Paul in 1Thesilonians 5:16-23 tells us what it’s going to take to have our spirit, soul and body be restored at the coming of the Lord.  He states, “ (1.) Rejoice ever more. (2.) Pray without ceasing. (3.) In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (4.) Quench not the Spirit. (5.) Despise not prophesying. (6.)Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (7.) Abstain from all appearance of evil. (8.) And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This tells us that man is a triune being with a ( spirit, soul and body. )

In Genesis 2:7 it tells us, “ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; ( Man’s spirit of life) and man became a living soul.”  Our spirit is the breathe of God that he breathed into mankind and it is made up of a soul that can think, decide its destiny and have feelings of joy to great despair and all those emotions in between. Our soul represents our mind, will and emotions.  Our emotions are triggered by how and what our mind thinks about. We also see that our physical body came from the dust of the earth.  Man is a spirit being because God is a Spirit.

In Genesis 3:19 God tells Adam and Eve that their bodies were dust and when they die; their bodies will return to dust.  So we see that man has a body and his personal persona is his spirit which was breathed into man on his conception which is made up of a mind with a will of it’s own, to plan his own destiny; with emotions that are motivated and draws him to certain conclusions of life.  This proves to me that when God made man; he gave him a free will because, He wanted him to be independent with the power and  freedom of choice to do his own thing or walk in his spirit with God His creator. This concept has not changed even though man’s thinking is trying hard to do it’s own thing and not rightly interpret the scriptures correctly. This article is a basic foundation message that must be in place if we intend to be whole body, soul and spirit to go on and obtain God’s objectives for our lives.

Mankind is a total creation by God and because we are His handy work; we should be living with the adage that; whether we rise or fall in our adventures of life it is unto the Lord our God. I have learned and am continuing to be strengthened by the Holy Ghost daily that; my life is in His hands and no matter what trials of life befall me nor circumstances created by the devil or the evil’s of mankind, nothing can pluck me out of His hand.  If we intend to be whole and secure this has to be our confession and what we are experiencing in our daily lives. Scripture tells us that when we die physically; we will be ushered into the presence of the Lord. That is our spirit man with our soul awareness.  Our flesh or physical body goes into the grave and over a time turns to dust where it came from.

The relationship that Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden was God flowing His spirit as a rushing wind or breathe into their spirit and they had a quick understanding of His thoughts and a united Spirit to spirit relationship.  I have said this in other articles that when it says God would have fellowship with them in the cool of the day; in the Hebrew cool is the word Ruwack: meaning God’s Spirit would weave Himself into their spirit being. When they disobeyed God and their eyes were open to start thinking in right and wrong concepts of their  behavior; their spirit and God’s Spirit could no longer evolve together because; they began to reason with their own soulish minds and began to plan their own destiny and their soul became sick. Rather them being God conscience; they became self conscience and the first denominational church of religious observances took place.

In John 14:6 Jesus tells us that, “ I am the way the truth and the life: no man comes unto the Father but by me.”  Recently I heard on the television that many so called Christian church’s are saying that there is other ways to go to heaven and be with the Lord.  This is in deed dangerous and absolutely demonic in nature and totally contrary to the basic foundation of the Christian faith.  Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that “unless a man is born of water and the Spirit; he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”  A man is born physically by beginning to be nurtured in the water of the mother’s womb however, he is born again spiritually when he has the miracle of salvation when he receives Jesus into his heart and he becomes a child of God.  With out this miracle manifestation taking place in one’s life; you have no symbiotic oneness with God’s Spirit and even though you are independent and have a soul to function in there is no life in your spirit.  Since God is the author of life; we must have this basic foundation planted in our hearts where the issues of life are formed and acted upon if; we intend to have our spirit, soul and body become whole.

Paul says this in Romans 8:16. “ God’s Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” All of life is centered on a symbiotic relationship with the Holy Ghost who is the one who doctors our person (soul) and trains us to walk in God’s kingdom as his children.  Paul also tells the Philippians in 2:13, “ It is God at work in you to not only will you to do His bidding but also; empower you to do it.”  This should give us great hope that we must really trust and turn our lives over to the Holy Ghost; for it is only He that can bring our purposes in God to wholeness.

Paul continues to encourage us when he says, “ For He who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the Holy Spirit- what His intent is because; the Spirit intercedes and pleads before God in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will.  We are assured that God being a partner in out labors, all things work together for good to those who love God and are called for His design and purpose”

It is my prayer that we really understand that Christianity is a very real relationship with a living God who encourages us to walk in heavenly places now while we are on the earth while we are housed in our physical bodies and interact with Him because; He loves to give good gifts to His children.

It seems of late that I have been involved in conversations with family and friends where some of the involvement that they have encountered and tried to minister to were people who were born again children of God, and living in some real soul sick life styles of curses that have been past down from generation to generation.  I am convinced that the power of sin ( which is a living entity)  not a behavior pattern in its many forms can keep a born again Christian in bondage to some beastly perverted life styles and they have no control to break from these controlling spirits.  If a born again believer comes to really know the love of God the Father in a personal intimate way; no demon in hell will be able to chain one of God’s kids and put them in a personal living  prison with in themselves.

Some Christian that I have met and heard about have their souls infected with thoughts and actions that should not even be named among born again believers.  This can only take place because they have never been taught how to appropriate God’s given grace that guards and protects them from the devil coming to steal, kill and destroy God’s property as His children.  These bondages and life styles that are contrary to God’s character; when the person makes the decision to break from them; it can cause a lot of emotional pain and it takes some real committed spiritually grown up Christian to stand in the gap with them while this process is going on.

In 3 John 2 he tells the people that “it is as their soul prospers that their body will stay well.”  We must allow the Spirit of God to have full reign in making His ways and thoughts our ways and thoughts.  For the born again believer this is the natural way for them to live their daily lives.  You tell me what you think about all day and I’ll tell you where your heart is in reference to your relationship with God.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 encourages the Corinthian church when he says. “But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor has the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.  However, God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, and especially the things of God.  For what man knows the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him?  Even so the things of God no man knows except the Spirit of God.  However, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”

If you have been born again by the spiritual sperm of the Holy Ghost as Jesus was; it is only then that you have the right and privilege to participate and are able to walk in the spiritual kingdom of God with revelation knowledge of God’s thinking and His ways.  I recently had a very good conversation with a man who was God conscience and had a great desire to be a good man and want to minister to the poor and hurting people in his arena of life.  He was a very read man with great organizational communicational skills with others.  I really enjoyed our hours of conversation and the challenges of our different understanding of life; and was aware that we both knew that there was a mutual respect for each others different beliefs.  

I had assumed that he was my brother in the Lord when we first met because; he said that he definitely had the Holy Ghost living in his heart. However, to my dismay; as we began to open up to each other; I found him saying that he did not believe that God’s love would send anybody to hell because there were other ways to get to heaven even though scripture tells us that Jesus is the only mediator between God and mankind and as I stated earlier only He is the way, the truth and the life. There is no other name under heaven where a person can be saved and enter God’s kingdom.

Since I had been using some scripture as a foundation of what I believed in our conversation, his reaction was that to him I represented some other pastors and teachers he had met that believed the bible but didn’t really understand or live by what they were preaching.  He stated that the bible was only a book not really inspired by the Holy Ghost; but a book written by men with their fallible thinking patterns in putting  down their own ideas as a basic foundation and the bible could not be used as a foundation of the true thoughts of God with His ways of thinking. If the man would have been truly born again; I can not understand how he could have had the Spirit of God in him and have been under the influence of the Holy Ghost and have such great foundational crakes in his thinking; that it was to the point that Jesus Christ could not have been the central and focal point of where his wisdom was coming from.

I am sharing this because I had earlier in the day felt impressed of the Lord to write this new article and had stated in page two that only Jesus is the way never knowing that the next night at dinner I would meet a man who confessed to be God’s kid however, he didn’t believe that only Jesus is the door to eternal life.

These types of encounters that I have daily; make me know that my steps are being ordered by the Lord and I am learning to have a quick understanding of God‘s ways.  The thing that breaks my heart is, this man had a desire to do good and had helped many people that were down and out in their lives.  At the time he had a young man living at his house until he could get on his feet.  However; it is my belief that all though he was doing kindly acts as all Christians should be doing; I believe he was doing it in his own strength and these were not acts being empowered by the Holy Ghost.  These are acts that we all could call righteous acts but in reality; they are philanthropic and un-righteous acts of us measuring up for God’s accepts apart from Jesus act of dying on a cross and us receiving His act with out deserving it or having to do things to earn or keep it.

By having this experience and it being so real as I write this; God has made me even more aware of the submission we must walk in and know how to inter act with the Holy Ghost and know that; He is the living Spirit of God that we received when Christ took up residence in our hearts and He wants with great tenacity to make Himself know to us at all times. I have become convinced that: through the ignorance of not understanding God’s way of healing people in all aspects of their lives; it can cause a person to try and make God into their image rather then the other way around.

Paul states in Galatians 2:20-21, “ I have been crucified with Christ; never the less I am alive; yet not I, but Christ who lives in me and the life that I now live with in my fleshly body I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave His life for me.  Therefore, I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if my righteous state came by me following ritualistic laws, then Christ died in vain”

This scripture tells us that we live by the faith (of )Jesus and it did not say we live by faith (in) Jesus.  When we say of, we are talking about a person totally surrendering their lives to a living entity of allowing the personality and wisdom of another person to live their life and imprint their character by the every day making a choice to surrender their will to the other persons control.  When we say in; there is no life or relationship of personal witness of a living entity that totally touches and influences the soul of man. This gives the connotation of following rules of conduct and working hard at being obedient.

We need to let go and let God’s Spirit have total freedom so He can live His life in us.

Now that we have this foundation laid in our lives of being a triune being and know that we can rest in God’s Spirit and His life is the one at work in us, we can now go on to the 8 traits that have to come into play for wholeness.  Let’s keep in mind that now that we are saved and born again; our spirit is alive and capable of being persuaded and empowered to perform these 8 traits through the Holy Ghost’s leading and according to God nothing can be done in any way; that is not empowered by Him.  Jesus said, “ Without me you can do nothing.”  We are commanded by God to do these things because these are the areas that the devil influences, which keeps us sickly in soul and body and God tells us that we have to contend for the faith.

Continued in part 2