator or an impersonal intelligence but as the redeemer for humanity from Sin and Death. As we know, Paul has taught us that a soulish person cannot believe God or that Jesus is His Christ, who died for our sins and rose again, without Gods spirit.

The spiritual teachers of today will refer to God as the Universe in an impersonal way as unknowable as they do not believe in a Personal God or that Jesus Christ is Gods means of revealing Himself and the only means of redemption from the corrupted flesh, sin and death. If all we had was the imperceptible unknowable spirit they would then be correct. But the, unknowable, imperceptible spirit provided the Form of God by which He could become knowable, in order to be seen and heard by His creation.

So that which is spiritual and thus spirituality comes from the Spirit of God and not from a impersonal intelligence but from the intelligence of God the Spirit. And so we can also say, religion is not spirituality and spirituality is not a religion. True spirituality is rooted and grounded in Gods Word and being given the spiritual understanding by God. This gives the recognition of not only God as Creator but believing He is involved personally with His creation as the Savior of mankind.

Some may object and point to all the religions in the world which have myriads of devoted followers because according to the world’s definition …religion is spirituality….but I have to disagree, religion pleases the soulish nature and those devotees are religionists. There is a difference from being in Christ and being in religion. True spirituality is based on God, His Word and the spiritual understanding of it and that is a gift from God …for those He chooses and places in the new administration of Grace.

This does not mean one person is better than another or has anything to with being good or bad….those are the things which pertain to the soul. God’s Spirit is dwelling today in a group of saints…who are still soulish and sinners and yet in spirit they have been declared righteous thus given the mind of Christ which enables spiritual understanding of His Word. So we cannot confuse religion or the goodness of humans as being the spirituality the Word of God speaks of. Nor that because we are in the Body of Christ we are automatically a spiritual person……according to Paul maturity is what we are to seek.

Some may still object and see religion as a good thing, but in truth the only divine religion was that which was given to Israel by means of the covenant relationship….but it was a religion for the soulishness of humans with rules, regulation, creeds, ordinances and rituals…all designed to guide the people in some semblance of proper living and conduct as representatives of the righteous standards of the Most High God. All the nations around them had their gods, who were actual spirit beings and who led them into all sorts of unrighteousness.

All of the signs, manifestations and rituals were designed to aid in the faith of the people of Israel and to give them something they could identify with by means of their soulish senses as well as show the surrounding nations their gods were false. Sadly Israel as a whole preferred the false gods of the nations…as they appealed to the darker side of the soulish nature. But we must never forget this was all known by God and part of His plan in educating His Creation about Himself through the learning of Good and Evil.

I would also like to point out another difference…Christendom teaches they are waging a war of good and evil and sad to say they believe evil is winning and most of Gods creation will end up in hell…that God the Creator is unable to save His own, king, race or children. They evil doctrine of Free Will ties His hands and He must sit and watch another created being take most of His kids away from Him. The correct understanding is not a war but the knowledge of…after all, the tree in the Garden of Eden was not named the war of but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan and Evil are both tools used by God in bringing His Creation into a recognition of the truth and a realization of Him as GOD.

Let us of back and understand Israel’s example of failure…which demonstrates for us that even with all the visible manifestation given them by Jehovah over and over….it was still not enough to give His People spirituality or spiritual understanding…as they were still soulish and religion was only an outside stimuli. Human nature as it is takes for granted that which it has….signs and manifestation just became common place for them and they lost the ability if they ever had to discern which were from Jehovah and which were not.

God did not create the New Administraiton for people who deserve to be in it or who are spiritually minded on their own. It was the only way to have a people…..faithful to Him…God knew soulish humans could not do the work and so He does it for us. We are given the ability to believe from the inside and this is enforced in that we are not given any outward signs to inspire the human faith.

He placed us in Christ, the only faithful person in this entire Universe. His faithfulness becomes our faithfulness. It is only by means of the man within…the indwelling of Christ which makes us of the faith of Jesus Christ. The little word of is a preposition and that means it is His faith that we are of….and so I feel our faith is His faith of which we are given a measure of. Romans 12:3b and Romans 3:26 Galatians 2:16, Philippians 3:9

Christendom has made the fatal error of modeling itself after the Jewish system of religion, following Peter instead of Paul. Imposing on its devotees, a bondage to a law never given or intended for the new administration under Paul along with the myriad of myths and lies adopted from Pagan religions! Let’s not mistake the faithful church goers with being spiritual, instead they are religious.

A brief look at the realm of spirit beings

There are spirit beings…made of spirit and so they are imperceptible to humans’ eyes. We will find many titles for them, showing a variety of these beings, such as messengers, angels, arch angels cherubim, seraphim, sovereignties, world might’s, forces of wickedness…Ephesians 6:12.

Some spirits are said to not have a body and it is thought these are the sinning messengers who lost there bodies for some sort of sin different from others who are following and working with Satan. But that is another lesson and will be looked at in the article…on The Giants of Genesis 6 Fact or Fiction as Supplemental article in Study Manual Two, Israel’s History and in Prophecy

In this study we have tried to understand, God in the absolute sense…as imperceptible spirit thus I have concluded is the Holy (consecrated) Spirit (imperceptible power) and demonstrated as the four omni’s, of God the spirit or God spirit is.. John 4:24, the Spirit of which are described by the four Omnis.

The Omniscient is the all knowing God or His all knowing intelligence. Psalms 139:18, Isaiah 48:18.

The Omnipotent as Elohim, the Creator putting His omnipotence to work as, El, the Almighty God, His power into operation. Genesis 17:1, Jeremiah 32:17, Luke 1:37

The Omniparous, Out of Him as Spirit came all things. Romans 11:36 Colossians 1:16, 17, Ecclesiastes 12:7

The Omnipresence as in filling this Universe with His presence is able to be everywhere and at all times. .Jeremiah 23:23,24, 1 Kings 8:27

We next considered God in the relative sense as…the form of God, the imperceptible spirit generated a form out of Himself as Spirit, for the purpose of creation, and for becoming visible, to be seen and known by His creation, in doing so He assumes many titles and roles or modes and which those roles are also expressed by the name of God, YHVH or Jehovah, defined as “I shall become whatsoever I shall become”

In the Old Testament…the Creator is revealed, Genesis 1:1,2 with the tile of Elohim. He is later revealed as the God of Israel, by the name of Yahweh or Jehovah and in covenant relationship as the husbandly owner of Israel likened to a marriage relationship, with Israel as His wife. Through that nation He put His Power on display, as God Almighty as Jehovah the Most High God as he provided for and protected His People….and His righteous standards were revealed, through the Law of Moses.

In the New Testament, the Father is revealed through the Son. We learned of the roles, as the Word of God, the Image of God and the Son of God. We learned of the redeemer of Israel and the Savior of the world. We learned of the bridegroom for Israel and we learned of the Head of the Body of Christ. All of these works, offices and titles are fulfilled in Christ, who has existed all along in the Form of God. Philippians 2:6. Paul reveals that Christ as the Son, was also the Creator of Genesis 1:1,2 at Colossians 1:15,17 and explains how He emptied Himself in Philippians 2:5-8

Thus Jesus was not just a good man or a wise teacher, but He had existed all along in the form of God, in the role of the Elohim, as the Creator of this Universe and all in it! Christ was Jehovah, the God of Israel, Who left His glory and entered humanity taking on flesh in order redeem and save His own Creation…taking on flesh, a body of humiliation and giving up His life to redeem humanity from death..

Let now review the soul and the human spirit and so what is death and what sort of a body will be given in the resurrection?

Humanity made from the soil of the ground and with the breath of life became a living soul a member of the animal kingdom yet elevated above the lower animals as humanity is being made into the image of God. Humanity are not spirits clothed in flesh, humanity is mortal and when the body dies, the soul and the human spirit cease to exist. The Spirit of God as the source of life…is that which is eternal.

The human spirit comes from the eternal source of life and is the life of the human body when that life force leaves the human body and becomes a dead soul our human spirit also ceases to exist. The person, a living soul is made up of body and spirit and needing redemption from the state of death likened to sleep in the scriptures, with a resurrection likened to waking up, the only means to life and consciousness.

Knoch explained the human spirit in this way, there can be no living soul apart from the union of matter with spirit. And death is not something which may happen to either one alone. (unless in figurative language) Death is the result of their separation. The body alone cannot die. The spirit alone does not die. The man as a whole dies. So also, the body alone is not going to be raised nor is the spirit alone made alive, but we, who must have both are raised, roused and vivified.”

The life force from God is imperceptible spirit and without the soul and body it is said to return to God and we are kept in His Memory until the appointed time for whichever resurrection God has determined for each one of humanity, there will be one resurrection to heaven and two to take place on this earth.

Paul tells us how those in the new administration will be raised and changed in Romans 8:11b,12 “Now if the spirit of Him Who rouses Jesus from among the dead will also be vivifying your mortal bodies because of His spirit making its home in you.” Our mortal bodies will be changed to immortal spirit bodies. 1 Corinthians 15:50-55

As said there are three resurrections scheduled in the scriptures. The firstfruit, will be the Body of Christ, Paul told us that the Body of Christ will go together not as individuals. We will be snatched from this earth whether dead or alive, we go together to meet Christ in the air, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17. This will be the first resurrection but it does not take place on this earth, this group of saints is taken to heaven. So when John writes of the two on earth…His first or the former is first on the earth not first in order. Revelation 20:5,6

The next resurrection is second in timing but is actually the first on this earth, it is for those making up the bride church called out of Israel and the faithful of old and it will take place after Christ returns to Israel as their messiah and king and sets up His millennial kingdom. Daniel 12:2 speaks of the two resurrections on earth, of the just and the unjust, the just will be the faithful of Israel who are to rule and reign with Christ on this earth, and I feel many others before Israel, as well as the faithful of Israel before Jesus came as this resurrection is said to be for the just and I cant see them being raised with the unjust class as it is said to be the resurrection of contempt or shame.

So the resurrection of the unjust class will be the second one on this earth, but the third in timing. The unjust class are spoken of as the rest of the dead by John in Revelation 20:5,6. This unjust class consists of unbelievers and the unfaithful of Israel. These ones will be raised out of the dust of the earth when the millennial reign of 1000 years is over. Also read 1 Corinthians 15:20-54.

Gods Word tells us man is mortal and returns to the soil at death…and must wait until the appointed time to live again. God’s Word also promises that all in the graves will come forth…and Paul assures us eventually all will be saved and reconciled in Gods vast Universe….contrary to what soulish religion teaches…there is no eternal damnation in God’s Word.

The words of Solomon on the vanities of life which become apparent to all of us through the aging process and end in death, returning to the soil to wait, in unconsciousness, for the assigned resurrection as promised by God and guaranteed by Christ’s work on the cross.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say; I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain.”

“In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble (the arms) and the strong men shall bow themselves (the legs) and the grinders cease because they are few,(the teeth) and those that look out of the windows be darkened.” (the eyes)

“And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low (the mouth and ears) and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, (insomnia of the elderly) and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and fears shall be in the way, ( anxiety associated with aging) and the almond tree shall flourish (gray hair) and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to the long home,( the grave) and the mourners go about the streets.”

“Or ever the silver cord be loosed, (the spinal cord) or the golden bowl be broken (the head) or the pitcher be broken at the fountain,( the heart) or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust (soil) return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it.”


End...Of that book..