Ole Henrik: Sometimes I find it hard to trust my soul and my emotions and how both push me in different directions.
DeeDee: Ole, the only thing to do is say, “Here You are, Lord, now
what does this mean…what are You up to?” You will ever so gradually sift
through to your direction. Actually your soul and your emotions are one
and the same…moving together in sync. Your reason will be the thing
that pushes you in a different direction saying that
this cannot
be. These are the two things we have to ‘sort through’ and find the
Lord’s purpose and direction. Soul expresses what your spirit/Spirit is
doing.
Ole Henrik: Without a soul it would be impossible to express our
spirits in their union with the Spirit. Right? Without our souls it
would impossible to know when God embraces us in a special way. Right?
Our souls are God’s means of expressing Himself to the world. Right? And
directing our steps….
DeeDee: Right…right…right!
Ole Henrik: Many speak about “letting” Him. “Let God be free in you.”
What does that mean? Can we somehow bind God? In that case, it is
unbelief that somehow causes Him to be “unfree” in us?
DeeDee: When I came out from under the law and living life as though I
was separated from God and had to “do” the Christian life to please
God, I began to
redefine words that seemed like I
had to or
could do
anything to accomplish living the Christian life. We will redefine
“let” as “recognize” or “agree with God” and go joyously with the flow
of Christ, our life. In saying
we must “let God” we are usually
speaking from a point of view that somehow we (our actions and
reactions) are more powerful than God (although folks would never admit
that, but it is the
natural outcome from having a separated
mindset) and must ‘let’ or ‘allow’ the Creator of the universe freedom
within their great hold on themselves and life. What a joke!!!
But I suppose in some small way that our unbelief and non-cooperation
limits
(I use that instead of bind) us as we constantly check ourselves
against our false image/idea of Jesus and how He was on a daily basis.
We have a very ‘sterilized’ idea of Him…blond, white and almost floating
around Israel in a calm and angelic way…disturbed a couple of times in
His life, but for the most part calm. At least that is how I once
pictured Him…and it was SO far from how I behaved on a daily basis! The
joke was on me when I discovered the
fully human side of Jesus.
Ole Henrik: I was thinking about bitterness yesterday. The Bible
admonishes us to not allow any bitter root to grow in us. Why is that?
Could it be that because of bitterness we are less receptive concerning
the things God wants to give us?
DeeDee: Isn’t bitterness due to our refusal to find/see
God in a person or situation?
Ole Henrik: Never thought about it like that before, but you are right.
DeeDee: Yes, and the longer we refuse the deeper the root grows
entangling us in ways we never dreamed. Our only answer is “The cup my
Father gives me” and “In
everything give thanks for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning me”.
Ole Henrik: Which means suffering…….and it means to be taken on faith
journeys that devastates reason and which are unique for every one of
us….
DeeDee: Absolutely! And what does suffering produce but glory. God
sees to that! It is His natural outcome from death to resurrection.
Ole Henrik: Do you mind elaborating on this: “entangling us in ways we never dreamed”
DeeDee: What was once a hurtful thing in our lives can turn into a
much greater and more far-reaching hurt to us…poisoning our relationship
and even other relationships…when we stand our ground and do not try to
resolve or accept our hurt as “You meant it for evil, but
God meant it for
good.” We become entangled in our ‘being right’ or justified…affecting many of our relationships.
Ole Henrik: For many it is difficult to accept the fact that also
their souls are now reconciled to God and are perfected in Him and are
for His use. Why is that?
DeeDee: The answer is so simple and yet difficult to resolve. It is
not our souls that are “reconciled to God” but our spirits are when we
receive Christ as our Savior. It takes some unlearning and training by
the Holy Spirit to settle us. Our souls only express
spirit/Spirit….either the Spirit of Error (before we are born-again) or
the Spirit of Truth (after we receive Christ and are joined to HIm
spirit to Spirit).
The real issue is simply that we live in the illusion that we have
‘life’ in us apart from God…that we can do good/be better or do bad/sin.
Life is Spirit. We know this because what is death, but when our spirit
leaves our body. Spirit IS life. What is expressed through/by our soul
IS spirit/Spirit. Our soul has NO ability/life in itself apart from our
spirit to express one thing!.
Ole Henrik: In what ways do our souls express faith?
DeeDee: In any word or belief that we utter in agreeance with God.
This can be with His word through the Bible or by what stirs in us by
the Holy Spirit to believe. Because we are accustomed to think that
these stirrings are ‘just’ us we miss the glory that they are His life
bursting forth from us.
It is imperative that we come to understand the simple basics of our
human makeup. Man is tri-part…spirit, soul and body. Our spirit is our
“created in the image of God” part of us and it is where we are joined
to the Lord…”He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This is
pictured in a human marriage when the two become one. Spirit contains
mind (We have the mind of Christ) knowing, will, choice. Spirit is ego…I
am. Our souls contain reason, emotion, mind (“Be transformed by the
renewing of your mind). Our body is our physical make-up.
Ole Henrik: Seems to me that all this adds up to that we are safe in
our new marriage/union. I have one last question. I notice how my soul
also is impacted by outer stimuli. I get nervous, sometimes I have
slight anxiety attacks, I get fearful etc and all these reactions or
responses are triggered by what I encounter in the outside world. Any
thoughts?
DeeDee: If our bottom line is that our soul has no ability in us but
to express Spirit/spirit then we must say that the anxiety is Spirit
being expressed….but for a much different purpose than I have ever
realised in the past. These ‘attacks’ are simply there to produce faith.
It is our spirit that is impacted, but we are so used to knowing
ourselves only on a feeling level…soul or body feelings…that we
misinterpret our souls. We immediately think there is something wrong
coming against me from an outer source….when in truth it is
Spirit/Christ/God expressing Himself for an upward purpose when I move
into faith about what I am feeling.
I learned this some years ago when jealousy rose in me like a flash
toward a long-time and much beloved friend of mine. I had known my union
with Christ and freedom from the law for several years, but I did not
yet have any understanding of the all-encompassing rightness of my
feelings and reactions. All I knew was to say, “I am not jealous of her,
I am Christ in my form.”
The words that came back to me forever changed my life. I heard as
clearly as I have ever heard anything…”You are not jealous OF her, but
jealous FOR her. It is
My jealousy in you FOR her to know Me as you do.” All I could do was humbly say with the Lord that she would know Christ as her life also.
My mind reeled as I began to realise the totalness of what I had just
‘heard’. ALL of my feelings were made right by His life within me…His
Spirit joined to my spirit and being expressed through my soul. I looked
at Scripture and realised the hard things to understand that God says
about Himself. Three emotions that I had always thought that God
(Father, Son and Holy Spirit) could
never express,
He says about HImself….hate,
jealousy and anger! If they are right in Him then they must be right in
the born-again person…because Christ IS our life!
Each of us have a part of our personality/soul that we have feared
and fought all of our life because we have seen it as some thing WRONG
(with a capital W) about us, when in fact it is the MAJOR thing right
about us. It is THE vehicle for the cross of Christ to operate in us…Him
laying down His life BY/IN US and taking it up again for those whom WE
are given.
Jesus tells us of this work of the cross in Matt. 16:24-26. “Then
Jesus said to His disciples, “If any man will come after Me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever will save
his life shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life for My sake shall
find it. For what has a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
This passage comes after Peter has declared Jesus The Christ and
Jesus says that flesh and blood did not reveal this. Jesus declares
this response is the rock/FAITH (the Person of Christ Himself) on
which He will build His church. He then gives us the keys to bind or
loose by OUR word…which comes out of the desires, pressures and agonies
of OUR SOUL.
The next happening in this most interesting exchange is that Jesus
tells them he must suffer, die and be raised. Peter rebukes this and
Jesus calls him Satan…by not wanting God’s way of the cross. Jesus then
tells us that our way to FOLLOW (to come or go after; to move behind in
the same direction) Him is through the cross.
What does “take up OUR cross…lose OUR life…forfeit OUR soul ” mean? The real key here is OUR; not cross, nor life, nor soul.
It is the very nature of God to lay down His life for His creation.
That is Who love is…a Life laid down. That is what HE WILL BE in and AS
US…the cross of Christ constantly operative. To lose OUR life is to lose
any consciousness we have of a SEPARATE or INDEPENDENT life that we
THINK we have. In reality there is NOTHING in us apart from Christ…our
spirit joined to His Spirit expressed through OUR body and SOUL. There
it is…OUR soul. What possible way do we have of expressing Him if we
want our soul flat-lined, inoperative, placid…thereby giving it up!!!!
To lose the FULL expression of our soul is to lose the only way His Life
and cross can bring about life for others. This is truly finding OUR
life…right and hidden in Christ Jesus.
THIS is what we have to give to the Body of Christ…THE FULL, TOTAL, RIGHTNESS AND RIGHT USE OF OUR
HUMANITY…ALL
about US made right in the death, burial and resurrection of our
beloved God and Lord, Jesus Christ…who has come again a second time by
His Holy Spirit to live IN and AS His most beloved creation…US!!! Christ
FULLY alive and expressed in every aspect and nuance of our souls. “So
Christ was was once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that
look for Him shall He appear a second time WITHOUT SIN unto
salvation”…Heb. 9:28 I believe this second appearance is when we KNOW
no sin/wrongness/separation in whatever way the Spirit comes through us.
Only the FINAL battle…our personal Armageddon…of losing OUR life will
bring us to complete rest…me loving my
God-created-in-His-own-image-and-called-very-good-ME…
my depression, fear, jealousy, anger… I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me…in my soul and body. Our souls are our glory…revealing our
Treasure in earthen vessels…Christ in us.
By DeeDee Winter
I awoke this morning thinking of our exchange on the soul. Until the
Holy Spirit gets this part of us settled in its rightness, we can never
fully “be about our Father’s business”, because every time a negative
emotion hits us we will either ask what is wrong with us, taking
condemnation, OR confess it as sin. Imagine confessing the LIFE OF
CHRIST within ourselves as sin!!!
We were created to bear Him and bring life to our ‘world’. His way of
bringing mankind out of slavery to Sin was to die on the Cross, rise
again, ascend into heaven and then send us His Holy Spirit. He will be
the same dynamic IN US of death and resurrection and in doing so, bring
those whom He gives us into light and freedom!
But we MUST first get settled about the purity of our souls…purely expressing Him!
After the Lord said to me “You are not jealous
of her, but
for her; it is
My jealousy in you for her
to know Me as you do” I began to search the Scriptures for what there
was about our souls, because I knew if God spoke that word to me that it
would be backed up by His Scriptures. What I found so far surpassed
what I had hoped for! I began with a word search and found Matt
16:26…”What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
I was riveted and began to read back through that passage. The Spirit
directed me as far as Matt 16:15. I will loosely paraphrase it all…
Matt 16:15 begins with Jesus asking His disciples “Who do
you
say that I am?” Peter replies that He is the Christ and Jesus tells him
flesh and blood did not tell Peter this, but it was revealed by His
Father in heaven and upon
this rock (of
revelation and faith)
He shall build His church. Jesus continues…with these ‘rock principles’
in place He says (19) He will give us the keys to the kingdom…that
whatsoever we bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever we
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. This means that we have the
power by
our word to set folks free!
Jesus then says He must go to the Cross…to which Peter replies that
he does not want Him to suffer (23) and Jesus calls him Satan! It is
Satan that does not want the Cross…death to resurrection which is the
very nature of God (giving Himself for others) and this truth will
become part of every believer when we
receive Christ Jesus as our Savior…which is
receiving His LIFE!
This LIFE is not just when we ‘go to heaven’ but also for every day we
live on this earth in time and space. It is His nature, and now ours, to
bear conflict in our soul and by our word, bring life to/in the object
of our conflict…binding and loosing. “Present your bodies a living
sacrifice…our reasonable service” as Ro 12:1 says.
Then comes the
resounding climax (24 – 26) of this passage!
“If any man will come after Me let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow Me.” This denying ourselves is to deny that we have ANY
ability in ourselves apart from Him…NO independent self that is able to
act on our own…nothing in our branch form apart from The Vine (Christ
by the Holy Spirit) who IS our life! It is the clarion call to
fully BE Who you are!
“For whosoever shall save
his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose
his life for My sake shall find it.” I used to think the emphasis of this passage was on lose and life…but no longer.
I see the emphasis to be totally on “his”…again speaking of the
illusion of an independent life apart from Christ…an independent ability
to sin or do good. Lose THAT illusion!
And now to the verse that wraps up this exchange. “For what is a man
profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? Or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Losing our soul…and ALL it
is meant to be…is to be suspicious of our emotions and trying to get
them under ‘control’. When we do not trust them, fear them or hate them
we give up the ‘way’ the Holy Spirit is coming
through us for those around us.
It
is Satan’s gospel that tells the Christian that his emotions are wrong
and not to be trusted…and anyone telling us that is preaching Satan’s
gospel!
It takes a ‘season’ for the Spirit to settle and train us in the
right use of ourselves. We have been so used to fearing our anger,
jealousy, hate love…yes, even love. Begin to say the truth about
yourself…”Lord, here You are”. At first we will have to simply take
these truths by faith, but ever so quietly the Holy Spirit will make
them ours. Everything about me has been made right and God is living His
life as me…for “In Him we live and move and have our being.” When we
begin to see these truths about ourselves ALL of Scripture screams them
at us. God will gradually expand our understanding to see that what we
want is never for ourselves, but always for the other person’s highest
good.
The last few words of these verses “…in exchange for our soul” are
vital for us to comprehend. Most of the Christian world wants their
souls to be flat-lined with no ups or downs…oh maybe the ups are OK, but
God help them if there is anything negative! God MEANS for us to have a
fully alive and extremely active soul. It is through the activity of
our soul that God calls our attention to a person or situation we “bind
and lose” as we saw in v.19. We move into FAITH!
As we stated earlier…God’s nature/being is always to give His life
for the other. He did this before the foundation of the world when The
Lamb was slain. God chose then to be for more than Himself. He chose to
be for us and His creation. He will be nothing less/do nothing less than
He did before we existed. He will always lay down His life and take it
up again. This is His life and is to be our life in Christ. His final
commandment to us was “Love as I have loved you.” (Jn 15:12).
It is imperative that these deep realities are settled in us and
about us, in order that we can fully be about our Father’s business…in
oneness/union with Christ redeeming those He brings to us.
It reminded me that the types of the spirit and the soul are the Holy of Holies and the Holies. Then it dawned on me that the Holy of Holies is the nucleus or substance of the Holies. Likewise in the antitype the nucleus or substance of the soul is the spirit. Deny or take away the spirit and what is left?