SOULISH BELIEVERS
If we are able to SEE, understand and believe the abilities of our natural soul briefly described in the preceding section, we may now continue and describe typical abilities of soulish believers as we may also recognize them in our daily Christian lives.
Soulish believers trust and follow solely their natural soul as they have no other thing to trust and follow in their lives. Many may not be “conscious” even of their own consciousness which is a part of their spirit! They are definitely not aware of their intuition and communion, which are the other two parts of their spirit. Furthermore, their conscience may be filthy or evil and would not contribute to the renewal of their soul even if they were aware of their conscience and could “hear it”. (Tit. 1:15// Heb. 10:22)
If they have continued with their natural soul untouched by the Spirit for a long time, their soul has become religious and quite capable of leading them confidently in the wrong direction, on the wrong way! The longer you walk in the wrong direction, the longer your way back becomes, the harder and more impossible becomes your turning around on your way, which also means, your repentance. You keep walking on the broad way and are not seeking the narrow way. (Mt. 7:13,14) Why? Because your “traditional knowledge” in your natural and thus deceived soul tells you that the broad way is for pagans and that you, a born-again believer, is walking on the narrow way that “leads to life eternal” and not to death and destruction. It also tells you that the Spirit is “guiding you into all truth” (Jn. 16:13), so, you do not need anyone to tell you anything. Is this TRUE? Well, it is very logical to interpret these facts declared in the Scripture along your reasoning; yet, your reasoning based on your “traditional knowledge” may be completely FALSE!
It is true that there is the narrow way that “leads to life eternal” and that the Spirit came to “guide us into all truth”. The first fact was spoken by the Lord to the multitudes (Mt. 5:1,2) and the second fact was spoken to His Disciples only. (Jn. 13:35; 16:17) But what fruit do you have in your life to prove these facts? You are able to believe these two doctrines and that you live them even when your life may bring fruit which could be completely contrary to them! You may be divorced from your Christian spouse or living separately based solely on selfishness, stubbornness, pride, religious convictions or other spirits of flesh rather than on fornication. (Mt. 19:9) Your family may be “destroyed”, your sons or daughters may be alcoholics, drug addicts or lazy, without jobs, living a worldly life, be unbelievers or the same soulish believers as you are. What kind of fruit is that? It shows that your life does not follow the two doctrines and your belief is false. The fact that some sons “follow” their fathers in becoming pastors and preachers is also no proof that they walk on the narrow way or are led by the Spirit. Why?
The Spirit will FIRST guide you to YOUR OWN CROSS (Mt. 16:24) as this is the only way to your future eternal Life, the only way to learn and be able to FOLLOW THE LORD on the narrow way. This means that the Spirit will guide you in your everyday life into situations where you will have plentiful opportunities to learn to DENY YOURSELF, NOT TO DEFEND YOURSELF AND TO CRUCIFY YOUR FLESH ON YOUR CROSS.
The Spirit will first guide you, teach, direct and instruct you through some one else, who is not proud, but already spiritual, meek, pliable, teachable with spiritual authority and who already has the fruit of God’s Spirit. (Ps. 25:9// Gal. 5: 22,23) And when you have been thus tried as gold is tried in the fire, (Job 23:10// Jam. 1:12// Rev. 3:18a) THEN will the Spirit call you to minister Christ to others, not before. If you are ordained before such transformation, just because you passed some exams in a seminary, then it was not the Lord, Who ordained you and you are not His minister in His books.
TRUE MINISTRY IS NOT A MATTER OF GIVING BIBLICAL ADRESSES OR INFORMATION FROM THE BIBLE OR ABOUT JESUS CHRIST WITH THEIR LOGICAL EXPLANATIONS AND PROOFS.
TRUE MINISTRY IS OUR TESTIMONY OF WHAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD AND HIS WORD HAS PRODUCED IN OUR OWN LIFE, HOW THE FRUIT OF HIS WORK SHOWS IN OUR LIFE AND IN OUR OWN TRANSFORMATION SO THAT OTHERS COULD SEE IT AND FOLLOW IT!
IF WE DO NOT LIVE THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN OUR SOUL, WE HAVE NO TESTIMONY AND NO MINISTRY!
A DOCTRINE, KNOWLEDGE OR WISDOM OR ANY LIGHT WE MAY HAVE, IS NOT THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST! MANY BELIEVERS HAVE IT, EVEN A LOT OF IT; YET, THEY MAY BE SPIRITUALLY DEAD AND HAVE NO LIFE OF CHRIST IN THEIR SOUL!
THE LIFE OF CHRIST IS THE LIGHT OF MEN (JN. 1:4), BUT NOT VICE-VERSA, THE LIGHT IS NOT THE LIFE OF CHRIST NEITHER CAN IT PRODUCE THAT LIFE!
Soulish believers also believe and preach that because the “Lord has done it all for them, they do not have to do anything; they only have to believe that all was accomplished in Christ”. Their sincere belief and doctrine is: “Once saved, forever saved” no matter what they do or don’t do. They are victims of this very deep and devilish deception since these doctrines come straight from the Great Deceiver and are absolutely contrary to the Word of God! The Lord desires that we expose those doctrines in the Light of the Scripture and then SEE what the natural human soul is truly capable of doing, believing and preaching.
Have you ever been aware in your soul that after your baptism you were “seeking the narrow way”? Truthfully? If you were not aware of that, then you were never seeking the narrow way. And if you were never seeking the narrow way, then you could not find it. The Lord says that “FEW there be that FIND IT”.
The Lord was once asked whether there be few that are saved. (Lk. 13:23) The Lord did not reply directly, rather, He admonished them saying:
“STRIVE to enter in at the straight gate; for MANY, I say unto you, WILL SEEK TO ENTER IN AND SHALL NOT BE ABLE.” (Lk. 13:24)
Firstly, the Lord had never said “Do nothing just believe, for I have done everything for you”. NO! He clearly says: “STRIVE” So, if you do not strive you cannot keep His Commandments! But for us, they are not options which we may safely ignore. If you do not keep His Commandments you do not love the Lord, but yourself, and He will not love you either! (Jn. 14:21) And you may only guess what will happen to you when you will “try” to enter the Kingdom. Those leaders that never warned you will not help you one bit at that time because they will not be entering in either. (Mt. 23:13)
Secondly, why will these believers be unable to enter in at the straight gate and walk on the narrow way? Because they had walked on the broad way for too many years in a false conviction or false hope or being misled by their leaders and no one warned them. Soulish believers are deceived about the broad way because they do not understand what that “destruction” truly means! When we sow unwillingness (to ask, seek, knock), we will later reap inability and that, much more than we sowed. (Gal. 6:7)
So, a born-again believer baptized in water may be walking on the broad way to “destruction” and nobody tells him, especially, if his pastor and brethren are also soulish and walking on the same broad way with him. Is this logical? No, but in Spirit IT IS TRUE. No soulish believer is able to SEE this fact and thus believe it. Though Apostle Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth teaches and clearly distinguishes the spiritual believers from the soulish–carnal believers, yet not one believer would ever voluntarily admit that he/she may be a soulish one! True? Why?
A spiritually blind man cannot see his own blindness as it is not a natural or physical blindness, but supernatural blindness imposed by the god of this world! (2Cor. 4:4) This Word of God applies firstly to pagans as to their need of a Saviour and of His Salvation. BUT it also applies to the carnal believers as to their need to SEE and understand what they were saved from and what they were saved into; what their Salvation really is and how to work it out with God. Hence, the mind of such believers is also blinded by the same god of this world, and in this sense, their mind is like unto the mind of pagans.
What we should be able to see even with our physical eyes is some peculiar behavior of soulish believers. Let us consider four typical examples of soulish believers, who live in their world of…
a) …reason. They must dissect, analyze and reason out everything with their own understanding, with convictions of their mind and beliefs based on their own logic, on long standing standards in teaching, on their “traditional knowledge” received from some other teachers, preachers, theology professors, biblical historians or others, who in turn received their knowledge from their predecessors, and so on, and so on.
Such “traditional knowledge” may have been flawed from its beginning, never verified with the Spirit, the Author of the Word of God, and thus it may have remained greatly flawed with truths mixed in with deceptions and lies. Whenever we transmit knowledge, we also transmit all errors with it. They always need plausible explanations for every declaration of truth or faith as they are unable to believe anything that is not justified by their own reasons and logic.
b) …action. For such believers, it is always go-go-go, do-do-do, the more you do the better. They are unable to sit down and do nothing for a few hours, absolutely nothing; they might feel they are sinning against the Lord “not redeeming the time because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:16) Their engine is the anxiety of their soul. Also, newly born believers may be sent to the missionary field or asked to help their pastor or their church in some religious activity which should “prove” that they are born-again and thus working for the Lord right from the beginning. But newly born believers are not called by the Lord to do anything until they sufficiently mature. The same is with our children, who are not called to work or help their parents immediately after they are born, but must sufficiently mature. True?
c) …undecidedness. The natural will is not free or able to make spiritually correct or timely decisions. It usually goes along with stubbornness of the darkened mind which refuses to admit anything or seek Truth. The natural will may be a very strong will and there are no clear or easy ways to soften it or change it. And if it does decide to do something, accept some counsel, it usually fails to carry it out. Such “decisions” may be called “New Year’s resolutions”; they never come true. The natural will also likes to procrastinate as it is quite often unsure of anything and keeps the person in a state of “eternal insecurity”. What often comes to the picture are also fears; fear of everything or anything, usually unjustified. But fears make believers undecided as well, since the may even fear to make a decision and take responsibility. Also, passivity of believers as to their decisions or actions in the area of their overcoming, working out their own Salvation and spiritual progress may result in incalculable losses and even tragedies. All the choices and decisions of the natural will are selfish and do not consider others.
d) …emotions. One hour believers may be joyful and jumping and praising the Lord, tears flowing down their cheeks. The next hour they may be depressed, fearful, sad, doubtful, complaining and sighing. Any bit of unpleasant truth, “naked” truth, bitter truth would offend them, prick them or throw them into despair and turmoil. There is no sign of walking in the Spirit or living by faith. I have experienced this with very many believers especially during my years in my former Pentecostal church.
There are different kinds of soulish believers: undependable, lazy, irresponsible, foolish, unfaithful, etc. There are also soulish believers, which are honest, dependable, sincere, devout, diligent, faithful, responsible, etc. The problem with very many believers is that when they see such an honest, dependable, sincere, devout, diligent, faithful or responsible believer that is soulish–carnal, they may see nothing wrong with him. Yet, he is NOT acceptable to God in that natural state. Our Heavenly Father demands from us much more than our “good soulish virtues” through which we “try to work for God, communicate with Him and please Him.” It is clear from the Word of God that…
SOULISH BELIEVERS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE TO GOD IN THEIR NATURAL, UNRENEWED SOUL THOUGH THEY WERE REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF HIS SON JESUS CHRIST!
THERE IS NOTHING IN US OR OF US AT OUR REDEMPTION THAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, THAT HE COULD OR WOULD FELLOWSHIP WITH OR LOVE! ALL OUR FLESH MUST DIE; WE MUST DIE AND BE RECREATED BY GOD’S SPIRIT IN OUR ENTIRETY – SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY. ONLY THIS NEW CREATION – NEW MAN – WILL BE ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, USED BY HIM AND LOVED BY HIM THROUGHOUT ETERNITY. GOD WILL NEVER ALLOW ANY PART OF OUR FLESH TO DWELL WITH HIM OR GLORY IN HIS PRESENCE. (1Cor. 1:29)
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To be continued next week in chapter 3 – part 8
brother Hanola
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