We shall start seeing and understanding the question of Life, Death and Salvation only when we start seeing and understanding the fact, that the Salvation is a transition of man from the physical world into the spiritual world, from the physical existence into the spiritual existence and that of every man, believer or pagan. The whole Salvation is spiritual, the whole Life is spiritual, the whole Death is spiritual. Our being does not have to feel in its soul or have any sensation whether it is in the process of Salvation or not, whether it spiritually lives or is spiritually dead, it does not even have to understand what is happening to it. This can only be felt or sensed by our spirit. Hence, if we do not sense our spirit in any way, then we do not sense our Salvation either, nor anything what the Spirit of the Lord might be doing, how is He guiding us. Then our spiritual growth and thus progress in our Salvation may only be judged by us by our fruit visible to our soul.
In order for us to begin to spiritually sense, see and understand this basic question of our existence, we must begin from Adam and Eve. Furthermore, we must see clearly and understand the fact, that death is separation and not the end of existence! Hence, I can live in my body and soul and have my life full of joy, happiness, riches and prosperity, and at the same time be spiritually dead (1Tim. 5:5,6), which means, be separated from God, Who is our Life. Just the same, I can have my life in body and soul full of problems, hardships, suffering, pain even live in poverty and be spiritually alive, because I live the Life from God through the Spirit of God (to whatever degree)! Hence, the form, situation or the conditions of my earthly life may not indicate whether I am spiritually living or dead. My physical state, however, may be an indicator of my spiritual state! Though my spirit and my body are from two totally different worlds and thus they have nothing in common with one another, yet, the Lord may use my body for the Salvation of my spirit and soul. For many believers with a hard, proud, selfish, stubborn or naïve soul, the Lord must repeatedly use either an ambulance, a scalpel or loneliness, wilderness and pain, hopeless situations, etc., because such a soul cannot be corrected by words (Pr. 29:19 + 30:12).
The Lord is primarily interested in the state of our spirit, not in the state of our physical body because He will have a fellowship with our spirit and never with our physical body, which we will lose anyway and will receive a new, spiritual body. That’s why He uses our physical body to cleanse and change our spirit to His Image. The Lord knows well that the state of our spirit has a definitive influence upon our body. Therefore, the Lord never healed physical body alone without touching our spirit. When they brought before Jesus the man sick of the palsy and lying on his bed, He did not tell him that He will heal his body, but first He told him: “Son, be of good cheer, THY SINS be forgiven thee.”Only then He told him: “Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house” (Mt. 9:2-7). So, his physical state was governed by his sins, which means, by the state of his spirit. His body reacted to his spirit. “Paralyzed spirit” causes “paralyzed body“. A similar case happened with the man, who was paralyzed for 38 years. His case is described in John 5:5-14 and we will say more about it later. The Lord Jesus is warning him not to sin lest something worse should happen to him (Jn. 5:14). If sick or disabled persons would focus before the Lord on their spirit and asked Him to heal their spirit, their physical healing would, according to my faith, come much faster.
When Adam in the Garden of Eden believed Satan and disobeyed the Commandment of God, he sinned and in that moment he was separated from God – he spiritually died – lost the Life of God though he kept living in his body and soul; his created, natural, human life remained with him! Every man, starting from Adam, was separated from God and in his created nature remains separated and thus remains in spiritual death. Spiritual separation – death – is the result of sin. Therefore, life and death are always related to our human spirit. Our spiritual death is the separation of our human spirit from God. Our physical death is the separation of our human body from this physical creation and that as a consequence of the separation of our soul from our body. Our soulish death is the separation of our soul from God. In case of pagans, it is due to the death of their spirit; in case of carnal believers, the Life of God has no access to their soul because they do not want God in their heart. God upholds human soul in its natural life in every man (Ps. 66: 8,9a). However, when human soul already lives the Life of God, it is a different case; such soul is already saved and cannot die anymore. When the soul is not saved as yet (in carnal believers), it is yet able to bring us back into the loss of redemption and death by committing the sin unto death (Mt. 12:31,32/ 1Jn. 5:16), or by a continual refusal to overcome their flesh (Rev. 3:5).
The majority of Christians is almost never aware of their spiritual life, spiritual death or of their salvation. It is chiefly the case of carnal believers, where their flesh prevents them from such awareness though Christ lives in their spirit by His Spirit. They are not aware of the spirit in any form and thus they have no attitude to any spirit. Such cannot even worship God since “God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:24) God does not receive any other worship. When we pray in other tongues, our human spirit prays and our soul may not understand any of it. But we may pray in our spirit and understand it as well (1Cor. 14:14,15). And just as the first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam, which is Christ, was made a quickening spirit (1Cor. 15:45)… a life giving spirit.
When the first Adam was separated from God, he died spiritually. He neither perceived nor has he understood this spiritual separation, spiritual death. Furthermore, all of the astonishing abilities and powers of his human soul, which God put into his soul at his creation, were after his separation from God also separated from Adam’s perception and utilization. They became latent, hidden and no man was allowed to use these powers and abilities in his earthly life. Human soul also “died” and lost its obedience to God, its Creator and therefore it lost also the right to these astonishing, almost supernatural, powers and abilities, which could only be used by the soul obedient to God. After our salvation, our soul will be able to do the same supernatural deeds through Christ (Phil. 4:13) and will never need those soulish powers and abilities, which became corrupted and sinful in Adam and therefore, forbidden to him by God.
What is the significance of the above paragraph for us? Enormous! It contains two components and we will explain them in the Light of the Lord separately as follows.
(a) The first fact is that Adam had no conscience of this spiritual death – spiritual separation from God. Equally, no man has such conscience, pagan or believer. However, this doesn‘t mean that it will remain so for every man. Pagans will gain this conscience after their physical death; to the believers it may happen that this conscience may “wake up” for a short time and its horrors will rest upon such soul. What does it mean? This un-conscience or “sleep” of the conscience towards this spiritual death is a marvelous Grace of God. Why? Because SPIRITUAL DEATH IS HELL! If you do want to see, experience or understand hell and the spiritual death in their depth and reality, it only needs that you “wake up” to it!… open to it your conscience. Hell already has a permanent existence in every pagan, in his state, character, position, but he has no conscience of it while he lives on this earth. It is enough for such a man to “wake up” from this state OUTSIDE OF CHRIST to find out what HELL AND DEATH actually are in their reality! This happens to the man after his physical death, if not sooner.
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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