Tragedy and Glory of Believers

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Before I write anything in this book, the Lord Jesus Christ is constraining me to declare a simple, but essential truth from His Word saying:

“You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that YOUR FRUIT SHOULD REMAIN;” (Jn. 15:16)

This Word applies to every believer, whom He has chosen and ordained and whom no one else has chosen or ordained. The Lord also speaks about fruit, which should remain. This kind of fruit is not subjected to time, rotting, deterioration, destruction or disappearance; it is indestructible by men or by the forces of darkness and evil. Therefore, this fruit is the only clear proof whether we were chosen and ordained by the Lord or by men. (Mt. 7:16-20) Let us see and understand that this fruit is not a physical, mental or intellectual fruit, not buildings, not organizations, not institutions, not ministries, not teaching, not preaching, not studies, not things of the physical or mental or intellectual nature.

This fruit is a spiritual fruit which the Lord can taste, appreciate, cherish and love for ever! Buildings, organizations, institutions, ministries, teaching, preaching, studies and all things physical, mental or intellectual may be temporary tools which could be useful in the hands of a minister whose flesh was crucified (Gal. 5:24) and who was chosen, ordained and given to the Church by the Lord as His gift and as a seed of His Kingdom. (Eph. 4:11,12) The physical, mental or intellectual “fruit” of our labours will not remain, but will perish and be forgotten. (1Cor. 13:8b) The problem with the majority of believers is that they cannot discern or assess their own fruit, let alone the fruit of other brethren, therefore, they cannot “know anybody by their fruit”. And this, unfortunately, applies also to many in the leadership. Hence, there may be quite a large number of ministers, who were not ordained and given by the Lord to His Church, rather, they were ordained by men and organizations. If such uncrucified ministers undertake to shepherd other believers with the Word of God and with supposed “messages from the Holy Spirit”, they are taking an enormous risk of being in their time “rooted up”. (Mt. 15:11-13)

Again, before I come to the facts and truths in Chapter 1, the Lord desires to destroy some basic, but profound, deceptions that have been holding the Church from Her calling and fulfilling the Will and Purpose of Our Father in Heaven. These deceptions shall be unmasked by His Truth which follows in this book.

Some of the basic deceptions involve normal and commonly performed Christian activities which may give to believers a “wrong message” about their true spiritual state before the Lord and about His judgment and acceptance of their spiritual state. Let us see some of the deceptions.

Knowledge of the Bible is NOT Salvation. Teaching and preaching of the Bible is NOT Salvation. Attending church services is NOT Salvation. Singing sacred music and giving of tithes and offerings is NOT Salvation. Social work, helping the poor, working “for the Lord” is NOT Salvation! Nothing that man can think of, do or imagine in his mind, is Salvation! Why?

Any human soul is able to acquire the knowledge of the Bible and perform any of the deeds quoted in the frame above without necessarily being redeemed by God’s Spirit! Hence, any “religious unsaved soul” is able to do it all.

And not only human souls, but Satan himself and his ministers are transformed into the ministers of righteousness (2Cor. 11:14,15) and have been doing or imitating all that is in the frame above! Are we aware of this fact? NO! That is why the Lord is presenting it to us and we are required to see and understand this fact clearly. So then, what is Salvation?

SALVATION IS THE COMPLETE DEATH OF THE OLD,

SINFUL, SOULISH, CARNAL, NATURAL MAN;

HIS OLD SPIRIT, OLD SOUL AND OLD BODY!

SALVATION IS THE CREATION OF A COMPLETELY NEW, PERFECT, SINLESS, SPIRITUAL MAN;

HIS NEW SPIRIT, NEW SOUL AND NEW BODY!

THIS IS THE TRUE, COMPLETE AND FINAL SALVATION OF MAN IN GOD’S HEART AND PURPOSE! (2Cor. 5:17)

This will be the main theme in this book and the Lord Himself will give us what we need to see, know, understand and do at this junction of our earthly lives. It will facilitate our preparation for His Coming as Bridegroom for His Bride. (Mt. 25:1-13) We may be His Bride by being born-again, but we may not be acceptable to Him as His Bride in our present character and state of our soul and spirit. And WE MAY NOT BE AWARE of what in us is repulsive to Him or what is pleasing to Him. We have but a short time to our Marriage (Jn. 17:21// Rev. 19:7-9) and we, who believe that we love the Lord and are waiting for His appearance, must understand the Word of Our Bridegroom to us and also its urgency at this time.

There are two important facts in Rev. 19:7-9, which the Lord desires us to see and understand. In verse 7, His Wife has made herself ready. We usually do not know how to make ourselves ready for Him! In verse 8, She was arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is Her own righteousness! The Lord says that His righteousness was acquired by Her through Her own spiritual cross, death and resurrection! (Mt. 16:24,25) His Bride and Wife must have Her own righteousness and this is Her preparation for His Coming as Bridegroom!

Right at the beginning of this work, I desire to establish another important fact.

Most of what follows in the Chapters of this book is not my natural knowledge and wisdom! The most important spiritual truths and facts declared and discussed herein, I have not received from men or through studies, but by a gracious and absolutely sovereign revelation from the Lord. You will be able to judge this fact in your own spirit and conscience, if you have an eye to see, an ear to hear and a heart to understand. And whatever light I had received from my studies, meditations, prayers or from other true servants of God (and I have), He enlarged and enriched in its spiritual depth, importance and significance which I had never seen and understood in my heart before.

I have also received many truths through my manifold living experiences in my 65 years of being a believer and in 40 years of walking with the Living Lord and ministering Him to believers in many countries of the world. His Truth declared in this book has also been wrought into the lives of those that the Lord had given to me personally to care for and “travail until Christ is formed in them”. (Gal. 4:19) These believers are now “new creatures” (2Cor. 5:17// Gal. 6:15) walking on the narrow way (Mt. 7:14) being transformed into Christ’s Image. (Rom. 8:29) They are living proofs of His Truth doing His Word. They are also my fruit that shall remain and shall please the Lord for ever.

Therefore, His spiritual Truth and facts which follow are not to be taken as simply doctrines, results of studies or interesting new views on biblical matters. I was led to write what I see with the Lord, what I live before Him and what He desires to give us as His Light and Judgment about the state of His believers and of His Church at this crucial time. This also shows His True Love, Grace, Mercy, Patience, Wisdom and His Righteous Judgments for His Church.

Whenever the Church departs from the Light of the Word of God or finds Herself in grave danger and may not even be aware of it, the Lord gives His Light anew, also His warnings, His helping hand, and that sovereignly, without waiting for prayers of believers thus affected and endangered. Most believers, including many ministers, may not even know that they could be in grave danger. They may not believe that the Lord has to give them a warning; that He may be speaking to them today even on the pages of a book as this one, which book, to them, is coming from “nowhere” and is written by “nobody”. (1Cor. 1:27-29) Yet, it is the Lord, Who chooses the vessels through whom He speaks to His Church and not men and there are multitudes of believers, and many leaders, who may still not believe this simple truth of the Scripture. These are the proud and unrighteous believers, who have an evil heart of unbelief. (Heb. 3:12). But if they do not believe His chosen men speaking to them, should the Lord again use a “dumb ass” to speak to them rebuking them in their iniquity and madness? (2Pet. 2:16) What do you believe?

But this book is written primarily for the believers who have a heart that believes, is sincere, honest and open to the Lord for His Truth and Light. I am responsible for publishing what the Lord has given to me and led me to do and what I live before the Living God by His Grace. And you are responsible for considering it sincerely and prayerfully in your heart, mind and conscience before the Living Son of God, Who is also my Living Witness (this is not a small thing to say!) I am definitely not your judge and you, readers, are definitely not my judges; you are not accountable to me, but to the Lord, Who is your Judge… and mine.

Furthermore, this book is not written because believers desire it or are looking forward to it or because they all will be pleased by it. On the contrary, many believers and many leaders may be not only surprised, but offended by the Truth of God as revealed to us all at this end time. They may not realize that the Truth, we desperately need before Our Lord comes, must first shock us or even offend us, as it is often bitter Truth. But then, after we have received it, it becomes sweet.

Hence, many believers may reject the Truth and Light from the Word of God that this book brings to them and may also accuse me of all kinds of things, but without giving me any specific reasons! This is a well known performance of the “flesh” and of the powers of darkness and evil and I have experienced it many times. Such believers always judge unrighteously and accuse in generalities, but they never give even one specific fact or example on which to base their accusations and their unrighteous judgments. They do not have even one constructive thought or the willingness to go along with the Will and Desires of Our Lord as revealed to us all in His Holy Word and especially in its passages which are never preached and explained to believers.

May the Lord forgive such believers since they most certainly do not know what they are doing. Yet, even some of them may be converted from their old soulish, proud and unrighteous man to their new spiritual man and fulfill the Will and Desire of their Heavenly Father. I do pray to the Lord for extending His Grace toward all of them as I see them as victims of the powers of darkness and evil unable to see themselves and the deceptions in which they live and act.

I beseech every sincere heart and soul that may be dissatisfied with today’s form of religion or Christianity and that may be seeking and thus far not finding satisfactory answers and help that it desires and needs to read this book prayerfully, to meditate on the Word of God presented therein and not to reject what you may not understand at this time. The Lord is able to grant you directly or indirectly what you are seeking for, if you open to Him your heart and soul.

* * *

Let us now come to the most important issue of our life by defining and clarifying the scope of Redemption of man and the scope of Salvation of man as two separate acts of God in each believer.

Let us also see and understand that Our Saviour and Lord is giving to us this Light without us asking for it! Why? He knows that “His people are destroyed for lack of spiritual knowledge of His Person”. (Hos. 4:6; 6:3) His Person IS Truth. But His Light provides the knowledge of the spiritual truths which man cannot obtain through studies or research of any kind. God’s Light and Truth cannot come from man’s soul, from his heart or from his intellect. It must be revealed to his spirit by God Himself. Then His Light must come from his spirit into his heart as faith and then his heart (as part of his soul) must be enabled to see it or hear it and understand it. (Mt. 13:15) This Light and spiritual knowledge of the Person of God revealed to man by God Himself saves man from his self-destruction and produces the fruit that shall always remain!

May the Lord open our eyes giving us spiritual eyesight; and may our heart be opened and enabled to see and understand what our natural soul can never see and understand. (1Cor. 2:14) Most believers sincerely believe that their soul is spiritual and not natural because they were “born-again”, but they do not see and understand the difference between their spirit and soul. This is one such tragic deception which the Lord will expose in this book so that we may see it, understand it and be prepared for His Coming and Judgment. Our life and destiny always depend on what we see, believe and what we do with our beliefs.

Let us see and understand that we all were created as natural creatures to live in this natural world, but we are saved into a totally different world, a spiritual world, which we cannot sense, understand or imagine with our physical or mental nature. Our Salvation may then also be viewed as our transition from our natural creature to a totally different, spiritual creature. The natural creature cannot walk on the water (Mt. 14:25), go through a shut door (Jn. 20:19) or rise up into the air without any mechanical means, (Lk. 24:51) etc. The spiritual creature can. All the following chapters of this book should be read and pondered with this monumental, logic defying fact and truth in mind and in heart.

CHAPTER 2

REDEMPTION OF MAN

DEFINITIONS

The Redemption of man shall be understood as a change of ownership of man from that of Satan to that of God, where God redeemed man through the Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, (Rev. 5:9// 1Pet. 1:18,19) and opened the door for that man to be reconciled back to God. (Rom. 5:10// 2Cor. 5:18) Man can receive his redemption through faith (Eph. 2:8) and the decision of his will to confess that faith with his own mouth (Rom. 10:9,10) and thereby choose life and not death. (Deut. 30:19) This new possession of God is then sealed by His Spirit. (Eph. 1:13)

Furthermore, the Redemption of man shall be understood as a change in the spirit of man which spirit is now resurrected, made alive by being born from above by the Spirit of God (Jn. 3:3) and where this Holy Spirit of God now dwells and makes that man the Temple of God. (1Cor. 3:16) There is now deposited into the SPIRIT of that man a New Life from Heaven which is from God Himself and which was never there before, except for the First Adam, who had the Spirit of God in all his being, but he lost Him through his disobedience to God and became a soulish, sinful man.

Furthermore, the Redemption of man shall be understood as the beginning of a change in the soul of man by receiving the “earnest of the Spirit” which was given to his heart which is the organ of his soul. (2Cor. 1:22) We may also visualize this gift as a “vanguard of the Spirit” which must in time fill his whole soul and subdue it! We may also visualize this gift as a “seed of the Kingdom of God” which Kingdom is in the spirit of the redeemed man and now must be enforced into his soul by seeking first the Kingdom. (Mt. 6:33) The Spirit must then subdue his entire soul and eradicate the existing kingdom of the powers of darkness and evil which powers have been ruling his soul during all of his past pagan life and have not departed from his soul at his redemption or at his water baptism.

Therefore, the Redemption of man shall also be understood as the beginning of man’s FULL SALVATION where his soul and body will also be similarly reborn, resurrected, delivered from death and corruption, cleansed, renewed, recreated and transformed by the same Spirit of God. This will happen at a later time and in a uniquely different process for the soul and for the body.

His soul will be delivered, cleansed, revived, recreated and thus perfected through overcoming (Rev. 2:7,11,17, 26; 3:5,12,21) by denying of his self and taking up his cross and following the Lord daily (Lk. 9:23), by working out his own Salvation in fear and trembling. (Phil. 2:12b) This process may also be summarized by saying: By fighting a good fight of faith (see more in Chapter 3).

His body will be delivered from death and corruption, transformed, recreated and glorified at his rapture. (1Cor. 15:53// Phil. 3:20,21)

His own human spirit though it is revived from above must also grow up and be cleansed and perfected as his soul must. The spirit of a redeemed man is not yet one with the Spirit of God though His Spirit dwells there. His conscience may yet be weak and defiled. (1Cor. 8:7// Tit. 1:15; Titus does not write about pagans as vs. 16 shows) His intuition and communion are still “non-functioning” after his redemption. These parts of man’s spirit need the same strengthening, maturing, cleansing and perfecting as the three parts of his soul need, that is, his mind, heart and will.

There are therefore two basic truths that influence every true believer from the time of his redemption right unto the end of his Full Salvation and they are the following:

a) The Word of God tells us “That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved (redeemed). For with the heart man (1) believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth (2) confession is made unto salvation (redemption).” (Rom. 10:9,10)

In response to our (1) faith and to our (2) confession, which confession is the work of our faith, we are “born-again” by the Spirit of God (Jn. 3:3) and sealed with that Spirit of Promise as a new possession of God. (Eph. 1:13)

This is Our Redemption which is the beginning of our Full Salvation, not its end! The end of our Full Salvation will be the end of our faith (1Pet. 1:9) and of the works of our faith! We will not need new or more faith any longer because being fully saved, we will be perfect in all three parts of our being and will live the Eternal Life; our faith was needed to guide us to that Life and the works of our faith have brought us there.

Our Saviour paid in full the price demanded by God and thus we are redeemed in full. Satan has lost his legal possession of us which he had while we were yet pagans! Yet, Satan has not lost all his legal possessions in us (see more later).

It is very important to see and realize at this point that had we believed in the Lord but never confessed that faith with our mouth, we would not have been redeemed! The above truth also means that those, who believed in the Saviour intellectually, mentally – in their mind and not in their heart – were never “born-again”, they never received the Spirit of God into their spirit and thus were never redeemed! They do not belong to Christ (Rom. 8:9b), but remain pagans that have received some religious information from the Bible or from the Church and believed that information in their mind and understanding. They are often called “paper Christians”, that believed in Christ, yet, never received the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1,2); and there might be multitudes of them.

This fact also shows the utmost importance for us not to confuse various organs of our soul and of our spirit as it may lead to very grave errors, to our self-deception and even to our destruction and death. Also, what we believe in our mind and what we believe in our heart may be two completely different things. Furthermore, faith comes from our conscience into our heart, not into our mind (see more on p. 61^[8] and in “Truth about Salvation^[9]”).

b) The Word of God also tells us clearly that “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (Jn. 3:6)

Therefore, we must at this point make the following important declaration, namely, that at this beginning stage of our Salvation, which means, at our Redemption…

we are “born-again” in our spirit only and not in our soul! Our soul is not spirit! (1Thes. 5:23) Therefore, our soul must be “born-again”, renewed by the Spirit and Word of God in a different (slower, more painful) process! The result of this process is the FULL Salvation, full deliverance, full cleansing, full revival of our already redeemed (paid for by Blood) soul. (see more in Chapter 3)

I must again repeat that the kingdom of the powers of darkness and evil in our soul, our sinful nature, our flesh, was not destroyed or eradicated by our redemption, by being “born-again” in our spirit or by being baptized in water.

These above two facts and truths are very important for us to realize and remember for the rest of our Christian life. They do affect our daily life, our destiny and also the way on which we reach our destiny.

The concluding Truth from the Lord and His Word, which is never preached, taught or explained because it cannot be seen, understood and thus believed by natural human soul, is this:

A redeemed man is not a fully saved man as yet! Any redeemed man has the power to lose his salvation and life eternal by his own will and decisions!

The above truth is based on the Scripture which is absolutely clear concerning this fact, which will be presented and discussed in more detail in the following Chapters. The fact that the above Scriptural truth is never preached and believers are never warned is another “great victory” of Satan and another proof of our pride. Satan managed to concoct this most terrible deception and through it to keep multitudes of believers in the danger of losing their life eternal! How many has he already claimed back? Only the Lord knows.

REALITY OF OUR SPIRIT

Our spirit is the most intelligent, most knowledgeable, most wise, most powerful and the most living organ of our human being after our Redemption. This fact is due to the Presence of the Spirit of God in our spirit. And we know that His Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. (Is. 11:2)

It is written that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart (soul) of man the things which God has prepared for them that LOVE Him. But God has revealed them unto us (to our spirit) by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1Cor. 2:9,10)

This Word of God tells us that our spirit knows things which our soul (heart and mind) may have no idea about! The intelligence and thus importance and uniqueness of our spirit are further shown in the following Word of God:

“For what man knows the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.” (1Cor. 2:11)

In other words, our spirit knows all things about us, even the things we (in our soul) do not know about ourselves! Let us realize the importance and the role of our spirit in our Salvation. The next two verses (12,13) tell us that “we have received not the spirit of the world (into our spirit), but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things we also speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom (soul-mind) teaches, but which the Holy Spirit (from our spirit) teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

The “worthlessness” of our natural soul is due to the fact that even after our Redemption, our soul is still ruled or guided or influenced by the spirits of the world and by the powers of darkness and evil through their deceptions; it is not ruled by the Spirit of God. This fact is also confirmed in the next two verses of the Word of God which tell us:

“But the natural man (natural soul) receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual (draws his knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, power and life from his spirit) judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” (1Cor. 2:14,15)

Going into deeper things and facts about the spirit, let us add to the above the following light from the Word: “It is the Spirit that quickens (brings to life), the flesh (including blood where our old life is – Lev. 17:14) profits nothing; the words that I speak unto you they are SPIRIT and they are LIFE.” (Jn. 6:63).

This corresponds with the Word of God which testifies about Itself saying: “For the Word of God is quickening (living, life bringing)...” (Heb. 4:12)

The true spiritual believers are promised by the Word of God to be like Our Lord even to speak like Him, to speak Spirit and Life. The Lord says:

“He that believes on Me as the Scripture has said, out of his belly (where our spiritual, innermost being is located) shall flow rivers of living water.” (Jn. 7:38)

The very next verse (39) indicates that the Lord spoke of His Spirit, Who is dwelling in us. “Living water” represents His Word which we live (Eph. 5:26) and which does not just sit in our memory. And “rivers” represent the true abundance of His Living Word within us. What now needs our true attention is the fact that the Lord had given us a condition for this to be true in us. We have to believe on Him as the Scripture has said! In multitudes of believers this is not true; therefore, there are no rivers of living water in them. This will be further discussed in Chapter 3.

When we now consider the above referenced Words of God, we must note the following. Our natural life is in our blood, (Lev. 17:14) therefore, our natural, soulish life profits nothing! The spirits that occupy, rule or otherwise direct or influence our soul after our Redemption are not of God, they form the “flesh” of our soul. The “flesh”, its origin, its character and activity within us will be discussed later on.

Our words that come out of our natural soul are neither Spirit nor Life, they are (spiritual) death! This fact has a tremendous significance in all our Christian life on earth. It determines the level of our spiritual life and thus the kind of earthly life that we live. It also determines our destiny and our way to it. If this is not the most important issue in our entire Christian life, then I truly do not know what is.

The Spirit of God in our spirit is our guarantee that we have EVERYTHING that we need, both now and in our future! God had already supplied all our needs IN Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19) and all His riches are available to us IN HIMSELF, but not outside of Himself.

The all important question for us is this: Are we able to draw from these vast riches of Christ, from this endless treasure of God and use them in our earthly life? Use them in the life of our soul and also of our body? If it is possible, which it is, then how can we do it?

We know in our many life experiences that we may not be receiving many of the things we desire from God. May we ask, why not? But the question rather is: Are we IN Christ experientially, livingly or only doctrinally? If we understand and believe written doctrines, then we are IN Christ only doctrinally, potentially, but not in the life of our soul since such a mental understanding and belief have not given us any living experiences. It is like living on a Paradise Island OR reading about it OR “being there” with our finger on the map. Is there a difference?

We cannot possibly hope that reading, hearing and even believing any biblical doctrine has made the necessary change in the life of our spirit or soul!

Equally, no amount of preaching alone will do any living change in our soul. It may make a change in our knowledge, understanding and may increase our faith, but no spiritual work in our soul is done just by reading, hearing, understanding or believing some words or letters from the Bible. (Jam. 1:22-24) Hence, we cannot draw from Christ His Life which contains all His riches just because we have drawn more knowledge from the Bible! The work of the Spirit in our soul is absolutely necessary that we may apprehend the Life hidden in the letters which we read or hear or intellectually understand. The necessary work is almost always done in our daily practical life and not necessarily in the places (ex. church auditoria) where we had received the new knowledge or even the new faith.

Let me present at this place a living example from the time of Christ’s Crucifixion and its significance with respect to this very question of gaining access to His Life Eternal and to His spiritual riches.

When Our Lord gave up His Spirit and died on the Cross of Calvary, the New Testament being in His Blood came into power. (Mt. 26:28// Mk. 14:24// Lk. 22:20// 1Cor. 11: 25) But another event took place at the same time – the veil which was in the Temple dividing the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was rent into two from the top to the bottom. (Mt. 27:50,51// Mk. 15:37,38)

The veil separated the Most Holy Place, the Presence of God, from the Holy Place where God was not present. When God rent it, He, through the Blood of Christ, opened our way to Himself, to His Living Presence for every true believer that overcomes!

This physical veil in the Old Testament Temple represents the spiritual veil in the New Testament Temple where we are that Temple. (1Cor. 3:16,17) And the same veil is found between our spirit where God is present and our soul where God is not present at the time of our Redemption. This our veil must also be rent in order for us to gain access to the Presence of God in our spirit. OUR VEIL IS OUR FLESH, our sinful nature, our old man. It is a spiritual veil formed by the spirits of evil and darkness in our redeemed soul. It blinds our minds and covers our hearts (2Cor. 3:14-16) and it is also being rent (pierced) as we die on our cross. It is rent (pierced) chiefly by the Word of God. (Mt. 16:24// Heb. 4:12// Rev. 1:16, sword = Word of God)

The Lord says that we may obtain His Life and all the riches and treasures of His Life provided to us IN Himself THROUGH OUR VEIL. This veil, this divider, this barrier between our soul and spirit must be destroyed and it is destroyed by the process of the salvation of our soul which process must follow our Redemption and our water baptism. It is defined and described in Chapter 3 and also in later Chapters. It is the most important part of the most important issue in the life of all believers. Do we see that fact? And may we ask why it is the most important part?

The greatest deception of the Devil influencing the Church for many centuries is about the Salvation of our soul, not about the Salvation of our spirit, which is our Redemption. If we ignore this most important issue of our life as redeemed believers, we commit perhaps the greatest blunder of our Christianity with unforeseen and extremely grave consequences whereby many believers might lose their Salvation and eternal life due to this deep deception of the Devil.

Since the Full Salvation of the believer’s SOUL is conditional also to his water baptism, we will first present the issue of water baptism and its true significance.

WATER BAPTISM

The Word of God tells us clearly the following:

1. “He who believes (is redeemed) and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not (is not redeemed and thus not baptized) shall be damned.” (Mk. 16:16)

2. “And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water:” (Mt. 3:16a// Mk. 1:9,10)

These two truths of the Word of God show us the very great importance of the water baptism and it is the following.

The first truth from Mk. 16:16 is this:

Those, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, but were not baptized during their earhtly life or in accordance with the Scripture, may not all be saved!

The above truth touches three kinds of people:

1) Children, who died before the age of their accountability or consciousness of sin, could not sin and thus had nothing to repent of. They did not need to be baptized since they were saved as they were when they died. They received the free gift of justification unto life without repentance provided by the Saviour. (Rom. 5:18) All those, who later in their age had become conscious of sin and started to commit sins, needed to repent and be baptized,

2) Men, who believed in their heart and had no real chance, no time to be baptized as was the case with the criminal crucified on the right hand side of Our Lord. (Lk. 23:39-43) Here belong also those men that shall “call on the Name of the Lord” (Acts 2:21// Rom. 10:13) in dangerous circumstances (Tribulation) where their lives might be at stake or they might call in the midst of sheer terror having no chances for baptism. They all will be subjected to the process of overcoming–perfecting their souls after their physical death. (see details on pages 206–208^[8])

3) Believers, who do not believe in baptism, or do not care, or have other reasons to procrastinate or were not baptized by immersion (Mk. 1:9// Rom. 6:4// Col. 2:12// Jos. 3:17) or were not baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19) or in the Name of Jesus Christ. (Acts 2:38) All these, when they die in this state of not being baptized at all or not being baptized according to the Scripture, may be given the same chance of overcoming–perfecting their soul after death as those in point 2) above. This applies especially to all those that were deceived or misled by others, or that were ignorant about this Commandment of the Scripture due to no fault of their own. They were not taught the Scripture or led into Its Truth by their leaders. All these may receive the light from the Lord concerning their old natural man and overcoming after their physical death IF they have not fallen away before they die physically. (Heb. 6:4-6) If they have fallen away before they die physically, then they have lost their Salvation before their physical death (see more later).

The second truth is that even Jesus, the Son of God, had to be baptized! Why? Was He not born of the Holy Spirit? Was He not full of the Holy Spirit? What then was the purpose for His baptism? I see in my spirit three reasons for His baptism and they are the following:

1) He needed to be anointed for His Mission of man’s Salvation by the Power of the Holy Spirit! Up to that point, strictly speaking, Jesus was not yet “The Christ” which means “The Anointed One”. His Anointing after His water baptism was tested right away in the wilderness by Satan, who began by asking Him the stupid question: “If Thou be the Son of God...” (Mt. 4:3).

2) By His baptism He signified the necessity of His future death and resurrection, the dying of the old and sinful creation including man as a natural creature, and the beginning of a new creation including our new man – new creature (2Cor. 5:17) with his New Life rising out of death.

3) He gave His answer to all the believers, who would follow Him according to the Scripture. (Mt. 16:24// Mk. 8:34// Lk. 9:23) Without baptism we cannot receive the (additional) gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), which means, the anointing for our mission in earthly life which mission includes the Full Salvation of our redeemed soul. Though we may be born-again and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us (in our spirit), yet we need His anointing and power to ENABLE US to deny our self and take up our cross and follow Him.

We may now declare the truth that is vitally connected with the most important issue of our Christian life discussed in this book. That truth is the following:

If we are not baptized by immersion (Mt. 3:16a), we cannot receive the power – the anointing of the Holy Spirit – to even begin the vital process of the full salvation of our redeemed soul. We thus cannot follow Our Lord Jesus Christ because we have no power to deny our self and to take up our cross and follow Him (Mt. 16:24), obey Him (Heb. 5:9) and to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling! (Phil. 2:12)

The significance of our water baptism is that we are baptized into Jesus Christ, into His death, buried with Him into death, so that “...like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3,4)

Again, if the above Word of God is for us only a “written line in a book” which we read, agree with and believe, there cannot be any walk in any New Life since that New Life is missing in our soul! To walk in the “newness of Life” means to live the Life, which is New in our SPIRIT and MUST also become the New Life of our SOUL, for our earthly walk. This may also be viewed as a “Resurrection of our soul”! (see more in Chapter 3)

The truthful conclusion to the significance of water baptism is that it is our public declaration of our faith to die to the old life of our natural soul and be resurrected to the New Life in our soul. This process takes our entire Christian earthly life. But it is definitely and absolutely impossible for our old natural soul to live the Life of God’s Spirit and thus to “walk in newness of that Life”.

There is a world of difference between a natural soul and a spiritual soul. We do not gain the spiritual soul just by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ or being baptized in water. We all have lived in our natural soul until our water baptism. Only after our baptism, we have received the power for the transformation of our soul from the natural to the spiritual one.

Yet most believers continue living in their natural soul after their redemption and baptism! That is why they are called “soulish, carnal, natural believers” and they are unaware of it. They continue in their old habits, old life walking on the old way –the broad way– where they can do what their soul desires, so it is a “comfortable Christian life”. They do not even know the difference between the natural and spiritual soul and nobody tells them anything! Why?

Many of their ministers themselves do not see and understand the difference between the spiritual and the natural (soulish) life though it is clearly declared in the first letter of Paul to the Church in Corinth. Hence, they are unable to guide their carnal “sheep” in this extremely important transformation process from the natural to the spiritual life.

The natural soul lives the natural life which is a created life and was defiled, corrupted in Adam. It is a sinful, therefore, mortal life and it may become a very religious life. But if you will save this natural life, you will lose it! (Mt. 16:25// Mk. 8:35// Lk. 9:24; 17:33)

The spiritual soul lives the eternal Life of God which is an uncreated life, the Life of God Himself. It is a sinless, therefore, deathless life without end. If you lose your natural life for Christ’s sake, you shall find it... this Life of God!

These above facts and truths will become more and more clear when connected with the facts and truths in the following Chapter 3.

CHAPTER 3

SALVATION OF MAN

DEFINITIONS

The Salvation of man shall be understood as a revival or resurrection (cleansing, deliverance, recreation, perfecting) of the already redeemed soul of man. It follows the Redemption of man where only his spirit was revived, resurrected by the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Now his soul (heart, mind and will) must follow his spirit.

Furthermore, and most importantly as to the practical side of Salvation, the start of this Salvation process shall be understood as the start of man’s seeing and understanding the spirit!

When the man in Jn. 9:25b said: “...one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see”, it indicated his seeing as a baby could see. We got our spiritual eyesight at our Redemption when we saw Jesus as Saviour, but not as Lord, though we called Him Lord! Also, we saw and understood nothing else in spirit; this baby eyesight cannot carry us beyond our spiritual crib.

My seeing and understanding in spirit started when it pleased God: “to REVEAL His Son in me”, to show Him to me. (Gal. 1:16a) My soul started to see Christ as my Lord shortly after my water baptism. He had power and authority to direct and rule my life and I had the duty to serve Him and be obedient to Him and to His Word. This was a totally different seeing, and this seeing must become clearer and deeper as we mature and see our responsibilities to God and not only God’s promises to us.

The Salvation of man shall also be understood as the final maturing of the New Man with a new spirit, then a new soul and then also a new body. This believer becomes a mature son of God and thereby fulfils the final and eternal Purpose of God for man.

The process of the Salvation of our soul should begin shortly after our water baptism. When we receive this gift of the Spirit, we receive, as it were, our Captain with Whom we must subdue and eradicate all powers which are enemies of God in our soul, just as Joshua did when he began to occupy the Promised Land and eradicate all the enemy powers therein! (Acts 2:38// Jos. 5:13-15) Note that our Captain (the Holy Spirit) has a sword drawn in His hand, which sword is the Word of God. (Heb. 4:12// Ex. 15:3// Mt. 10:34// Rev. 1:16)

Now, the Promised Land for Israel in the Old Testament is a fore-picture of the Kingdom of God for the believer in the New Testament. The Promised Land was physical; the Kingdom of God is first spiritual and IT IS WITHIN US, within our SPIRIT. (Lk. 17:21) At our Redemption, this Kingdom comes into our spirit with the Spirit of God; then it is to be enforced into our whole SOUL and subdue it and rule therein! We then bring this spiritual Kingdom from our soul into the physical Kingdom on earth, enforce it and rule there together with Christ for 1000 years. (Rev. 20:6) If this Kingdom is not first set-up and ruling in our own soul, we will have nothing to bring to the physical Kingdom of Heaven on earth and we will be unable to rule therein.

If the above were not true then most of the New Testament would lose its meaning, chiefly the Epistles of Paul, Peter and John. The Spirit of the Lord gave them the light and truth about the human, natural soul of believers, its depravity, continued sinful nature, continued resistance to the Will of God, its capacity to reject what comes from God and does not satisfy that soul, to even choose death and evil rather than life and good! (Deut. 30:19) Our soul is thus capable of forfeiting that which it may have already received from God... including its own Salvation! Why is it so?

Our free will and its decisions are never taken from us by God, Who gave it. Our natural will retains its power to oppose God at any time, any place and under any conditions! It is quite able to oppose or neglect the Word of God and all His Commandments!

Our free will can take our natural life and destiny very lightly; it can also keep us from seeking first the Lord, His truth and His righteousness. If our free will had no such power to reject what God offers or gives or requires from man, then pagans and carnal Christians could not exist! Numerous passages in the Scripture could not exist as well, such as Jer. 6:16,17; 18:11-13// Mt. 25:41-46// 1Cor. 2:14,15; 3:1-3// 2Pet. 3:9 and many, many others. Do we see this fact? Do we believe it in our heart and mind? Really?

REALITY OF OUR SOUL

Firstly, the Lord desires us to see and understand His basic Light about our SOUL.

Adam and Eve were innocent, clean and spiritual in all three parts of their being: spirit, soul and body. After their disobedience and fall, all three parts lost their spiritual character and living fellowship with God in losing the Spirit of God from their spirit, soul and body. Before their fall, they had the “Nature-Character” of God, they were sinless, had their life in God and they served Him. Through their disobedience to God and obedience to Satan, they acquired the “nature-character” of Satan. They became “natural” and sinful in their spirit, soul and also mortal in body; they lost their life in God and began to serve Satan. In their “new” natural and sinful state they could not serve God even if they would have wanted to. (Rom. 6:16)

THIS was the death of Adam. In his spirit he was separated from God immediately; in body he died as a 930 year old. (Gen. 5:5) Therefore, God did not allow Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of life and live for ever in that sinful, corrupted state, but drove them out from the Garden and from His Presence. (Gen. 3:22-24)

Satan appealed to the desire of Eve’s SOUL, to her heart’s desire and mind’s imagination and thereby deceived her. (Gen. 3:6) Adam’s SOUL (heart) was not deceived as Eve’s was, yet he disobeyed God in eating the fruit also (1Tim. 2:14) because he loved Eve more than God!

Man’s being – body, soul, spirit – had become a legal ownership of Satan and man’s soul had become the principal territory of all Satan’s operations, evil deeds, plots and deceptions in man’s life!

Man had become SIN, unable to get back to God, have fellowship with Him and live God’s Life again. Man was doomed and there was “no way” to bring him back!

The Lord had not died for our sins only so that we may be forgiven our sins, but for our whole being – spirit, soul and body, which was destroyed by Satan by being severed from God’s Spirit through man’s disobedience. Man became natural, now he has to become spiritual again. Hence, the True and Full Salvation of man includes the SALVATION of our SPIRIT, SOUL and of our BODY! All three must be recovered, resurrected, recreated and preserved blameless unto the Coming of Our Lord. (1Thes. 5:23)

At our Redemption, we were reconciled to God, our vital link to God was restored, we were made alive to God again, we could start living our life in God again... but ONLY IN OUR SPIRIT, which we call the “born-again” experience. At our Redemption, our BODY and SOUL remained “un-renewed”; their life was not in God as yet, being still in the natural state. All our physical and mental sicknesses and infirmities also point to this spiritual fact. There is no sickness or infirmity of any kind in the Spirit of God and where He dwells and rules. Hence, we must wait for their restoration, resurrection, salvation which will be done when God’s Spirit takes HIS DOMINION in all parts of our being and they become spiritual. So, God starts our Salvation in our SPIRIT, continues with our SOUL and ends with our BODY.

Since our soul remains natural after our Redemption and water baptism, we must then focus on the SALVATION OF OUR SOUL and what it takes to accomplish it according to the Word of God. But our soul has its own will which can oppose God. That is why God works in us so that we would be willing to do His pleasure and not always our own. (Phil. 2:13)

Here is an important example from the Word of God showing what our soul is capable of doing and what its true spiritual state is after we have been born-again (redeemed) and baptized. When God tells us to “bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2Cor. 10:5), it means that the thoughts in our mind or heart, which are organs of our soul, are not of Christ because they do not obey Him. If they are not of Christ, then of whom are they? Well, they are of our self and also of the powers of darkness and evil to the degree to which our mind and heart are yet ruled or influenced by those powers and are neither delivered nor cleansed from them.

But if our thoughts are not of Christ, then they are not of the Word of God! Why? Because Christ IS the Word of God! (Jn. 1:1,14// Rev. 19:13) Christ is not the letters, but the Life, the Truth, the Way, the true meaning of the letters. Therefore...

the thoughts of our natural soul are not capable of achieving the Life and the true meaning of the Word of God! When we study, teach and preach the Word through our natural soul, we do not teach or preach the spiritual Truth of the Word, but OUR TRUTH, what we understand to be the truth! It may be good and logical, but it cannot convey the depth and the true meaning of the spiritual and Full Truth as breathed by the Spirit. It is soulish truth, religious truth, intellectual truth, but not spiritual truth.

How is it possible? If after our Redemption we had not followed the Lord according to His Word in Mt. 16:24, then we must realize that our cross was never brought into action in our soul and, therefore…

our soul has become religious,

but not crucified, not holy, not righteous!

What does that mean? The Lord shows the following.

The religious soul is a soul in which its natural, fleshly character had not disappeared but had become religious. It studies and acquires the knowledge of the Bible, it understands the Word and Christianity in its own way, it may “work for the Lord” and be engaged in many activities of its church or community, it sees all its ways clean and correct, but it sees nothing in spirit, understands nothing in spirit and cares not for the spirit, yet, it may talk a lot about the Spirit. Religious soul lives by its religious flesh. But the works of the flesh are strife causing divisions, separations of brethren so that one cannot get along with another. If this religious soul cannot get along with a brother, it separates itself from him, which is the easiest and quickest “solution”. Such a religious soul will never search for and deal with the reasons for their separation because it fears truth and elevates its own beliefs above all heavens. Such a soul may preach even about the Cross, but denies it in its own life.

The crucified soul is a soul delivered from the powers of evil and darkness within itself, from its “flesh”... pride, fears, hypocrisy, selfishness, self-righteousness, stubbornness, disobedience, arrogance, foolishness, and so on. That soul is now occupied, ruled and guided by the Spirit of the Lord, Who gained access to our soul from our spirit! It is our spirit which is the “candle of the Lord” searching all our inward parts, and not our soul. (Pr. 20:27)

The Full Salvation of our soul takes the rest of our earthly lifetime and then it continues after our rapture! (see more later) Our soul is then fully governed by the Spirit of Christ and He lives in and through our soul. (Gal. 2:20) Only with this perfected soul we may be considered having “no spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Eph. 5:27) and never before. Now, the perfected soul lives differently, behaves differently, thinks differently, responds (to others) differently, prays differently, sees, hears and understands differently. This “fruit” proves the spiritual soul and by this fruit it is easily recognizable from a natural soul.

One consequence of our soul not being crucified results in the well known and deep divisions and separations within the Church, which no man can bridge, eliminate or heal. We may have never seen, understood and realized why there are such divisions within the Church of Jesus Christ while all of its various factions, denominations, organizations, sects and groups are based on One and the same Book. Well...

all the divisions, separations, confusions, differences in doctrines and understanding in the Church of Jesus Christ, all the different roads, directions and decisions that believers take, all this TRAGEDY OF BELIEVERS is due to their uncrucified, unrenewed, uncleansed natural souls!

Such hearts and minds produce thoughts, reasoning, prejudices, judgments, speculations, convictions and then the ensuing teachings and sermons which are not of Christ, not of the Truth, not of the Spirit, not of the Word of God.

The “religious” preachers, teachers and evangelists become lecturers, intellectual or social educators not seeing and realizing that we cannot reach any spiritual truth and growth by any intellectual process!

If we preach reading from our notes that we had prepared in our study, though they may be theologically correct, it can never bring any spiritual fruit. Because “out of the abundance of (our experiences with the Lord in) the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt. 12:34) and not out of the abundance of written notes with logical and intellectual explanations from our mind. Do we see this fact? NO! Believers then become listeners or students that may increase their knowledge of Biblical information and may even be amazed at the brilliant reasoning of the preacher, but they remain the same in spirit and their soul remains natural! Many ministers may be screaming, sweating, striving, persuading believers even running across stages; their profound statements may be accentuated by drums or organs for an additional “effect”. Or they may be calm, composed… and some may keep their hands in the pockets of their pants while speaking about God, Jesus Christ or reading the Word of God… as if God or Jesus Christ were their “buddy” or just “objects” of their “grand theological study and lecturing”! Proud and totally unprofitable souls are they! Have mercy on such, Lord, for they truly know not what they are doing.

Their soul is still able to receive and understand the letter of the Bible, but it cannot receive and be changed by “the things of the Spirit of God” which are hidden in those letters! These things of the Spirit include the living truth, living meaning of the letter of the Bible. (1Cor. 2:7,14) Quoting the Bible doesn’t mean that either the preacher or the listener lives or is able to live what is quoted. And if neither of them is able to live it, then they cannot have any living understanding of the spiritual truth contained therein.

Let us now get a deeper, more living understanding of the human soul and its natural life in the religious theater.

ABILITY OF OUR SOUL

Our unrenewed, uncrucified, natural soul has abilities that we may not be ready to believe or imagine. They all are dangerous to our Christian life, progress and destiny. Here are some facts.

Few believers know, understand and also experience in their own life that God is endeavouring by His Spirit to form them into the “Image of His Son”, which is His Will and Purpose. (Rom. 8:29) But multitudes of believers including many ministers may not know or be aware of the fact that their natural souls are FORMING GOD INTO THEIR OWN IMAGE! Thus the process of their salvation is being hindered and this becomes their personal weight! (Heb. 12:1)How is that possible?

The Lord has given us a powerful mind. Furthermore, He has also given us another powerful tool – imagination! Without it man could not go very far in whatever direction he would like to go. We all are creative beings created in the Image of God, Who is the Creator. But whatever we desire to create, we must first imagine or “create” in our own head! An Engineer has to first “see-create-design his structure” in his head, in his imagination before he picks up his pencil and starts drawing and analyzing. A Doctor has to “see-design his operation process” in his head before he picks up his scalpel. A Composer must first “see-hear-create his symphony” in his head and imagination before he even starts writing the notes. True? If you do not believe it, ask these professionals.

This unusual ability of our soul is very easily transferred into the field of religion, the field of our religious beliefs, understanding, convictions, imaginations. Once these are formed in our head and soul, all our actions are based on them and follow them. They may conform to many parts of the Scripture, but at the same time be very far from many other passages of the Scripture and from their interdependent spiritual meaning. The longer we run in this new “rut”, the more difficult it is to get out of it and ponder a “new” truth, which may not be new at all, but it is the spiritual and entire truth of the Word as a whole.

We repeat that our “natural man (soul) receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned“. (1Cor. 2:14)

Therefore, our natural soul rejects any spiritual “new“ truth as unacceptable to its logic and understanding and its “sound mind“ because our natural soul cannot see it!

The Lord desires to show that when we are attending educational institutions (seminaries, theological faculties, etc.), we automatically receive, absorb and form our “intellectual rut” based on, what we might call, a “traditional knowledge”. When, for example, my professor believes that no born-again believer may ever lose his Salvation and presents his “logical proofs” from the Scripture then I am prone to receive it without much pondering or searching other parts of the Scripture or without any other effort on my part to seek the Truth. Why? I imagine that my professor, being older than I and more educated, is more experienced and thus he must know better than I do, otherwise, he would not be a professor at that prestigious institution. Also, what he presents looks totally logical, so, I accept it automatically! My future life and possibly my destiny and the way to it are affected at that very moment. And the future and destiny of many other believers to whom I may be preaching at a later time will also be affected at that very moment! Why?

I will come out of that educational institution with “my own baggage” and I will not be aware of it! I will then keep transferring that same “baggage” to other believers, maybe millions of them, and not be aware of it. Even if some other believer would show me clearly in the Scripture that a born-again believer MAY indeed lose his Salvation, I would not be able to believe it! The truth is that this very example is happening far too often in the life of the Church.

The above example is concerned primarily with the believers whose soul is inclined to reason and walk by logic. It is extremely logical that a believer born by the Spirit of God and sealed with His Spirit could not possibly break that seal and lose that Salvation. Is that true? It is true. YET, IT IS NOT TRUE in the eyes of God. But their natural soul cannot accept it and believe it because it cannot imagine it and thus understand it! What they cannot imagine, see or understand, they cannot believe. But this is Christianity put upside down! Furthermore, their pride will not allow them any flexibility in seeking the Truth! When such believers are shown the passages in the Bible where the loss of Salvation is clearly taught, they do not know what to do with them! They might try to explain them away to suite their “baggage” or they do not respond to you! They have no power to admit that this might be true, that they may not be infallible. They have no willingness to search any truth beyond their “baggage” or to ask the Lord to open their understanding of the Bible. Man cannot open the spiritual understanding of any other man because it takes the Lord Himself to do it. (Lk. 24:45)

We may not realize and register in our natural mind a simple truth that we were all born deceived, dead in spirit and with a darkened mind, heart and will. This spiritually darkened natural mind and heart may still excel in very many areas of our physical, mental, intellectual and emotional life, (engineering, medicine, philosophy, art, music, theology, etc.) BUT the realm of the spirit with its truths and realities is totally closed to them.

Our natural mind and heart have no ability and no capacity to penetrate, see and comprehend the vast realm of spiritual knowledge and wisdom available to our born-again and renewed spirit.

It takes the Light and Life of Christ in our spirit to first penetrate our natural darkened soul, to enlighten it and thus enable it to start apprehending that spiritual knowledge and wisdom. And WE MUST BE WILLING to receive His Light and Life into our soul. The TRAGEDY of too many born-again believers is that this Light and Life of Christ is being “imprisoned” in their spirit by the flesh of their soul, which soul remains darkened, ignorant, deceived and natural! Such believers cannot grow up, make spiritual progress or mature spiritually even for the rest of their Christian life. It is very easy for them to mistake their theological, biblical, religious knowledge for the Light and Truth revealed by the Lord. Do you see this? No natural man can see this fact.

Before we continue on this topic of the natural and spiritual, of the baby stage or of the mature stage and what it means in the spirit, we must see and realize what the fact of maturing actually is.

True maturing of believers is their GETTING MORE holy, more gracious, more understanding, more wise, more loving, more seeing, more forgiving, more compassionate, more meek, more temperate, more diligent, more willing, more perfect, etc… having greater and purer love and faith and stronger spirit.

Maturing means GETTING THE CONSCIOUSNESS of all the spirits within and without the believer himself, of their purposes and ways in which they operate to achieve their own will and goals. This includes the Spirit of God and also the spirits of darkness and evil.

Maturing is GETTING THE ABILITY TO SEE the spiritual world and to understand how it functions and why. This brings the ability to judge righteously and not by what the believer can see with his eyes or hear with his ears or understand with his mind. Physical senses and mental abilities cannot interpret and judge righteously the spiritual world, spiritual facts or spiritual problems. (Is. 11:1-3b-5// Jn. 7:24 etc.)

If we ponder the question of maturing we can find out that it is exactly the same in our physical world. Children have no consciousness of the world and no ability to see it and understand it, no ability to judge anything. Young people should increase in these abilities and knowledge and acquire MORE of everything. The more we mature physically, the more we see and understand this physical world, the more conscious we become of its facts and problems. We are more able to judge wisely and solve its manifold problems. Yet, no matter how mature we become physically, we can never see, hear and understand the spiritual world, never be conscious of it in any way unless we become born-to-it. But when we do become born-to-it, we become spiritual toddlers that see, hear and understand nothing of their “new” spiritual world. Though we may be 50-60-70 years old or more physically, we may still be spiritual children that never matured! Why? Because spiritual maturing is not “automatic” as is the physical maturing where, if we eat, drink, sleep and breathe we grow up without any further effort on our side. Should we “eat and drink the Word”, not read It, but eat It and drink It; and should we “breathe the Spirit”, we would also live and grow up spiritually. But who is doing it? Our fruits show the truth. But immature believers cannot distinguish their fruits either.

How can then any believer find out whether he is matured or in a baby stage? If year after year he/she has to be told what to do, how to do it, when to do it, where to go, where not to go, what is wise, what is foolish, what is of God, and what is not, what will be profitable, what will not, etc., then he/she is a baby who needs a constant nursing and instructions in real life by his/her tutors, pastors, spiritual advisers, elders or more mature brethren. A mature believer knows all these things in himself and he is able to instruct others. Are you able to see where you are? However, let us also understand that our natural ability to instruct others does not necessarily mean that we are spiritual!

A natural religious soul may produce a vast amount of work for the Lord with a vast amount of time and energy spent. Yet, it never asks the Lord what spiritual fruit has been produced, whether the fruit of that vast amount of work shall remain or not. (Jn. 15:16) A natural religious man is able to build magnificent, imposing and costly structures, write mountains of books filled with imposing religious knowledge and rake in a lot of money. Sometimes it takes one match to reduce them all to ashes! (1Cor. 3:12,13) Do we truly know whether, what we have built, is of gold, silver or of wood, hay, stubble or paper? Why must we wait for God’s match to see and know?

Another typical example of this problem of our natural soul, its imagination and reasoning power is the following. Let us add to these “virtues” of our natural soul feelings – emotions. Also, consider the personal “weight” where our soul had formed Jesus Christ into “our image”! We find throughout the New Testament many passages of the Word where we can clearly see that “God is love”, (1Jn. 4:8) He is compassionate, forgiving, merciful, patient, faithful, good, gentle, meek, lowly in heart. (Mt. 11:29) It is a very soothing, sweet and comfortable truth to our natural soul and we thus always expect to experience this truth in all of our natural, earthly life. Hence, our soul does not search for any deeper truth. Is there more to it?

How about the Word where we can equally clearly see that our “God is a consuming fire”? (Heb. 12:29) Or that God’s Judgment can terminate our earthly life (Acts 5:1-10) or even our eternal life, if we walk and live like fools and refuse to overcome? (Rev. 3:5; 21:7) How does this truth apply to our Christian life? Will our natural soul believe and trust also these passages of the Word of God? Will not our natural soul believe and say that these Words of God are only for pagans? So, will our natural soul start fearing God, His Ways and Judgments? NO, it will not, it cannot! It needs to go through God’s consuming fire to change its course and beliefs!

Let us realize and even draw from our past experiences that every natural soul is quite able to create its own image of God based also on various events in its life, living conditions and circumstances. Any serious event in our life is usually interpreted and understood not by God’s Word and reality, but according to our own natural character, feelings and understanding of those events and circumstances.

This understanding and interpretation of our natural soul then form our judgment of the Person of God and his ways which is always false! But our image of God and our judgment of Him thus formed may redirect our life to a completely different road and may not change even after many years. The result may be a huge loss of time and blessings just because we did not search His True Character and ways from His Word. We will return to this topic later on when we will talk about love.

Let us take another example. Preachers often quote Jn. 3:16 as it were a “pivotal verse” from the whole Bible because it shows the great love of God. Well, it does show His great love! Does it also show the whole Character of God and the whole Truth about Him? NO!

The natural soul takes all those soothing facts and creates its own image of God, of His Ways, Judgments and of His Righteousness, what is of Him and what is not, what is His truth and what is not, what His Word truly means and what His Word cannot mean. Yet, the Scripture can challenge our natural soul and prove it wrong every time. But first He must destroy the pride in that soul.

Let us now take that natural soul with its “own image of God” and bring it to other passages of the Word of God and see how it fares there. In Jn. 3:16 God so loved the world; in Jam. 4:4 you are the enemy of God, if you love the same world! And in Gen. 6:6,7, right at the beginning of the world, God destroyed the world that He loved so much and drowned all mankind as rats! How is your image of God now? Can your natural soul reconcile Jn. 3:16 with Gen. 6:6,7 or with Jam. 4:4? Can it now understand the Love of God, His Grace, Mercy and His true Character better? NO!

Furthermore, that same Jesus Christ, Who is merciful, compassionate, forgiving, loving, meek and lowly in heart commands king Saul to kill every man, woman, infant and suckling of the Amalekites! (1Sam. 15:3) What will your natural soul say or think now? Oh, this can’t be Jesus! Oh YES, IT IS HIM! This same Son of God in His pre-Bethlehem existence commanded Joshua (Deut. 7:2,3) to utterly destroy men, women and children of all the nations named in Deut. 7:1! Jesus Himself said that “...he (Moses) WROTE OF ME”! (Jn. 5:46; Moses wrote the Book of Deuteronomy and thus wrote about Jesus Christ!) Jesus Christ also declared that “things in Psalms and Prophets concerned Himself”! (Lk. 24:44)

But Moses, David and the Prophets did not write about a “terrible, unmerciful and unloving God”. True? Can we absorb this truth or comprehend it in our natural mind and heart? NO, never!

We surely cannot comprehend that God became Man and had to learn obedience to men whom He created! (Is. 45:12) Can we fathom that? NO! Why would God learn obedience? (Heb. 5:8) Jesus Christ, being God, (Jn. 14:9// 1Jn. 5:7// Jn. 1:1) never had to obey anything and anyone. But without obedience Jesus, the Man, could not save us, conquer and destroy man’s disobedience and thus become the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that... well, again… OBEY HIM! (Heb. 5:9// Rom. 5:19) Therefore…

The key word of our Salvation is also

OBEDIENCE and NOT FAITH ALONE!

You may know the Bible from cover to cover and agree with it all and believe it all and be lost…

if you do not obey it!

And there is much more to this mystery of obedience than meets the eye and we will return to it and ponder it later on.

If you should say that those peoples in Deut. 7:1 were pagan nations, then let us understand that they were the same living human beings created by God as were the children of Israel. Simply said, How can a loving God command someone to kill small innocent children? Herod, yes (Mt. 2:16), but God? Is this quite acceptable to your natural heart and mind?... or to your feelings or reasoning?... or to your sense of justice, righteousness, mercy, love, goodness, meekness, temperance? REALLY? If you are honest, then you must say: NO!

Furthermore, they did not have to be exterminated just because they were pagans. God was not sentencing people to be killed just because they were pagans, but because they became active enemies of God and of His people Israel by disregarding and opposing His Will in His choice of Israel. When they touched Israel, they touched the “apple of His eye”. (Zech. 2:8) The question is: Did God sentence His own people also to be killed? Yes, He did! And for the same reason, when they disregarded, opposed, resisted His Judgments, His Choice, His Government! They had the right to oppose Him by their free will, and God had the right to terminate their earthly life because HE gave that life to them, they did not own it, HE held their soul in life! (Ps. 66:9)

Let us now see one typical example from the chosen nation of Israel. It is written that the city of Jericho and all that was in it was accursed to the Lord except Rahab, the harlot, and all that were with her. God clearly commanded Israel to keep away from the accursed things lest they become accursed themselves. (Jos. 6:17,18) But Achan took the accursed things and hid them in his tent and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel (Jos. 7:1)... not only against Achan himself, but against the whole nation! It cost Israel the lives of 36 innocent men (Jos. 7:5) and Achan (the son of Abraham, the son of Isaac, the son of Jacob ... the son of Carmi) with all his sons and daughters and oxen and asses and sheep and his tent and all that he had, was destroyed! He and all his family were stoned with stones and then they were all burnt with fire! (Jos. 7:24,25) This would not be considered a righteous judgment in our days, would it? Well, the loving, merciful, good and righteous God did it! Do we understand it? NO!

What’s more, let us see and comprehend that Achan was not even given any chances to repent and not repeat such sin! God never told him: “I love you, you are My people, so, please, do not commit that again; confess your sin and I will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness”. (1Jn. 1:9) Why did God not speak to him like that and in His Grace and Mercy give him a chance to repent? And why his whole family had to be killed? Did they participate in his sin? Were they judged so severely because it took place in the Old Testament? Really? God did exactly the same thing right at the beginning of the New Testament with Ananias and his wife Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10) who dropped dead without any appeals from God to confess their sin, repent and be forgiven and cleansed from their unrighteousness! Is that true? I must repeat it: IS THAT TRUE? Do we understand it? NO!

What is your natural sense now? What is your reasoning, understanding and your righteousness? What is your judgment? Do we truly know the Lord as the Scripture says? NO! Our own natural thoughts, imaginations, reasoning and understanding are all FALSE! Natural believers have the same clue about the true Character of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as clay has about the potter! All three Persons of the Godhead are One. they were never divided into a “terrible” God of the Old Testament and a “merciful” God of the New Testament! They do not change from the Old to the New Testament! (1Jn. 5:7// Heb. 13:8// Mal. 3:6) Our natural soul may keep speculating and striving to understand, but in the eyes of God our natural soul knows nothing, understands nothing and it is nothing! Why? Because...

“if a man think HIMSELF to be something, when HE IS NOTHING, he deceives HIMSELF.” (Gal. 6:3)

This is assuredly not a pleasant Word for our proud soul; hence, it is never preached and explained to believers in truth as the Spirit means it! Why not? Well, ask the preachers.

God has never changed! His Love, Patience, Compassion, Mercy, His Character, Nature, Holiness, Righteousness and Truth have never changed. BUT in the New Testament, God introduced new Commandments for believers, new ways to live, walk and behave; much higher and greater Commandments and ways, spiritual Commandments and spiritual ways. (Mt. 5:21,22,27,28, 31-34,38 ,39,43,44) While some of the Old Testament Commandments could be kept by a zealous and desirous natural soul, the New Testament ones cannot be kept by any natural soul! It takes the Nature-Character of Christ to keep the New Testament Commandments and walk the New Testament ways! God brought us from the natural (physical, mental) realm of the Old Testament to the spiritual realm of the New Testament. The “New” Ways, Commandments and Judgments of the New Testament express this fact… and we seem to understand nothing of it.

Furthermore, you cannot say that in the New Testament God never sentences His people to death. God has been allowing His people to be killed also in the New Testament... by the millions!... and not only Jews or those that lied to His Spirit, like Ananias and Sapphira, but also those that had done His Will and faithfully kept His Testimony! (Rev. 6:9-11) Is this also logical, quite understandable and acceptable to our human soul? Is it acceptable to our sense of justice and righteousness? Is it really? NO!

The example of Ananias and Sapphira is clear as to their sin, but it is not clear why God, again, did not give them any chance to repent and be forgiven. God sentenced them to death right at the beginning of the New Testament to show that He, as God, had not changed, His Ways and Judgments had not changed. His Love, Grace and Mercy had not changed, except that natural souls, despite their studies, cannot see and understand any of it! Therefore, they preach His Word according to their understanding and deep desire for God’s “unlimited and unconditional love, grace, mercy and forgiveness…” which would give believers an extra large measure of irresponsibility and comfort and freedom to do as they please... never mind God’s True Purpose, His Will and pleasure and desire.

Let us take another example, this time with the disciple of the Lord, who lived in the Presence of the Son of God for over three years – Judas Iscariot! Would our natural, human soul understand his case? NO, never!

Read Jn. 13:21-27 and tell me what you see in it. Do you see there an “unconditional love of the Lord for His own Disciple”? NO! Why not? The Lord did not tell him “Now, Judas, do not do what you are plotting to do, but change your thoughts, change your mind and repent of your intention, and I will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness”. On the contrary, the Lord gave him a sop after dipping it and then He told him:

“What you are about to do (by your own will), DO IT QUICKLY”! (Jn. 13:26,27)

Here the Lord commanded Judas saying to him, in effect: Go and betray Me quickly... do your own will and intention of your heart. And then He could have prophesied to him saying… and then you will go and hang yourself and be damned for ever! (Mt. 18:7// Lk. 17:1)

Jesus knew what Judas would do (Jn. 6:64) and so He permitted him to do it, even told him to do it quickly without one word of stopping him in his way and intention! Does our natural soul understand this truth of the Scripture? NO! And do not tell me that Judas was later saved. Oh, no! He lost his salvation because after he had received the sop from the Lord’s hand, Satan entered into him (Jn. 13:27) and he became the son of perdition. (Jn. 17:12)

Let us see and realize that Judas had the same opportunities as the other eleven Disciples. He was not excluded from anything that the other eleven were exposed to, but all was made open and available to him in the same way and measure. The Lord made no difference between Judas and the others. This is truly a frightening reality showing us that a believer may “sit in his church”, be exposed to all the light and truth as the whole congregation is and end up as Judas! Why? Judas refused to deny himself, his ideas, thoughts and convictions, his understanding of Jesus and of His mission and to be an Overcomer; and that despite walking with the living Son of God for over three years! He thus opened his spirit for Satan to return and reclaim him. (see also Jn. 6:70,71)

If we do not go with the Lord, we go with Satan. The Lord took His Spirit from Judas and cast him away from His Presence. (Ps. 51:11) This took place at the very end of the Old Testament and just few hours away from the New Testament!

When the Lord did not spare him, on what Scriptural basis would He spare those of like heart, mind and will, who also keep refusing to deny their self and overcome? Can you tell? (2Pet. 2:4-10) They will also be cut off and damned, if they abide in unbelief! (Rom. 11:20-23// Jn. 15:6// Rev. 3:5; 21:8) Our humanistic soul cannot receive and believe such a “terrible truth” about God, His Justice, Righteousness and Judgments. Most believers cannot believe this truth because they do not know God and His Holiness, they do not fear Him and they have no true reverence toward Him! But spiritual reality with God is something far more and far deeper than our human sincerity, zeal, earnest desires, honesty, noble intentions or works. The decisive factor is our faith, fruits of the Spirit and obedience to the Word of God, to what GOD says and not to what we think! The same severe testing is coming to us now at the end of this Dispensation and the beginning of the Tribulation with its unspeakable sufferings and the FIRE of God’s Judgments on the world and also on the Church – the House of God which shall be judged first. (1Pet. 4:17,18)

We may ask reverently where was the “unconditional” Love of God, His Grace, His Mercy and His “longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance”? (2Pet. 3:9b) Can our natural human soul and mind understand or reconcile this above Word of God with Jn. 13:26,27? NO! The fact is that we MUST SEE IN SPIRIT to understand this as Our Lord sees and understands it.

Let us also note that the Word in 2Pet. 3:9b applies not only to pagans, as many believers and preachers may understand it, but also to born-again, baptized believers, who refuse to repent and change their ways as commanded by the Lord! (Rev. 2:5,16,21; 3:3,19) Let us see, understand and believe that there may be many Iscariots in the Church today. The same goes for the New Testament Pharisees, Sadducees and also various “scribes” who may already be condemned to hell now (Mt. 23:1-33-39) and they may equally be unaware of their tragedy as the Old Testament ones were not aware. Unless Our Lord destroys our PRIDE, we have no chances!

Brother Hanola did not write the Word of God, he was only called to bring the Truth of the Word and bear witness of that Light before your eyes and hearts that you may see and believe It! I am doing my duty before the Lord; you are called by the Lord to do your duty before Him in prayerfully considering the above facts and truths because this is what the Lord desires at this time from all of us!

If I should now say: “Thus says the Lord...” would it make any difference to you? NO! Are you able to believe that the Lord speaks to you in this book? NO soulish believer can! Why? The Lord says that the children of Israel almost never believed their prophets, why should the children of God in the Church believe their prophets? But the Lord will never speak to your mind. Go on your knees before the Almighty God and go into your heart and conscience, if you know how to do it, and see and hear there whether the Lord is speaking to you or not. But the Lord is causing His true servants and prophets to speak His words also to those that will not listen to them, and to call on those that will not answer! (Jer. 7:27) Do you belong to such?

I believe that these examples should be very helpful for us to understand the natural soul, its abilities, or rather disabilities, and the associated dangers for any believer, who may keep his old natural soul for many years after his Redemption… even unto his death! And when such a believer teaches at a seminary or is put behind a pulpit and teaches, preaches and ministers, are not all his listeners in the same danger? We will be able to see and judge this when our soul is sufficiently renewed by the Spirit. Otherwise, we will not even see what the actual problem is. If we cannot see our own self as God sees it, we will never see and understand this TRAGEDY OF BELIEVERS.

So, our loving God can “kill us” or allow us to be killed, if He judges us worthy of death (Deut. 32:39,41// Acts 5:1-10; 25:11) whether we understand it or not, whether we approve of it or not, whether we believe it or not, whether we feel good or bad about it, whether we love God and His Judgments or hate Him and His Judgments. But for Him, our physical death is precious, (Ps. 116:15) it is not a tragedy, but our spiritual death is! He may sometimes prevent our spiritual death (for example, committing the sin unto death – Mt. 12:32// 1Jn. 5:16, or the like) by our premature physical death. He has the right to take away our life from us since we do not own it, He gave it to us.

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)

At this point, the Lord desires to show us one of the deepest and most dangerous deceptions with which believers are deceived. It greatly affects our beliefs, the course of our actions or inactions and all our earthly life. It also makes us unable to receive from Him what we need and what He desires to give us and prosper us in spirit, soul and body. Let us, therefore, see the following.

When we are delivered from what we see and believe to be our “bad-evil-sinful flesh”, we are satisfied and believe that we are now “good and acceptable to the Lord”. Why? We see nothing else wrong with us; no more “bad-evil-sinful flesh”. But Our Savior and Lord says that our “good flesh”, good virtues of our natural soul are also evil and sinful and were not spared on His Cross!

Our natural “good” soul was not spared in its natural life! Hence, all – BAD & GOOD – must be destroyed in its entirety; otherwise, we cannot live by faith or minister in spirit while we live in our “good, humanly acceptable flesh”! There is nothing that God had saved and kept alive from our old being.

When your sins are forgiven, you are reconciled to God. But if your flesh – sinful nature – is not destroyed in its entirety, you will keep sinning and retaining evil within yourself for ever while being a sincere, honest, diligent, faithful, devout, dependable and responsible believer! Do you see this truth? It should change your faith and your Christian life. @@

Paul said: “I AM crucified with Christ...” which means: “I AM FINISHED…” not just my sins. But if “I AM crucified”, if I take up my cross and deny the life of my old natural soul, then it is no more I, my old self, that lives, but Christ lives His Eternal Life IN MY NEW SPIRITUAL SOUL and not only in my spirit! (Gal. 2:20) In such a case, I am a fully completed spiritual believer, matured son of God, ready to follow the Lord wheresoever He goes (Mt. 16:24, 25 // Rev. 14:4,5), ready to be taken to the Throne and meet My Lord and My Father. (Rev. 12:5)

The problem in recognizing a soulish believer from a spiritual one is far more complicated than just observing their outward acts and behavior as per the four examples given above. Our natural soul has its own disposition which may vary vastly from individual to individual. Our disposition may also be viewed as a “personal package” containing the type of thinking, personal talents, personal inclinations or leanings, desires, goals, good and bad virtues (mentioned before) and the “package” of spirits of darkness and evil. These spirits typically include some form of pride, some degree of jealousy, stubbornness, selfishness, self-righteousness, fears, hypocrisy, malevolency, foolishness, laziness, disobedience, possibly bitterness, hatred, etc.

Hence, each of the four examples of soulish believers on pages 48 and 49 is further affected by these “packages”. We may then have a soulish believer, who lives in his world of “reason” and may be either fearful or jealous or stubborn or naturally humble, proud, self-righteous, bitter or a hypocrite depending on his/her disposition. The same goes for the other three examples of soulish believers.

The most diligent, faithful, zealous and devout soulish believer may be either proud or humble or fearful or he may be a hypocrite, etc. The combinations within the disposition of each natural soul are almost endless. It is usually possible to discern the main features of a human soul and its overall temperament, but only after some time of having personal contact with the person. Many of its other features will remain well hidden. Only the Lord knows about them and He may expose them in His timing in order that they might be destroyed and the soul delivered.

These well hidden features harbored within the natural soul are its “bad virtues and bad spirits”. They may never be discovered by another natural soul and they may not be known even to the infected soulish believer himself.

So, what does the Lord do with our natural, carnal soul? How does He deal with it? How is He transforming our natural soul making it spiritual, perfect and thus fully acceptable to Himself and to Our Father? Well, He is doing it graciously, wisely, patiently and consistently whether our response to it is right or wrong, whether we like it or not, whether we understand it or not.

Our Lord does His work by His Living and sharp Word, (Heb. 4:12// Rev. 1:16) by discipline, chastisement, rebuke, (Heb. 12:5-8) by guidance of His Spirit, by showing us our spiritual need and the truth about ourselves (here a little and there a little – Jn. 16:13// Is. 28:10). He also works in our soul so that we would be willing to do His Will. (Phil. 2:13) When we follow His guidance and do His Will, He delivers us, meets our needs and also comforts us during this whole process.

We must definitely see and understand that all of these above steps are firstly done by the Spirit through a man, who is never as perfect as we expect, but who was sovereignly chosen by God for us whether we like him or not. God does not work in us directly until we are sufficiently mature in spirit and soul and do not need tutors any more. (Gal. 4:1,2)

His Spirit always knows the right timing for any spiritual work that is to be done in us, the manner in which it is to be done and the person(s) that He will use. He then leads the person to express his discernment, his observation, his faith about our spiritual need, our condition, our deeds, faults or errors as our fruit would clearly indicate. His discernment is always supported by the Word of God and, if necessary, by two or three other witnesses in whose mouth every word of that chosen person is established. (Mt. 18:16)

This process is never pleasant or joyful, that is why we are never eager to be treated like that without first being offended and pricked and defending ourselves, disregarding the truth and disbelieving such “shameful accusations“. When we finally, under the weight of the evidence, break down and repent, we always need the comforting of the Spirit. So, the Spirit is our Comforter not only because of what injustices and bruises and pain we can suffer from the world and hell, but also because of what war we have to wage within our own soul. (Jn. 14:26) Many times the Spirit may show us that instead of fighting and resisting the devil we have been fighting and resisting the Lord Himself!

We should not be surprised to learn that the Word of God is kind, compassionate, loving, intreating, full of grace, mercy and forgiveness. This may be more so during our Redemption and ensuing spiritual baby stage where the Lord requires from us nothing but that we would eat, sleep and play. But when our childish days are over and we are supposed to be “weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts“ of our tutors, our higher spiritual education and transformation should then begin. (Is. 28:9,10// Gal. 4:1,2)

YET, very few children are ever weaned from the milk (of the Word) and drawn from the breasts of their pastors, teachers or elders. Why? Well, we may not know how or even when to wean our spiritual children from the milk of the Word. We may fear to grant them freedom to broaden their faith and depth of spiritual knowledge, which freedom we may not have ourselves. And if we have not matured in spirit ourselves, then we have nothing else to offer, but milk. How then can we wean anyone else from milk?

Yet there are believers that do go on unto perfection (Heb. 6:1) and do not continue on the merry-go-round of their religious kindergarten. They heed the call of the Lord and they are not afraid to step out of their boat and learn to walk on the water, which represents living and walking by faith. (Mt. 14:28,29// Rom. 1:17// Gal. 3:11// Heb. 10:38) What is the Word of God to such believers? If believers have any desire to truly know the Lord, His Character and be thereby changed into His Image, to follow Him and not their own self, then to such believers...

the Word of God is Quickening, Powerful, and Sharper than any two-edged sword, Piercing...

(Heb. 4:12a// Rev. 1:16)

Believers are not used to that kind of the Word, nor do they desire it, nor yet are they ready or able to receive it and obey it without much delay or without “thinking about it”! That is the reason why they remain children drinking spiritual milk “for ever”. That includes those in the leadership of the organized Church that live in their religious souls and are “touched, pricked or offended” by any sharper word piercing something inside of their natural soul!

What is it that the Sharp and Powerful Word of God pierces? It pierces the “dividing asunder of SOUL and SPIRIT (fleshly barrier between soul and spirit – our veil) and joints and marrow (natural life is in blood, created in marrow), and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (not of the mind).” (Heb. 4:12b) First, the Lord “knocks” on your heart, which means: He calls your SOUL from your SPIRIT. (Rev. 3:20)

If you born-again baptized believer in His Church (of the Laodiceans or Lutherans or Baptists or Pentecostals or Catholics or Calvins, etc.) hear His voice and open the door to Him (to your heart and soul), He will come into your SOUL and will sup with you and you with Him. Only then will you begin to have a fellowship with Christ Jesus and a chance to begin to know Him.

And, please, do not tell me that the Lord knocks on the heart of pagans. The Lord writes this to His own Church of Laodiceans, not to unbelievers! This Word should never be used for evangelistic purposes. It is born-again believers, who have hearts closed to the Lord, who need their SAVIOUR to enter their SOUL and become also their LORD and replace their SELF which has been their “true lord” all their previous life!

“He that has an ear (among those that read this), let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.” (Rev. 3:22)

BUT, how many believers hear His voice? And how many are willing to open their heart to the Lord even though they may hear His voice? If they refuse to open their heart, the Lord sends His Word... piercing that barrier. Have you heard His Word that pierced your soul and spirit? Was it painful? Did you obey that Word afterwards? Why must the Lord get into our heart and soul? Because otherwise He cannot save it! Otherwise our self-will wins and not our Lord!

The Lord does not have to fight Satan, He had already defeated him. He has to fight US since the Lord had not defeated us and subdued our will because we resist Him! And quite often we may resist God more than we resist Satan! Are we aware of that? NO!

Our Salvation is a gift from God, but we must willingly receive it into our spirit and work it out into our soul as per Phil. 2:12b! We will say more about this in the next section.

Soulish believers commit some drastic errors in misinterpreting various parts of the Word of God. Their interpretation always follows their human, natural understanding which always suits their personal desires, their judgment, comfort, thinking, reasoning or feelings. Soulish believers are never inclined to assume from God any responsibility for their own Salvation. They deny the need for any works within their own soul and would like to spend all their time and efforts on their physical life or on other people.

The most basic error they commit is in interpreting the Word of God in Eph. 2:8,9:

“For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”

That Word is true and correct and nothing in it is unclear. But the word “works” is totally misinterpreted with respect to the rest of the Scripture! The core of this misinterpretation is in the kind of works and in the origin of the works and not in the total absence of all works! What is their error? Well, let us consider in our heart, mind and conscience the following picture from the Word of God.

We cannot work FOR our Redemption to receive God’s Spirit (Jn. 3:3), His forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to Himself (just as we cannot split the Red Sea by our efforts!) This is His free gift to us and it is “NOT OF WORKS” lest any man should boast!

But then WE MUST WORK OUT our Salvation in our SPIRIT and SOUL with fear and trembling once we are redeemed and are reconciled to God and have His Spirit dwelling in us! (Phil. 2:12// 2Cor. 7:1, etc.) Once the Red Sea is split, we must cross it on our own feet and with our own decision, which is the work of our faith.

The Word of God in Eph. 2:9 points to the work of man’s sinful flesh, of his natural, carnal soul, of his self. This “work” also includes any work for the Lord and all the so called “works of the law”. (Rom. 3:28) In both cases, it is the work of man’s sinful, natural, carnal soul desiring to be “worthy of his Salvation”. But by this work no flesh shall be justified and it is not acceptable to God in any way. (Gal. 2:16)

But the work in Mt. 16:24,25// Acts 2:38// 2Cor. 6:17, 18; 7:1// Gal. 5:24// Eph. 4:15,22-24// Phil. 2:12// Heb.6:1-6, etc., is our work of the faith received from jesus christ after our redemption! (1Cor. 12:9// Rom. 12:3// Heb. 12:2, etc.) THIS WORK is absolutely necessary and outright demanded by God for the salvation of our spirit and soul after we are redeemed!

Our full salvation must include the perfection of our spirit and soul, which is the continuation of our redemption! Without this work we cannot be perfected as desired by Our Lord.

These conditions of God toward believers are clearly declared throughout the Scripture and without these works of faith we cannot be overcomers and inherit all things! Without these works of faith God cannot have His sons and daughters – His True Family – because we cannot be in any way conformed into the IMAGE OF CHRIST, which is the True and Final Purpose of God Our Father for saving man. (Rom. 8:29)

He that is working out his own Salvation is the true Overcomer and becomes a true son of God. The Word of God does not say: “He that believed on Me and is redeemed shall inherit all things...” NO! It clearly says: “He (the redeemed believer) that overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be His God and he shall be My son.” (Rev. 21:7) Do we see that? Do we really?

Soulish, carnal, fleshly believers always want to have everything free, without any responsibility, without any action, any effort on their part whatsoever, just believe... and God will do everything for them. NO! They have to DO THE FAITH-LIGHT which Christ has showed them about themselves lest that faith remains dead and they remain dead to the Spirit. (Jam. 2:17,26) God had not created lazy, irresponsible, naïve, foolish and deceived human beings, the Devil did! But many believers seem to be very happy in their inaction, passivity and have no intention, no initiative to ever change their situation. Well, without their consent and their conscious cooperation with God, He will not do for them what they may believe or hope for.

Let us see, believe, register and understand another Word of God which says to us clearly:

“What does it profit my brethren, though a man say he has faith and have not works? CAN FAITH SAVE HIM?... (NO!) Ye see then how that BY WORKS (of faith) IS A MAN JUSTIFIED AND NOT BY FAITH ONLY… For as BODY WITHOUT THE SPIRIT IS DEAD SO FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD ALSO.” (Jam. 2:14,24,26)

Therefore, “For by grace are ye saved, through (LIVING) faith; and that (grace and faith are) not of YOURSELVES, it is the gift of God; not of works (of YOUR FLESH), lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8,9)

The Redemption of man is indeed a free gift of God and no man can achieve it, enter into it by any works, which he may decide to do FOR the Lord or TOWARD his Salvation! But once we are redeemed and come into this free gift of God, then God demands that we cooperate with Him on our Salvation, that is, the perfection of our sinful, filthy spirit and soul (Heb. 6:1,2// 2Cor. 7:1// Tit. 1:15, etc.) and overcome it by denying our old soul life and taking up our cross and following Our Lord. (Mt. 16:24// Jam. 2:24) The Lord tied this Word to losing or gaining our soul! (Mt. 16:25) We are required to exercise our free will and unite it with the Will of Our Father! Our Salvation is definitely not a “free ride of dead faith”. It is a work of faith to follow the Lord unto our perfection. Working out our salvation, going on to our perfection IS our Overcoming! Unfortunately, only few believers are doing it during their earthly life.

Note that in the seven letters to His Church, the Lord gives promises only to “him that overcomes”. (Rev. 2:7,11,17,26; 3:5,12,21) To him that does not overcome, the Lord declared that He will blot out his name out of the Book of Life. This is the loss of salvation! (Rev. 3:5 and 20:15) Or that he will be hurt by the second death. (Rev. 2:11)

There is a striking contrast and also a vast difference between the soulish and spiritual believers. Unfortunately, most of the true born-again believers are soulish and not spiritual; they are like unto spiritual “embryos” that never grow up. They possess the Eternal Life of God in their spirit, but they do not live His Life in their soul. They keep living their own natural life of flesh, which after their Redemption, becomes religious. That old life still governs their soul while God’s Life doesn’t govern their soul. They keep walking after their flesh and not after the Spirit though they are all doctrinally in Christ Jesus by the virtue of the rebirth in their spirit and by the desire of their Father. But they are not in Christ by their life or by their works of faith, neither livingly, nor experientially, hence, their life does not show it. That’s why they do not know Him, though they do not believe it.

Hence, the Word of God in Rom. 8:1 is also very badly misinterpreted. It is true that there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, BUT after the words “Christ Jesus”, the statement does not end, rather, it continues declaring that it applies to those that “do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. The soulish believers that KEEP WALKING AFTER THEIR FLESH are still potentially in danger of future condemnation… especially, if they are not doing it ignorantly. Why? The danger is in the fact that they may, in time, get “out of Christ where the Father put them by His Will” and become condemned! Their decisions and will are at odds with the Decisions and Will of their Father! This is also the loss of salvation! And this is equally never preached and explained to the believers in the Church of Jesus Christ and they are not warned! Their leaders should read the Word in Ez. 3:17-21 and understand that they were equally made watchmen unto the House of God, the Church, and this Word of God equally applies to them!

How can believers get out of Christ? The Lord says it with His own mouth: “If a man ABIDE NOT IN ME (he gets out of Me), he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into THE FIRE, and they are burned.” (Jn. 15:6) TRUE? Or not true? The Lord is not talking about pagans, who could never be in Christ in order to get out of Him!

If a man – born-again believer – could not get out of Christ and break the seal of His Spirit by which he was sealed at his redemption (Eph. 1:13), if this was impossible (according to the soulish believers and preachers), then the Word of God in Jn. 15:6 could not possibly exist! The fact that soulish believers could not see this light and may have been blind for many years does not mean that they have to remain blind until they die. But if they insist in their pride that they see, then the LORD is giving to them another Word of His, which they may equally misinterpret or disbelieve. This Word says to them:

“And Jesus said: For judgment I am come into this world, that they which do not see might see; and that they which (insist that they) see might be made BLIND.” (Jn. 9:39) If they have a heart to understand this Word let them understand It.

Let us consider one other important example that touches born-again believers and the absolute need of their works of faith, of striving, going on unto perfection of their soul and spirit, lest they should enter the danger zone of losing their Life eternal.

The Word of God in Heb. 6:1-3 tells us: “Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, LET US GO ON UNTO PERFECTION, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God; of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permits."

The above means that we – soul and spirit – are not perfect in our natural “as redeemed” state and thus not acceptable to God in that state! We must leave all the basics of our childish Christianity, not repeat them for ever, waste the precious time of our earthly lives and ignore the very Purpose and Command of Our God to be perfect. (Mt. 5:48)

Then the Word of God says that we will do it, if God permits. Why would God not permit such a desirable thing? He will not permit us to undertake the above journey toward our perfection, if we are not walking on the narrow way or if we would try to do it “ourselves” walking on the broad way. (Mt. 7:13) The Spirit must have sufficient access to our soul and build there the right foundations after the Lord is allowed to enter our heart. (Rev. 3:20) Otherwise, God would not engage His Spirit in this transformation work and permit us to “go on unto perfection”, deliverance, renewal, rebirth of our natural, carnal soul without having the necessary foundations and thus conditions in us for such a journey and work.

Deliverance of our soul from flesh is not only very unpleasant; it is a painful thing, sometimes very painful thing causing suffering to our soul. That is the principal reason why believers are not “interested in this process”! (Heb. 12:11)

What then follows is a solemn warning of the Lord to all those believers, who do not heed His call in Heb. 6:1,2, resist the Spirit in His mission to transform them into His Own Image, refuse to cooperate with God and endure this painful process. To such, God will not permit to even start this process.

So, what is the warning to such believers? The Lord clearly declares that they are in the danger zone of falling away... away from their faith, from their position in Him, from His Grace. How? By their continued resistance to be separated from their carnal soul and thus resisting to fulfill the Will of their Father. The Word of God concludes:

“For IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THOSE... IF THEY SHALL FALL AWAY, TO RENEW THEM AGAIN UNTO REPENTANCE; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.” (Heb. 6:4a,6)

This is the loss of salvation! If you fall away from the faith and do not abide in Christ, you cannot repent again and return, you cannot be redeemed again! This is what that Word means.

Finally, let us consider one more important example from the Word of God showing what may happen to born-again believers, who resist God’s Purpose, ignore or refuse to obey His Word or are not watching and praying as advised by Our Lord. (Mk. 13:33-37) To such slothful and disobedient soulish believers the Lord says the following:

“For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are AGAIN entangled therein (in the world), and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them. But it has happened unto them according to the true Proverb: the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” (2Pet. 2:20-22)

Our Lord calls such redeemed believers (for whom He shed His Blood) “dogs” and “sows”! How do you truly feel about this Word? How does it sound and “taste” to your Christian sense? And how do you view it in the judgment of your Christian kindness and decency and politeness? This Word is the Judgment and pronouncement of Christ Jesus, the loving, merciful, meek and lowly in heart! (Mt. 11:29) Do we truly see it? NO, we don’t! We, in our human kindness, would never do it because we do not see what men are doing to God in their depraved, filthy and devilish nature… even after having been redeemed! They do not value their Salvation, God’s Grace, His Word and the price He paid for us, in any acceptable or even decent way. They remain fools and care not even for their eternal life. Animals have a far greater instinct for survival than men have. Are we able to see this depth of reality with man and God?

Do the above facts make any difference, any impact on your thinking, emotions or on your willingness to ponder it before the Lord? I do pray that it would. The Lord has been patiently waiting for any open and willing heart and mind and soul! This could be a sure stepping stone to your narrow way which alone leads to perfection and to your becoming a beloved son/daughter of God Almighty, even now, in your present living experience!

SPIRITUAL BELIEVERS

Let me be brief and avoid writing too many things which might distract us from the one principal feature and fact characterizing spiritual believers. That fact is: THEY SEE the spiritual truths, spiritual realities, spiritual world and also themselves. Since they SEE, they also LIVE the spiritual truths and spiritual realities.

They do not judge by what they read, hear or see outwardly, but by what they see in spirit. Therefore, they are able to judge righteously, walk by the Spirit and live by faith, as also Our Lord did. (Is. 11:1-5) Their SOUL is being cleansed, renewed, delivered and governed by the Spirit of the Lord. Also, their SPIRIT is being cleansed and perfected in whatever part it is still evil, dark or filthy. (2Cor. 7:1// Tit. 1:15// Heb. 10:22) They must hold the mystery of the faith (hidden truth) in a pure conscience. (1Tim. 3:9) How perfectly they are walking by the Spirit and living by faith or judging righteously is another matter altogether which depends solely on the degree of their deliverance and cleansing from the flesh in their soul.

Each such believer is on his/her own spiritual level of being perfected. This level depends on the length of time that that believer has been denying himself and taking up his cross and following the Lord (Mt. 16:24); how long he has been cleansing himself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit (2Cor. 7:1); how long he has been going on unto perfection, (Heb. 6:1) working out his own Salvation with fear and trembling. (Phil. 2:12) In summation, his level depends on the degree to which he has crucified his flesh with the affections and lusts thereof. (Gal. 5:24)

Now, why is this work of faith necessary before we can see in spirit? The Lord can never impart “spiritual seeing” to our flesh. It means that while our soul is, for example, under the influence of the spirit of pride, hate, fear, self-righteousness, stubbornness or any other evil or unacceptable spirit, it is unable to be at the same time under the spirit of revelation or wisdom! Pride is blind and stupid and it cannot dwell together with wisdom and receive any revelation of truth from God. We know that God resists the proud. (Jam. 4:6// 1Pet. 5:5) Also, we cannot receive any revelations while we speak or live contrary to the Word of God and we are shown this fact. Hence, to whatever degree the above works of faith of the believer and his cooperation with God have been accomplished, to that degree, depth, height and clarity he is able to see in spirit. To see in spirit is a privilege of every born-again believer, but it is not a reality with every born-again believer.

Let us now consider the issue of pride in more depth and reality because it is an extremely important and widespread problem in Christianity carrying with itself great dangers to our spiritual life, to our ministry and to our ultimate destiny! “EVERY ONE THAT IS PROUD IN HEART IS AN ABOMINATION TO THE LORD;” (Pr. 16:5a)

Pride is the chief reason why Our Lord had to die and kill this venom in Himself on His Cross where the Father gave Him a cup to drink (see more later) and laid on Him all our sins and deeds of darkness and evil. Pride is the chief feature of the character of Satan which we inherited through Adam and Eve after their fall.

THERE IS NO MAN EVER BORN TO THIS WORLD WITHOUT PRIDE! It is only a question of how deep and strong it is in individual men. This pride is NATURAL and is found in every natural soul. A naturally humble and timid man also contains this pride in his natural soul, but it does not operate in his life in the same way as it does in an outwardly proud man. Therefore, it may be easy to observe outwardly proud or outwardly fearful men as these spirits are clearly “written” all over their countenance. On the other hand, such pride, fear or other spirits may be deeply hidden in man’s soul so that we will not see them easily unless we have the ability to see and judge the fruit of these spirits in the life of such men.

Our Lord desires to warn us of one particularly dangerous and venomous kind of pride – the SPIRITUAL PRIDE. We are not born with this kind of pride and thus it was not a part of our natural soul. We gain it progressively as we acquire greater knowledge of the Bible and religious topics, as we begin to teach others or preach to congregations or build ministries. We already know that intellectual knowledge in a natural soul puffs up that soul. (1Cor. 8:1) The more we are aware of our knowledge and “performance”, the more we are admired and even “worshipped” by ignorant believers, the more books we write, the larger the congregations, the greater and more impressive religious enterprises we run, the more gifts of the Spirit we use or minister to others, the more titles are attached to our names, the more pictures of us are published or hung on the walls of our ministries or institutions, the greater the spiritual pride in our souls! Are the leaders in the Church aware of this fact?

The mind of spiritually proud believers is always sure of its knowledge, understanding, ways and decisions. Everything is rationalized and reasoned away and the Word of God is reduced to the level of human reasoning. To deal with such a mind is not only difficult, it is outright impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit Himself. Just as our body may be in, what we call, a “devil’s grip”, so also our soul (mind, heart and will) may also be in such “devil’s grip” through the spiritual pride and its darkness. We are then unable to see simple facts in our mind, have any true perception of important matters in our heart or have power and ability to decide righteously and wisely in spiritual matters.

Why is this kind so dangerous? Believers with spiritual pride may behave as naturally humble people; they may display a “false humility” because even in their natural understanding they know that they ought to be humble. By this false humility they may easily deceive others as being holy and spiritual, while they are not. They may be sincere, honest, diligent, and zealous of good works, but their spiritual pride “colors their ministry” and greatly diminishes its spiritual value. So, why should we take an extra care and effort in dealing with this kind of pride?

Spiritual pride makes believers totally blind to themselves. They may see the natural pride in others, but they can’t see the spiritual pride in others, and certainly not in themselves!

Spiritual pride always causes spiritual blindness.

The Old Testament Pharisees had both kinds of pride, the natural pride because of their position and also the spiritual pride because of their (natural) knowledge of the Scriptures. therefore, their hatred and bitterness toward Jesus Christ, their Messiah, was so great and incurable.

The New Testament Pharisees are the same even though they may say they ‘love the Lord’. If our natural pride is not dealt with before we acquire the spiritual pride, then we are in a very pitiful, dangerous and often incurable state indeed. It is often too late for such believers to strive to enter the straight gate and take up their cross and deny themselves. (Lk. 13:24) Can you see this fact? Truthfully?

Spiritual pride blocks our spiritual vision but allows our intellectual faculty to function. The result is that any minister, who is affected by this kind of pride, is unable to discern spiritually what he is preaching or teaching. Yet, he may be very active and diligent in his intellectual religious activities including teaching, preaching or writing books. These believers are following a rule that...

whatever I agree with, that is truth and whatever I disagree with, that is not truth! But no true servant of God has the right to live and act by such a spiritually primitive and Scripturally totally wrong rule.

The Word of God must “bow to their intellect”, rather than their intellect would bow to the Word of God! No True Servant of God ever acted this way and elevated his mental knowledge and understanding above the Spiritual knowledge of the WORD HIMSELF. (Jn. 1:1// 1Jn. 5:7) Do we see this fact?

Spiritual pride, especially in the ministers of the Word, causes great damages in the spiritual development and growth of God’s people. One example is the following.

There is a preacher in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, whom the Lord put into my heart from the moment I saw him preaching on TV for the first time about 5 years ago. He preaches on many topics of the Bible and produces many sermons and teachings, writes many books and leaflets. But some of his doctrines and messages (also on DVDs) are not based on the whole Truth of the Word of God. They contain spiritual errors in being contrary to other passages of the Word of God which are being ignored. The Holy Spirit cannot support such doctrines or messages, hence, their fruitfulness is greatly diminished and believers get a false picture and are thereby deceived! They acquire beliefs, which do not and cannot correspond to the Truth of the Word as breathed by the Spirit of the Lord. Any partial truth is very dangerous as it always contradicts the whole truth and thus deceives people! (ex. Gen. 3:4,5)

Two major spiritual errors which the Lord had pointed out to him in writing are the following:

1 – The doctrine of the “unconditional love of God for every believer” is false! It is a humanistic belief and it deceives multitudes of believers, who remain comfortable and see no need to strive or endeavour to have and keep His Commandments in their earthly life. The Lord says clearly:

“He that has My commandments (in his heart) and keeps them, he it is that loves Me; and HE THAT LOVES ME SHALL BE LOVED OF MY FATHER AND I WILL LOVE HIM, and will manifest Myself to him.” (Jn. 14:21)

What if you, born-again and baptized believer, do not have His Commandments in your heart (only in your memory) or do not keep them even years after your redemption? Will the Lord and His Father love you just because you believed in Jesus and were baptized? From where would you take such a strange doctrine? In fact, a born-again, baptized believer, who does not love the Lord, shall be cursed! (1Cor. 16:22) So, is there a clear condition for God’s love for you in Jn. 14:21 and Jn. 15:10? Is His love unconditional or is it conditional? Can you answer this simple question in truth? My eleven years old granddaughter (whom I baptized in the summer of 2007) understands this clearly, and she is not a doctor of theology; this reminds me of the Word in Lk. 2:46,47.

In your natural soul, you may believe that you do keep His Commandments, and that you do love the Lord. In reality, you may not even be aware that you love yourself or your father or mother or son or daughter (much) more than you love the Lord, in which case, you are not worthy of Him. (Mt. 10:37) Natural soul cannot judge itself righteously because it is blind.

2 – The doctrine of “Once saved, for ever saved” with no possibility of losing one’s Salvation is totally false! And dangerous! It deceives multitudes of believers even more and exposes them to the dangers of losing their life eternal. Tears of their repentance may come too late… if they come at all! This fact was already shown from the Scripture and discussed before (see again pages 58-62).

These above points are never preached and never explained to the believers in the Light of the WORD OF GOD! The fact that we may sometimes teach or preach an incorrect doctrine is not a tragedy before the Lord. We do not start from our perfection, we should end there. The Lord sent to this preacher His Word from our Mission in Slovakia (Central Europe), which was delivered to his hands. HAgain, he did not reply! Another five letters were mailed to him concerning the above spiritual facts. We are unsure whether he received them or not, but we have received no responses.

All proud ministers are already under the Judgment of the Lord and they do not even know it, do not see it and cannot believe it. (Pr. 16:5,6) Why? They preach and teach believers to be meek, teachable and open minded to receive what the Lord is giving to them through others, yet, they do not follow their own sermons in their own lives! They do not see and realize that this good advice applies to them just as much as to the “not-so-educated sheep” in the pews. They all behave as if the Lord God had nothing new to show them and teach them, to correct them and to further deliver them mainly from their spiritual pride, self-righteousness, self-confidence, self-respect, self-sufficiency and the other selfishness even after having preached for many (20-30-40-50) years! Is this not a Great Tragedy?

The length of ministry is no guarantee of any spiritual progress! The proud refuse to be perfected by the Lord! During all those years of their ministry, they may have never shed a tear of remorse or repentance from their eyes being on their knees before the Lord of this Universe!

How many such ministers of God serve in His Church and may cause irreparable damages to multitudes of honest, sincere but naïve or ignorant believers who depend on them? Those that are spiritually blind cannot receive any Light from the Lord. They are unwilling to even admit that they may be deceived and that they do not know everything perfectly. Blindness is the fruit of pride.

Now, the blind man in Jn. 9:25b knew he was blind and it was natural for him to ask the Lord for his eyesight. The problem with us is that we do not know that we are, or may be, spiritually blind; therefore, we do not ask the Lord for our spiritual eyesight! But when we ask not, we have not, we receive not. (Jam. 4:2b) So, it seems impossible to receive spiritual eyesight from the Lord when we do not ask Him; and we do not ask Him because we do not know (and cannot believe) that we are spiritually blind. What is then the solution to break out of this “vicious circle”?

I believe that the simplest solution is, if we could deny ourselves, overcome our pride, personal convictions, persuasions and beliefs and just tell the Lord a simple thing:

“Lord, I do not know whether I am spiritually blind or not. I cannot be sure. I simply do not see that I would be blind. I am, therefore, asking You, Lord, that if I am truly blind, please, give me the eyesight that I may see and understand in spirit, that I may see You as You truly are in Your Word. Thank You, Lord. Amen”.

I do not believe for one second that the Lord would refuse your request. I believe, in fact, that He has been waiting for multitudes of believers just for such a prayer because it is His desire more than ours that we, true believers, would all see.

Apostle Paul gives us a very effective solution in his letter to Ephesians. After having heard of their faith in the Lord and love unto all the saints, he does not cease to give thanks for them and prays “That the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your (spiritual) understanding being enlightened (opened);” (Eph. 1:15-18a) We all need this prayer all our earthly life. Do we see this need only for others?

The same goes for the darkened heart which does not know itself and does not understand its own motives, goals and intentions which are always behind all the heart’s desires. No matter how good and noble such desires, goals or intentions of our natural heart may be, they are always tainted with our personal character, hence, they are always selfish! If our natural heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9), we may be sure that neither our born-again experience, nor our water baptism had changed that kind of heart in any noticeable, quick or sufficient way.

The Lord cannot take His abode in such a heart and cannot govern it in any way. Yet, such a heart may be sincerely convinced that it is given to work for the Lord, for His Glory, to follow the “calling of the Lord” upon itself. Any notion questioning these things would be flatly rejected. Such a heart (soul) may be quite easily offended upon hearing that its intentions, desires and goals may not be of God to a large extent, or not at all! This would be viewed as an unfair attack on that soul!

The Church at Ephesus was apparently on the highest spiritual level from all the churches that Apostle Paul founded and corresponded with. Paul heard of their faith in the Lord and love for all the saints, which seems to be a rare commodity in many churches of today. And yet…

despite their faith in the Lord and love for the saints, they were still spiritually blind and needed the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and opening of their spiritual eyes! (please, read this Word of God in Eph. 1:15-18 again and again and again and again… and see and understand its depth!)

Faith and love are two inseparable foundation stones that are required for any further advancement of the saints in the area of spiritual seeing and thus in spiritual living. (Gal. 5:6// 1Tim. 1:5,14// Philemon 5) They are also the “two breasts” of the maiden of Shulamite which must grow and be equal in order that she may be perfect in the sight of her Beloved – the Lord Jesus Christ. (S.Sol. 4:5; 7:3; 8:8,10)

He, who does not see in spirit, cannot live in Spirit. He, who has no true love and true faith, can see nothing in spirit. Spiritual seeing goes hand-in-hand with living in Spirit. The spiritual Life gives the spiritual eyesight. It is impossible to see in spirit and live carnal life or vice-versa. Hence, the degree of our spiritual eyesight determines our degree of living the Eternal Life of God in our earthly life here and now!

We must devote our absolutely undivided attention to this most important issue in the earthly lives of true believers which is the matter of seeing the unseen or being blind to it. The unseen things are eternal and more real than the things seen! This fact is surely a great controversy and mystery to every natural soul.

Our very Redemption, the beginning of our Salvation, was a matter of our seeing the facts which were previously unseen to us, namely, that we were sinners and needed a Saviour. We did not understand it, but we saw it. All the ends of the earth have seen the Salvation of God! (Ps. 98:3b) Also, the Grace of God that brings Salvation appeared to all men to see! (Tit. 2:11) And again, the Gospel was preached to every creature under Heaven! (Col. 1:23b)

Missionaries and evangelists should take a note of these Words of the Scripture though they are also guided by Rom. 10:14-18. This latter Word does not contradict the other three quoted above! Yet, the Salvation of peoples does not depend solely on missionaries and evangelists.

What men did or still do with this Grace and Light of God is a different story. After having traveled through many countries of the world, I have experienced the outright tragic fact that when this Grace and Light of God, that were made visible to all people, are rejected in their hearts, shortly thereafter, Satan comes and replaces them with his darkness and deceptions which become much deeper than they were before the people saw the Grace and Light. Multitudes of peoples had made tragic choices in their hearts in rejecting that Grace and Light and keeping the darkness.

Our seeing the unseen has become our spiritual, miraculous and supernatural foundation on which our whole Redemption and the ensuing Christianity has been based. If you have never seen anything in your conscience, you may not be a true born-again believer, you may still be a pagan as before, only this time you may be a “religious pagan”, who received this Light into your mind and memory, but not into your heart. That makes the difference between Life and Death. Why do we absolutely have to see?

We simply cannot accept or decide on anything which we do not see either with our physical eyes, or with our “mental eyes” (understanding, imagination, logic) or with our “spiritual eyes” (faith). But we must see to decide either in physical or soulish or spiritual world.

All our efforts in teaching, preaching, persuading, arguing, pleading, emotional pressuring even threatening will not bring any results or any life to anybody. Imagine arguing with Saul of Tarsus and trying to persuade him about Jesus of Nazareth. After your many prolonged and zealous efforts, he would still ponder how to get rid of “that hopeless and dangerous heretic”. There was NO WAY to persuade Saul of anything he could not see. It took one look at the Lord where he could see what he had never seen before – and that did it! He turned around “on a dime” and became the chief writer of the most important and profound Epistles in the New Testament!

How many “Sauls of Tarsus” exist and even minister in the Church today? I do not mean such that would not believe in Jesus of Nazareth, but such that are similarly zealous and not seeing the spiritual truths and realities which Jesus of Nazareth established in the New Testament and desires all believers to see. But He cannot show them because of the unbelief in their flesh, which blocks the spiritual seeing; because they are not (at least sufficiently) crucified to receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the opening of their spiritual eyes. Unbelief is the greatest sin man can commit against God! In its essence, unbelief touches the very Holiness and Character of God making Him a liar!

So, what spiritual truth would Our Lord desire to show believers today? Let us see three of His practical points.

1) The Lord does not need (more) men in His Church, who can read and write, study, prepare sermons, teach and preach. There are plenty of such. He needs (more) men, who are crucified (Gal. 5:24) and thus able to see in spirit and transform believers into the Image of Christ and not only teach them from the Bible! Bible teaching has not changed any one into the Image of Christ.

They must see beyond their intellectual understanding whether their words are dead or living; whether it is all intellectual or spiritual. There is no life in our reading or studying, there is no life in our natural mind! Are their words “spirit and life” (Jn. 6:63) or are they only logical thoughts? There is no life in thoughts or in logic either. Even if carnal, fleshly preachers should preach the Cross, it would be of no effect (1Cor. 1:17) because such preachers have never been to their cross! They have no personal experience with the Lord and thus, for them, His Cross is a theory, doctrine, which may be the basis of their true faith, but not necessarily of their life. Their own cross is also only a theory and not their life.

Many are quite able to produce interesting even fascinating sermons or stories and bring God into them and achieve their own goals and purposes thereby. Many ministers have to keep those thousands of believers coming back, filling the auditoria and paying their tithes and offerings. The Lord does not even ask whether their work or sermon contained sufficient truth or not, but whether it gave out spiritual life or death. Don’t we see that we may speak truth in death or in life? All our ways and works are “clean in our own eyes”, but the Lord weighs our spirits! (Pr. 16:2) Are they living or dead? Are they from our nature or from His Nature? Is their source our natural, religiously educated soul or is it His Spirit? Can we tell the difference?

The Lord says that His Church is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked! HE counsels Her to buy from HIM gold tried in the fire that She may be rich; and white raiment that She may be clothed… and eyesalve that She may see… for She has no spiritual discernment! (Rev. 3:17b,18)

The ministry of teaching or preaching in the Church is too often an intellectual striving to persuade believers about the matter taught or preached without realizing that “the servant of the Lord must not strive;” (2Tim. 2:24)

Also, it is based on showing logical connections in the Word of God and their logical explanations without their spiritual meaning. It is further based on a continuous repeating of the “sweet” promises of God to believers without explaining God’s conditions for us that would enable us to receive His promises. It is based on showing what God will do for believers without explaining what believers must first do for God according to His Word. It is also based on taking one or two “harmonizing verses” of the Scripture on any chosen topic of the sermon without considering also the verses which may “change the harmony” of our intellectual understanding of the chosen verses, etc. Believers then clap their hands and “praise the Lord” and jump and are happy and go home deceived possibly even more than they were before they came to such a “ministry”.

Let us give another, deeper example of spiritual seeing and life as opposed to spiritual blindness and death.

An honest, sincere, devout, faithful, diligent, trustworthy but “uncrucified, soulish preacher” gives a sermon. His congregation may be excited even fascinated at the way the topic was preached, explained and substantiated from the Scripture.

Let us assume that what was preached was truth from the Scripture and the notes and explanations were correct. Yet, it all was intellectual information from the mind of the preacher to the minds of the listeners, who may have made notes into their notebooks. But after the initial excitement and fascination with the topic, these believers leave for home the same as they were before they came in with no new and living change in their spirit or in their perception. The new and fascinating information was absorbed by the same old character. They can still see nothing in spirit because the preacher sees nothing in spirit.

Another preacher comes and he may preach exactly the same truth. The congregation may not hear more truth than before. Yet they receive something living, something that will not leave them the same. Something that has the power to “move them to execute in their soul the truth received”. They have seen something, which they have never seen before while hearing the same truth…and may have a hard time to explain it. So what made the difference? the preacher is crucified in his flesh and thus he could see in spirit the truth he has preached because he is also living that truth in his own life and can thereby bring Life, progress and growth to others. His words are spirit and they are life. Therefore the believers that are truly “hungry and thirsty” can be filled and grow up into Christ. (Mt. 5:6// Eph. 4:15)

Have you ever eaten food that was pasteurized? It may look the same, taste the same as the non-pasteurized one... but the pasteurized food is dead! All the living enzymes in it were killed by the process of pasteurization. Your body had received the “same food”, but not the living nutrition, not the energy required for your body to function properly. So it is in our spiritual life! While in grocery stores we can see on the can or package the written note “Pasteurized”, or even “Ultra Pasteurized”, we cannot see such a note on the “package” of any sermon, teaching or on any “Christian book” written and published by carnal authors.

Our natural soul with its thoughts, emotions, reasoning, doubts, prejudices and spiritual blindness is well able to effectively pasteurize the Living Word of God and make it a spiritually dead food!... with no spiritual nutrition and ability to give living energy and living faith to those that “eat it”. Do you see it?

Should we not pray to Our Lord, Who is the Living Word to keep us from this sin even if we do it ignorantly and with all our good intentions?

The Body of Christ doesn’t need lecturers, professors, entertainers, storytellers, fundraisers, screamers, performers or comedians, it needs spiritual life givers. The Lord asks you to read His Word in Eph. 4:11-16, especially verse 13. The Lord says that after 2000 years of preaching from the Bible, instead of coming “in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man...”, the Church is so divided and disunited and dead in spirit as never before in her entire history! Are you, believers, offended by this truth? You will be, if you do not see it.

So, what is the true reason for this lamentable situation? In fact, the reason is quite simple. After 2000 years of preaching the Bible, believers have received mountains of pasteurized teachings, doctrines, sermons, stories either in spoken or written form, which resulted in a great reservoir of mental knowledge. But that great mental knowledge has not transformed believers into the Image of Christ and it has not brought the Life of Christ into their souls and daily living. It could not be apprehended by believers in any living way. It simply remained a nice theory while the reality in believers is the opposite and it does not correspond to that vast knowledge in any way. That “perfect intellectual knowledge” produced little spiritual effect within the Church; that’s why the Church has no power and no authority in this world either. The present lamentable state of the world is also due to the lamentable state of the Church! How will the Lord judge us? Do we know? No, we don’t.

So after 2000 years, the Church is anything but perfect and its spiritual knowledge of the Son of God is pretty close to zero! Do you believe this? Do you see this? I do not blame any one, who may not see this truth because it took me many years of my walking with the Lord before I started to see it myself. But the Lord desires that I state this truth at this place whether people see it or not. We cannot bypass important issues and make them “taboo” just because they may not suite our understanding or imaginations or because they may offend our proud souls.

2) The Lord does not need a Church that cannot be recognized from the world! I will give you one such striking example. One day, as I was on a mission in the USA, I turned on the TV and, being unfamiliar with the local channels, I only guessed what was shown on the screen. I saw there a man in a Hell’s Angel’s outfit and a Harley-Davidson motorbike behind him. It was on January 27^th, 2008 and it took me a while to see a pulpit and a preacher [Kenneth Hagin, jr.] on TBN channel. (Trinity Broadcasting Network in Santa Anna, California) I had no clue what he was trying to say and why he impersonated a Hell’s Angel. My only question was: “Was it the Spirit of the Lord that guided him into such a performance or the human reasoning and thoughts of his natural mind?” He would, of course, claim that it was the Holy Spirit guiding him… as many like preachers and ministers always claim.

But the Lord says: “NO! My Spirit never guides ministers to appeal to the outward senses or to the logical understanding of believers or to masquerade as other persons or creatures.” This Word closes the case for multitudes of soulish ministers in the Church.

At another day in another motel, I saw a colorful performance of a music band and dancers which looked as if it were being performed in some night club. It was again TBN channel. Yet another day, I saw a young man, long hair and tattoos all over his body. He was advertising some book that he wrote. It took me some time to see that he was interviewed again on TBN channel by a man and his wife. He claimed that “Jesus saved him one year ago”... yet His Spirit somehow never lead him during that one year to cut his long hair (1Cor. 11:14) and cover his disfigured body from being seen on national television! Who allowed him to appear on TV half naked showing off his tattoos? It was definitely not the Holy Spirit, Who desired to advertise the “works of the devil” on national television. (Phil. 4:8)

It is sometimes dangerous to open this TBN channel for your children to watch and then have to explain to them that “this is the Church of Jesus Christ”. But TBN also presents some good and profitable programs; it just seems that the Director of programming has little spiritual discernment.

His true Church takes nothing from this world, which is now cursed and will soon be destroyed because His true Church is not of this world, but is heavenly! Do we have any living concept what the Church really is and what that means? I believe that we don’t.

3) The Lord does not need a Church that is organized by man, run by man, governed by man, who may have good religious education, right titles, influence, money, status or reputation. If any church is run by man, it is NOT His Church, because His Church is built by Christ Alone and run by His Spirit Alone! (Mt. 16:18)

Firstly, His true Church is not an organization of any kind; it is an organism... a living organism that lives by the Life of Christ, which is the “blood” of His Body. Do we experience that? NO, we don’t because there is no unity in the Church.

When you look at your own body you must see clearly that it was not organized by any organ or member of your body or outside of your body. It was created by God in an absolute harmony of all its organs and members which are interdependent. They all live together by one life and care for one another without any problems. Their life is supplied to every cell of the body in the blood which carries all the necessary nutrition and oxygen (“food, drink and fresh air”) to every cell. And if in any part of your body the blood does not flow, that part is paralyzed, numb and dead. True?

Why should we be surprised to learn that the Body of Christ functions exactly in the same way? The Spirit of God is the Life of it that “flows” to every “cell” of His Body. And if in any part of it, in any member, this Life does not “flow”, that part, that member, is paralyzed, numb and dead! True? But the Lord is not building a dead Body, but a Living Body, functioning in love, interdependence, mutual support where each member has the same care for one another. (1Cor. 12: 25-27) I have not experienced even one local church like this in the entire 40 years of my Christian ministry. The Lord Jesus Christ is my Living Witness.

Any suggestion that “the man who runs the Church” is led by the Spirit is in too many cases absolutely FALSE! Almost all existing “churches” are organized as any other entity or corporation of this world; they are businesses advertising themselves as any other business of this world, with the possible exception of smaller house groups. They are religious institutions with leadership “chosen and appointed by men”, by Boards of Directors, Trustees or functionaries that may not know the Lord at all. The Lord allowed man to build, organize and run these religious entities according to man’s own ideas, beliefs and intentions which, I believe, in most cases must have been very honorable and honest and right. But His Spirit is not governing the life and activities of such institutions since He would have to act against the will, decisions and desires of man’s free will. So, the Lord at least directs the steps of those men, who devised their ministries in their heart. (Pr. 16:9) Those that devised them in their mind only do not have this privilege.

Secondly, the Lord does not desire “our best”, He desires “our death”! Because out of the death of our old life comes new life, new creature, whom He desires and for whom He died! (2Cor. 4:10-12) Our Lord is not impressed or delighted when our “old religious man” plays to Him “sacred music”, sings (or screams) religious hymns or congregates in ornate buildings with a cross on their roof. When we try to offer to God “our best” then we are like unto Cain, who also offered to God the best that his own hand produced from the earth (1Cor. 15:47,48) and his offering was refused. When his brother Abel offered a lamb, it was a blood offering; the lamb represented Abel’s own life and Abel “legally” died on that altar. God was truly pleased and accepted his offering. And when Cain being wroth killed his brother Abel, Cain became cursed! (Gen. 4:1-11) So, when we sit on gold plated chairs, congregate in ornate buildings, sing religious hymns, give offerings, conduct interviews or run financially successful ministries, it does not necessarily mean that we are blessed servants of God. Do we see this fact? NO! There is not one soulish believer, who can see this.

If you do not see it, then see the following. Take the Judaism, ecclesiasticism, sectarianism, denominationalism, Romanism, Protestantism and all the other religious factions and tell me: Is it the Spirit of the Lord, Who created them and runs them? Is it TRULY Him? Do you belong to any of these factions and organizations and institutions which have nothing common among themselves though they are all based on the same One Book? It is a slap in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word which clearly declares that “there is ONE Body (One Church), ONE Spirit … ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism.” (Eph. 4:4,5) Not many faiths, but ONE! Where is that ONEness? Do you see it? NO! It is nowhere! That is the reason why the ecumenical movement was born years ago, to “unite” these hopelessly divided factions, which is impossible to do anyway.

Also, His Word demands us to be of ONE mind, not of many minds! (2Cor. 13:11// Phil. 1:27; 2:2// 1Pet. 3:8// Eph. 4:13,14) To our unimaginable shame, His Word tells us that the ten evil kings who shall make war with the Lamb, THEY WILL HAVE ONE MIND (Rev. 17:12,13), BUT NOT THE CHURCH! The Lord, therefore, does not recognize religious entities created by men. Do you now see what the Lord means in this point? Or will you try to reason within yourself and explain this tragedy according to your view and understanding? Will you also do it when you will stand in front of the Living Son of God? I do doubt. I must sometimes use harsh words to wake up those that believe and sleep… and for whom the Son of God shed His Blood as well!

The Lord may be often asked in our prayers to help us in our efforts and bless our religious projects, but He does not do such things nor is He a part of them. He only blesses His projects, which we may not understand and desire and which may be unappealing to us because they all are contrary to our natural ways. I believe that the religion that is organized by man can never understand anything that is NOT organized, not advertised, not run or governed by man! In the eyes of many religious leaders of today, you must be organized, you must advertise, do fundraising, have the necessary publicity and run all things in worldly ways.

So the Lord is “unable” to build or run His Church in this modern world without the help of this world, without governments even without today’s technology (which would be totally illogical to the natural mind), without any organization because they cannot see it, imagine it, understand it and thus they cannot believe it! But let them reread the passages about the Early Church and see how well they were “organized” and how effective in changing the world without worldly ways and without being run by any man or organization. They had no radio, no television, no newspapers, no computers, no books… “just” the Spirit of God.

When God organizes something, it reflects its absolute unity, order, harmony, beauty, interdependence, interaction, intercommunication and thus it fulfills its true purposes. When man (or the devil through man) started to create “religion” with its “churches”, nothing of the above materialized. There is no unity, no harmony, no order, no beauty, no love, no interdependence, no interaction, no intercommunication in it; therefore, its life, usefulness and true purpose are not there as God had them in the Early Church and as He clearly has them in His physical creation. Until God cleans this mess and disorder that man (or the devil through man) created, He cannot obtain from His Church what He purposed and what He desires. We may also state that the devil is the “king” of disorder, disunity, disharmony, ugliness, hatred, independence, isolationism, divisiveness, disruption, carelessness, chaos, etc.

Let us return for a while to Saul of Tarsus. Nobody doubts or argues that he was totally blind toward Jesus and His Truth. Also, nobody doubts his extreme zeal for God, for the sacred traditions, for all those things that were well accepted and established within Judaism. Hence, nobody should doubt his fears of anything “new and quite dangerous” which seemed very able to destroy all that he believed in and cherished and tried to preserve with his own life! Can we blame him for his blindness? NO!

Can we blame the like ministers in the Church for their blindness? NO! They may have equal zeal as Saul had, equal desire to protect what they believe in, equal fear of anything “new and quite dangerous”! Yet, some one has to declare these spiritual facts and realities as the Lord sees them and as He desires us to see them!

The Lord will not judge us as unworthy because we are blind – He will judge us if we refuse to see what He shows, if we refuse to receive our spiritual eyesight, if we refuse to seek truth and the righteousness of the Kingdom of God. But this is the only way to recognize and believe that what appears to our natural soul as a “new and dangerous way” IS the way of Our Lord! And that the way we have been faithfully walking on for years is NOT the true way of the Lord. That is exactly what happened to Saul of Tarsus! Can we see that? For Saul YES, for ourselves NO!

We do not have all the wisdom or all the knowledge of God and we do not see everything as we ought to see. Therefore, the Word in Eph. 1:17,18 should never cease to be a vital part of our Christian life as long as we live on this earth. If you do not need this Word, you do not need the Lord. And if we refuse to receive from Him what this prayer asks, namely, new and much deeper wisdom, new and much deeper knowledge of Him and new and much deeper spiritual insight, discernment, etc., then may His Mercy be with us when we stand before His Judgment Seat! (2Cor. 5:10)

The Lord desires to show us also Peter that we may see him as a typical and even transparent example of a man, who, despite his zeal and love for the Lord, was blind in spirit. He had not even started to see those spiritual realities until after the Pentecost. Also, he did not see his own blindness until the Lord started showing him this fact on “his own skin”. The typical and well known incident is found in Mt. 26:33-35 where Peter was “ready to die for the Lord” and where the Lord plainly told Peter that he was “dreaming in color”. Later on, Peter found that out on his own skin and wept bitterly. (Mt. 26:69-75) This is the case with many soulish believers, who have never seen and understood themselves in their own soul and spirit.

A truly important picture concerning our SPIRIT and SOUL, their respective power, spiritual status and differences is found in Mt. 16:16,17,22,23. In verse 16, the Father revealed to Peter’s spirit (to his conscience) the truth about His Son, and the Lord acknowledged it. In verse 22, Satan gave to Peter’s soul (mind) his thoughts concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus. While the Father could “speak” to the spirit (conscience) of Peter, Satan could “speak” to his soul (mind). Had Peter had any spiritual discernment, vision, an eye to see, he would have never rebuked the Lord. To “rebuke the Lord” is in itself a contradiction and contempt by any man.

In Mt. 16:23 the Lord clearly declares that Peter’s natural and blind soul was an offence to Him as it served Satan and his purposes. Let us clearly understand that the natural and blind soul is always an offence to the Lord no matter in what pagan or believer it lives! That is also the reason why in the very next verses (24 and 25), the Lord continues declaring the vitally important truth about the life of our natural soul and what happens, if we would keep it or lose it for His sake.

Finally, Peter’s infamous answer to the Lord in Acts 10:13,14: “Not so, Lord.” It shows us clearly the power of traditions and beliefs of our natural soul which cannot be changed or replaced by new beliefs in any way except when we see the “new” truth. In our natural and honest soul, we are able to say even to Our God Almighty: “Not so, God.” Was the Lord upset? NO! He understood Peter clearly so He repeated His vision to Peter three times.

The fact which the Lord desires us to see and understand at this point is this. There are millions of believers including leaders in the Church, who are exactly like Peter. They are “stuck” with their traditional beliefs based on the traditional education, the understanding and feelings of their natural soul even though they have the Light in their spirit about the Son of God revealed to them by the Father! Despite this fact, their natural soul is still an offence to the Lord because it may ignorantly serve Satan! Furthermore, they are quite able to oppose the Almighty God, Who may show to them Truth in a “new”, deeper way and that, either directly or through His servants. But their natural soul says: “Not so, Lord”. The Lord may reply: “What Truth has God shown to you that call not thou untrue... just because you do not agree with it”. (see Acts 10:15)

The Lord also says to us “He that trusts in his OWN HEART is a fool.” (Pr. 28:26)

Another important point about our SOUL and SPIRIT which the Lord desires us to see and understand at this time is in Mt. 13:10-16 and Is. 6:8-10. The essence of His Word, as I see it in my spirit, can be summarized in this way. His true disciples were “given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom”, but to the masses it was not given. His disciples could thus perceive things in their spirit, but the masses could only see, hear and understand in their soul. (Mt. 13:11// see also Jn. 8:31,32)

“For whosoever has (spiritual ability to see, hear and understand) to him shall be given (more) and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever has not (this ability) from him shall be taken away even that he has (in his soulish life, because he will lose it).” (Mt. 13:12; 16:25)

This truth is further confirmed in Mt. 13:13-15 where a very important fact is expressed by the Lord. Here He declares that

“this people’s heart is waxed gross (became fat, unresponsive); and their ears are dull of hearing (they do not desire to hear what does not interest them), and THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their HEART, and should be CONVERTED and I should HEAL them.”

The very core of this Word of God is in one word, namely, “CONVERTED”. What should these people be converted from and to what? All these believers should be converted from their natural SOUL LIFE to the SPIRIT LIFE; from their soulish perceptions to the spiritual perceptions! Otherwise they cannot be healed! This also means that in the eyes and understanding of the Lord, the soulish believers are sick. Health only comes from Life and the Life is only in Spirit. Here the Lord speaks to His Own people of Israel and the future Church; the first Church was Jewish! The Lord does not speak here about a conversion of pagans to believers.

This is the truth about many believers, including many leaders in Israel and in the Church: THEY DO NOT WANT TO SEE, HEAR OR UNDERSTAND THE TRUTH OF GOD! Are you reading this simple, but tragic truth with an open mind and heart and conscience? Are you truly registering what the Lord is saying with His own mouth to His own Disciples about the multitudes? Their soul does not desire to see or hear the Truth, which Truth goes against their own plans, goals, intentions, beliefs, thoughts and comfort. Anything hurting their soul is rejected including the Truth of God which may hurt our soul deeply and frequently during our transformation process. Are you truly aware what your own heart desires and what it is closed to? Really?

Please, see and understand that we simply can’t be transformed into Christ’s Image without any pain, any suffering, any conflict! Our Salvation process is not a continuous happiness, prosperity, abundance of earthly things, pleasures, health, joy, laughter or whatever our soul may desire. We will have all of this in Heaven and more… if we get there.

The above few examples should be quite sufficient in showing us the great difference between our SOUL and SPIRIT. The difference between these two is the matter of our DEATH or LIFE, health or sickness. We can express this fact also in the following way.

Until our natural soul begins to see and live in spirit, it abides in death. If it abides in death ignorantly, the Lord forgives and keeps showing His Light to that soul. If that soul keeps rejecting His Light and Truth and abides in darkness and death despite the Light and truth shown, if it keeps walking on its own way, that soul will be judged as “unworthy of God and of His Kingdom”. (1Thess. 2:12// 2Thess. 1:5)

We may see the Son of God in front of us even with our natural eyes and not recognize Him and not believe! (Jn. 6:36) Similarly, after we have believed in Him, we may see His Word with our natural eyes and not recognize the Truth in His Word and thus not believe the Truth! This may prove fatal to our destiny, if we, by our own free will, choose not to see and not to believe His Full Truth.

We must now repeat the fact where it is important for us all to see, understand and believe that all three parts of our being must die and be resurrected, that is to say, our SPIRIT, SOUL and BODY. We may omit our BODY from the further consideration since it will be resurrected “automatically” and without any work of faith on our part. Every human being will receive a new body, whether he had done good or evil, whether he will be living at that time or be dead, whether he will be saved or damned. (Jn. 5:28,29)

Let us devote the next paragraphs to our SPIRIT and SOUL and the suffering of believers in their SPIRIT and SOUL. The spiritual believers undergo two kinds or two “stages” of sufferings, namely:

1) They suffer when their own flesh is being burnt by the FIRE of circumstances and trials (1Pet. 4:12) and crucified on their own cross. These sufferings are never pleasant, they can be very painful, but they are absolutely unavoidable in the life of any believer since our sinful nature cannot be destroyed without them. We either suffer before we die physically or we will suffer (much more) after we die physically (see more later).

2) After they are sufficiently crucified, the spiritual believers then suffer for the sake of others whenever they are engaged in ministering to them or helping them in the same process of their transformation. It may appear as a paradox, but this suffering may be greater and deeper than when they suffered for their own flesh. Also, 1Pet. 4:12 applies here as well when their fiery trial may now be arranged by the flesh in their brethren. They are now beginning to suffer the sufferings of Christ, the righteous for the unrighteous; a totally different kind of suffering where, and only where, the spiritual believers begin to acquire grace and the fruit of the Spirit. They are to rejoice in these sufferings! (1Pet. 4:13 // Acts 5:41) It is in this stage when the spiritual believers are beginning to see and “know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death”. (Phil. 3:10)

We note that the soulish, carnal believers are also suffering and sometimes more than the spiritual ones! But there is a great difference in the sufferings of these two kinds of believers. The sufferings of the soulish, carnal believers are the same as sufferings of pagans; they never end and never accomplish what they should accomplish – a new creature. The spiritual believers are led by the Spirit through the fire and through their cross; they emerge on the other side into Life everlasting as new creatures. That is the narrow way! (Mt. 7:14) The carnal believers and pagans never get out of their fires and sufferings or beyond their crosses! They are like those circus horses that run around the stage and never get anywhere.

Let us now consider the Scriptural fact of our two deaths and two resurrections as touching our SPIRIT and SOUL. It presupposes the existence of two crosses and thus two miracles of overcoming death by life. This part of the most important issue is discussed in the Light of the Scripture in the following Chapter. It will also be discussed in Chapter 4 in some of its points where an example of the children of Israel and their journeys with their spiritual meanings is presented.

* * *

Before we proceed to the next Chapter, I am compelled in my spirit by the Lord to state the following.

There are believers, ministers, pastors, evangelists, preachers or Christian friends who say to me that my writings are “heavy” and are written in a sharp, judgmental spirit. THEY ARE RIGHT! My writings are “heavy” for any natural soul to absorb, even to read. The majority of believers naturally prefer a “lighter literature, a more palatable Christianity”. But reading interesting religious literature is just another desire of a natural religious soul because it is satisfied by it and not threatened. To cuddle up in an easy chair and read an interesting religious story is not exactly a crucifixion process, rather, it is a preservation process. I am not saying that we should never cuddle up in an easy chair and read a good book or engage in leisurely activities, but not to the exclusion of our spiritual maturing process which at times may be rather painful.

* * *

Now, these are not my judgments; rather, they are the Lord’s Judgments and His shaking of the Earth and of Heaven, which includes His Church. And this is His further GRACE and LOVE for His Church, where many might otherwise not make it to be His Bride without spot or wrinkle or any blemish! (Eph. 5:27) In fact, the House of God is the first to be judged (1Pet. 4:17,18) and this book is a small part of this Shaking and Judgment of the Lord. (Heb. 12:25-29) The Word He gives us now, the same shall judge us in the last day and we, believers, are sifting ourselves now by our own decisions, our belief or unbelief. (Jn. 12:47,48)

The purpose of this shaking and sifting done by the Lord even now before our very eyes is to separate all that is REAL from all that is UNREAL, ARTIFICIAL; to separate that which is DEAD from that which is LIVING; to separate all those who are WILLING TO SEEK GOD and His Truth from all those that are NOT WILLING TO SEEK GOD, rather, they close their eyes and hearts to the Truth. (Mt. 13:15// Acts 28:27// Ps. 10:4,5) This is what the LORD is doing and not any man on this earth. Yet, the Lord is doing it also through His true servants, whom He sovereignly prepared for this day and hour... and by His Grace and sovereign calling, I am one of them. Hence, I cannot care what people think or feel about me or how they judge me and my ministry. It is the Lord, Who called me and chose me, not any man. (Jn. 15:16) He will judge me how faithfully and diligently I fulfilled His calling for this ministry of His Judgments and Shaking. So, if you do continue on your own “palatable, comfortable or entertaining religious road”, you will have no excuse before the Lord that He did not warn you! But when the testing comes with all its fury, many believers shall not stand, but shall fall.

The chief Purpose and Objective of this Judgment for the Lord is that He may obtain hearts and souls that will not be moved, shaken, removed, uprooted or fall, but that shall stand against all the forces of evil and darkness and these shall not prevail against them in any way! (Eph. 6:13) THAT shall be the true testimony to His Glory and Power. This is the true Remnant.

The cause of this shaking and sifting is the unwillingness of believers to pause, ponder, meditate, seek, believe, receive and do what God clearly requires from them before the end of this world comes. Too many believers do not even seek the Kingdom and its righteousness first (Mt. 6:33). They don’t seek Truth and are unwilling to meditate on what the Lord brings before their eyes and ears and to sift the lies and deceptions from the Truth. Many leaders are unwilling to be shown by the Lord that they are not infallible and “do err from the truth” and refuse to be converted and corrected. (Jam. 5:19) They keep preaching lies and leading ignorant believers to perdition as it is written:

“For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.” (Is. 9:16)

It is true that the above Word of God is found in the Old Testament, but there is no difference between the Old and New Testament leaders since the human fallen nature is the same in both Testaments. This Word applies to the Church as much as it applied to Israel because the leaders of either Israel or the Church were always exposed to pride. This pride binds them and makes them captives to the deceptions of the devil and prevents them to see and receive the truth wherever they err from it. Now the Lord allows such ministers to mislead others and live in error in order to see how many souls are indifferent to the Truth, comfortable in their lies and how many truly seek the Truth. Do you see this? No natural soul can see this.

This present time is the time of reckoning and judgment, of shaking and sifting, it is not the time for a false comfort, seeking own prosperity and for continued walking on our old, sinful, fleshly, carnal, natural, religious ways of our pride, foolishness, envying, strife and divisions. (1Cor. 3:3) As the AXE (Lord’s Judgment) was laid at the root of the trees (people) before Our Lord’s first Coming, so it is also laid now, before His next Coming; therefore…

“every tree (man) which does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” (Mt. 3:10,12; 7:17-20// Jn.15:6 - see more details later)

If the Word of Our Lord declared and discussed in this book is not strong enough, persuasive enough, piercing our soul enough to consider going on our knees before Him and pleading for His Grace for us at this time, then nothing else will help us! It may be that the Lord has to allow many believers to “sink to the very bottom of their religious pit” before they would be able to begin to sense the very instinct of their self-preservation. Many believers may have to experience evil, hell and pressures of this life to a far greater depth than ever before so that they would “wake up” and make a truthful decision for the Lord; that they would appeal for His Grace, Mercy and His further Patience and Forgiveness. The religious “stupor” may be so strong in many believers that they simply do not care for anything anymore. They may not know what to believe any more. They just exist until their demise. What a TRAGEDY OF BELIEVERS! They may have never acquired any true spiritual sense during their Christian life that would have made them sensitive to the Spirit of God in their spirit and soul.

Our spiritual sensitivity always enables us to know whether we are right or wrong, what is from God and what is not, what to do and what not to do, what to say and what not to say, how to minister and how not to minister, and that totally separately from what our mind thinks or what our heart feels or how we mentally understand all the facts! Unfortunately, the vast majority of believers do not have this spiritual sense; rather, they walk, talk, act, minister and live as their mind thinks and as their heart feels and as they mentally understand all the “facts”. They walk by their soul and not by their spirit.

The way of spiritual believers is not the same as the way of soulish, carnal believers and these two ways do not lead to the same place. If we do not see it today or are unwilling to see it, the Lord is coming to show us this Truth and His Judgment in a few years.

* * *

The Lord desires to add an important Word to the leadership in His Church, to those many leaders that will receive this book. The Lord requires that they would read it, consider it and bring it before Him so that He may grant them the eye to see, that is, the faith to believe it. Also, they ought not to keep it away from anyone in their congregations and thus prevent believers from seeing His Truth and be prepared to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is a solemn warning of the Lord for all the “watchmen” in His Church lest His Word in Ez. 3:17-21 and Mt. 23:13 should be used against them at the day of their judgment.

And as there was the voice crying in the physical wilderness: “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord, make His Paths straight” (Mt. 3:3b), so also there are voices in the spiritual wilderness of this world and of this Church that cry today: “Prepare yourselves for the Lord, make your souls holy and blessed”.

Because today it is not so much the “Way of the Lord” that is to be prepared, but the “Bride of the Lord” that is to be prepared. We ought to see and understand and believe that the midnight cry “Behold, the Bridegroom is coming; go ye out to meet Him” has already started some time ago, we are not waiting for it in the future! That is why the clock shows the time passed midnight (see book cover). The virgins are supposed to begin to rise up now and trim their lamps. (Mt. 25:6,7) The time is very short.

Do we have the ear to hear? THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION.

CHAPTER 4

TWO CROSSES

Never in my Christian life have I witnessed any effort made to clearly explain, teach or preach one of the most important facts and truths of the New Testament. That fact is the following.

For every man in this world, who is to be saved and perfected –made a son/daughter of God– then live eternally in His Presence and serve Him for ever, GOD established two crosses:

1) One (physical and spiritual) Cross for His Son, Jesus Christ, through Whose Death, Blood and Resurrection every man in the world could be redeemed to God, his price paid in full, his sins and trespasses forgiven, his spirit revived to God’s Life and his way back to God open again. (1Tim. 4:10) Through this Cross, God would receive peoples that would be willing to believe, repent and be baptized and thus become His possession. These believers would all be given the power to become His sons and daughters in Heaven. (Jn. 1:12) On His Cross Jesus, the Son of Man, denied His Own will concerning His cup and fulfilled the Will of His Father. (Mt. 26:39, more later)

2) One (spiritual) cross for each redeemed and baptized believer to convert him from a soulish believer to a new spiritual believer, from an old natural man, to a new spiritual man, from an earthly believer to a heavenly son/daughter of God that will please God and will be dwelling with Him in the New Heaven.

This is the TRUE PURPOSE OF GOD FOR MAN. (Rom. 8:29) On the cross of Christ, we did not do any work of faith. On our cross we must overcome ourselves, deny our will and fulfill the Will of Our Father by the works of our faith and will. (Mt. 16:24,25). On our cross we become true Overcomers.

The physical Cross of Jesus Christ is so well known that we do not need to devote time to this basic fact of the Bible. The cross for each believer is almost unknown, misunderstood and not considered with any sufficient importance that it has for every one of us, for our Eternal life or condemnation! Let us, therefore, devote the necessary time and space to our own cross and let us open our heart and spirit to the Spirit of the Lord to show His Light and Truth.

The basic Word of God revealing our personal cross is in Mt. 16:24 where the Lord speaks to His disciples very clearly:

“IF any one (believer) will come after Me, let him DENY HIMSELF and take up HIS CROSS and follow Me.”

It is immediately apparent from this Word of God that without denying our self, which is the stronghold of sin in our redeemed soul, and taking up our cross, we cannot follow the Lord where He went or where He is going. After His Resurrection, the Lord ascended to Heaven. It means that we will not be able to follow Him to Heaven, if we do not deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. (Lk. 9:23) Furthermore, in the very next verses (Mt. 16:25,26), the Lord tied our cross to either losing our life (old soul) or finding our life (new soul)! It corresponds to walking on the broad way which leads to destruction (loss of life) or on the narrow way, which leads to Life Eternal... and, again, this road we must find. (Mt. 7:13,14) So then, denying our self and taking up our cross is walking on the narrow way. This explains the extreme importance of our cross.

If our cross were not necessary or important,

the Lord would have never mentioned it in

His Word and tied to it the losing or gaining

of our soul – our own life!

The Cross is always associated with suffering, pain, destruction of something that is to die. Denying of self is the same; it produces suffering, pain and destruction of the old natural life of our soul, which is our “flesh”, and is to die on our cross. What has not died cannot be resurrected into something new, completely different and hitherto non-existent… a brand new creature. (2Cor. 5:17// Gal. 6:15)

We must die to (be separated from) our unrighteous and wrong thoughts, prejudices, wrong beliefs and convictions; die to our stubbornness and high-mindedness which are most apparent in our old unrenewed mind; die to all spirits of darkness and evil that dwell in our soul, guide it, influence it, and may even govern it while that soul is redeemed! There is no way that such a natural, uncrucified soul would be acceptable to God and that He would be pleased to have it in His Presence. It took only one sin of foolishness and one of disobedience for Adam to be banished from God’s Presence. (Gen. 3:24a// Pr. 24:9)

No pagan should ever hope that he can bypass the Cross of the Saviour and be somehow accepted by God to Heaven and into His Presence because he was a “good man”. Equally, no believer should ever hope that he can bypass his own cross and be accepted by God into His Presence because he was a “good Christian”! The old in every believer must die whether it is evil or “good”.

Let me, at this point, reassure believers about a very important spiritual fact and truth which is the following: (1) walking on the broad way which leads to destruction, (Mt. 7:13) (2) evading their cross, (Lk. 9:23) (3) failing to deny their self during their earthly life, (Mk. 8:34b) (4) even being thrown into outer darkness after their physical death where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, (Mt. 8:12) etc., all the above does not constitute the loss of their salvation at that time! But it may result in the loss of their Salvation later on during the 1,000 years of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. We will return to this issue later on.

The soulish, carnal Christians do not see this fact; they do not see the need for two crosses though it is clearly declared by the mouth of Our Lord and clearly recorded in the Scripture. They do not see that in addition to our faith, we must have our self-will subdued to the Will of Our Father. They do not see that our will must bow to His Will and good pleasure without murmurings and disputings and speculations. They do not see that God is working in us toward this, His Purpose. (Phil. 2:13,14) They do not see that without doing the Will of Our Father, they shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven no matter how “good Christians” they were, what good deeds or how many of them they had done or how spectacular ministries they had built and performed. (Mt. 7:21-23// Lk. 13:24-30)

They do not see that whenever they are trying with their best intentions to “do good, evil is present with them” since it is a law of the natural creation. (Rom. 7:21) They do not see that this natural creation itself must be destroyed with the evil rooted in it, so that that law is also destroyed with it. They do not see that nothing is crucified by sermons, teaching, preaching, studying, not even by praying (unless the prayer leads to their confession and a true repentance), but only by taking up their cross by their own will and by the power of the Spirit of God. They simply do not see that…

THE CROSS ALONE destroys all that is abhorrent and unacceptable to God. All our knowledge of the truth, all our faith, wisdom, works for the Lord and efforts will never do it.

THE CROSS ALONE opens the door to all that is new and pleasing and desirable for God. Without the Cross of Jesus Christ and without our own cross, the final Purpose of God in His Salvation of man cannot be achieved! Without our cross we cannot be changed into the Image of His Son! (Rom. 8:29)

Another truth is that none of us desires to take up our cross or deny our self. Nobody will “talk us into it” or “preach us into it” or “teach us into it” or “persuade us into it” or even “force us into it”! So, how shall we take up our cross? By gradually learning obedience by the things which we will have to suffer... here a little obedience and there a little obedience; the same as with learning, line upon line... line upon line... precept upon precept... precept upon precept, living experience upon living experience. (Is. 28:10) The Son of God Himself had to learn obedience by the things which He suffered. (Heb. 5:8) How much more must we learn? We should not even dream about being changed into His Image just by attending “church services”, singing and giving offerings (more later on).

Whenever one great power is totally replaced by another great power, it is never accomplished without “side effects” which are commonly called a “battle” or “war”. We will also face situations (battles) in our salvation process (war) whereby one great power is replaced in us by another one as we are being changed into His Image, where we will be equally able to say “… nevertheless, Father, not my will, but Thine be done”. (Lk. 22:42b) This is the ultimate denial of our self, of our will. Without learning this obedience “line upon line, precept upon precept” for some years, we will never be able to say to Our Father: “nevertheless…”

A very important aspect of our cross is also the following. We must see and understand that God will not do everything for us! God had done everything for us what was His part to do and He does not have to add to it or subtract from it.

But we must start seeing, understanding and believing in our heart and spirit what God decided to do Himself and what God decided to be our part to do in His Covenant, what man must do for his own Salvation!

There are very important things in our Salvation which are clearly our part to do and which God will never do for us! They must be done by us! And if they are not done by us, they are not done! Period. And the Holy Spirit is guiding us to this truth and to these things FIRST. This is not my personal statement to the Church, this is the word of God to the Church and it is written in His Word very, very clearly (see also nine clear examples from the Word of God below).

No believer, irrespective of persons, will have any excuse before the Judgment Seat of Christ with regard to the spiritual truths and facts in His Word. (Rom. 2:11; 14:12// Col. 3:25)

Read the WORD and consider IT in your heart and mind very carefully... your LIFE depends on IT.

It is entirely possible that we might have missed some truly vital truths in the Word or misinterpreted them very, very badly. You see, there is a great power in this Universe that “helped us” and keeps helping us very effectively to do these misinterpretations. It is in his interest and it is his job! The Spirit desires to give us some important examples from the Word of God which He inspired to be written and where the action is on US and NOT on GOD. When you do not perform your part, you judge what may happen to you.

1) 2Cor. 7:1b – “...let US cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” It is not written: “and God will cleanse us from all filthiness of our flesh and will perfect our holiness while we do nothing, just believe”. Oh NO! we have to do it with His power and guidance. The main work of our faith in this, and in all the other points below, is confession and a true repentance which will deliver us from our filthiness and will bring forth in us a different fruit, acceptable and pleasing to God, the fruit that shall remain.

2) Eph. 4:22 – “That YOU put off concerning the former conversation the OLD man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” It is not written: “since God had crucified your old man on the Cross of Christ, therefore, now you need to do nothing more”. Oh NO! we have to do it with His power and guidance now that we and our old man exist and we live in our old man. (Col. 3:9)

3) Eph. 4:23 – “And (YOU) BE renewed in the spirit of your mind”. It is not written: “and God will renew your mind while you do nothing”. Oh NO! it is our responsibility to do it as He gives the necessary light for us to see our old mind, its unrighteous or foolish thoughts, imaginations, darkness or other evil therein.

Do you really believe that God would gladly welcome to Heaven a believer who has a dark mind, full of unrighteous and foolish thoughts (which are sins – Pr. 24:9) just because he was redeemed and baptized in water? Really? And if you do not believe it, then how and when will that believer get rid of that dark, foolish and unrighteous mind? Please, be specific and Scriptural! And if you are honest and do not know the answer, then at least believe these nine examples from the Lord.

4) Eph. 4:24 – “And that YOU put on the NEW man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” It is not written: “and God will put on you your new man while you do nothing... so, just sit at your church services and believe and wait”. NO! God had created our New Man and put him into Christ before we were born. But we have to put him on now that we live, (Col. 3:10) and that, by growing up into Christ in all things. (Eph. 4:15) Growing up into Christ in all things is our transformation process, which we have already defined and it is our work of faith; it is definitely NOT an easy work… that’s why the majority of believers are avoiding it; there are easier ways.

5) Gal. 5:24 – “And THEY that are Christ’s HAVE CRUCIFIED the flesh with the affections and lusts.” It is not written: “and God had crucified our flesh in Christ so we do not have to do it again”. NO! we have to do it with His power and guidance on our own cross now that we have our flesh and live in it, which flesh is the enemy of God and the field of Satan’s activities, evil plots and deceptions in our soul. Is it really so difficult to understand this simple truth and then believe it and do it?

6) Phil. 2:12b – “...(YOU) work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” It is not written: “God has already saved you and you have nothing more to do in the Salvation of your soul ...just wait on the Lord, you are saved for ever”. This “doctrine” is straight from hell as it squarely opposes the Word of God which clearly says that the salvation which we obtained as a free gift, we have to work out (or “into” our soul) NOW when our soul exists and when we have the power of the Spirit given to us by God for that purpose. (Jn. 1:12) God is waiting for our choices and decisions and cooperation with Him.

7) 1Cor. 3:9 – “For WE ARE LABOURERS TOGETHER WITH GOD;” This Word of God applies to our work in both Lord’s vineyards: First in our own soul (S. Sol. 1:6) and then in the souls of others – in that order! It is our part and responsibility to labour with God. In 1Cor. 3:1–4 Paul speaks to the church in Corinth of their carnality and childishness that were the problems in the Salvation of their souls, not in their redemption as believers.

8) Heb. 6:1 – “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, LET US GO ON unto perfection...”. It is not written “Let us stay where we are and repeat the basic doctrines of Christianity and the promises of God for ever.” NO! God says clearly that there must come the time in our Christian life when we ought to leave the principles of the doctrines of Christ, which are a “theory” for our souls and go on and learn to live and apply them in our life! If we do not go on, the Spirit is expressing clearly the danger whereby we may FALL AWAY from our faith in those theoretical doctrines with tragic consequences that may include the loss of our Salvation, as shown previously. (Heb. 6:4-6)

9) Rev. 3:5 – “He that OVERCOMES, the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I WILL NOT BLOT OUT HIS NAME OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE;” It is not written: “He that believes and is baptized shall be clothed in white raiment”. NO! Overcoming is one word that may be considered as conclusive of all the works of our faith (stated also in the above examples) which works are absolutely necessary for our Full Salvation. They are our part to do and God has been waiting for us to do our parts. Ever since the devil had deceived believers, they are doing nothing!

Let me say immediately that the above nine examples do not exhaust this truth of the Scripture. They have been chosen as the most typical and clear examples to see and comprehend even with our natural eyes, understanding and common sense.

Let us now summarize this very important aspect of our own cross and declare the following.

God had established all His Principles that govern both His physical Creation and also His spiritual creation. The spiritual creation includes the Salvation of man. His Principles apply to every creature and no creature can change them or ignore them without serious consequences or even death, physical death and also spiritual (eternal) death.

Let us consider one such clear example, which is found in Gal. 6:7b,8:

“...for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting.”

This Word applies to both physical as well as spiritual sowing and reaping. Furthermore, what we sow, we shall reap later, sometimes much later (when we might have already forgotten what we sowed), and we shall reap 30 or 60 or 100 fold more than we had sown. (Mt. 13:8) It does not need any discussion to see that no man can change this Principle of God or negotiate with God about his upcoming harvest. The question rather is: Do we see and realize what we are sowing? NO! We keep sowing something every day of our life. And another question is: Can we later refuse to reap what we had sown? Ponder these two questions.

Let us now see that if we don’t do the above nine examples, we sow to our flesh! If we do them, even press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14), we sow to the Spirit! If we sow to the flesh, we cannot reap the Life Everlasting. If we cannot reap the Life Everlasting, but corruption where shall we end up? The End Purpose of our Salvation is LIFE EVERLASTING, NOT CORRUPTION. True?

Do we now see the true importance of our cross which is the only place: where we can “work out our own Salvation”; where we can “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit”; where we can “put off our old man, renew the spirit of our mind and put on our new man”; where we can “crucify our flesh with the affections and lusts”? Do we see the depth of deception to which we have been exposed by Satan – the liar and murderer - and its true purpose? Do we see Satan and his foxy and devilish tactics to get us back? Do we truly see it? NO! But is God responsible for our blindness?

Adam was the possession of God, he was spiritual in all his being, holy and sinless and had a living fellowship with God when Satan through his tactics and deception got him under his dominance and possession… and us in him! Why then would you think it impossible that Satan could repeat that feat again today with us, who are the “new” possession of God? And while in our souls we are yet unholy and sinful? We are “back to God” and Satan is “back to his deceptive tactics” and we are foolish enough to fall to the same pit again! Why? Because we are proud and therefore blind and we do like to stay that way. Why would the Lord warn us to fear Satan, just to scare us without any valid reason? (Mt. 10:28// 1Pet. 5:8) The Lord is not talking to pagans. The roaring lion is not walking about pagans, whom he has already devoured. He is walking about born-again baptized believers, whom he has lost! Or so it seems. Do we see this fact of our Christian life? I sincerely doubt!

Yes, we can cast all our care upon God for He cares for us (1Pet. 5:7), but we may not care for Him and His Word! We expect God to do for us verse 7, while we do not do verses 5 and 6! The younger are not submitted to the elder, we are not subjected to one another, we are not clothed with humility, we do not humble ourselves under His mighty hand; so, remaining proud, stubborn, self-righteous and disobedient to His Word, God resists us and gives Grace and care unto the humble. (1Pet. 5:5) If our part of the Covenant is not done, how do we expect God to do His part? Do we see this? NO! Do we care to do our part of the Covenant? NO! Shall we change our old ways? We must.

No believer should ever hope for or expect God to come down and take all his decisions and choices for him and give him all the right desires and right thoughts and right plans while the believer does nothing. So, God will not fulfill such imaginations or wishes of ours, if we do not fulfill our part in His Word! But, He will guide us into the right way and also strengthen us. So, it is not first “Christ will do all things through me”, rather, it is first “I can do all things through Christ…”! (Phil. 4:13a)

Yes, we should be “anxious for nothing” and should make our requests known unto God... and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:6,7) Now, how on earth do we want to do this Word without our cross? Every request that we make in our natural, uncrucified soul is through anxiety because anxiety, like sin, is deeply rooted in the “flesh” and nature of our soul. Our natural soul continually lives in anxiety and fears whether we are aware of it or not; and our unrenewed mind cannot be “stayed on God” and trust God, therefore, God cannot keep it in any peace. (Is. 26:3) Do we, again, see that without destroying our anxiety and fears on our cross, we cannot hope to do this Word of God and achieve His peace?

These are just two simple examples showing how easily we can misunderstand and misapply the Word of God and ignore His Covenant with us! And then some believers might even claim that the Word does not work. It does, we don’t work.

We can summarize that in our natural soul we cannot do any part of the Word of God and expect God to do His part while we do not do our part. His Covenant with us has two parties to it and our part has not been obliterated by God... but it was by Satan, the Deceiver, and that, directly or through his servants in the Church.

I believe that you do not have to be William Shakespeare in order to read and understand the King James Bible. Its English is clear even to our physical eyes. If God says that “YOU put on your new man”, then, clearly YOU HAVE A TASK TO DO and cannot afford to ignore it; it is not an option! If YOU do not put on your new man (life) YOU will remain in your old man (life) and YOU will lose your life! (Mt. 16:25) And YOU will get nowhere near where you hoped to get or planned to get after your death or rapture. Am I speaking to you a mystery or is this complicated? How do you see these simple examples in “seeking the Truth of God”? Is it painful? Yes, it is! Before the Reality becomes sweet, it is always painful!

I am only declaring on these pages the light and vision that I have received from the Lord, and their spiritual meaning. I am writing nothing else and nothing of myself. You do not have to believe me, and I will not try to persuade you about anything. I am writing it because the Lord has called me to write it and to publish it... whether people like it, or not. The Lord gives us His Light and Truth whether it pleases us or disturbs us. If you have any problem with any statement on the pages of this book, please, turn to the Lord, since He should be living in your spirit also; go on your knees and enquire of Him! I have no doubt that He would show you the same Light and Vision, and your heart would begin to understand what it may have never understood before. And your eyes would see what they may have never seen before in your entire Christian life. This is also my personal experience with the Lord.

Until we see what God sees, we cannot understand it, because we can never understand what we cannot see. Is that true?

Let me conclude this important issue of SPIRIT and SOUL by saying that we cannot do any of the truths described on the pages above in our own power and wisdom, because we have no power and no wisdom for this kind of work. Nothing in the New Testament can be done by the natural soul of man. Here Our Lord expects from us our WILLINGNESS to do this work through HIS Power and Wisdom. We have to come to Him and ask in faith and cooperate. The Lord has all that we need in order to do it all. However, the Lord will not do it for us without us, automatically without our asking, seeking, knocking, praying, fasting, pressing; without our works of faith, without the decisions and consent of our own free will.

Therefore, if after our redemption we do nothing, the Lord does nothing... except bringing us to His Word and pointing to us our part of the Covenant which we ignore. But the fruit of our self-deception may prove shocking and fatal when we are finally “called home” and will see ourselves as God sees us. No dead believer has ever come back to describe to us his/her own experiences or surprises. If you do not believe the living testimonies of true living servants of the Lord, you will not believe, if somebody would come up from the dead and testify to the truth. (Lk. 16:30,31)

Before we conclude this important chapter and the spiritual facts discussed therein, let us see what the Lord desires to show us concerning the passages of His Word which we “hate to read, teach, preach, see, understand and do” in order that we may live. These passages include the nine examples described above and also any other parts of His Word where our death, crucifixion of our flesh, putting off the old man, putting on the new man, self-denial and other sufferings are described.

There may be many sincere and honest believers, who have desired to please God and may have tried for many years to do the Word of God also in those “painful and bloody” parts. And so, they tried to “battle their old man, battle the world, battle the hell, battle evil and everything that seemed bad or against God inside or outside of them”. They tried “their best” believing that this was the narrow way and what the Lord desired from them. Well, not quite so. The true and effective way is quite different.

The Lord desires to show us the following:

1) Our own efforts according to our own imagination, reasoning, feeling, assumption or understanding of our soul to do His Word will not end in any success (this is painful to learn).

2) No man can do anything what he cannot see (this applies in both physical and spiritual world).

3) Since we all started as spiritually blind, the first thing we need is to start seeing in spirit... seeing, who we are, what we do, where we are going, what we are supposed to do in His eyes.

4) In order for us to see, we need light to replace the darkness in our soul. This light is faith through which we can see the substance, the basis of things we hope for, the clear evidence of things not seen by our physical eyes. (Heb. 11:1) It is very, very easy to mistake the beliefs of our natural soul for faith! Let us be aware of this danger.

5) We cannot produce faith in our soul nor can we receive it from the Lord whenever or wherever we want or in whatever way we might desire it. We receive faith by “having an ear to hear” the Word of God (Rom. 10:17) and by running the race (or walking the narrow way) set before us by God. (Heb. 12:1) When we do the latter, then we go through conflicts, problems, difficulties, pain, suffering, adversities of all kinds, all “designed” by the Lord just for us... because we all need them and they all work together for the good of them that love God. (Rom. 8:28) Why do we need them?

Well, reading or hearing truth brings to us its “theory”, mental knowledge, comprehension. Seeing, experiencing truth in our conflicts, problems, suffering, difficulties, pain or adversities brings to us the “living reality” of the truth and faith. How? By “looking unto Jesus (Who is Truth) the Author (Provider) and Finisher of our faith;” (Heb. 12:2).

If we are looking at the problems, conflicts, troubles, we get no faith and no light from Him! When we “look at Him” we receive HIS understanding, HIS answer for those problems, conflicts, troubles, etc. His answer comes as faith, light, truth. That truth, if we receive it and believe it, has the power to set us free. (Jn. 8:32) That also means, free from the effects of those particular problems, conflicts, difficulties, etc. It further means that we may now overcome them by reaching their solutions… through His faith.

6) When we receive His faith from Him, we receive light to see ourselves and our situation as He sees it. We see the problem or conflict or adversity and the true cause of it; we see what must be done that we may “come over” the difficulty and be “over-comers”. We see our flesh and the roots of the problems that may be in us or also in others. Faith also contains the Power to do the things that we see and the Freedom to say things that are necessary to be said to resolve the problems and the situation at hand.

7) Hence, we do not fight our old man, our sinful nature, the world, the hell or anything that appears evil, but...

we fight the good fight of faith, first to receive it, then to keep it and then to do it. Thereby we lay hold on Eternal Life whereunto we are called! (1Tim. 6:12// 2Tim. 4:7)

With faith we can do all things (Mk. 9:23) because we see what should be done, how it should be done and who should do what and when. If we do not live in the Spirit, we do not live by faith. Then we live in our soul by our own senses as there is no other way to live. If we do not live by faith, we are not just and righteous in the eyes of Our Lord. (Rom. 1:17) We all must learn to live by faith as it is not natural for us to live so.

Without faith we can do nothing, we can’t please God, (Heb. 11:6) we can’t be redeemed. Our heart must see the righteousness of God before it can believe it and before our mouth can confess it. (Rom. 10:10)

We may conclude this Light from the Lord as follows:

We do not deny ourselves and take up our cross, (Mt. 16:24) crucify our flesh, (Gal. 5:24) cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of spirit and flesh, (2Cor. 7:1) put off our old man, renew the spirit of our mind and put on our new man, (Eph. 4:22-24) mortify our members which are upon the earth, (Col. 3:5) and so on, and so on... according to our imaginations, beliefs, understanding or efforts! NO!

First, we must be willing to see our old man, his filthiness, darkness, lusts, sinfulness, wickedness, his true nature. We then must repent and ask the Lord to remove what we now see and abhor and hate just as He hates it. This is what we don’t want to do or we are unable to do being held by the powers of evil.

Our true confession and repentance is overcoming – it is denying our self, it is taking up our cross, it is crucifying our flesh, it is cleansing ourselves from all the filthiness of spirit and flesh, it is apprehending the Life Eternal, it is the true process of our Salvation.

We cannot abhor or hate and thus repent of anything that we do not see. Hence, we need faith to see, which faith is the spiritual evidence of the true nature of our old man not seen by our natural eyes! But we must see what it is to be able to hate it, abhor it and repent and turn from it. (Heb. 11:1) This is our deliverance, our crucifixion, the denial of our old man, our transformation to the Image of Jesus Christ, the true Salvation of our soul.

So, let us see and understand that…

The true Salvation of our SOUL is all done by our SEEING (our faith), our CONFESSION and then REPENTANCE (our work of faith) which is our part to do, and by the Grace and Power of the Lord working in us mightily which is God’s part to do in our Salvation!

Four times has Our Lord commanded us in His Word saying: “the just SHALL (not SHOULD) live by faith”. (Hab. 2:4//Rom. 1:17// Gal. 3:11// Heb. 10:38). Why? Is it sin for us not to live by faith? YES, it is sin for us! (Rom. 14:23b) And so, we may be sinning daily.

To live by faith means to live by the substance that originates in His Spirit and does not originate in man’s natural soul! Faith is not a part of our soul, it is not produced by our soul, but it comes to our heart from our conscience which is in our spirit. We are to live through our spirit as Christ lived all His earthly life and ministry. Our thoughts, and logical or intellectual beliefs and convictions based on our thoughts, are not faith! Hence, he who lives by faith is a spiritual believer; he who lives by everything else is a soulish believer. There is a world of difference between the faith provided or authored by the Lord (Heb. 12:2) and our own soulish beliefs and convictions. We repeat that it is very easy to confuse true faith with our soulish beliefs. We can know true faith and distinguish it from soulish beliefs by their fruit and consequences. So, we usually learn the difference between the true faith and our own convictions by our living experiences.

Our pain and suffering will be in our willingness to see the truth about ourselves and not keep our eyes, ears and heart closed to it. (Mt. 13:15// Acts 28:27) Our willingness to confess and repent and then cooperate with the Spirit on the essence of our repentance to put it into our practical life, will be our true cross and pain and suffering and overcoming and translation from the soulish to the spiritual.

Yet, who received the Light and confessed it? When we see the Light-Grace and reject it, we are judged guilty and condemned. That is why any man, who believes not on the Son of God is condemned already! (Jn. 3:18-21)… because that Light-Grace was shown to all men! (Tit. 2:11// Ps. 98:3b) And he that believes in his heart and confesses it with his mouth is redeemed already and he shall be saved. (Rom. 10:9,10) That is also why the “heart of unbelief” is called evil by God Himself. Such a heart may either keep us away from our own Redemption or cause us to depart from the Living God after our Redemption! (Heb. 3:12) It has the power to reject what God desires or what He offers to us.

Our Lord Jesus Christ desires that we would consider this Chapter very diligently and with all seriousness as it is the core of the most important issue presented in this book.

If we reject this clear Light and Grace of the Scripture concerning the two crosses, we reject the Main Purpose of the Will of God in transforming us into the Image of His Son. If we pause, ponder and start believing the clear Word of God, then we may go to the next Chapter and start pondering other and also deeper spiritual issues which we may have never pondered, never seen to any depth, never understood in any desirable way.

May Our Lord grant us the spirit of ability and wisdom to do so, to acquire the things that HE desires us to have and which we may have even secretly desired in our heart to have, see, understand and live in our earthly life.

CHAPTER 5

PONDERING DEEP

SPIRITUAL ISSUES

Can man understand God? Yes he can, in his limits, when he is spiritual and filled with all Fullness of God. (Eph. 3:19)

Our Saviour and Lord always talked to people in a simple but clear way using simple, but clear language which was on their level of understanding and using the objects of everyday life with which they were very familiar. It takes Our Master to show and describe spiritual and unseen facts in clear words while many times we find our words hopelessly inadequate to describe such things.

How can we describe in words our faith to any depth? How can we do it with our deep feelings?... or with movements of our heart and their meaning?... or with many thoughts of our mind as to their true origin or true intent?... or with some decisions of our will? Sometimes we may not know why we decided as we decided, but we did. How can we describe our fears with their origin or true meaning? We often cannot describe the movements within our own soul, then, how can we describe any movements within our spirit? This may well lead to a surprising conclusion that we may not understand ourselves: why we feel as we feel, why we do what we do, why we believe what we believe, why we understand as we understand or why we decide as we decide. Yet, all the answers to such unusual questions can be found deeply in our own spirit.

Let us cease from being wise and prudent and let us become as little children and ponder at least some of the mysterious issues of God as if they were quite “understandable and imaginable”. Can we do it? If we cannot do it then we will not be able to do this pondering because “to cease from being wise and prudent” may be compared to “denying our self and taking up our cross”. You see, Our Father had hid “great issues” from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes! Why? Because it seemed good in His sight. (Mt. 11:25,26) Hence, our problem now is to become “as little children” so that we would be “able to receive” into our spirit and soul the revelation from Our Father. This also means that we must “empty our mind and heart” from our preconceived ideas, prejudices, previous intellectual knowledge, reasons, old understanding, beliefs, convictions and the wisdom of educated adults. Can we do it? NO, we can’t! But we may be enabled by the Lord to keep these old things “behind bars” for the time being. The Lord will not do it in one minute just before we start reading the paragraphs below, but He may start doing it slowly as we keep reading and opening our heart and mind to Him, to His Spirit.

a) Our Father had created darkness and evil. (Is. 45:7) Do we know why He did that? YES, we do! But the natural mind cannot know it because it cannot see any reason for it. True? Then later on, God created Lucifer, a magnificent angelic being full of wisdom and beauty and perfect in all his ways. God created Lucifer KNOWING FULL WELL that he will corrupt himself (Ez. 28:15,17) and become Satan, His chief enemy, the father of lies, the destroyer of His Creation; KNOWING FULL WELL that there would be no hope ever for his recovery and Salvation! (Is. 14:12-15) Do we know why Our Father had created Lucifer foreknowing all these facts? YES, we do! Can we fathom such facts and see Our Father’s Character and understand His motives? YES, we can, if His Spirit, which searches the depth of God’s Mind shows us. (1Cor. 2:10) Is He willing to show us such unfathomable and deep mysteries? YES He is, but only to our New Man, to the Father’s son or daughter, never to our natural soul.

Did Our Father ever need Satan in His Plans, Counsels and Purposes? Do we know? YES, we do! Also, Our Father KNEW FULL WELL that He created for Himself and for His Son Jesus Christ a mountain of problems, troubles, pains and sufferings about which the natural man can have no clue whatsoever. Yet, Our Father did it! How can any human creature face these deep truths and mysteries and not fall on his knees before the Almighty God, Who had become the Father of that human creature, of his soul and of his spirit PRECISELY BECAUSE OF THESE MYSTERIES?

And how could this perfect Lucifer, living and serving God, his Creator in a perfect way, one “day” embrace evil and allow pride and jealousy to enter his heart and mind and will? Do we know why? We may have no clue. There was no need for him to become proud or jealous of God, to become His chief enemy. In his exalted position, intelligence, power, wisdom, beauty and perfection Lucifer was (in my vision) just under the Son of God! He was missing nothing! He had all the happiness, peace, contentment, joy and the “heavenly bliss” that he (or any man on earth) could ever wish for! True? So, why did he embrace evil and become God’s enemy? How could he bypass all his great wisdom? Can we put ourselves into Lucifer’s “shoes”? NO! It is far beyond our capacity to even imagine his life in the Presence of the Almighty God let alone try to understand it. We are trying (at least some believers do) to serve God in our sinfulness, weaknesses, foolishness, prejudices, selfishness, speculations, pride, fears and all the rest of it, hoping that we are pleasing Our God. So, how far are we from the kind of service that the perfect and sinless Lucifer had provided to God?

Nevertheless, our poor soul can glean from these deep facts and mysteries something very valuable. Lucifer had decided to take this road to tragedy by his own free will, which God gave to His angels, and to man. This proves the awesome power of free will that God granted to His creatures. By that power we may oppose Him, disobey Him, ignore Him, refuse what He offers and become His enemies... just as Lucifer did! And we may start doing it without being aware of it! I can see, therefore I believe that Lucifer did not foreknow in himself the awesome power and tragedy of the evil that he was embracing and the tragic consequences of that step! Had Our Father ever warned him about it? It is not recorded. What is also important for us is to realize that it is equally not recorded that Lucifer was ever given any chance to repent and turn from his evil ways! There has never been forgiveness of God extended to him as it is to man. Why? Is Our Father “selective” in His Grace? Can we truly answer this question? NO! We cannot answer it or comprehend it in any way. Yet, it is extremely valuable for us to register this fact for our own Christian life.

And Satan did not commit this great evil alone. He apparently deceived about one third of all the angelic host of Heaven, who later on were cast out of Heaven to the earth together with him. (Rev. 12:4,9) Those multitudes of angels had to have been tempted and deceived by Satan and thus they had made the same fateful decision of their free will to embrace evil. They were also holy and sinless and possessing free will. Neither these were given any chance to repent and return to serve God! None of them. The everlasting fire was prepared for Satan and for all his angels right from the very beginning! (Mt. 25:41) The everlasting fire was never prepared for man... though many men will end up there as well by their own free will decision. Why?

They have the same power of free will as Lucifer had, to do how they please and what suits them though they are warned about the consequences and about hell. Now, this includes us, born-again and baptized believers, who also possess this awesome power of free will as Lucifer had, to do as we please and what suits us. And we always prefer to do what pleases US and what suits US and not what suits God; and THAT IS OUR TRAGEDY!

Our Saviour and Lord always did those things that pleased His Father, Who sent Him and did not leave Him alone. (Jn. 8:29) So, realistically, how far are we from His Likeness? In our natural mind and understanding we can never be like Him because we can never see or imagine ourselves that way.

b) How about man? Why had God created man in the first place? Do we know? YES, we do! And why He created him “in His Own Image”? Do we know that also? YES, we do! Our Father does not give us His reasons in the Book of Genesis where He only said “Let Us make man in Our Image.” (Gen. 1:26), but we also have Rom. 8:29,30 and Rev. Chpt. 21 and 22. Yet we cannot understand the act of God whereby He created “male and female” (Adam and Eve), but called their name Adam… in the singular… and not Adam and Eve! (Gen. 5:2) Do we understand that? The Word in Mt. 19:5,6; 1Cor. 6:16 or Eph. 5:31 may certainly give us a hint, but we still cannot see and comprehend this fact in either physical or spiritual world. Our imagination and the understanding of our natural mind will not help us at all. We cannot possibly fathom such mysteries in our natural soul.

Yet, Our Father does not desire to keep it “top secret” from man, that is, from the man that loves Him, that has given up his life for Him, that desires to serve Him and obey Him and be with Him for ever. It is the delight of Our Father to show that man all that he is able to see, hear, touch, smell, taste and understand in his spirit. Do we also believe this truth? Our Father will give us His Light about this mystery and we will consider it later on when He will also grant us the Light about the Cross and the Cup of Our Lord, the difference between the two and about the destruction of the works of the Devil by Our Lord. These are also deep mysteries to our soul and to our natural understanding.

c) Our Heavenly Father is God Almighty, Who always had everything He wanted, Who never suffered shortages, Who says a Word and it is done, Who can create anything He wants, any time He wants and that, from nothing, just by speaking a Word, Who can do anything and there is nothing too hard for Him to do. (Gen. 18:14 // Jer. 32:27) He has the supreme Power in this Universe and is able to make sure that His Will is always done, and so on. True? YES! This is our simple and logical human understanding and conviction. Are there areas or points in this paragraph where we could also say NO? Yes, there are!

The Will of Our Father is always done! But we may not comprehend His Will or His needs because God by the decision of His Own free Will has needs, even unfulfilled desires that man may not understand.

If we just stay with our human logic, then we must admit that Our Father deliberately chose to “suffer need”, “suffer pain”, to “lose what He desired to have”, to “see His Creation destroyed”… the Creation which He declared “very good” and which He loved. He Himself decided to “destroy what He loved”, to create a man that is able to bring forth a tool for his work and also to create a waster that destroys it. (Is. 54:16) Can we fathom that? NO! Yet, it is true and we may find it throughout the Scripture.

IF Our Father had no need of us, we would never exist and I would not be writing this book! True? Being “as a little child”, I can say anything in good faith and with good intention and My Father will understand and correct me, if necessary. All we have to do at this point is to empty ourselves from all that is logical to our natural, educated soul. That includes our selfishness in general, which involves not only our views and convictions but possessiveness in general, holding fast our own views, goals, plans, desires to acquire or to rule. Our Lord Jesus emptied Himself of all this “stuff” and let all those things go. He had decided in His Soul to do nothing of Himself, but only what His Father would show Him to do (Jn. 5:19; 8:28) whether it looked logical or not. Again, how far we are from Our Lord as to His Character and Grace and Love for His Father? Can we fathom it? NO! He became an “unnatural Man” shunning His will, plans, desires, preferences and all those forces that are natural to us and hold us in their grip.

We are thus clearly stepping out of our natural human soul, its reasoning powers and selfishness into His Spirit, Who Alone searches the depth of God and is able to reveal to us what we cannot even imagine. He will not reveal these things of Our Father to any flesh which dwells in us and may rule our natural soul. If we are to receive anything from Our Father, it must be our New Spiritual Man.

WE MUST ABANDON OUR OWN IMAGE OF OUR FATHER AND OF OUR SAVIOUR AND OF OUR LORD. If we are not willing to do it, then we might as well stop reading this book at this very place. If we cannot do it, then we have to ask Him to enable us to do it. If we will not do it, then we cannot receive from Him the light we need to see. Let us therefore continue sitting at the Father’s feet as children in hope and faith and in emptying our selves from all the traditional religious stuff that had become our “solitary confinement” and thus the place of our spiritual death.

There is a question which we may ask ourselves and which may be shocking to many; it is the following:

Is Satan fulfilling the Will of God? Yes, or no?

If we say “no” we are in conflict with the first two paragraphs of this point c). If we say “yes” we would be in conflict with our own understanding of God, with our own sense of righteousness, justification, love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, goodness of God, etc. True? Is there a third answer? Before we say anything else we must repeat that there are at least two basic kinds of will whether that be the Will of God or the will of man. The first basic kind is the permissive will: desire-preference-objective. And the second basic kind is the absolute-unchangeable will: the principle-final judgment.

If Satan is fulfilling the Will of God, then pagans must also be fulfilling His Will; evil itself must be fulfilling His Will; pain and suffering are fulfilling His Will; death is fulfilling His Will. Judas Iscariot fulfilled the Will of God just as Pharaoh, Herod, King Saul and all the other evil men did. That does not mean that His desires or preferences have been always fulfilled, but His Judgments and Purposes always have. True? God is “not willing (desiring) that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. (2Pet. 3:9)

YET, He accepts the decisions and the destiny of all those that He created for Himself and for His own pleasure though they choose to go their own way and perish. IN HIS PERMISSIVE WILL AND JUDGMENT PEOPLE ARE FREE CREATURES so they have the right to choose what they want. But HIS ABSOLUTE WILL AND JUDGMENT SAYS that no one, who refuses His Word shall live in His Presence. So, in God’s Judgment, it is His continued Grace to allow some believers to be even killed or perish temporarily before they would have a real chance to commit, for example, the sin unto death (Mt. 12:31,32// 1Jn. 5:16) or make other fatal decisions and perish eternally. God views our physical death differently than we view it and He may thus use even our physical death for our good.

d) I am sure that in myself I am unable to express realities in the spiritual world in any useful way unless I ask My Father for His Wisdom and ability that He gives to us liberally, if we ask Him. (Jam. 1:5) Therefore, let us ask Him believing that He would grant us His additional Grace, Patience, Wisdom and spiritual eyesight that we would be able to see and comprehend what our natural soul cannot possibly see and comprehend. Even though our intellect can see and understand some things pondered in this section, it cannot penetrate into, see and comprehend their spiritual depth, their reach and impact on our Christian life and destiny.

OUR HEAVENLY FATHER DID NOT ALWAYS HAVE WHAT HE NEEDED OR DESIRED! When He created Lucifer, He needed him. God never created anything that He did not need. True? Even man in his foolishness does not (normally) create anything what he does not need. But did God also need Satan? YES, HE DID! He needed him for His future Plans and Purposes, because…

through Satan God would receive from His creation

what He had always desired and suffered for!

What had God truly desired and suffered for? I see that He always desired something much, much more and much “better” than beautiful and loyal angels or sinless and perfect but naïve men like Adam or men forgiven of their sins or men healed of all their sicknesses or men serving Him in their sincerity, honesty and diligence. You see, if the most perfect and beautiful angel can become God’s enemy, then how much easier can man become one?

But I have to ask you a very important question: How can you become enemies to some one whom you truly love? Can you truthfully answer this question? NO, you cannot! And I cannot either. Again, I repeat that the natural man cannot possibly see, understand and thus answer such an important question. Love is also spirit and it needs spiritual discernment and understanding. We will return to this question when we will consider the matter of love. Now we are getting to the next step...

e) So, God created man, He created him in His Own Image, male and female He created them. (Gen. 1:27) They were innocent and very naïve not knowing what was “good or evil” or what “work” was since everything was provided to them without any need for them to work, sweat or strive.

Then God created the tree of life and also the tree of knowledge of good and evil and put them in the middle of His Garden of Eden. And then He commanded the man NOT TO EAT from the tree of knowledge of good and evil lest he would die the same day. (Gen. 2:16,17) Our Father gave this Commandment to Adam and Eve KNOWING FULL WELL THAT THEY WILL EAT OF IT AND WILL DIE! WHY DID OUR FATHER DO THAT? Do we know? YES, we do!

But how can GOD, Who in our imagination and understanding and comprehension and feelings IS LOVE and GRACE and MERCY plus all the other Heavenly virtues, how can He cause man, created in His Image, to die and go to hell? Can we understand that? YES we do, but not in our natural mind, not even in our wildest imagination. We will now make a statement which natural, soulish believers will consider appalling, yet, in the eyes of Our Father, it is true.

Our Father had purposely exposed man to evil and

allowed him to be submerged into it and overcome by it and die – be separated from God, His Creator!

Now, we may follow the above statement with another one, even more shocking statement to the soulish believers.

Therefore, it is very good and very necessary for man to go through hell, darkness and evil and sin and pain and suffering and sickness and confusion and pride and arrogance and fears and stupidity and all the “virtues of his flesh” and to experience it all in his soul and life! Why?

First, so that man can see his true self as he is without God, “naked” before Him and whether he loves evil that he has tasted and now lives it in his self, or whether he loves God. And then the man is given the choice to turn away from evil or remain in it, to choose life or choose death, (Deut. 30:15) to keep loving his self or love God more than his self. (Mt. 22:37)

Second, man can see God that He submerged Himself into the same evil and gave up His Own Life to provide man with escape from evil and death and from his sinful self, and Who offers man His LOVE and LIFE Eternal in His Presence. What will the man, who became evil, choose? (Mt. 7:11) What will this man do? How will his free will decide? It is solely up to that man and his heart and not up to God. God is seeking an unconditional, spontaneous, free-will obedience and love from the man for whom God (in His Son) died!

So, why would the merciful and loving God send you first to hell to die there? And why would He then send His only begotten Son to also die and go to hell and offer you His helping hand and recover you and bring you from hell to Heaven? WHY? Is there any human logic in it? NO! Is there any wisdom of God in it? YES!

f) Let us realize that Adam and Eve were naïve not only as to the question of good and evil, but also as to the value, the strength and trueness of their love for God. They took everything for granted and could not imagine that one day they might lose something of it or even lose it all. All the needs for their lives were provided to them by God freely without any need for them to work or even care for it. They had no ability to assess any eventual loss of what they freely enjoyed. I believe that such a thought never even crossed their pure mind. So, because of their ignorance, they lived and enjoyed a true “heavenly bliss on earth”.

But this is NOT what God desired and expected from His future sons or daughters, from the future Bride of the Word! Their free will, pure mind and heart were to be tested in a most drastic way. We should now see that Satan and evil were perfect tools for achieving that Great Purpose of God for Man as His future Eternal Companion.

We all know the most familiar verse in the New Testament which we were also singing to the tune of “Silent Night”:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jn. 3:16)

Now, let us realize the background of this truth and the spiritual picture which existed before the foundations of this world. It seems that whatever God created after He had created evil, was in danger of getting spoiled and destroyed. I believe that we can truthfully turn to Our Father and tell Him this:

We sincerely believe, Father, that You did not have to give Your only begotten Son to save man from Satan had You not first given the man purposely to the hands and possession of Satan!

Now, on what basis can we say such a terrible thing to Our Father? Well, let us continue and see what Our Father will say to it.

Because when You, Father, foreknow what man will do, how he will decide by his free will, then You have created man to fulfil Your foreknowledge of his own free decisions!

In this case, man shall experience evil, darkness, pain, sin, sufferings and death! And THEN he may experience Your Love and Grace and Mercy. And then his resurrection, eternal life and happiness in Your Presence, if man chooses so by the same free will decision and desire by which he chose his death… though this time without his naivety and ignorance. This time man will know evil and good in his own life.

Are we telling Our Father irreverent, embarrassing things? Oh, no! God cannot be embarrassed by truth and what is above and what follows is truth. Let us see from the Scripture that...

it was the Will of God that man should be submerged into evil of such a magnitude and power that he would never be able to extricate himself from it by his own power, will, wisdom or own abilities! (see details in Chapter 9^[11]) Man would end up exactly where Lucifer has ended up as Satan! True? Do we see it?

YET, there is one basic and crucial difference. Lucifer-turned-Satan was not given the chance to repent and be saved; man has been given that chance. Why? One basic reason that I see is that Lucifer was never tempted by any one! On the other hand, man will be purposely exposed to temptations by Satan and allowed to fall. Furthermore, man – now possessed by Satan – will be required to overcome all those great forces of evil and darkness outside and inside of himself by faith (seeing himself) and by his free will decisions and by his works of that faith and by the Power of God, Who allowed him to fall into that sin and evil and death! And then God would save man from it all by sacrificing His Own Life for the man! Man never knew and experienced this kind of love from any one anywhere, not even from God as his Creator. Furthermore...

man will be required to do what Satan and all his fallen angels could never do, not by his knowledge or understanding, but by loving God with the kind of love that God had for man, by giving his own life for God and for brethren as God did for man! (1Jn. 3:16)

THIS MAN will become the truest and the most valuable ‘jewel’ in the hands and heart of God, his Creator, Father, Saviour, Lord and husband! (Rev. 21:7,9) THIS MAN will fulfil the final Purpose and Desire of God, His Creator! Will this affect your future life, decisions, faith and walk? Or will you remain the same?

There is a definite Design of Our Father in His everlasting Plans and Counsels with a very definite Eternal Purpose. My only question at this point is: Is our form of Christianity fulfilling any part of the above Purpose of God to His satisfaction? What do you see and believe is the true answer to this question?

g) Let us pause for a moment and digest in our spirit, in our conscience and in our heart what has the Spirit shown us thus far. We might keep asking ourselves seemingly many reasonable and logical questions about these spiritual mysteries. I believe we may get the answers in a different, supernatural way.

Let us see and understand what the Father has been keeping in His Heart and Mind as a mystery for any human being who is not foreknown and predestinated by Him to be the future Bride and Wife of His Son and His Eternal Companion. It is clearly written in the Word that…

"He that LOVES NOT KNOWS NOT GOD; for GOD IS LOVE”. (1Jn. 4:8)

So he that loves not cannot know His Word either because, as we already know very well, the WORD IS GOD. (Jn. 1:1// 1Jn. 5:7) Without love we cannot know God no matter how much information we possess about Him. This truth must yet penetrate our soul and we must start to see it before we are able to believe it. LOVE is the greatest Force-Person in this Universe; it causes us to multiply, to retain God in our being and also keep us in His everlasting Presence.

It is equally clearly written that “though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge (so I can write books and sermons, teach them, preach them); and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains (and build great ministries, churches and seminaries), and HAVE NO LOVE, I AM NOTHING”. (1Cor. 13:2)

Do we register this truth in our hearts? NO, we don’t! Because we do not see the reality of ourselves and of our love, we can only try to imagine ourselves and our love.

We may all believe that we have love, and we may thereby say truth. But the all important question is: What kind of love do we have and show and live? With our mouth we may show much love, but our heart may go after our covetousness. (Ez. 33:31) In our natural soul we have “natural love” which is NOT the love that God means and seeks and desires from us! Our natural human love is selfish; it is not the fruit of the Spirit. (Gal. 5:22) It is mostly emotional love seeking pleasure and self-satisfaction; it is not a suffering love, disciplining love (except for some parent’s love for children). It is not a commitment of one person to another for the times of adversity, suffering and burden-bearing (Pr. 17:17)… even though couples may have made such promises at the altar. Our natural human love does not bear all things, does not believe all things, does not hope all things, does not endure all things… and does not rejoice in truth. (1Cor. 13:4-8a) Our love can fail and fail miserably and at times rather quickly; it can even change into hatred and separate what it united in the beginning! Since the natural selfish love is not the fruit of His Spirit, it is not acceptable to God. That’s why IN OUR NATURAL SOUL WE ARE NOTHING. (Gal. 6:3// Rom. 12:3) Do we see this truth? NO, we don’t! Do we believe it? NO, we don’t, we can’t believe it because we can’t see it!

How do we know that our “love” is true or not? If we reject any corrections of our errors, if we are offended and pricked by the smallest truth about our unacceptable deeds or reactions, if we insist on our opinions, feelings, convictions even in the face of clear facts that oppose them, etc., then it is pride and stubbornness that is in our soul and not love! In this state we are able to “love” only those that always agree with us, go our way, do not speak truth to us and do not try to correct us, discipline us or give us any advices of any kind. This is a clear proof that our “love” is selfish, therefore, it is rubbish! Pride, stubbornness, selfishness, the love of our own ambitions, plans, goals, desires and other “virtues” of our flesh cannot possibly coexist with the true love from the Spirit.

How many Christian couples are divorced? And how many live together only for “the sake of their children”? Why? Where has their first “true” love disappeared? And how could it disappear? Do they know? NO, they don’t! They have only experienced its disappearance and destruction without necessarily knowing or understanding the spiritual roots or reasons for it and the consequences of it. The most sacred union which God established as the fore-picture of Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:32) is destroyed before our very eyes and we have no power, no ability and no desire to save it. Do you know the true reason for this TRAGEDY? It is OUR PRIDE AND SELFISHNESS! It destroys the spirit of natural love before our very eyes rather quickly and efficiently and we in our natural soul can do nothing about it. We then suffer the consequences and begin living in separation and misery. And then we may continue to “serve God” believing that we are “effective servants of God”. (1Tim. 3:4,5) But selfishness, as part of our flesh, is SIN and sin separates, divides and then destroys. SIN separates not only man and wife, but man and God! The power of evil in pride and selfishness is clearly visible in any divorce and the couple carries the damage thereof for the rest of their life. Do you have your own experiences? Can you do anything about it without God? NO!

If there is any husband in the history of mankind that had the right to separate himself from his wife it would be JESUS CHRIST separating Himself from His unfaithful and fornicating wife – the ISRAEL-CHURCH. His faithfulness and sacrifice shows that true love is proven in pain and sufferings and endurance and in evil, not in pleasant feelings, not in goodness and not in loving only those that love you. (Mt. 5:46)

When this book reaches your hand and you are unwilling to send a simple “Thank you” note, what kind of love do you have for me? NONE! This book may have reached your hand, but it had not reached your heart. And even if it reached your heart, it found no love therein. The new Commandment whereby we are commanded by Our Lord to “love one another as He loved us” (Jn. 13:34) is being ignored or broken by the whole Church continually and we are not even ashamed of ourselves. We keep stuffing our heads continually with biblical knowledge and understanding, but the Lord can find NO TRUE LOVE in our hearts! Can you truly see this fact? NO! Unless you have had the same living experiences as I have, you cannot.

I have many experiences where the believers to whom I ministered personally, expressed their “love”, appreciation and thankfulness to me. But when the truth concerning the fruit of their life was later on declared and it did not please them, they all left me, stopped communicating with me and then they were gone for good. (2Tim. 4:14-16?) Many others repaid evil for my good and accused me of terrible things. Their SIN, selfishness, pride, stubbornness and darkness showed up. The unrestricted power of their great selfishness, and lust for their self-satisfaction, and an absolute disregard even for the basic warnings and Commandments of God in His Word, was for me, without exaggeration, astonishing and unimaginable! They desired their kind of Christianity, not their own cross. But the Cross is the only thing that unites because it destroys SIN – the chief and most powerful enemy of Love!

We must return to the New Commandment where Our Lord says to us “... love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU...” not as you love one another with your selfish human love. His love for us was LOVE FROM HIS CROSS. Our love for one another must be from our cross! It must be the fruit that grows from our spirit and not from our flesh. Our Lord is the Master in showing us the kind of love that we have and display in our life by putting us into conflicts, problems, misunderstandings, painful situations, distress, pressures, etc. He points out our errors, our lack of spiritual seeing, sends us His corrections, His discipline, His rebuke... in His Love! (Rev. 3:19) How do we handle His corrections, discipline or rebukes? Do we receive them? NO! Do we behold them with a great suspicion or contempt? Do we reject them off hand without even pausing and pondering them before Him? Are we immediately offended and pricked? Do we leave the “battlefield”, seek a shelter or look for allies for our self-defense? Do we become silent and do not respond? Do we hide behind our walls of Jericho? What do we do? How do we perform? Can you tell? My reply to this question is one word: Miserably! Why? Because…

a vast majority of believers never recognizes His corrections, discipline or rebukes as HIS LOVE AND GRACE for them! Do we see this? NO, we don’t!

I have a mountain of living experiences concerning this issue and the Lord is my Living Witness because He prepared those experiences and sufferings also for me to test me and my own heart.

* * *

I am constrained by the Spirit of the Lord to insert the following facts concerning TRUE LOVE, its depth and significance as viewed in the spiritual world.

First, let us consider the Awesome Love between the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. The Father loved His Son with an unconditional, unlimited, eternal Love because He had unconditional, unlimited and eternal trust and confidence in His Son. And the Son Jesus Christ loved His Father with the same unconditional, unlimited, eternal Love and had the same unconditional, unlimited, eternal trust and confidence in His Father and displayed an unlimited, unconditional and eternal obedience unto His Father!

This unconditional, unlimited, eternal and mutual true love between the Son and the Father is the BASIS OF OUR SALVATION AND THE TRUE PURPOSE OF IT!

This unfathomable Love was tested beyond our comprehension in the Son Jesus Christ. The Father did not stop loving His Son even when He was made sin and cursed for our sake (Gal. 3:13) and forsaken by His Father. And the Son did not stop loving and trusting His Father even when He was cursed and forsaken by Him, but committed His spirit to the hands of His Father! (Lk. 23:46) Man cannot possibly fathom these things except stand in awe or fall to his knees totally speechless. But in the Light of the above awesome Truth, we should finally see and comprehend the whole issue of LOVE, its depth and significance. We must also see better and deeper the reasons why the most important Commandments ever given to man by God touch love as their only object and why all the Law and the Prophets hang on and are fulfilled by LOVE! (Mt. 22:40)

Second, concerning believers, let us see and realize that lack of true LOVE has consequences that go far deeper than we might think or imagine or believe. Without LOVE we are not only nothing, but we are also cursed. Consequently, without LOVE we cannot truly and fruitfully minister Christ to anybody or expect any believer to grow up into Christ even if we speak truth to him! We may only grow up into the Head, even Christ, by speaking or preaching truth IN LOVE. (Eph. 4:15) Do we preach in love? I believe that we speak or preach because we have knowledge and it may be vast. But our vast knowledge never grows in us the fruit of love; it grows the fruit of pride. (1Cor. 8:1) Truth alone is not enough. Our natural, selfish love is not enough. Our faith is not enough! If we speak or preach truth in the spirit of pride, arrogance, fears, self-righteousness or in any other unacceptable spirit or in our intellectual prowess, nobody would grow up into Christ according to Eph. 4:15.

We cannot love anybody whom we do not know. We may never know Christ unless and until He reveals Himself to us. We cannot know Him through any amount of study, teaching, preaching or fellowshipping. He must reveal Himself to us though He may do it during such activities. But He reveals Himself first to those that love Him with passion and in truth not to those that know or teach the doctrines, but have no love. The Word tells us significantly enough that the first person to whom the Lord revealed Himself after His Resurrection was Mary Magdalene! It was not any of the chief Apostles, but a woman. (Jn. 20:14-17// Mk. 16:9) Why? Well, there was no doubt about her truly passionate love for her Master. She had no theological knowledge, but a great love for Jesus. After she was delivered from seven devils (Mk. 16:9) and cured by Jesus, she was always where He was, even to His last breath at His Cross. She was also the first to seek Him after His death and weeping for Him while His disciples went home.

The same happened to Saul of Tarsus to whom the Lord revealed Himself because of his great love for God which produced that great zeal in him for the affairs of God as he believed them in his heart at that time. (Acts 9:1-6) His great love made it possible for the Lord to make out of him Apostle Paul, who then contributed to the New Testament that great treasure of inspired writings.

We must realize that CHRIST, being God, IS LOVE before all else. Therefore, if we have no true love before all else, we cannot truly represent Him, minister Him fruitfully to anybody or serve Him Personally to His satisfaction. If we spend time in the presence of the Living Christ, though our mind may be natural, unrenewed and dark, yet, we always “soak something from Him”; and it can be sensed. When Jesus was captured, Peter was in a horrible state of his soul when he was in the porch of the High Priest’s palace. Yet people could sense “something of Christ” in him, his speech was different and it betrayed him. (Mt. 26:73) When we spend no time with Christ, there is nothing of Him detectable in us. People cannot say: “I see… I sense… I touch Christ in you.” People may touch our religious flesh, which is spiritual death and not life.

There are many other passages in the Word of Our Lord where LOVE predominates and is the sole basis of all His actions toward us and also of His basic demands on us. Before we are allowed in our spirit and soul to start seeing the answers from Our Father to our manifold questions, let us repeat and ponder the First and Second Commandment of God to man. It speaks about LOVE and nothing else! Let us see the depth of this Word and what it actually entails, where it starts and what it takes to fulfill it.

Since God IS Love (1Jn. 4:8b), His Love has its “fingers” in all His Creation and in all His Purposes. We will continue on this subject until we “exhaust” what the Father wants to give us at this time.

Let us therefore repeat the First Great Commandment of God to us, believers:

“And you shall LOVE the Lord Your God with ALL your heart, and with ALL your soul, and with ALL your mind, and with ALL your strength:”

And the Second one is like this: “You shall LOVE your neighbour as yourself.” (Mk. 12:30,31// Lev. 19:18; “neighbour” is not every man or every believer or everyone living “next door” to you; the Lord answered this question in

Lk. 10:29-37).

On these two Great Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Mt. 22:40) If we would be able to fulfill these two Commandments, we would fulfill all the Law and the Prophets just as Our Lord fulfilled it. (Mt. 5:17). The problem is that we are not able to fulfill these two Commandments even if we know the entire Bible from cover to cover and have faith to move mountains and understand all knowledge and preach the Word to all the world! And even if we would bestow all our possessions to feed the poor and offer our bodies to be burned, we still would remain unable to fulfill these two Commandments! (1Cor. 13:2,3) This is where all our true problems start... and also end.

Our problem is that we may be as Lucifer, wise, knowledgeable and perfect and have no love. It would only be a question of time when we would start turning slowly and imperceptibly into Satan!

The true aim of our Salvation as conceived in the Heart of Our Father is not only that we would “miss hell and save our skin”, but that we would LOVE HIM with all our being! And if we do not do this Commandment (even progressively), we do not do the Will of Our Father. And if we do not do the Will of Our Father (even progressively), we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven no matter how “good” Christians we might have been and how many wonderful works we might have done. (Mt. 7:21-23// Lk. 13:24-30 – it does not hurt to repeat truth and finally register it in our conscience). But the Lord provided the way, the only way where we are enabled to do these Commandments and the Will of Our Father. It is on our own cross where we are truly losing our selfish nature which nature stands in the way of the Will of Our Father and also in the way of our true love for Him!

It is clearly written: “Whosoever hates his brother is a MURDERER; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (1Jn. 3:15)

Can human love change into hate? YES, IT CAN. The same is true for friendship or brotherhood; any friend or brother can indeed be changed into our enemy. All we have to do is to start speaking truth to him! (Gal. 4:16) Hatred is a great spiritual force which is not greater than love, but it may separate what love united and it may do a lot of damage in the person affected and in many others around him.

Let us register in our mind and see and understand in our heart that there are always some of the great forces in us that we should be aware of and that may destroy our natural love without a trace! They are the following: Pride, selfishness, jealousy, fears, doubts, prejudices, stubbornness, independence, self-sufficiency, suspicions and others. All married or divorced persons must have experienced some of them in their own life! True? These are also a clear proof that our soul is not fit for the Lord.

h) LOVE is the reason for ALL that God creates and does. However, His Love does not always seem to us to be a “true love” because it comes in different forms which we do not readily recognize or appreciate in our soul. In fact, the natural believer hates many acts of the Love of God toward him because many acts of the love of God toward him may cause him pain, suffering and confusion and he hates those acts of God’s love! Do you need an example? Here is one which we already mentioned before:

“AS MANY AS I LOVE, I rebuke and chasten (discipline)” (Rev. 3:19) THAT is not a pleasant love! But this is exactly what we, parents, do with our children! We rebuke and chasten them because we love them! True? Why? The Lord knows that even with believers Nothing else will do it! No sermon, no teaching, no bible study, no church attendance, no religious activity of any kind will ever do it! Do you see this? Do you recognize this? Are you experiencing this in your own Christian life?

i) The above Word of God goes to a greater depth than we could see and admit in our human soul. The Word continues in a different place saying:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord LOVES He chastens, and SCOURGES EVERY SON whom He receives. IF YOU ENDURE chastening, God deals with you as with SONS... But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you BASTARDS, and not sons.” (Heb. 12:5b,6, 7a,8)

Is THIS also the LOVE of Our Father? YES, IT IS! Are we receiving it? NO! We are resisting it… whether we are aware of it or not. We may talk about it or preach it to others, but we cannot believe or imagine that WE would need such a “treatment” and that it would come to us in such a form from Our Father, Who is Love. Also, we cannot accept that Our Father would use words like “bastards”, which we try to avoid, because they do not fit our human dignity. How can a born-again, baptized believer be a bastard? Very easily! He refuses the chastening of the Father because His chastening is not in sweet, loving words, but in SHARP Words, PIERCING Words. It must be ENDURED by us (this is also our cross), and IF WE ENDURE IT, THEN God deals with us as with sons and not as with bastards.

Furthermore, OUR FATHER SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE IS RECEIVING! Not few, but EVERY ONE. Do we know what a scourge is? Do we use such an instrument of LOVE in our Christianity? NO! NEVER! According to our human soul, it is not the “Christian way”. The natural Christian souls are expected to deal with one another in “sweet, polite, courteous, pleasant and often in hypocritical” ways that do not prick or offend the senses and the pride of the natural souls of the others. These “sweet, pleasant, polite, courteous” ways are easily confused with “grace and understanding and love”. Do we see this? NO! We don’t! We are victims of the same grave error which will very effectively stop us from growing up into Christ and be changed into a spiritual believer! Our old man, old nature always expects or demands “love and grace”, but God apportioned to our old man whip, fire and death! Our old man will never understand or accept this Judgment. He will never admit that he deserves death and hell, but will always seek comfort, love, peace and grace. TRUE? Do you truly see this? Can you at least ponder this question?

When the Lord Himself made a scourge and cleansed the Temple, does it have any spiritual meaning for us today? (Jn. 2:15) Do we glance over it as over an interesting event in the life of Jesus which has no effect on us today?

Well, think twice, for the Lord had done nothing which would have no meaning for us in our own life. He made a physical scourge because the Lord lived in the Old Testament. Now, in the New Testament, it is to be a “spiritual scourge” using His Word, powerful, sharp and piercing word which pierces the division of our soul and spirit... and cleanses our own Temple, (Heb. 4:12// 1Cor. 3:16) where there are also powers that try to make our Temple a “den of thieves”. Do we see this spiritual fact? NO, we don’t, and we don’t want to see it. We like to be His Temple, but we hate to clean It, purge It and are lazy to vacuum It.

Yes, we ought to be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honour preferring one another, etc. (Rom. 12:10) BUT we ought not to be like that toward the spirits of darkness and evil in our old souls, which spirits are clearly discerned, identified and shown by the Spirit of God as talking to us or through us! I should be kindly affectioned toward man, but not toward any hell in the soul of that man. When man speaks to me, I am polite and kind to him; when hell speaks to me from that man, I am not polite and not kind. Our Lord did the same. (Mt. 23:13-35)

Every believer desires Love and Mercy from the Lord, but His Love and Mercy always bring along with them His rod especially while we are spiritual children... and He beats us with it to deliver our SOUL from hell. (Pr. 23:13,14)

Our Father is looking into our eyes and He says to us “You know nothing yet about My Love... and you know nothing yet about your old sinful nature”. Is Our Father right or is He wrong? Let us allow Him to grant us the following necessary Light in spirit.

When God formed darkness and created evil, when He created Lucifer and suffered his fall and change into Satan, when He created man and suffered his fall and change into an evil creature and sinner, when He then sent His Son and suffered His death and sacrifice... HE DID IT ALL BECAUSE OF HIS LOVE!

GOD HAS HAD A GREAT AND UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR ALL THOSE SOULS THAT WILL BE WILLING TO FULFIL HIS WILL AND HIS GREAT DESIRE EXPRESSED IN HIS COMMANDMENTS AND WILL OVERCOME ALL THE POWERS OF DARKNESS AND EVIL INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF THEMSELVES SO THAT GOD COULD FINALLY HAVE HIS DESIRED ETERNAL FAMILY.

No creature could satisfy Adam but a woman created in Adam’s own image and of his bones. (Gen. 2:18-23) EQUALLY, no creature could satisfy God but man created in God’s Own Image and of His “bones”. (Eph. 5:30) “Therefore shall the man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his Lord, and they shall be one Body and One spirit. And they shall be both transparent and will not be ashamed to be brethren.” (spiritual transcript and meaning of Gen. 2:24,25// Eph. 5:31// Heb. 2:11)

Many Angels that served God faithfully had fallen and followed Satan. Therefore Man must be tested by the very same evil, deceptions and temptations that God’s Angels were tested with, and man must be proven, dependable, faithful, loving God more than himself. God the Son will never “marry” anyone, who in time might again embrace evil and fall and become unfaithful to Him. Hence, MAN must become absolutely NEW in his SPIRIT, SOUL and BODY having no spot or wrinkle from the old creation, or any such thing. Man (Church) must become absolutely holy and without any blemish of sin, evil and darkness. (Eph. 5:27)

Furthermore…

Man must become much different than Lucifer, who was also perfect in his beauty and wisdom and also “without spot or wrinkle or any blemish of sin”! Man must become more dependable, more faithful and more loving of God than Lucifer ever was! Otherwise, God would have no guarantee that he would not follow the path of Lucifer even after his marriage to His Son! Do we see this truth? Or are we blind to it?

Surely we can always trust our Lord, but how much can our Lord trust us? Can we assess it? NO!

We must repeat and see that when we believe and are born-again and redeemed, we are NOT the sons and daughters of God as yet. We are potential sons/daughters. As redeemed, we are spiritual toddlers that know nothing about their Father and about themselves! At that time and at that spiritual stage, we only receive the power to become the sons of God, as it is written: “But as many as received Him (as their Saviour and became redeemed) to them gave He POWER TO BECOME THE SONS OF GOD...” (Jn. 1:12)

That power becomes absolutely necessary for us when we decide to grow up and follow the Lord on the narrow way. Why? In our own power we cannot even dream about following the Lord and becoming His true sons and daughters. Without that power we cannot be formed into His Image.

j) We have never truly comprehended the True Purpose of God, Our Father. We have never recognized the true ways and forms of His Love. We thus have never seen and understood the mighty difference between a person being redeemed and forgiven, and the true son/daughter of God! We have never seen and understood in spirit why God did what He did in the Old Testament and that it all shows and proves the spiritual truths in the New Testament. This includes this most important issue that we are dealing with in this book – the true difference between the soul and the spirit.

Their separate salvations are clearly illustrated by Our Father in His sovereign acts in the Old Testament. There is yet a mountain of knowledge and wisdom we could draw from the Old Testament and its fulfillment in the New Testament in the spiritual world, but our time is now short.

So, let us see what Our Father would show us in the Old Testament concerning this most important issue of our Christian life. God had brought His chosen people out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Egypt typified the kingdom of Satan and Pharaoh typified Satan himself. The people of Israel were taken out of the power and possession of Satan and that, by the blood of the lamb, which was killed in each family. (Ex. 12:5-11) Of course, the lamb typified the Lamb of God, which took away the sin of the world by His Blood. (Jn. 1:29) This crossing of the Red Sea was a sheer miracle that no man can do in his own power or wisdom. It represents our Redemption from the kingdom of the powers of darkness and evil and the resurrection in our spirit... which is also a sheer miracle that no man can do in his power or wisdom. Hence, “not by works of man that any man should boast” proves this fact. (Eph. 2:9)

After this crossing, God did not bring Israel to their Promised Land, but to a wilderness where there was nothing to eat, drink or to enjoy for their souls. WHY? There God began to deal with their souls, which “remained in Egypt” and murmured and complained and were dissatisfied and refused to obey God. They got out of Egypt-the kingdom of Satan, but Egypt with its kingdom of Satan did not get out of their souls.

God showed them that He was all sufficient for them in any wilderness. He “rained bread on them” from Heaven that people would go out and gather a certain rate every day “that I may PROVE THEM whether they will walk in My law or not.” (Ex. 16:4)

He also gave them drink from the Rock, which Rock was Christ. (1Cor. 10:4) And when they spoke against God and Moses, the Lord sent fiery serpents to bite them and much people of Israel died. And then the Lord showed mercy and commanded Moses to make a serpent of brass and raise it upon a pole so that anyone who was bitten and would behold it could live. (Num.21:5-9) OBEDIENCE WAS NOW REQUIRED from them to recover-save their souls from Egypt and from the kingdom of Satan, but people failed to do the required works of obedience.

But the Lord desired that now Israel would learn obedience and enter the Promised Land soon after crossing the Red Sea. He showed them the Promised Land that it was the land that indeed flowed with milk and honey by sending there spies who searched the land for 40 days. But the people refused to believe and to go in and possess it! Therefore, the Lord let them wander in the wilderness for 40 years (one year for each day of searching the land by the spies) and die there. None of them was allowed to see or enter the Promised Land. Only their children who were 20 years of age and younger at the time of this Judgment of God, and Joshua and Caleb were all brought to the Promised Land. (Num. 13:25-33; 14:1-6,29-38)

Now, let us come to the New Testament and see the spiritual reflection of this fact, namely, that...

this is PRECISELY the same case with Christians! They have been redeemed from the powers of darkness and evil, they “crossed their Red Sea” and got out of the kingdom of Satan (were redeemed)... but the kingdom of Satan did not get out of their souls... they keep lusting for the “delicacies of their old life (wine) even for their return to it”. (Lk. 5:39)

After our Redemption, we have equally not entered the Kingdom of Heaven, but have been left in a (spiritual) wilderness of this evil world where there is equally nothing to eat, drink or enjoy for our spirit. here God deals with our souls that we may learn obedience to Him! But many murmur, complain, are dissatisfied and miserable, hungry and thirsty. Many desire to live their old life and refuse to obey The Word of God. Nothing has changed!

Our Father has sent to us Bread from Heaven (Jn. 6:31-35) in a similar way to PROVE US whether we will walk in His Spirit or not! (Gal. 5:25) Do we walk in His Spirit, or do we walk in our soul? Can we discern this difference and answer this question before the Lord? Those that walk in their soul cannot answer it because they have no conscience of what it is to walk in His Spirit. Only those that walk in His Spirit can distinguish and answer that question.

We are also expected to “go out and gather a certain portion of His Bread (Life) every day”. Our Lord came that we might have Life and have it more abundantly. (Jn. 10:10) THAT does not mean that we have that Life and even abundantly just by His coming for that purpose! Do we “gather and eat His Bread daily” or do we spiritually starve? The Lord says that we do not come to Him to “gather Bread (that we may have Life), a portion every day... here a little and there a little”! (Jn. 5:40// Is. 28:10) Our Lord has also given us a drink in His Spirit. Do we drink His Spirit or do we spiritually thirst? We may not know this answer either.

We can also “speak against God”, not necessarily verbally, but with the attitude of our natural soul, through our “flesh”. When we do so in a prolonged manner, the Lord similarly allows us to be “bitten by fiery serpents”, evil spirits which He either sends to us (1Sam. 16:14,15) or allows them to come to us and do their evil work in us through deceptions and temptations and many of us might die (be separated). But Our Father has raised on a pole (Cross) His Son (Jn. 3:14), who was made sin and a curse (brazen serpent – Gen. 3:14) for our sake (2Cor. 5:21// Gal. 3:13), so that when we “look at Him”, we may live. When we are not looking at Him, there is no faith in our spirit and no life in our soul. (Heb. 12:2)

Let us now consider the spiritual fact which decisively shows the most important issue of this book.

While there was no other way from Egypt to the Promised Land except through the Red Sea, there were ways to reach the Promised Land on dry land from the wilderness after Israel crossed the Red Sea. Despite this fact, Our Father had REPEATED the miracle of the Red Sea and brought Israel to cross yet another body of water and yet another death – river Jordan! WHY? Because...

The crossing of the Red Sea represents the death and resurrection of the believer’s SPIRIT – his redemption.

The crossing of river

TRAGEDY

GLORY

BELIEVERS

CHAPTER 5 – PONDERING DEEP

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

REDEMPTION OF MAN

SALVATION OF MAN

TWO CROSSES

PONDERING DEEP

SPIRITUAL ISSUES