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First of all I want to say a few things about the Joy
of the Lord before I go into the Soul.
And I think that as we serve the Lord, down through life we get
hurt by different people, different things, whatever situations come into
our lives. I think sometimes
if we’re not real careful, we lose this joy.
Or we just get involved with coming to church and doing the things
of God. And we forget the joy
that this brought when we first came in.
And it’s so important not to lose this joy over life itself.
There are periods of life that come in that aren’t so joyful.
And we’ll all go through those things, all in different ways, all
in different forms. I was
thinking back to a time in my life that I was really hurt by a church.
Yet those people can hurt you and not even realize what is really
going on. Some people have no
idea of what is going on. Yet we’re involved in something where we are really going
to get hurt. For myself, I
thought I was going to die, I thought, this is death itself. I mean I’d
rather die physically. Twenty
years later the Lord showed me that if I hadn't somehow came to the place
where I would move on from that place we would have never had this church
here. I would have stayed
there the rest of my life probably. And
yet it became impossible for me to stay but it was one of the most painful
things that I’ve ever gone through.
Not the situation itself but the effect and what went on I learned
so much of how to treat others, what to do towards others.
How not to treat others the way I was treated or the way I felt I
was treated. I’ve seen
things all down through areas of my life in watching different people and
watching situations and I realize now that we all go through these things
in different ways. But I’m
going to give you hope. God
is taking you somewhere. God
is bringing you into something that you did not realize that you were
going to step into. And I believe that’s the word of the Lord.
That there is something that God is going to bring you into that
had you not went through the situation, or at least what God did to you in
that situation, how God worked you in that situation you would have never
been. You would have never
stepped into what God wanted you to step into.
You do step into something else and the joy will come back to you
and you will learn to let it go. It took me awhile to let it go.
Believe me. In fact, I
think it took me years to let it go and to forgive the people who had hurt
me. You know, they called me
on the phone and what they said was, forgive me because I can’t reach
God. You will get that kind
of message. That person will come to you some day and they will say I’m
sorry, I did not know. I want
you to be encouraged that God was doing good.
He’s working out of good for you and in those who hurt you God is
doing something good. The devil may have meant for it to happen.
But I tell you, I serve a God and you serve a God who is miraculous
and who has joy and who wants us to have joy in our lives and He loves all
of us. He will bring the same
situations to the other person or the other people or whatever is going on
and He will bring them into some things and He will teach them things too. So God is doing a good work and that’s what we need
to get a hold of for all us that God is doing something.
The devil wants to destroy us and God wants to do something good
and He is going to do that in each of your lives.
I believe that with all of my heart because I know I went through
some of these things and I know what God did in me.
God is no respecter of persons.
He loves you just the same way He loves me. I thank God. I don’t
thank God for the situation, but I thank God that I came through alive,
finally alive. And anybody
who has ever gone through that knows what I’m talking about.
We’ve all gone through some kind of hurt from someone.
So look to the good. What
is God going to do with you? What
does God have in mind for you? And
I know that it’s something good. Genesis 2:7
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”
In the Hebrew the word life here is lives, the word is plural-He
breathed into us lives. And
it says “and man became a living soul.”
So this is one place that we see soul.
There are many places in the Bible that we see soul. I don’t know if I’m going to come against
anybody’s doctrine or not and if I do you’re going to just have to
forgive me. I know this to be
true, and it might conflict with your doctrine.
Even if you believe something that is contrary to what I’m
believing, that’s between you and God.
Belief in soul sleep is not going to send you to Hell.
I do not believe in soul sleep and I’m going to prove it to you
by scripture. When you look
at the word soul in the scripture, you need to look at the context of
where it is at and what it’s talking about.
And you will see that many times, in fact most times, it’s not
talking about the soul sleeping. When
God talks about the Soul He’s talking sometimes about the person’s
life, the “old soul”. Have you ever heard that saying, that old soul?
It’s pretty much that old man or that old sweet person… that
old soul or it means the emotions, the mind.
The different parts of man connected to the spirit.
In the Old Testament you will see the Hebrew people looked at the
word soul rather than spirit. That
man has a soul. When you get
to the New Testament it’s made clear that it’s some kind of a
difference between the spirit and soul.
And we’re going to look at that a little bit.
But I believe that when a person dies and we all have loved ones
that are going to die. We’re
all going to die, unless the Lord returns. I’m hoping that I’m one of
them but if I’m not, I’m going to go on with the Lord.
Genesis 2:7, Nephesh is the Hebrew word for
soul. And it also can stand
for the flesh of man. It can
stand for spirit, in the Old Testament.
Nephesh in most places stands for the whole person, not
separating body, soul and spirit. You
do not see the Hebrew people speak like that.
They speak soul. And
so the word Nephesh here is Nephesh Chay, which means
living soul. Genesis 1:20-21 and 24 “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the
moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in
the open firmament of heaven. And
God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the
waters brought forth abundantly; after their kind, and every winged fowl
after his kind; and God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful and multiply, and fill
the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”
Verse 24, “And God said, let the earth bring forth the living
creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing and beast of the earth
after his kind, and it was so. And
God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their
kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and God
saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man after our image, after
our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over
the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in His own image…” He did not create animals
in His image; He created man in His image, both male and female.
And it believed that they were created together, at the same time,
that the woman was in the man and God created her in him.
Just like we are created as new creations in Christ.
This is how we’re created. We’re
taken out of His side. “So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male
and female created He them.” Genesis 2:18 “And
the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone; I will make
him a help meet for him.” God
didn’t create man and then create woman.
The creation He’s talking about is one creation.
He created once. “And out the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the
field, and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he
would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that
was the name thereof. And
Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every
beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for
him.” So God created animals out of the dust of the earth. He brought
them forth from the ground. And
it says out of dust God formed them.
And it doesn’t say he breathed into them though like he did to
man. Looking at the Hebrew it
says that God breathed into him a portion of Himself.
He breathes into man a portion of Himself.
What would that be? It
would be Spirit. Like God is
Spirit. He breathes into
them. “And the rib, which
the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the
man. And Adam said, this is
now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man. Therefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his
wife, and they shall be one flesh.”
So what we see here is creation itself.
Now I want to read 2:7 again.
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils”… now remember when Jesus said He breathed
on the disciples? He was
talking about this. He’s looking back to this.
Genesis. He’s the
creator. He was the creator.
We have to look at this. How
many in here know that Jesus Christ, Yeshua, is God.
Does everybody know that? When
I first came into the church as an adult, quite a while ago.
Anyway, I would go around asking people who is Jesus?
And they would say, He’s kind of God.
I said, kind of God? He
is either God or He’s not God. But
they were afraid to say He’s God. And
they didn’t study. The Lord
has opened up scriptures since even as I was brought in and filled with
the spirit. I was saved as a
child, but as an adult, you begin to study and to really learn.
And at that time they really wouldn’t say He is God. They would say kind of God.
But God has opened this up in the last few years.
It says then “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life…” So he gave
him the natural breath and He gave him life.
Chay. And it says, “…and man became a living being.”
He became a living being, a living person--Body, Soul and Spirit.
To the Hebrew it was Soul and Body. Luke 16:19
“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and
fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day; And there was a certain
beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs, which fell from the
rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the
Angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. And in hell, he
lifted up his eyes, being in torments…” So notice that in this place
where he was at there were emotions going on.
He was being tormented, he could lift up his eyes, he could see,
and he could even talk. Many
people will tell you that this is a parable; it’s just an illustration
of something. It is not a parable. Parables do not have names.
This is a real live situation, which took place.
This also tells us that He was buried.
His body’s not there, his body is in the grave.
When it talks about the body going to the grave and being buried
and being asleep. When it says you’re asleep, you’re sleeping.
Your body is sleeping. Not
your soul. Your spirit is not sleeping.
“And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send
Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my
tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. “But Abraham said, Son,
remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things and likewise
Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore father that thou would send him
to my father’s house; for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto
them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said unto
him, they have Moses and the prophets. Abraham said unto him, they have
Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said Nay father Abraham
but if one went unto them from the dead, they will believe.”
What’s He telling the people who are listening? He’s telling
them He’s going to come from the dead and they’re not going to
believe. “And he said, nay,
father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.”
It’s a prediction of His own resurrection.
He says you’re not going to believe.
If you don’t believe Moses already you’re not going to believe
it when I actually do it. He’s
telling a story that actually happened but He’s telling them it’s
going to happen to you too, if you’re not real careful.
So that’s telling you that a person has life after death.
He goes to a place. It’s
not a parable because it has names of the people in it.
And it also tells you that Jesus knows that the majority of the
people are not going to believe in His resurrection.
Genesis 35:16-20.
“And they journeyed from Bethel and there was but a little way to
come to Ephrath; and Rachel travailed and she had hard labor.”
Now I want you to get this scene in your mind.
You’re watching this lady in labor. You’re
watching her travail in birth. She’s going to bring forth a child here. “And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the
midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.
And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing for she died and
she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.” Her
soul was in departing. Did
they see her soul departing? They know that she is dying.
She’s not going to make it.
She is going home. But they said ‘it’ departed.
Did it stay in the body? It
departed. It went somewhere.
It went where Lazarus was. That’s
where it went. We know inside of ourselves what is true and what is
not true and we sense the spirit moving and we sense people’s spirits
departing and all this. .
If our spiritual eyes could see into the realm of the spirit, if we
could actually see, out of Rachel that day. Rachel was in severe pain, she
could barely bring that child forth.
She did have it but it killed her.
What she did was she just took herself out of that body and she
just walked out. You could
have seen her standing there. You
could have actually seen her standing there in the realm of the spirit. Philippians 1:20 It says here “According to my
earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but
that in all boldness, as always, so now the Christ shall be magnified in
my body,” Christ will be magnified in my body. In other words Glory is
going to come forth from this, Glory to God.
It says “whether it be by life, or by death.”
Whether I live of I die. The
Lord is going to get the glory. He’s going to be magnified.
He’s going to be revealed. Manifest
presence--God’s going to show Himself real.
If he lives, he’s going to be able to teach these people and go
on with his life and bring glory to the Lord.
If he dies he’s going to be resurrected and he’s going to go on
in the end times. A resurrected body, wouldn’t you love to see one?
I would love to experience one but I don’t want to have to die to
do it. But we’re going to
have to die. Either that or
be changed, in the twinkling of an eye.
We will magnify the glory of God and when a resurrected body walked
forth from that tomb that Jesus Christ was in, it magnified the glory of
God. Death cannot hold us.
You know why death can’t hold me?
Jesus Christ lives within me.
This body is going to be glorified.
It’s going to take on immortality.
That is going to glorify God.
In that body I will live forever and I won’t be sick.
Sickness won’t be able to touch me.
Death won’t be able to touch me.
Nothing will be able to destroy me.
Ever! It says here “For me to live with Christ and to die is
gain.” How can lying in a
grave for 100, 1000, 2000 or 3000 years be of gain to anyone?
Where’s Abraham? Is
he in the grave? His bones
are there in Israel. He is
buried in that tomb, that big monstrous building that sits over the top of
them. They went down in there
and they can’t find any bones, they’re all ashes now.
Abraham is not there, His soul is not there. Abraham is where Lazarus is because he was talking back and
forth. You see that?
And then it goes on to say “For to me to live is Christ and to
die is gain. But if I live in
the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor; yet what I shall choose I wot
not. For I am in a strait
between two; having a desire to depart and to be with Christ;” To depart
and be with Christ which is far better.
Where’s hope? He’s
seated on the right hand of the Father in Heaven, isn’t He?
He is seated there with a resurrected body.
So for Paul to depart he’s going to be with the Lord Jesus in
Heaven. “And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and
continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;” Paul is
not talking about the second event here at all.
He’s talking about departing which is far better.
Does this sound like he’s sleeping?
This is speaking of a conscious presence of the believer with
Christ at the death of his body. He’s going to have a place to go to.
When Jesus says I go to prepare a place for you… What place is He
preparing? He was preparing
for us to come with Him.
I John 5:11-12 “And
this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life
is in his Son. He that hath
the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. We
have eternal life now. It is a quality of life that He bestows upon us
now. I have eternal life now. I will life forever.
Right now I will live forever.
I’ve started my journey, I’ve accepted the Lord and I’m going
to keep traveling. I’m
going to keep packing my suitcases and moving on.
Do you see what I’m saying?
And one of these days we need to prepare. There’s a woman evangelist named Ruth Heflin.
She traveled all over the world preaching the gospel.
She would take a year or six months and preach in China…. She’d
preach in India or she’d preach here and there.
What she did was she got to the point where she didn’t own
anything. She got rid of almost everything that it didn’t take her
anytime to move. She kept a suitcase packed by her door so if the Lord
said for her to go to India she went.
If the Lord said to go to heaven, she was prepared.
By the way, the Lord called her home this last year.
She went home and she had her suitcase packed.
She was ready to go. Meaning
that her spirit and her soul were in tune with God.
That suitcase that she had by the door didn’t go because she went
to another place. So we need
to begin to look at things like this.
When we die here on earth we’re not dead.
Paul says, immortality comes at the resurrection.
That is bestowed upon the body at the resurrection.
Some people say that body is not going to be raised but that is not
what it says. It says
those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall come up.
Now, they will be like our Lord.
Whatever body He has we’re going to have, just like Him. I Thessalonians 4:13-18 The teachers before Paul
came were teaching the people at this church that the resurrection had
already taken place. Wouldn’t
it be frightening to think that the Lord has come and gone without me? He says “But I would not have you to be ignorant
brethren, concerning them which are asleep…” He uses the word sleep
here; he is talking about the body. “that
ye sorrow now, even as others which have no hope” Or don’t believe in
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus” Jesus said that He
would come wherever you are. Wherever
you are. But not from the grave.
He’s going to bring you from wherever He is. Because God brings Him with Him wherever He comes.
And he says, “in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain…” Now at this time our brother Paul thinks he’s
going to be standing there. He’s going to be living when the Lord returns.
He’s looking so forward to it that he just believes that he’s
going to be right there. He
says, “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall
not prevent them which are asleep. For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven….” He’s coming from
Heaven. He says, “with a
shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the
dead in Christ shall rise first;” So those who are sleeping will come up
first. But how
are they going to raise from the dead if they have no spirit and soul in
them? God brings the spirit
and soul with Him from heaven. “Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.”
So wherever the Lord is, I’m going.
He’s not leaving me behind because I’m going. The word Sleep is
never used of the soul. The soul doesn’t sleep.
Are you listening to me? Only
the body sleeps. So when it
talks about people who go to sleep, it talks about people who no longer
hear the Lord. But sleep
never talks about the soul going to sleep, only the body.
The living will be caught up with the dead in Christ to meet the
Lord in the air. The living
are changed in that moment, so they have the immortal body.
Paul said gain is Christ. Gain
what? Paul’s existence
would bring life and death would enhance it. It said it would bring a
closer communion than he’d ever known before with the Lord.
He’d have a closer communion than he’d ever had before.
A personal gain far better it would be to depart.
Departing in our understanding seems awful to say that but not to
Paul. He knew where he was going. So as Paul grows older he tends to
identify himself with those who will be raised from the dead because he
can see. Paul’s been
shipwrecked, he’s been beaten half to death, the Lord had to raise him
from death because he was just beaten within an inch of his life.
They thought he was going to die.
Paul could see death coming but he wasn’t afraid of it.
He knew there was life after death. He knew your soul didn’t
sleep, only the body. And that brings great comfort to you.
Some people say well it doesn’t make any difference if you think
you’re sleeping. You
know it’s like just going to sleep and all of a sudden you’ll be
awake. You know, it brings
great comfort to me to know that the soul and spirit just steps outside of
the body and is going home to be with God. I’d much rather be with God
than in the grave. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed.”
In other words we’ll not all die.
There’s going to be some of us standing.
You know, it might be the younger people too.
It might be me. I might see this. I’m looking forward to it. But if it doesn’t happen, I’ll not be afraid.
And it says, “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.” Death
is swallowed up. Swallowed
up. What do I mean by death
is swallowed up? It’s
almost like I see you with a big pan of water and you drop an ice cube in
the water. That ice cube is
swallowed up. It no longer
exists in the water. Remember
Moses in Exodus when Moses threw his rod down and it became a serpent.
What did that serpent do? It swallowed death up.
Jesus swallowed death up when He died for us.
It’s what He did. In
other words it has no power over you any more.
You’re going to come up. If
you love Jesus, you’re going to come up.
2 Corinthians 4:13-14 “Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise
up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. We having the same
spirit of faith, according as it is written; I believed and therefore have
I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak:
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us
also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. “
So we’ll be presented to the Lord.
We’ll all be in this thing together in the resurrection. We’re
going to have a great reunion before then.
I’m going to be talking back and forth to you like Abraham did to
Lazarus. We're going to be
talking back and forth. We’re
going to be able to talk, wherever we’re going here.
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens.” In the Old
Testament, the Tabernacle was God with them.
When God decided that He wanted the people to journey on the cloud
would lift and it would begin to move out ahead of them. Everything was
broken down, taken apart, put in its proper container and then the Ark of
the Covenant was placed in its container and covered with a cloth. It was
covered. It was broken down and covered.
Just like this tabernacle, you are as a tabernacle of God, you hold
the Lord in your heart. He dwells within you.
We are the Ark of the Covenant.
It was the Lord that dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant then and you
are the Ark that carries Him in this earth, right now. But you’re going
to break down and when you do, there’s going to be a cloud put over you
as God carries you to your next journey.
You're going to have a covering – a house not made with hands.
The house not made with hands is the image of Christ.
Remember Adam. It says
that before he sinned they believe he had a covering of light all around
him. They believe that he had
a covering and that he lost that. They
believe that was the image of the Lord. You’re going go on to heaven,
but you’re going to be clothed with a garment.
It says here that you’re going to have “a house, not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. For
in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven; If so be that being clothed we shall not be found
naked.” And they believed
that not to be found naked is to be conformed into the image of Christ.
“Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who
also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”
It’s similar to the earnest money put down on a piece of
property. When you received the Holy Spirit that was Gods earnest
money. He purchased you with
His own blood. He put the
spirit within you, which says, this is mine.
This is my property. This one with the spirit dwelling in him, this
is mine. I live there.
That’s my property. Normally
you go put money down. God purchased you; His money was blood, the blood
of Jesus. The Holy Spirit was given to you and you having the Holy Spirit
shows me that God purchased you. It says “Therefore we are always
confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent
from the Lord…” But Christ lives within me.
Not the way you’re going to see Him when you meet Him.
You’re going to have such a close communion that you never
believe anything is possible like this.
You’re going to have such a presence appear to you.
People it hasn’t even entered into your mind yet. It hasn’t
even dawned on us yet what we’re going to come into contact with. It is
so beautiful, so wonderful, and so beyond human words.
This is what you’re going to come into contact with. So Paul, he says here “Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God,
who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we
are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
(For we walk by faith, not by sight.)
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the
body, and to be present with the Lord.”
So what do we do? We
labor in this earth whether present or absent that we might be accepted of
him. Do you know what it
means to labor? You know,
just like Jesus said in the garden of Gethsemane, “Father, is there any
other way for this cup to pass over me?
Then Jesus said,
nevertheless, Thy will be done.” And
that’s what labor is all about. We
say ‘Nevertheless, Thy will be done’, so that we are pleasing to the
Lord. When it says, well
salvation is free. Yeah,
salvation is free. But then
he says, what got you salvation was fear and trembling.
What does it mean? Let
God work through us. And let
God cause us to grow and respond to God as He’s speaking to us. If we don’t respond to God and we just go our own way
and we don’t listen to Him, we’re not going to grow in the Lord.
It’s just like a baby. If
the mother stops feeding the baby then the baby is not going to grow.
It will be stunted. Even
if you fed it late, it’ll be stunted, and we’ll be the same way if we
didn’t follow the things of the Lord.
We’ve got to do the things of the Lord with a heart that wants to
do it. How many of you here, when you first paid tithes it
was hard? But you know what,
I obeyed what God said for me to do and in every other area of our life we
need to do the same thing. The
first time it’s going to be hard.
Second time it won’t be quite as hard.
We realize we’re allowing God to work through our heart and we
are responding to Him in our heart is what we’re doing.
If you don’t believe it, don’t do it.
But I find out the things that I don’t believe and I start doing
it, I end up believing in the Word of God because I don’t know what it
means yet. Hebrews 4:12 “For
the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of
the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart.” The word of God
shall stand forever. It’s
the Word of God that brings us into rest.
It’s sharper than any two-edged sword.
This sword, in the Greek, it has two mouths, which means a sharp
knife that’s sharp on each side. It
cuts when it comes in - cuts asunder, takes things away from us.
Yet when we speak it, it does the same thing to whoever’s
listening to it. It has two mouths. The
Word of God penetrates deeper into a man than any sword. It enters into
the soul and spirit into all of our sensations, our passions, and our
appetites and even to our very thoughts. It sits as a judge of the most
secret intentions. Piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
When the Word thus distinguishes the soul from the spirit by the
former, it is meant that the inferior faculty by which we think of and
desire which concerns our present being and welfare.
By spirit, it means a superior power which we prefer eternal
things, we begin to hunger after the desires of God, we begin to search
for him, to look for Him and want to know Him. That’s our spirit and we
are directed in our spirit to pursue truth. We try to find the truth.
That is the spirit that God has placed inside of us.
Remember I told you He breathed into us the breath of lives.
You’ve got two lives in you. You’ve
got the natural man and you’ve got the spirit man inside of you.
Before they fell. And it says we prefer these things so that we might be
presented before the Lord. It can divide the joint and divide the marrow
and enter into the soul. The
soul can’t resist it. It’s
going to come in. And it
says, and produces what God wants produced in our heart and take the
wickedness and remove the wickedness out of us as it cuts, the knife cuts.
Cuts it out. Nothing is more quick and living and more powerful and
more irresistible, sharp and piercing.
When the Word reaches you is like lightning coming in and cutting
it out. The Word of God is a
judge to punish and to bring life. It
goes right down to the very thoughts and the modus of the thoughts and the
intents of the heart and cuts them away. What it does is that it brings it
up in front of us and shows to us what’s inside of our spirit, the
things that need to go. I don’t want to stand before the Lord some day
and say Lord, why didn’t you tell me that?
The Lord’s not going to do that. He’s going to tell me.
So then it goes on to say Sharper than any two-edged
sword, penetrating the heart more than just does the body.
Piercing quite through, lying open the soul and the spirit the
joints and the marrow, and even the deepest parts of the mind will it
reveal to us. What’s in
there? It’s a discerner not
only of thoughts and intentions, but also of the intentions that we even
have. And you say, how will I
ever make it? You’ll make
it because you have a savior. But
that still doesn’t give us the excuse to leave it go when God shows us
something. God wants us to grow. You
know what happens when we grow. It’s
growing something inside of us that makes us understand and know the Lord
even more than we knew before. That’s the growth God is after in us. God
is not after us to send us to Hell. He
doesn’t want anybody to perish. He doesn’t want anyone to go to hell.
He doesn’t want anyone to stand before Him and have to give a bad
reckoning. He wants to reveal
to us. The more we know the more we’ll know Him.
It says, by this sword, the man himself lives and by it he destroys
his enemy. So with the Word of God that comes out of your mouth you’re
able to destroy your enemy. You
know the Bible says of our enemy…. Many times He’s not talking about
our enemy out in the world. He’s
talking about the brethren. Any
time that we don’t have fellowship with our brethren…. Three days?
They’re our enemy. So what God says is the words you speak
destroy your enemy. In other
words they become your friend. You
make peace with them somehow. You may call fire upon their head.
You know what heaping coals of fire upon the head means? Let’s just look at it.
I’ve got this man over here, and he’s awful cold and he’s mad
at me because I’ve got a fire over here.
I know he’s mad at me but I want to do something to restore my
friendship with him. So
what I do is I take two of three little coals off of my fire and I go over
there and give them to him. The
first thing when he sees me coming, he starts trembling.
Not because he’s glad to see me, but because I’m going to give
him something that’s going to cause him to come to shame.
And then he’s going to be my friend, hopefully.
That’s what it means to heap coals of fire upon people’s head. Revelation 6:9 “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the
altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the
testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, how
long, O Lord, holy and true, doest thou not judge and avenge our blood on
them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of
them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little
season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should
be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. And I beheld when he had
opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun
became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the
stars of heaven fell unto the earth,” There is heaven.
The souls are in heaven. People,
there is nothing to fear about death. The soul goes to heaven when we die.
It goes to go with the Lord Jesus. You know God wants something good for
each one of us. The most that
He wants is for us to be changed into the image of Jesus Christ.
That means I’m going to be crucified like Him. And when you hear
the word crucified you don’t want to be hurt.
But you know, when we are hurt, something does die.
And when we get through it, something dies, and usually the
something that died is good. It’s according to how we take what God is
doing with us. And what we
need to do is not labor on what’s happened, but labor on what God is
doing in us. What is he doing
that is so good in you? That
to me is the most important part. And
so I’ve taught on soul. Now you understand what soul means, right?
It’s the emotions, the thoughts, but yet they’re alive.
After you die, they don’t go to sleep. And even when you’re
sleeping, you know that it’s still going on up there.
I don’t know how we can sleep in our bodies, physically, upon
earth, without dying. And
still our emotions and our mind, everything’s churning up there. Why are
you dreaming? See, everything’s going on.
See that’s miraculous to me, just miraculous. So isn’t that good. Isn’t He wonderful? God is so good.
The more I know about Him, the more I love Him. And the more I see,
the more I come to being close to going home with the Lord, the more He
becomes real.
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