LEAVE THE PAST BEHIND

As we come to the end of a year, there are many brothers and sisters who feel that because they have sinned and failed God at some time in their past lives, therefore they cannot fulfil God’s perfect plan for their lives now.

Let us look at what the Scriptures have to say on this matter, and not lean on our own understanding or our sense of logic. 

Notice first of all how the Bible begins. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). 

The heavens and the earth must have been perfect when God created them, for nothing imperfect or incomplete can ever come forth from His hand. But some of the angels whom He had created fell away, and this is described for us in Isaiah 14:11-15 and Ezekiel 28:13-18. Let’s assume that it was then that the earth came into the condition described in Genesis 1:2, “formless, empty and dark”. The rest of Genesis 1 describes how God worked on that shapeless, empty, dark mass and made something so beautiful out of it that He Himself declared it to be “very good” (Gen. 1:31). We read in Genesis 1:2-3 that the Spirit of God moved over the earth, and God spoke His Word—and this was what made the difference. 

What is the message in that for us today? 

Just this that no matter how much we may have failed or made a mess of our lives, God can still make something glorious out of our lives through His Spirit and His Word.  God had a perfect plan for the heavens and the earth when He created them. But this plan had to be set aside because of Lucifer’s rebellion. But God remade the heavens and the earth and still produced something “very good” out of the chaos.

Now consider what happened next. God made Adam and Eve and started all over again. God must have had a perfect plan for them too, which obviously did not include their sinning, by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But they did eat of the forbidden tree and frustrated God’s original plan for them. Logic would now tell us that they could not fulfil God’s perfect plan any longer. Yet we see that when God came to meet them in the garden, He does not tell them that they would now have to live only on His second best for the rest of their lives. No. He promises them in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. That was a promise of Christ’s dying for the sins of the world and overcoming Satan on Calvary.

Now consider this fact and see if you can reason it out. We know that Christ’s death was part of God’s perfect plan from all eternity. “The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Yet we also know that Christ died only because Adam and Eve sinned and failed God. So, logically, we could say that God’s perfect plan to send Christ to die for the sins of the world was fulfilled, not despite Adam’s failure, but because of Adam’s failure! We would not have known God’s love shown on Calvary’s cross, were it not for Adam’s sin.

What then is the message that God is trying to get through to us, right from the opening pages of the Bible? Just this that He can take a man who has failed and make something glorious out of him and still make him fulfil God’s perfect plan for his life. That is God’s message to man—and we must never forget it: God can take a man who has failed repeatedly, and still make him fulfil His perfect plan, not God’s second best, but God’s best plan.  This is because even the failure may have been part of God’s perfect plan to teach him a few unforgettable lessons.

Whatever your blunders or failures, you can make a new beginning with God. God can still make something glorious out of your life. Let us then “give glory to God by being strong in faith” (Rom. 4:20), trusting Him in the days to come for the things which we considered impossible up until now. All people—young and old—can have hope, no matter how much they may have failed in the past, if only they will acknowledge their failures, be humble and trust God. Thus we can all learn from our failures and go on to fulfil God’s perfect plan for our lives.  And in the ages to come, He can show us forth to others as examples of what He could do with those whose lives were total failures. In that day He will show what He could do in us, through the “surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). Thanks be to God!

A PROPHET’S REWARD

The Lord Jesus referred to the prophet’s reward at the end of His instructions to the Twelve as He sent them off to preach the gospel to “the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). His instructions included warnings that they would be arrested and flogged (Matthew 10:17-18) and hated and persecuted (Matthew 10:22-23). There would be those, however, who would receive them as prophets, and those godly people would receive a prophet’s reward.

A “prophet” in this context is not one who foretells the future. Rather, he is a preacher of the gospel, the good news of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross for sin. To receive such a prophet means not only to embrace his doctrine but to entertain and welcome him, treating him with kindness and respect because he is a prophet (Matthew 10:41). In other words, the prophet is to be received because he is a faithful minister of the gospel and because he preaches and teaches truth. Those who treat a prophet in this way are entitled to the same prophet’s reward as the prophet himself.

What exactly is the prophet’s reward? 

The Bible doesn’t tell us, but it may be a reward from the prophet himself in that he interprets the Scriptures, preaches the true gospel, and leads the hearer into a fuller understanding of the truth.

Those who receive the prophet receive from him a clearer sense of the truths of Scripture and a deeper understanding of spiritual things. This is a great blessing, indeed, both for the prophet, whose joy lies in teaching and preaching, and for the hearer, who is edified by that teaching. Each one shares in the prophet’s reward—one in the giving and the other in the receiving.

The prophet’s reward may also refer to that which the prophets themselves receive—the reward of the kingdom prepared for believers from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:11-14). Those who preach the gospel and those who receive it with joy are promised the inheritance as their reward, as both serve the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:23-24).

The Lord Jesus also warned the disciples that not everyone would receive them or their message. In fact, some would “exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:22). But the disciples were to “rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven” (Luke 6:23; cf. 2 Timothy 4:8).

How can we be sure that we will receive the prophet’s reward? We do as the Lord Jesus instructed. We receive a prophet “in the name of a prophet”. We receive faithful teachers and preachers of the Word of God with open hearts and teachable spirits. In addition, we reject those who speak their own words and those who misinterpret the Scriptures. Paul warned the Corinthians against accepting “a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached,” a different spirit, or a different gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4). Only those who teach according to the Bible can be called true prophets of God, and those who assist and follow them will receive the same prophet’s reward.

RELATED

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PREACHER AND A PASTOR?

A SONG BY THE OVERCOMERS

In Revelation 15:3-4, we read: “And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord God the Almighty; Righteous and true are Thy Ways, Thou king of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy Name? For Thou alone art Holy; for all the nations will come and worship before Thee, for Thy righteous acts have been revealed”.

“The overcomers sing saying that God’s ways are perfect”.

There are two songs of Moses mentioned in the Old Testament—one in Exodus 15:1-18. When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his army were drowned therein. Moses then sang saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted. The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea”. We see in Revelation 6 how the Antichrist too is pictured as a rider on a white horse. Here we see the overcomers singing God’s praise for overthrowing that horse and its rider too. In the final battle of Armageddon (Rev.16:14,16), the Antichrist and his forces will come into the land of Israel and attack it. At that time, the Lord Jesus Christ will come down with His saints. His feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives, and He will destroy the forces of the Antichrist. The people of God will watch and share in that victory without fighting at all. And that is how we are to win every victory even today. We do not win the battle with human weapons. We stand still and trust in the Lord and the Lord destroys our enemies. So, those who have faith in that can sing the song of Moses even today!! We can sing the song of Moses in life’s battles. We can “stand still” and see what the Lord does to our enemies.

The second song of Moses is in Deuteronomy31:30 to 32:43. There also he sings “Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He (the Lord) will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance on His adversaries and will atone for His land and His people” (Deut.32:43). In both songs, we see one truth: The people of God do not take vengeance on their enemies. They stand back and God fights for them and avenges them.

This is the song that we need to learn now so that we can sing it in glory with the harps of God one day. The daily situations of life are like a choir practice for us, to learn this song. The overcomers sing saying that God’s ways are perfect. In heaven, we will sing that “Jesus has done all things well”. In that day, when we look back over the way God led us on earth, we will discover that everything—yes, everything—was ordained by God for our very best. Today, we do not understand why many things happen. But in that day, we will understand perfectly. But the man of faith does not have to wait until that day. He believes and knows it even now. He does not have to wait until God explains the reason for everything that happened to him on earth. Right now, he sings, Lord! Your ways are perfect!”

PUTTING PRAYER INTO PRACTICE

I know I should pray! Scripture commands it.

I know I need to pray! Scripture proves it.
I know how to pray! Scripture demonstrates it.
I know when to pray! Scripture states it.
I know what prayer can do! Scripture illustrates it.

I just do not do it.

So the question left to answer is this: Why? Why do so few Christians practice the discipline of prayer? There are both theological and practical reasons why so few believers practice regular dependent communications with their Heavenly Father.

Theologically, prayer requires faith — faith in the God of heaven to whom Christians direct their prayers. Scripture commands that we are to “ask in faith” (James 1:6). One could argue that if every prayer received an immediate response regardless of whether it is positive or negative, believers would probably pray more. However, God does not always answer prayer the way we want. God has options. Yes, immediately; no, period; later, if you deal with this issue; and what about this possibility; are potential responses from God. Prayer is effective only if we trust the character of God to respond to our requests consistently. Past doubts about whether God answered our prayers may discourage us in praying and may ultimately lead to a cessation of praying altogether.

Theologically, prayer requires precision. Scripture commands, “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God… Therefore let your words be few” (Ecc 5:2). One would do well to spend more time meditating than actually praying. Far too many careless and rushed words are spoken before the Lord, which by their very nature warrant God’s inattention or lack of response. Effective prayer remembers and respects Him to whom prayer is addressed.

Theologically, prayer requires understanding. Scripture instructs, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” (Mat 6:8). Prayer is not informational with respect to God, but transformational with respect to man. Prayer moves us away from self-dependency. While God knows what we need, there is no guarantee that He will automatically meet our needs; otherwise, we would not need to pray in the first place. Prayer moves God from mere knowledge of our need to meeting our need in light of our dependency on him. Our willingness to pray must prove to God that He is the solution to our needs and not just a solution.

Not only are there theological reasons for the lack of dependent communications between believers and God, but also there are practical reasons. First, there is the American lifestyle. The American lifestyle really militates against prayer. We have committed our time to the pursuit of happiness. Between work, commuting, friends, domestic duties, sleep, and relaxing from the rush of life who has time to pray? The goal of the American lifestyle is independence. If we can just get set financially, we will not need anything or anybody. We, Americans, spend an overwhelming amount of time working toward independence. Prayer is the exact opposite. Prayer is a conscious effort to be dependent on God — nothing about our society encourages it! The American lifestyle is time limited, independent seeking, and anti-supernatural. Other than the occasional call of the President for God to bless America, God has been relegated to the private venues of American culture. Rarely are there opportunities where God alone is presented as the only possible solution to a problem. In medicine, technology is god. In politics, a majority is god. In marriage, love is god. In communications, the Internet is god. In behavior, genetics and environment are gods. Even in death, the God of the Bible is not God. In death, chance is god. In sex, choice is god. In economics, the market is god. The American lifestyle makes very little room for the God of the Bible.

A final reason the practice of prayer is absent in the lives of many believers is our lack of knowledge concerning spiritual warfare. Satan’s plan regarding followers of Christ is to frustrate, confuse, and misdirect us so that Christ becomes an after thought. Satan knows that we grow weary in well doing.

In the face of these obstacles, the discipline of prayer will be difficult to develop. How then does one develop a prayer life? Before we talk about the details of developing a prayer life, we should attempt to detail what a prayer life looks like. Since the apostle Paul is the premiere writer in the New Testament, we have enough of his writings to get a good picture of a man of prayer. Paul writes, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thes 5:17). A man of prayer is a man who is continually practicing dependent communications with the Father. A man of prayer sees in every event of his day the option of responding either in the Spirit or in the flesh. Since walking in the Spirit demands the absence of sin, one will need God’s uninterrupted sustaining power. Continuing prayer is the route to God’s sustaining power.

How does one develop a mental attitude of prayer? To foster the mental attitude of prayer (i.e. to solicit God’s help at every waking moment) one must be thoroughly convinced of his need for God. The apostle Paul clearly evidences his need for God’s power, wisdom, endurance, and courage on a daily basis. Paul was committed to a purpose that he himself was very inadequate to fulfill. Paul writes in Romans 15:14-33:


I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

We see in Paul’s words a mission, a passion — to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. This drove Paul to pray for God’s power, wisdom and courage.

Therefore, it is axiomatic that believers will not develop consistent dependent communications with God apart from a compelling cause. While purists will argue that this should not be the case, nevertheless it is the case. If a life of prayer is a goal, pray that God will give you a burden, a passion, a mission, a vision or a hope that is beyond human capabilities to accomplish. Absent of an impossible mission, prayer will continue to be a little used opportunity that most Christians reserve for emergencies.

HEART, SPIRIT AND SOUL–02

In subsequent lessons in this course, you will learn that the Old Covenant laws of God – summarized in the ten commandments – must apply not only externally, but internally. That God won’t settle for having the laws written on stones or doorposts; He needs them to be written in your heart as well.

He needs you to be able to say, “With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early” (Isaiah 26:9). 

These – heart, soul and spirit– are all internal things, which must change to be more like God... But these are not all the SAME internal thing!

Our job is to learn to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). And so when we have only a hazy understanding of the difference, if any, between heart, mind, soul, spirit, nature, self, conscience and so on... when we treat these as more-or-less-synonyms... we miss the point!

When Paul says “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless” (1 Thessalonians 5:23), it was because these three things are different parts of your self that can sin, and must be taught individually not to do so!

God used different words because He meant different things. Each of these things are inside all of us; and each of these parts must come, separately, to perfection in order for the whole self to find salvation. Because different parts of the “self” perform different functions. They act differently, they sin differently, and they must be changed differently.

In the next few dozen lessons you will learn what it really means to keep the law internally.

The Old Covenant laws of God teach us to act like God... But before that we must learn to think like God. To, in short, learn to love Him “with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength” (Mark 12:33).

You are taking these lessons because you’re trying to change yourself. But to REALLY change who you are is hard when you don’t know what your self is, or how many of your selves you’re dealing with.

WHAT ARE YOU?

We are more complex than it seems at first. We are not just one person, one voice. We have many voices inside of us. Otherwise, why do we argue with ourselves? Romans 2:15. Why else would lusts war in our members? James 4:1. What does your flesh – your members – war against? Romans 7:23.

In the context of our internal selves the Bible uses many words; spirit, soul, heart, mind, flesh, body, nature, etc. Some of these overlap – but not all of them. For example, if spirit and soul were the same, how could you divide one from another? Hebrews 4:12. In the same way, is the heart the same as the spirit? Proverbs 15:13.

Another overlap is the fact that “spirit” is simply a word that means “breath” or “wind” in Hebrew and Greek, which is used as both a thing (such as the spirit in man (Job 32:8) and the substance of which that thing is created (John 4:24, John 3:6-8, etc.).

It’s rather like we say “a paper”, as in reading or writing a paper. What is a paper made of? Paper. Likewise, your spirit is made of spirit – the confusing thing is, so is your soul. In Genesis 2:7 God formed a clay statue. It didn’t become a man until God breathed the “breath of life” – the spirit – into him, at which point he became a living soul. So first came the breath – the spirit – entering the man. Then the spirit made the man into a living SOUL.

Think of it like assembling a toy and then installing the battery. The spirit gave it life, and formed one part of the finished man, but while the man now had a spirit, the spirit was not the man. The man was a living soul. The word “soul” therefore referred to the whole, complete self of Adam, which INCLUDED a spirit as well as other things.

This is why people often substitute the word “soul” for “self” in the Bible. For example, did David say “rescue me”? Psalms 35:17, Psalms 40:14. He wasn’t talking about spiritual life there, not primarily anyway – he meant simply staying alive. There are many similar examples of soul referring to a person’s whole self, such as 1 Samuel 25:29 and Psalms 3:2.

What is it that goes down to the grave? Psalms 89:48. What is it that God brings up from the grave? Psalms 49:15. Notice that the soul WOULD be in the power of the grave forever if God did not redeem it, that is, pay for it to buy it back from the power of the law. Is it possible to destroy the soul? Matthew 10:28, Luke 12:4-5.

If men kill the body, the soul leaves it and goes somewhere. What happens to the soul when the body is killed? Genesis 35:18. Her soul was departing – to go somewhere, which explains why men cannot kill the soul. Can that soul come back? 1 Kings 17:21-22. This proves that the body is not part of the soul, since the soul can leave the body behind. The soul is inside of the body, the body being merely a “temple” or “home” for our soul.

Since God must redeem the soul, the implication is that if He didn’t, the soul would be destroyed automatically. There is nothing that explicitly says where the soul would go, but there is something that tells us where the spirit goes – and it’s reasonable to assume they go together to the same place. So where does the spirit go? Ecclesiastes 3:21. What would happen if God didn’t grab the spirit (breath)? Psalms 146:4.

The spirit of man goes upwards because God has a use for it – God is redeeming it from the grave. This is not true of the animals, whose spirits – and presumably souls – are allowed to go “downward to the Earth”. But if – and when – God no longer has a future plan for a human soul, it, too, will be allowed to go downward and return to the Earth!

Notice that word “return”? Where did our soul come from? Psalms 139:14-15. I won’t attempt to fully explain this verse, but it is clear that “the lowest parts of the Earth” were involved in our creation before we were born. And where do we go when we die – if God doesn’t save us? Psalms 63:9, Job 34:14-15. What are we like? 2 Samuel 14:14, Deuteronomy 12:24. Where does water that is poured out on the ground go? Mostly down, into the depths of the Earth, where we were “curiously wrought”!

Did God gave animals souls as well? Genesis 1:24. Most Bibles translate the word “soul” as “living creature”, but it’s the same word nephesh used in Genesis 2:7. 

For humans ...it is appointed unto US once to die and AFTERWARDS to be judged (Hebrews 9:27), but unto animals there is no afterwards – their first life is all they have, and they shall be as though they had not been after that (Obadiah 1:15-16). What is the normal end of “natural beasts”? 2 Peter 2:12.

So you ARE a living soul. Your soul is the lord of your body, the ruler of your self. It is the judge, the final say in all things you do. But the soul is not alone in your body – for it must rule over, among other things... your body.

YOUR CARNAL HEART

What comes from the heart? Genesis 6:5, Genesis 8:21. What makes us who we are? Proverbs 23:7. What is our heart like? Jeremiah 17:9. Where do the bad things men do originate? Matthew 15:18-19. Can you ever trust your heart? Proverbs 28:26.

So it is our hearts that is the source of our lust; our selfish desires; when David said “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee” (Psalms 73:22). It is because he was obeying that part of himself which was as a beast – his physical body.

To put it in computer terms, the heart is like the BIOS on a computer; it controls all the basic functions, the fan, the hard drive, the power. But it does most of this unconsciously – it simply sends you signals when it’s hungry because the battery is low, or when it’s hot, and has to shut down.

It doesn’t care if you’re in the middle of writing a paper – if it gets hungry, it shuts down. Period. So it is utterly and purely selfish. But that’s not necessarily wrong; wanting to eat, wanting to mate, wanting to sleep – these are normal things.

Our bodies need food and sleep and without a warning that we were hungry or tired we would simply pass out while working. Without a warning about pain, we would do serious injury to our bodies every time we touched something hot or sharp.

So the body’s selfishness is a good thing. Being selfish is not wrong... as long as getting those things doesn’t hurt someone else. But no beast cares about the golden rule – they understand it, for no beast likes to be hurt, stolen from, or lied to – but none are inclined to obey it.

So if they’re hungry, they’ll eat you if you’re small enough. If they’re tired, they’ll sit on you if you’re in the way. This is not malicious – they simply don’t care about you. Not even a little bit. And all of us have this nature within us, that leads to murder, theft, rape, war, and so on – all of these things which come from the heart.

The Bible uses several words synonymously to refer to the same “character” in our self – the heart. The body, mentioned above in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, refers to the same thing because the heart “speaks” for the whole body. Likewise, since the body is the only part of us made of flesh, God often uses that term instead (2 Peter 2:18, for instance). And “fleshly” is a synonym for “carnal” (in English, actually).

God uses different symbols for the heart – beast, flesh, carnal, natural man, body, etc. – for the same reason He has different symbols for angels; so that people will not understand without putting forth the effort; and so that once they do, they will understand it even better as they merge all the subtly different symbols together.

I’ll lump all of these symbols together under the idea of the “beast” for now. This Biblically-approved symbol is my favorite because it sums up best what we are like, at our most basic: selfish animals. Which of us, backed into a corner, doesn’t throw away the law to survive?

Our culture has a generally positive view of “the heart”, a place of love and warmth; we have very churchified ideas about what fleshly and carnal mean; but the beast gives us exactly the right meaning; we have a nature in us that is literally identical to the nature we see dominant in a cow, a dog, or a lizard.

People don’t like the idea that a large part of their motivation is no better than that of a dumb animal; so when I tell someone they’re acting like a beast, they can get pretty upset. But that’s kind of the point: Ecclesiastes 3:18 (BBE) …It is because of the sons of men, so that God may put them to the test and that they may see themselves as beasts. [KJV says “that they might see that they themselves are beasts.”]

We’ll revisit this verse thoroughly in the coming lessons, suffice it to say – you are ruled by your beast most of the time. This is why you act the way you do, and do the things you know you shouldn’t do (Romans 7:14-18).

YOUR SPIRIT

Are the spirit and heart the same thing? Psalms 77:6. So the spirit “made a diligent search”, presumably within the heart – within the beast part of you. What does the spirit of man do? Proverbs 20:27. God uses the spirit as a candle, a flashlight to see the darkness elsewhere in the heart of the beast.

What does God’s spirit do? 1 Corinthians 2:10-11. God’s spirit “knows the things of God”, just as our spirit knows all about us. So if the beast is the BIOS, the spirit is the Operating System (OS), like Windows. It is a far more complex program, consisting of millions of lines of code, and it interacts much more consciously with the operator, even though it still does a great deal automatically.

The heart is selfish, thinking only and incessantly of itself. It has no concept of right and wrong. What is its opposite? Romans 8:4-6. What wars against the heart? Romans 2:15. These verses, merged and harmonized as always, show that the conscience is another word for the spirit!

Note the struggle between the conscience and the heart; between selfishness and a desire to do the right thing, between the spirit and the beast! And this is even among the Gentiles (verse 14). So when you think “I want one more slice of cake”, and then you think “but I really shouldn’t”, you can recognize these speakers as the heart and the spirit, respectively.

We are not trained to recognize the voices in our head, but you can learn to hear them very plainly. For one thing, any thought that begins “I want”, is from the beast. It doesn’t matter what it says – it’s a beast thought. And remember, that’s not necessarily wrong! Wanting things can be OK. You just need to know where the idea is coming from.

On the other hand, any thought that begins “I should” is from the conscience. The beast doesn’t care about “should”. So if you’re thinking that something is right or wrong, it’s coming from your spirit. But that’s not necessarily right!

Because just as the heart is not inherently bad, merely selfish, so the conscience is not inherently good, it merely reflects the morals it has learned. The job of our spirit is to put the heart’s desires in contrast with an objective viewpoint of good and evil. Unfortunately, it’s not objective by nature.

For example, if I were to offer you a dogburger, or a horse steak, you would be horrified. Why? Objectively, why is horse any more offensive than beef? It isn’t, which is why most of Eurasia eats horses. You can buy horse meat in most European supermarkets. So why are you so disgusted with the idea? Because you were told to be!

Since your earliest memories you were taught that certain foods were good to eat – chicken, beef, pig, etc. – and certain foods were not – dog, cat, horse, etc. You may have been taught (depending on your background) that eating chicken feet and heads were “gross”, as were fish heads, beef brains, and so on.

These very strong opinions are something your conscience acquired based on your surroundings – parents, teachers, heroes, actors, etc. But that doesn’t make them correct! It simply means that part of your mind is TRYING to do the right thing.

That’s definitely a good place to start – but that doesn’t necessarily make you good. It’s only objectively good if it is patterned after the law of God, which is NOT what you learned from your society!

When we are born we know neither good nor evil – but we DO know what we like people to do to us. No baby likes to be hurt, starved, ignored, its toys taken away, etc. As you’ve studied before, every creature is born innately knowing the law of God as it applies to other people! This is the strength of the golden rule!

What this means is that we are born with a perfect conscience; a perfect record we can compare our actions against. It knows right and wrong – it doesn’t do right or wrong, but it knows what they ARE, and it tells us.

Read Psalms 51:10 again; while the heart had to be CREATED clean, the spirit merely needed “renewed” to be clean again. This means it is something that was once right and had only to be repaired. The heart is selfish, from birth. By comparison, the spirit is clean – it understands that you should treat others as you want to be treated.

But as we are raised, that conscience is educated – or miseducated – by the beliefs of those around you. So we are taught to lie from a young age (Jeremiah 9:5). Children are brutally honest; but society teaches them not to ask why that woman is fat, not to tell adults they are wrong, not to fight with other children if they’re being mean.

And so the golden rule is lost amid the rules of our tribe; and so our spirit must be cleansed of these un-laws, and restored to the purity of the golden rule. There is no objective reason why eating sheep’s heads is wrong. But they are “gross” and “disgusting” because little children are taught that by their parents IN OUR CULTURE.

In other cultures, chicken feet are a delicacy. Because their spirits have been educated differently! So the purpose of the spirit within a man, the purpose of our conscience, is to tell us right and wrong. The problem is, it doesn’t necessarily know right and wrong. And the greater problem is that it doesn't realize that.

Your spirit was probably sure, absolutely certain, that baptism washes your sins away and that eternal salvation is unconditional. Letting go of this cannot have been easy for you, because it means that your personal benchmark of truth, your spirit, was wrong.

So the law of your spirit had to be broken because it wasn’t a law at all! Most people, when confronted with the truth, arrogantly say “I don’t know where the verse is, but I know I’m right!” Because their spirit is not broken, not willing to humble itself before the spirit of anyone else, including the Bible!

But with whom does God dwell? Isaiah 66:2. God dwells in people whose spirit has been broken, and is ashamed of being wrong before and ready to learn the truth so it will never be wrong again! Ready to become worthy of trust again, which God will give it – as long as both the spirit and the beast are humbled: Isaiah 57:15.

But how do they get humbled? What breaks the spirit? We let these fractions of our self speak as if they represent our whole self, but in fact the true self, our true person, is neither of these things; our true self is a living soul.

THE SOUL

The soul is effectively synonymous with the “I” or the self in most usages in the Bible, for example in Job 10:1, Psalms 55:18, John 12:27. In each of these cases, and almost all the others in the Bible, we could replace “soul” with “self” or “I”, and it would work just fine.

So we have two witnesses within us; a heart, which seeks to justify its selfishness; and a spirit or conscience, which seeks to do the right thing. These argue and bicker back and forth among themselves until one or the other gets tired... or a third party intervenes to make a judgment.

The soul must be the judge of these inner voices. It is considered our “self” because it is the highest authority in our self and therefore is responsible for all the rest of our “inward parts”. Our soul has the ability to silence the conscience, or to silence the beast – it has absolute power. You might say it is the soul authority (get it?).

But most people do not exercise that power. Adam had absolute power over Eve and the Devil, but chose to give in to both. It takes effort to make hard decisions, and it is difficult to stand alone – as a judge must do – and make a choice even though part of you is screaming that it is unfair.

As a judge you must be impartial; your conscience is born pure, but definitions of right and wrong that don’t fit the Bible have been fed into your conscience your entire life and so while your conscience is always well-intentioned, it isn’t always right. So how do you make judgments? Deuteronomy 19:15.

You have two witnesses – your heart and your spirit. Most of the time that’s enough, but sometimes you simply don’t have enough information from either witness, so you need to bring in a third. Ideally, the third “guest” witness is the spirit of God.

But even without that third witness, your soul can demand more facts from the conscience; for example, not long ago I was at the beach for awhile – maybe an hour, I thought – and then someone checked their phone and it said we’d been there two hours. On the one hand, I had every reason to trust this usually-reliable source.

But my soul said “mmm... I don’t know. This doesn’t add up to me.” So I asked the “conscience” for more facts. Upon further investigation, it turned out the phone had switched to the nearby time zone ahead of us and was showing the wrong time. So even if the conscience gives you bad information, the soul has a responsibility to weigh that information and see if it adds up.

Likewise, the soul should demand more information from the beast; if you’re in Rome and the beast says “I want see the Colosseum, the Forum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and the Sistine Chapel and then go to Florence tonight”, your soul should remind the beast of how it felt when it tried a similar itinerary in Jerusalem.

Your soul should ask the beast if it realizes how much walking that means, how hot it is today, how tired it is from the flight over, and how even if you see everything on the list, it wouldn’t really make the beast happy!

Because you know how grumpy and irritable that same beast will be later that day, halfway through its own plan, as it faces the inevitable consequences of “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16).

Going to all these places just to “be there” is the lust of the flesh; having to see everything is the lust of the eyes; and taking a photo in front of every monument, going “just to say you’ve been there” is the definition of the pride of life. What will REALLY make your beast happy?

Figure that out and make the beast do it, whether it likes it or not at first... and you’ll be a good soul.

WAR IN YOUR MEMBERS

The beast, spirit, and soul are the three characters of the self. The heart exists to tell us “I want”. The spirit exists to tell us “I should”. And the soul exists to tell us “I will”.

Put differently, the heart is the prosecution (I want), the spirit is the defense (but I should) and the soul is the judge (I will). But what is the name of the courtroom? Romans 14:5. It is in your MIND that you must be fully persuaded – by these two advocates, with the soul as arbiter.

What happens in the mind? 1 Corinthians 1:10. If we are joined “in the same mind”, then we are joined “in the same judgment”, because judgment happens in the mind. Where do thoughts and dreams happen? Daniel 2:29, Ezekiel 11:5.

One trick you can sometimes use to explain difficult words is to compare how they are translated in the OT to the NT. For example, read Hebrews 8:10. Notice the word “mind” there. This was quoted from Jeremiah 31:33. Look how it is translated there – not as mind, but as “inward parts”. So rather than a distinct, singular thing, it is a place with other things inside of it – a courtroom with a heart, conscience, and a judge.

What goes on in our minds? Romans 2:15. What happens if the judge can’t make up his mind, or goes back and forth between decisions? James 1:8. Is this a common problem? 1 Kings 18:21. Can your higher reasoning ignore the advice of the spirit? 1 Thessalonians 5:19. Can you choose to be led by the spirit, or led by the carnal nature (the heart)? Galatians 5:16-18.

One part of your nature is the “lusts of the flesh” – your heart. When that has rule over your mind, it is a “carnal mind” that leads to death (Romans 8:4), the “fleshly mind” of Colossians 2:18; all of these are best visualized as a beast; say, a cow.

The other part is ruled by the spirit – your conscience. This is the spiritual mind that leads to life IF it’s properly educated by a true knowledge of right and wrong – which is why we need Jesus’ spirit, so we can compare our conscience with His. But whether or not we have His spirit, our beast and spirit will be at odds with one another most of the time.

And as long as that state of war exists, we will be “double minded”, “halting between two opinions”, and therefore “unstable in all our ways”. If you are going to get anything done, you have to either get them to agree – not always possible – or you have to choose to follow one or the other. So do you choose to please the beast? Or please the conscience? Romans 8:5-6.

We are also born with a heart that doesn’t care about right and wrong. And that heart usually out-complains, out-argues, or simply out-shouts our conscience. “Who cares if it’s wrong,” our heart argues, “they’d do the same to me!” Or “if I don’t steal it, someone else will – so why not me?” That sort of reasoning comes from our heart and can drown out our conscience... if we let it.

It’s a choice, every day, whether to give into your beast or to give into your conscience. Most people make the decision arbitrarily based on which one nags them the most. And so because there is never a clear victor, there is a constant struggle between them – neither is tamed by the other. And so they are “unstable in all their ways” (James 1:6-8, Ephesians 4:14).

Either one of these advocates can eventually be wearied to silence. You can rule your heart well enough that it mostly stops objecting to doing the right thing (1 Corinthians 9:27). Or the heart can break the will of your conscience (1 Timothy 4:2). If you quench your own spirit often enough, it will eventually give up, just as God’s spirit will. How do most people handle this conflict? Ephesians 4:17-19. And how SHOULD you handle this conflict? Verses 20-32.

All of that rather long passage is devoted to doing the OPPOSITE of things your beast would have you do (lying, stealing, being angry, speaking without thinking, holding grudges, etc.). So you have to make a choice whether to listen to the beast or the conscience.

THE NEUTRAL SOUL

We saw above a reasoning process, of thoughts accusing one another – but that accusation process is nothing more than a shouting match unless there is a judge of your thoughts. And so the soul chooses between the desire to please the self and the desire to please the morals your conscience has absorbed.

It seeks to negotiate a compromise between “I want” and “I should”. Again, it is neither good nor evil – the soul desires certain things, based on some factors which we’ll get to in another lesson, but mostly it just wants peace in its “home”.

Most people’s souls habitually negotiate unjust “compromises” that so heavily favor their heart that the conscience is about as useful as a public defender in a courtroom. This would be an evil soul, since unchecked selfishness leads to evil inevitably. For all practical purposes, this soul is just a mouth for the beast, who operates virtually unchecked.

Who can’t remember something like the following happening; back to the “one more piece of cake” argument above, when your soul decides “Ok, just a small piece”, that is the soul negotiating between “I want” and “I should”. Trying to find a compromise that both sides can live with.

But what happens in most people is they say that, then the body (the beast) cuts the biggest piece that could possibly be imagined as “a small piece”, swallows it whole, then starts to renegotiate for another piece, repeating the cycle.

And if the soul lets it whine and beg and scream its way into getting another one, the soul is not really in charge at all; the whiny brat of a beast is who really runs that person, thus that person is literally “as a beast before thee”. Once you’ve made a judgement like that, and made an agreement with your beast, you have to make the beast live with it no matter what it says.

The job of the soul is to stop this sort of spoiled selfishness by comparing the heart to the conscience, and weighing the beast’s needs (“I haven’t eaten in 5 days, I NEED to eat”) with its wants (“I haven’t had cake in 5 minutes, I need some more cake”).

Oh, the beast is going to push you and make your life miserable as you fight with it on these things. And it takes a strong soul to stand its ground against the endless onslaught of an untamed heart. It’s like having a spoiled child living in your mind 24 hours a day.

But it can be tamed, and it will get easier... if you treat it like ANY OTHER ANIMAL and be consistent, firm, and fair. Punish its disobedience but don’t beat it just because it speaks. Reward its obedience but don’t bribe it to obey you!

EARNING THE TRUST OF YOUR MIND

As a judge, you will make a mistake now and again – and your beast will joyously use that as an excuse to keep you from making decisions it doesn’t like in the future. But you are in charge, not it. You don’t have to let it – when you mess up, apologize, make it right, and move on.

A mistake doesn’t change the fact that you are in charge, your soul is responsible, and you MUST rule your own spirit and heart and body. Will your soul take on the character of the voice you follow? Romans 8:5-9. Your mind will be dominated by one or the other voice, depending on what your soul chooses. What happens if you aren’t clear enough in your judgments? Romans 7:18.

The whole problem Paul was complaining about was that he knew the right thing – his spirit told him – but he did not have the strength to follow that path. What was he fighting against? Verses 22-24. It was the carnal nature, the heart, that was warring against him. So what did his mind choose to follow? Verse 25.

Regardless of the size of the fight in your mind, how will you be judged? Romans 8:1. It is the choice you make in your mind, how you actually walk which determines whether you will be condemned or not. Why? 1 Samuel 16:7, Romans 8:27. And after your soul spends a lifetime judging between your heart and spirit, what is the goal? Romans 12:2.

As I mentioned earlier, your spirit means well, but it is not educated. Likewise, the heart is selfish and spoiled but not uncontrollable – it simply needs to be trained, like a dog or a horse. And the soul has no experience choosing right and wrong, and it must also have experience. And the result of this process will create a clean mind that God will be able to turn into an incorruptible spirit.

The goal is not to oppress your heart, just as it is not your goal to take a spirited horse and whip him into a broken nag who just doesn’t care anymore. The goal is to rule him well, make him happy, but to make him serve you – for his own good, not just your own.

Because a happy beast makes it easier to educate your spirit (Proverbs 15:13). After all, the spirit can be willing – but if the flesh is weak, little happens (Matthew 26:41). Likewise, the spirit is vital to the process of training the beast, in finding out why it acts the way it acts and how to correct it (Proverbs 20:5).

If you’re doing your job well, your servants should be happy (1 Kings 10:8), and your whole self should work together as one blameless whole (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Arising from a very different line of thinking, Sigmund Freud concluded that each of our minds had three parts; he called the most basic part the Id, the center of selfish reasoning and primal instincts; fear, lust, anger, and so on. This is what the Bible most commonly calls the heart.

Next we have what Freud called the Superego; the higher reasoning center, which the Bible calls the spirit, which is better understood as the conscience; and finally the Ego, Latin for “I”, which the Bible calls the Soul, which ultimately makes the decisions and acts.

While I disagree with much of what psychology teaches, I consider this independent observational evidence to be a second witness for the fact that we are composed of three different I’s, and learning to separate these and teach them each what they need to know is why we are here. 

There is much more to say about this subject, in fact we will be spending dozens of lessons talking about the details. But just to give you a peek under the hood of what sort of things this reveals, take a look at these patterns.

In the temple, the “body of God”, God’s “mind” is shielded behind the veil in the most holy place (2 Corinthians 3:14), with the judgment throne of God in the middle (God’s soul), and two angels on either side (the heart and the spirit);

Or another layer inside the ark itself, the three contents of the ark represent God’s basic nature (the law, the heart), Jesus’ educated conscience (the manna, the spirit), and the right of the priesthood to determine which to follow (the rod of Aaron, the soul);

Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Finally, to show you just how built into the fabric of our universe these patterns are, remember that the spirits of men and God are represented as water (Revelation 17:15, John 7:38-39)... and then think about how a water molecule has two hydrogen atoms (heart and spirit) and one much larger oxygen atom (judge/soul), making one whole water molecule (mind)...

But this is enough for today. For now, go humble your beast and break your spirit.

Psalms 51:16-17 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

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THE RESULT OF FOLLOWING YOUR HEART

 

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THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUS—01

Life needn’t be hard. Life usually is hard. But it needn’t be. Why would God afflict us and torment us if He didn’t have to? The one scripture we need for this lesson plainly tells us He doesn’t.

Lamentations 3:33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

Think about it; if you were doing everything right, walking down the straight and narrow way... why would He risk you losing your balance? So there is a simple lesson here; if life is hard, you’re doing it wrong.

Consider the metaphor God gave Paul, of “kicking against the goad (whip)” (Acts 26:14). If you’re pulling God’s plow, and you’re doing it meekly, humbly, following the touch of the rein cheerfully, God wouldn’t even need to carry a whip.

But if you’re dragging the plow slowly, sullenly, stubbornly pulling your own way, forcing Him to constantly bring you back onto the path... well, at the end of the day you’ll be exhausted from fighting His will and bruised from His correction. And yes, your life will be hard.

But what if you just... didn’t need the whip?

Do you spank your child for fun? Do you afflict him daily just to teach him some abstract lesson about suffering or patience? Of course not; you afflict him for his good (Hebrews 12:9-10), and punish him for specific faults.

Things which he is well capable of correcting – in fact, things which are so obvious, he should have already corrected them! Likewise, we are chastened for our profit. But what if we don’t need it? We are punished for things we should have already seen on our own, and stopped doing on our own (1 Corinthians 11:29-32).

So if we are already on the straight and narrow way – at least, as well as can be expected at the time – why would God make your life harder if you are already doing the best you can?

Now you and God may disagree about what “doing your best” really means. But if God is convinced you’re doing all you can, will He add more to your burden? Revelation 2:24-25. Many in Thyatira, if they just kept on the way they were going, were good enough and did not need to be cast into tribulation (verses 19-23).

Because God gives tribulation to us “according to our works”. Tribulation is the clear context in this passage – if you need spanked, you’ll get spanked. His instructions to everyone else is simply “keep my works unto the end” (verses 26-27).

God has a very specific goal He needs us to reach, and as long as He’s confident that we are pulling the plow fast enough and in the right direction to get us there on time... He doesn’t need to use the whip (Proverbs 10:13).

Now wouldn’t you rather be one of those people? The choice, as always, is yours.

CHOOSE YOUR CORRECTION

We are human, and from time to time we are going to insist God teach us the hard way. But when your human dad is in the process of spanking you, should you “patiently endure”? Should you “pray for him to stop”? Or should you try to understand what you should have done differently, so you never have to go through this again?

Suffering is not meant to be simply endured, not something to be waited out. Suffering is meant to teach us the price of sin. Suffering is meant to motivate us follow 2 Corinthians 13:5; because if you can judge yourself before God punishes you... why would God punish you?

Yet it’s easy to be distracted from the rather boring job of judging oneself. And when things are going well, there’s little reason; who asks himself, “why is this happening to me?” when everything is going great? Ecclesiastes 7:13-14.

So God has created the day of adversity to get our attention. There is nothing like a little suffering to motivate us to take stock of our life and make us “consider” what changes need to be made in it. Is today a bad day? Then ask yourself... how are you acting today, compared to the last good day? What choices caused this day to be this way?

With very rare exceptions, your choices and actions, not some mysterious will of God, determine the comfort and peace you have in your life (Proverbs 16:7, Isaiah 54:14-17). Today’s Christians don’t like to hear that, because it puts responsibility on them. It makes everything wrong with their life their fault.

But the sad fact is, it usually is your fault. If you are chastened, it is generally because “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psalms 7:11). Not because of some unknowable will of God, but because you need to do something differently. Something very “knowable”.

Yes, there are some things that happen because of some third party’s sins (John 9:2-3). But is it really likely that your car broke down so that “the works of God could be made manifest in you”? Isn’t it more likely because you didn’t budget the time or money to take care of it?

Most things that happen to us, even ones that aren’t really our fault, per se, could easily have been avoided if our soul was doing its job (Proverbs 22:3). No, no one could have known that your car would break down at that exact moment... but anyone could have seen that your car was 20 years old and made funny noises when it went uphill.

A wise soul would have known it was going to break down soon, and a prudent man would have taken steps to protect himself. So while you didn’t cause the car to break down, since your soul failed to chart a path around this very foreseeable problem, it was still your fault.

Likewise, you couldn’t have known you’d get this disease, at this moment, but you’ve known for years your diet was a mess. A prudent soul would have “seen the evil to come”. Since you failed to prioritize your health over, say, your spirit’s need to be useful to others, it’s still your fault.

And yes, you were minding your own business and didn’t pick a fight with the devil, but Satan attacks no one who matters to God without God’s express permission (Job 1:9-12). So if Satan attacks you, it is de facto God’s punishment, because God’s inaction is itself a judgment against you.

YOUR FAULT

It’s worth a pause for a second to express what “it’s your fault” means. It doesn’t mean “God is gonna getcha”. God has already “gotcha”; that’s why you’re there. This is not a question of sin, not about paying God back, not about the first resurrection or going to some imaginary hell.

None of the things people get worked up over about guilt and shame are relevant, here, or most other places for that matter. No, the fact that it’s your fault is GREAT NEWS! It’s FAR better news than if it were God’s ineffable will!

Because if God is punishing the world with boils, and you were just one more person being afflicted, that would suck. Because it would mean there was nothing you could do about it! But the fact that you brought this upon yourself means you can make it go away by yourself!

Maybe you should have eaten healthier. You can’t really undo that now. But you can start eating right now; take responsibility for your health, study your condition, remembering to meekly, with a broken spirit, hear alternative natural doctors that the medical profession would consider “quacks”, and you’ll find almost every condition can be healed naturally. Just by going back to the way God meant for you to live in the first place.

Maybe you didn’t pick a fight with the devil; maybe he was sent to harass you for your sins. Yet you can end the fight: James 4:7. Not by exorcising him! (Not usually, anyway.) But by simply submitting to God like you should have done in the first place, and then there will be nothing for the devil to do!

If you deal with your anger against someone, either by realizing it wasn’t their fault (Luke 23:34, Genesis 50:15-21); or by going to your neighbor and working it out (Matthew 18:15, Proverbs 25:9-10), or, failing that, by accepting that it’s not your job to make them treat you right (Romans 12:17-19), then you will give the devil no place to torment you (Ephesians 4:27), and no reason to hang around.

Get that? You didn’t sin; your neighbor stole from you. It wasn’t your fault! But your attitude when you were stolen from gives the devil a way to manipulate you, a way to hijack your spirit and whisper that you deserve justice, and that you have the right to “get him back”.

And if you heed that voice, this is your fault! Certainly understandable; but a flaw in your character nonetheless. But if your soul can convince your spirit that this is not your problem, that it’s not your job to make your brother treat you fairly, the devil will flee from you!

Yes, all of these things are hard at first. And it’s much easier on your spirit to believe that it’s someone else’s fault. Who wouldn’t rather be told that God loves you, and you just need to be more patient and

He will help you in His good time; but that’s exactly what the false prophets told Jeremiah’s people (Lamentations 2:14).

But making things easy on your spirit and your heart is exactly what got you here in the first place. And I promise you, the peace that comes with having solved these problems is infinitely better than the empty hope that God will take the beating away. See Isaiah 28:10-12.

Notice that: if you do these things (verse 6), you will be the repairer of the BREACH in your spirit that caused your illness (Proverbs 18:14, 17:22). If you do these things you will be the restorer of the PATHS for your soul to walk in!

This is exactly what this lesson has been about; looking at the crooked path you’re walking, the path that’s exhausting you and confusing you, and STRAIGHTENING it; by stepping back, seeing the evil to come and avoiding it, you restore your own paths!

NOT MY FAULT!

God gave us bad days to get us to think about how we’re behaving differently from the good days, so we can figure out what to do better next time. Yet Christians today, when faced with adversity, react very differently than that.

I’ve never known a Christian who was being punished for his sins. Have you? When he’s having a bad day, and you ask him why, have you ever heard someone say “yeah, I sinned yesterday and God is really ticked at me right now”?

When the fact is, if they’re Christians at all, that has to be the reason at least SOME of the time, right? Hebrews 12:5-8. If you’re a child, you screw up and you get punished. And if you’re a Christian, you’re going to screw up and get punished. How often, of course, is up to you.

But what would it take for your average Christian to conclude that God, personally, was mad at them? What would it take for them to conclude that their “bad luck” was actually divine retribution? (Lamentations 3:37-38).

If your Christian friends survived being struck by lighting, they would blame the devil and thank God for protecting them. If their house burned down, they would blame the devil and thank God they weren’t hurt. If their firstborn died, they would say God works in mysterious ways, and “needed the child in heaven”.

There is literally nothing God could do that would get the attention of your average Protestant. Literally any bad luck is, ipso facto, the work of the devil; and any silver lining is, ipso facto, the work of God. Either the devil is tempting them, or God is teaching them patience. But it is never their fault.

Thus, they have made it impossible for God to correct them, by crafting a story that makes good things a blessing, and bad things the work of the devil, at most a test for them to endure. But nothing is ever a punishment, nothing is ever a reflection on their obedience (Jeremiah 8:5-7).

Now there’s a word for that, a word that unlocks a whole new section of Bible symbolism. And it involves the word “neck”.

SPIRITUAL NECKS

We’ve briefly touched on the symbolism of the human body before; how the head corresponds to the soul, and the body of course corresponds to the beast. The communication between these two fractions (I Thessalonians 5:23) happens entirely through the neck; the neck, which has exactly 7 vertebrae in all mammals.

On one layer, this clearly represents the head/Jesus communicating with the woman/body through the seven spirits of God – pictured as the vertebrae in the neck. But in a more personal layer, it means that our soul, the “brain”, communicates with “the heart”, through the “spirit” – the neck.

To prove that last connection, see Proverbs 3:3. We know mercy is a spirit attribute. Why bind it about the “neck”? Proverbs 1:8-9. The instruction from your father/soul is grace – overlooking of sins of ignorance – to your head/soul. But the laws of your mother/church/spirit are chains about your neck.

Chains are of course, statutes; and where do statues go, if not the spirit? And where do the statutes come from, if not the mother? Proverbs 6:20-21. That is why the apostles called the statutes of Moses a “yoke upon the neck” (Acts 15:10).

Proverbs 3:22 refers back to verse 13 with the word “they”, and concludes that wisdom and understanding are life to your soul and grace to your neck, respectively. And since understanding goes in the spirit, “neck” must be yet another near-synonym for spirit!

I say “near-synonym” because God never uses two words when one would do; so if He used two different words, they have a different meaning, however subtle. Take the case of “eye” and “flame” and “star”. These words, and many others, refer to angels. Yet not in precisely the same way.

Flame refers to the nature of the angel’s body (Psalms 104:4), while eye refers to the angel in his job as judge (Daniel 4:23), and star refers to an angel’s job as “lights of the world” (Genesis 1:16-17), which they would be if they brought God’s words (Job 25:5).

All of these words refer, broadly, to the same beings. And most of the time, we can treat them as synonyms... yet they are not the same word, and the meaning of each one differs meaningfully. Likewise, “neck” and “spirit” and “yoke” are not the same word, but for now we will treat them as such.

In the real world, it is upon the neck of the beast that the yoke is borne. Thus, using the neck as the symbol our receptiveness to the spirit is apt. Because when the neck is tender, it responds easily to the guidance of the yoke – and need not be “pricked” by the goad.

But when the neck is tensed it is stronger, less sensitive, not so easily guided by the plowman. And now you know why one of God’s favorite complaints about the Israelites is that they were stiff-necked – because their spirits were not broken! 2 Kings 17:14.

THE AFFLICTION OF THE UNRIGHTEOUS

As always, note the specific words God used in that verse; they would not hear – a spirit word – and instead hardened their NECKS! Why would they do that? To better resist the tugging of JESUS’ YOKE upon them! (Jeremiah 7:26).

The people I mentioned above who rationalize good and bad events neatly into little boxes labeled “work of God” and “work of the devil”, have made it impossible for their spirit to be reached by correction. No realistic amount of suffering will dent their spirit and cause it to consider that maybe they are the problem.

Thus, their spirit, whose job is to honestly digest all facts and draw conclusions from them, has been stiffened; God cannot guide their spirit, because every imaginable thing He could do to them is reinterpreted as proof God loves them and that Satan hates them.

And so when God tugs on their yoke, nothing happens because their necks have become as iron! (Isaiah 48:4). Because every pull, no matter what direction, is understood by their unbroken spirit “God loves you, keep doing what you’re doing!”

So a stiff neck, an unbroken spirit that is utterly committed to the direction it has chosen, can only be controlled with a stronger yoke. And a neck that has become like iron (necks never really become iron) requires a yoke of actual iron to control it! (Jeremiah 28:12-14).

A good beast will turn at the word of his farmer; a slightly worse beast will turn at the touch of the rein; worse animals will require a whip, a wooden yoke, an iron yoke, and so on... and God will use whichever yoke is required for you to get where He wants you to go. Your choice.

And if, even after a yoke of iron, you just can’t get a day’s work done without exhausting yourself beating the ox... well, that’s the beast you move to the head of the line to be butchered at your next feast (Proverbs 29:1).

Because even though you can always, with enough beatings, make it obey your will... there are plenty of other beasts who won’t make you work so hard to get your field plowed and your seed planted. Why bother with the worst ones?

WHY THIS PARTICULAR AFFLICTION

We tend to think of God as punishing us for specific sins, specific external acts; and while God does, on occasion, indulge in that, more often God punishes us for specific internal failings. What is the rod supposed to do? Proverbs 22:15. Who is God trying to deliver with the rod? Proverbs 23:13-14.

The rod drives foolishness from the heart and delivers the SOUL from the grave. To teach the soul wisdom (Proverbs 29:15). To teach the spirit not to try to control things it can’t control, and to free the soul from its prison (Psalms 142:1-7).

These are the things that cause God to bring us affliction (Lamentations 3:1). When we fail to properly lead our fractions (I Thessalonians 5:23), God presents us with challenges uniquely tailored to give our soul a chance to do better.

This problem, out of all the billions of unique problems in the universe, happened to you for a reason. If you believe that, it makes figuring out what to do differently a lot easier. What does this particular affliction say about how you need to BE different?

So when you’re suffering, whether literally or spiritually, metaphorically or actually, think less in terms of sins – though, of course, they are not to be ignored – than in terms of failures to lead your fractions well.

Perhaps you’ve kept the law perfectly today; but did you dismiss advice or reject criticism out of hand without even thinking about it? Perhaps you haven’t sinned against anyone in a year; but did you fail to see something that was right in front of you?

Did you fail to manage your life well enough to be on time? Did you share a meme on Facebook without checking the facts? Did you rush to tell someone your opinion, before you really understood the situation?

These are not sins, certainly. But they are evidence that your soul either isn’t in control of your fractions, or doesn’t have its eye on the goal clearly enough. And God brings affliction on you to show you how to solve these problems.

If you are having problems with your extended family, perhaps it’s because you’re not minding your business; or perhaps, because you’re not making them mind theirs (Proverbs 25:17). If you’re always running behind, maybe you need to force your beast to move faster, or remind it not to procrastinate.

If you’re overworked, maybe you should have used the word “no” more in your personal life; something you haven’t done because your heart wants people to like it; or because your spirit can’t bear to let your herd down.

These afflictions, and a few million other examples like them, loom large in the moment and seem unfixable when you’re in the midst of the crisis. Yet when you look back on them years later, in retrospect they are often absurdly simple to resolve.

SOUL PERSPECTIVE

The trick is getting your soul to take that perspective during the affliction, so you can see a path out of it. Remember, the soul should be above the petty day-to-day problems your heart and spirit deal with. Compared to the oxen and the yoke, how much work does the farmer actually do, walking behind the plow?

This gives him the perspective, the time, and the energy, to see ahead and guide them around obstacles towards their mutual goal. Likewise, your soul should be able to rise above the crisis and see this for what it is: a moment in time, a crisis which will pass, a tempest in a teapot from God’s perspective (and quite possibly, your own soul’s perspective as well).

Most of our conflicts are about as important as birds bickering over shiny pebbles. When your heart is set on something, it can’t see that. When your spirit is locked into a bitter struggle defending it, it can’t either.

Only your soul is equipped to say “wait a minute, why are we fighting over this pebble when there’s another perfectly nice one right over there?” (Genesis 26:19-22). And it is because our soul so often fails to do exactly that, that we need correction.

Which, when you think about it, is just a chance to do better. Because all trials and tribulations are not so much punishment as they are challenges which allow us to demonstrate that we have learned from our mistakes.

So no, the stress you feel today from taking on too much isn’t so much a divine punishment as it is the natural result of making bad choices. And the answer isn’t to beg God’s forgiveness, or to plead with Him to make the spanking stop... the answer is to start using the word “no” today.

Take the shortest route possible to keep your word, wrap up your existing responsibilities (Psalms 15:4b), and in even a few weeks your life will be less stressful. And then next time you feel like saying “sure, I can do that for you”, your soul might pause and think about whether you really should get into that situation again.

DOING IT THE EASY WAY

Obviously, there are a thousand thousand things we need to learn in this life, and God usually has something He can work on. Some reason to keep us in a more-or-less constant state of correction. But do we have a choice in how this correction happens? 1 Corinthians 4:21.

Which means that once again, if your life is hard, you’re doing it wrong. Remember, meekness is a spirit which is broken, and easily accepts new guidance. Given that, do the meek need affliction? Psalms 25:9.

On the contrary, Psalms 147:6. This does not mean that the meek are without fault; it doesn’t mean that they don’t have a lot yet to learn. But it means that God knows that they will learn it willingly, without fighting Him every step of the way (James 1:21).

The rod is meant to drive foolishness from the heart; if your soul is already doing that, why would God add to your problems? Why feed you with the bread of affliction, when you are willing to hear and obey the “still small voice”? Isaiah 30:20-21.

If God knows that you are swift to hear correction (James 1:19), why would He make you learn it the hard way anyway? (1 Peter 3:4). My dad always told me that if I listened when he talked, he wouldn’t have to yell. And if I listened when he yelled, he wouldn’t have to spank. Isn’t that how you would want to be treated, and how you treat your own children? Therefore, isn’t that the Golden Rule?

If your son needs spanked morning, noon, and night, it’s because he’s not listening to you. Therefore, if his backside is sore, it’s because he’s doing something wrong. And by the power of the Golden Rule, we know that the same is true of you and me.

THE BEAUTY OF CORRECTION

We fall short of God’s expectation and wander off the way (sin) when our heart leads us astray, or when our spirit binds us to go a direction it stubbornly insists is right. And an infantile soul finds it difficult to win these arguments with the heart and spirit.

And that is the beauty of punishment; not that it points out the sin, which on some level we usually knew we were committing; not that it helps us atone for our misdeeds, which Jesus already did; but that it gives our soul a weapon against our beast and spirit.

When you tell your beast “we shouldn’t eat so much sugar, it’s bad for our teeth”, the beast says “MOO! I want it!” This is not an argument a young soul wins easily. But when you can respond to “MOO!” by reminding your beast “do you remember how much that toothache hurt?”, then you have leverage.

When you ask it “do you want to feel that again?”, your beast can remember that pain and, as it is hesitating between lust and fear, your soul can guide it towards doing the right thing. And that is why you should glory in tribulations (Romans 5:3-4).

Remember, pain, hunger, heat, wet, these things afflict your body, not your soul. Stress, worry, anxiety, these things mostly affect your spirit, not your soul. So your soul, rising above these petty things, should use these punishments as tools! Tools to convince your heart and spirit that it must let you make better choices next time.

That is why Paul gloried in his infirmities (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Because Paul’s SOUL’S strength was made perfect by his BODY’S weakness! That is why God sent a rebellious angel to torment him (verses 7-8), which God didn’t remove simply because he asked. Why should He have? The angel was there for a reason! Why rebuke a devil, when the flaw that drew him there was still uncorrected? (Luke 11:24-26).

Paul needed his heart to suffer, because only then could be keep his pride in check (2 Corinthians 12:6, 11), a problem which, as this chapter states (and demonstrates), he still had not overcome! And without that continual reminder of his weakness, he would not have been able to remind his heart of the price of pride.

Just as without the chains of the Romans, he would not have been able to remind his spirit of the price of stubbornness. The cost of it driving him “bound in the spirit” to Jerusalem. That’s why Paul, the soul, still NEEDED these external bits and whips to help him control his heart and spirit... and why you may as well! (Acts 7:51).

This may describe you at this very moment; it certainly has, at some point in your past. And it is “through much tribulation” (Acts 14:22) that God is softening that spirit, trimming away at the barriers around the heart. So yes, life has to be hard.

...But only until you master your fractions, and convince them to be your allies (Ecclesiastes 4:12). The suffering of this life is meant to be used by your soul as a lever to pry your fractions back onto the path you choose. When you’re back on that path... life no longer needs to be hard.

A WILLING OX

Think about it; why do farmers use the neck of the beast to control it? Why not control the head? Because there is no good, simple way to control the heads of beasts. Likewise, since pain doesn’t hurt your soul, it’s not easy for God to correct it directly.

Since your soul doesn’t need a herd, it’s not easily led by one, so the herd controls your soul indirectly, by leading your spirit around. Because it’s hard to pin down the soul and afflict it or control it. So we don’t.

Instead we use spurs on their flanks (hurting the beast); whips on their back (hurting the beast); bits in their mouth (irritating the spirit); yokes on their necks (physically controlling the spirit). These push the head into going the direction we want... because you just can’t get a good grip on the head of an ox.

Now there is one tool that allows you to do it; a halter. But since a halter has no bit in the mouth, no sharp objects to amplify your commands, the ox has to want to follow you for it to work. No man can pull a half-ton ox with a halter if the ox doesn’t feel like going.

And so instead of leading, God pushes the stubborn ox; using whips and bits and yokes, He makes obedience less painful than disobedience. But only because the ox can’t be trusted to be led by the halter.

If the ox would just follow along because He said so, none of this would be necessary... not even the halter. The ox’s own head will turn his neck, his own head will drag his body along. All that will be required is a “still small voice” saying “this is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21).

Because you only need suffering until you can convince your fractions to follow you willingly, until you can ride your beast bareback and your spirit will follow your lead without reins. Until your lamb will follow your soul “whithersoever it leads”.

But until we reach that level of training, we need the whip to drive foolishness from us. We need the yoke, to guide us in the paths of righteousness. We need a bit in our spirit to turn us sharply when our soul needs to be turned in a hurry.

And knowing this, we should be thankful for the bit, the goad, and the yoke. But also look towards the day when we no longer need it. When we can carry, with Jesus, a light burden and an easy yoke (Matthew 11:29-30).

HEAL THYSELF

The unbroken spirits of my critics would sarcastically demand “so you’re saying you never suffer?” (Luke 4:23). Of course not. I learned many of these things the hard way, as most people do, and I still have plenty left to learn.

But I AM saying that I suffer far less now than I did a decade ago, or even a year ago. And I am determined to keep that curve pointed downhill in the future, because I prefer to learn from a word than from a toothache. So should you... and so can you.

The point of this lesson is easily expressed; if life is hard, it’s your fault. If you’re not happy, find out why; if you’re sitting on a thorn, pull it out. It’s that simple. No, I haven’t always done that. No, David didn’t always do that. But we always could have done that.

The Bible is full of the suffering of the righteous; doesn’t this prove that all I said is wrong... or at least, pointlessly idealistic? “Sure, NOAH could deliver himself from suffering, but you’re not Noah!” (Ezekiel 14:13-14). True – but Noah was a man, which proves it’s possible (James 5:17).

We all have different problems. We’ve all plumbed the depths of stupidity and depravity to a different degree. And so God gives us the trials we need and only those trials, to give us a chance to reach that city. After Abraham offered Isaac, God needed no more proof of his soul’s dominance over his fractions (Genesis 22:12).

Meanwhile, Paul needed a thorn in the flesh to keep him on the path even after he knew why it was there. But where does it say that John needed such a goad to keep him pointed in the right direction?

Then again, John was the disciple whom Jesus loved... no doubt, because John was easier to lead than, say, Peter (Mark 8:33, for instance).

Peter’s epistles are full of lessons about suffering because Peter had to learn them himself (1 Peter 2:20, 3:9-14). He said these particular things because they are things he learned the hard way, by doing their opposite – because this is not the way the younger Peter solved problems (compare with John 18:10-27).

So we’re gonna have to go through some stuff in this life. But that doesn’t make it normal. It doesn’t make it necessary. That’s like saying “you’re gonna get speeding tickets from time to time”. If you’re getting speeding tickets, you’re doing something wrong. Speeding tickets are easily avoidable with good choices, and so is suffering.

A peaceful life without suffering is the goal of everyone who regards the life of their beast (Proverbs 12:10). But not the highest goal – the highest goal is “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). If that path leads through the valley of the shadow of death... so be it.

PERSECUTION

Paul tells us “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). That’s absolutely true. But what exactly does it say? That people will persecute, harass, hate you. Does that have to be a bad thing? Acts 5:41, Matthew 5:10-12.

David said “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Psalms 34:19). So, we should expect to suffer a lot as a Christian, right? Well, the same verse went on to say “...but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”

Now if you knew that were true, if you truly believed that were true, then you wouldn’t be stressed in the middle of a crisis, would you? Remember when Paul was bitten by the snake – everyone around was sure that it was divine retribution. Paul barely seemed to notice (Acts 28:3-5). So was this really a trial?

When Paul “felt no harm”, was it really suffering? When you realize that every time someone calls you the antichrist, your stock in heaven goes up a little bit, is it really suffering? Yes, we will be persecuted in this world – how could we not be? John 16:33. But we choose what form it takes, and how much it costs us.

What about all the people like the ones in Hebrews 11, who were burned at the stake, sawn in half, and so on? Surely, they had no choice in their persecution. Perhaps not – but what about Daniel’s three friends, who were burnt alive... yet seemed not to notice (Daniel 3:17-28).

We may not be able to avoid being thrown into the lion’s den – all who will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution, after all (Daniel 6:1-15). But our attitude about it, and our fractions’ faith in our choice and our soul’s faith in God, will determine whether or not the lions are hungry (Daniel 6:16-23).

Stephen was stoned, and didn’t seem to feel a thing (Acts 7:55-59). But look at the quality of his soul’s objectivity and judgment: verse 60. This man had no reason to suffer in death, if his soul could render such a merciful and righteous judgment on his murderers, he clearly had nothing left to prove.

Yet this was a lesson it would take many more decades before Peter mastered (1 Peter 3:9). So yes, we will be persecuted, hated, annoyed for the truth. But whether that persecution translates into true pain and suffering, or mere inconvenience (moving to a new well, for example), is up to us.

And yes, we may be made poor, or sick, or weak; but whether that qualifies as true suffering or not depends on our attitude. When you’re poor, do you obey verse 9? Do you take it as an opportunity to learn the lesson in Philippians 4:11?

If not, then yes, it’s suffering. But if you are content with what you have, is it really suffering to be poor? 1 Timothy 6:6. And once you figure that out, there will no longer be a reason for you to be poor. After all, think about it; is it really your soul that is poor... or only your body? (Proverbs 13:7, James 2:5).

Life is rather like a horror movie. Terrifying and terrible things happen on screen. But those things don’t happen to you. In fact, they aren’t real at all. Until you begin to get sucked into the plot, and identify with the characters, they’re rather boring.

So if you’re gasping and flinching in response to the horror flick, step back and remind yourself that it’s all just rubber masks and diluted ketchup. If you truly believe that, it’s not possible to be scared by them.

Likewise, the bad things that happen in this world, even the absolute worst things, they happen only to your beast and your spirit. If you truly believe that this life is just ketchup and rubber, can it really be considered “suffering” and “tribulations” for your soul?

If you truly believed that “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked”, (Psalms 91:7-8)... then wouldn’t the end times be... kinda boring?

So yes, things happen to us. Whether they are bad things or not is usually up to us to determine – our reaction to them is what makes them bad or not. Does your soul get sucked into the movie that is your life? Or can it step back and realize it’s in the audience here – and make the right judgment?

Because if it’s a bad movie... maybe you should change the channel.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

We all choose our own yoke (Lamentations 1:14); we choose our suffering, and we choose our trials. If we would just do what we were supposed to do – which is not always as easy as it sounds, in our defense – then no afflictions are necessary. Guidance, yes; a word here or there of correction. But not suffering.

Yet we are human, and we’re going to insist on learning the hard way from time to time. If you want to minimize that, you need to learn to use each and every one of these trials to their fullest extent; to squeeze every lesson possible out of every mishap.

When things go wrong, ask yourself WHY? Which one of your fractions (I Thessalonians 5:23) erred, and why? Ask yourself, if you could go back in time a day, what could you have done differently? Let’s say you bet on a losing horse. Then, next day, you ask yourself “where did I go wrong?”

Your spirit would say “we should have bet on a different horse!” Of course; because that horse lost, and since we now know that it lost, we should have bet on a different horse. Yet is that really the lesson to be learned in this situation?

With the benefit of hindsight – the strength of the spirit – no one would go back in time and make the same mistakes. But they would make the same mistake in a different way! Because the spirit answered the wrong question; it answered the question “what would I do differently, knowing what I know now?”

But that’s the wrong question. The question that needs answering is “what would I do differently, knowing what I knew then!”

The problem wasn’t that you picked the wrong horse; knowing what you knew then, you could not have reliably picked a winning horse. You could not have known which horse would lose. So that wasn’t the mistake;

The mistake was playing the game in the first place. Because no matter which horse you picked, the house ALWAYS was going to win. You were always going to lose, in the long run. So the only way to have avoided losing, knowing what you knew then, was not to bet at all!

When something bad happens, you need to ask yourself “what should I have done differently, knowing only what I knew then?” At first, the question seems absurd; because if you were limited to what you knew then, you would obviously make the same choice again; right?

I mean, you made a choice then based on what you knew and understood then, so of course you’d make the exact same choice in the exact same situation now, right?

Having only the knowledge you had then, yes. Having only the understanding you had then, yes. But having the wisdom you have now... you might make a different choice even though it’s BASED ON THE SAME FACTS!

None of us, given a chance to relive our teenage years, knowing what was to come, wouldn’t make drastic changes to our lives. And yet, what if you had to relive your teenage years, not knowing what was to come?

What if your memory was wiped of the facts of your future life, so you didn’t know what would happen; what if your spirit was wiped of the lessons you learned, stripped of the understanding of what happens when you do certain kinds of things...

What if your current soul were put into your teenage body with no memories, none of the understanding you’ve gained since?

What if your wisdom, your capacity to make better decisions based on the same evidence as your younger self, were the only thing about you that remained the same?

If an amnesiac can still remember how to ride a horse when he can’t remember his own name, is it not because his soul has retained the ability to manage the spirit and heart of a beast, even though he doesn’t know why or how?

If you were to suddenly be stricken with amnesia and find yourself in high school, would you really make all the same choices you made then? Would your life follow the exact same foolish path as it did before?

If not, then your soul has LEARNED something. Something separate from, larger than, and far more important than the memories and understanding of your heart and spirit. It has learned to judge more wisely, learned to make better decisions with the exact same information.

But let’s go one step further; what if you were stricken with amnesia and put in your mother’s womb, with life to live all over again.

Would that fetus eventually sin? If so, then your soul has not yet learned the lessons you need to learn. Because when that exact thing happened to the Word of God...

When His soul was stripped of every experience, every life lesson, everything that you might have thought made Him, well, Him... His soul retained the one thing that all of us are striving to acquire:

The wisdom to judge righteous judgment.

TAKE THE TEST

1. What is the purpose of your suffering?

a) To teach you to endure

b) To teach you to pray for to stop

c) To tech you the price for sin

d) To please those in authority over you

2. Why is life hard?

a) To teach you patience

b) Because you are doing it wrong

c) Because Satan is persecuting you

d) Because God is testing you

3. What does a stiff neck correspond to?

a) An evil soul

b) An unbroken spirit

c) A rebellious heart

d) The beast

4. After a failure, you should ask yourself, “What should I have done differently...

a) Knowing what I knew then?

b) Knowing what I know now?

c) Knowing what would come next?

d) All the above

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