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| - J.
Preston Eby -
THREE
TREES IN THE GARDEN (continued) "And
the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man
whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow EVERY
TREE THAT IS PLEASANT to the sight, and good for food; the TREE OF LIFE also
in the midst of the garden, and the TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD
AND EVIL" (Gen. 2:8-9). It
is abundantly clear that different kinds of trees are used in the
Scriptures to represent different kinds of men. It is, therefore, of
special interest to examine further the significance of the three kinds of
trees in Eden. I have explained in previous articles that these three
kinds of trees are: (1) all the trees of the garden (2) the tree of life
(3) the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The three kinds of trees in Eden are three kinds of men, three
potentialities within man, or three kinds of life that may be seen in
every person: spirit life, soul life, and body life. According to the
revelations given later in the Bible, the tree of life signifies the life
of God in the spirit, all the trees of the garden signifies the human life
of man in the soul, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
signifies the realm of the body with its five senses: seeing, hearing,
tasting, feeling and smelling. The spirit is the realm of GOD
CONSCIOUSNESS, the soul is the realm of SELF CONSCIOUSNESS, and the body
is the realm of SENSE CONSCIOUSNESS. The spirit is spiritual, the soul is
emotional and intellectual, and the body is sensual. Since the fall of man
in Eden man's spirit life has fled far from him and his soul and body have
become united in such a way that in many instances they are referred to
interchangeably in the Scriptures as "the natural man,"
"the flesh," or "the carnal mind."
In order to understand clearly the three parts of man which are the
three lives of man, it will be necessary here to consider at length the
functions of these three parts. The body is the outermost physical
part and is therefore visible and touchable. It includes all the members
of our body and has the five physical senses of seeing, hearing, tasting,
feeling and smelling to contact the physical world around it. These,
without exception, belong to the realm of the physical. They are the five
senses of the body or the five senses of the flesh. The
function of the body, therefore, is a BIOLOGICAL FUNCTION.
Deep inside of every man there is a private sanctum where dwells
the mysterious essence of his being.
The deepest part of a man is what it is apart from any of the
external parts of either body members or soulical expression.
It is the man’s “I Am,” a gift from the I AM who created him.
The I AM, which is God is underived, eternal, and self-existent;
the “I Am” which is man, is derived from God – breathed into Adam in
the day when He was formed. “God…
breathed into his nostrils the breath (in Hebrew: spirit)
of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). The innermost and
deepest reality of man is called in the scriptures the spirit of man. “For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit
of man which is in him? Even
so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (I Cor.
2:11). As God’s
self-knowledge lies in the eternal Spirit, so man’s true being is in his
own spirit.
The spirit includes all the attributes, characteristics and
abilities of God, from whence it came. This part of man is only caused to
function through the process of re-generation. Without regeneration we
have not yet begun our experience of spiritual life. This is why Jesus
said to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God. That which is born of the flesh IS FLESH; and which is born
of the Spirit IS SPIRIT. Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be
born again" (Jn. 3:5-7). The apostle John spoke this truth very
simply when he wrote, "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" (I Jn.
5:11-12). Regeneration is the obtaining of God's divine life to quicken or
fructify our spiritual life in addition to our own soulish and bodily
life. The moment we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit is the very moment
God's life enters into us and it is also the birth of Christ within us.
The birth of Christ in us means that Christ is born once more. Christ was
born two thousand years ago in the body of the man called Jesus, but every
time a man is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, Christ is born once more in
humanity. Hence, regeneration is the birth of Christ within us. It was the
very truth of this that prompted Paul to triumphantly declare, "I am
crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but CHRIST LIVETH
WITHIN ME" (Gal. 2:20).
The spirit is that aspect of God by virtue of which He is able to individualize
Himself. The word "individual" comes from the Latin "individuus"
which means un-divided. Most people seem to think that it means the exact
contrary. It suggests separateness to them, as though being separate or
divided from every other human being makes one an individual, but they are
mistaken. Individual means un-divided, showing that each human person is
undivided from humanity in that he is a perfect expression of what
humanity is. Thus, in the higher realm of Spirit life God has the power of
individualizing Himself, that is, the bringing forth an another
expression of WHAT HE IS without, so to speak, breaking Himself into
parts. God individualizes Himself as the new man within us, Christ, and so
when you are regenerated you are actually an individualization of God. God
can individualize Himself in an infinite number of distinct beings, or
units of consciousness and expression, and yet not be in any way separate
or divided. Only God can do this because He is SPIRIT. Matter cannot be
individualized. It can only be broken up. Thus, if you were to tear off
half a page of this article, and then tear that into small pieces you
would have divided up the page. The remnant of the page would be smaller
by the amount of paper torn off; and the whole page would be the sum of
all the fragments. This is division; it is not individualization. Spirit,
however, can be individualized, and this capacity of God is the process by
which He is bringing forth a vast company of sons in His very own image!
So your see self, the Christ within, the spiritual man, the new creation,
is in all truth an individualization of God. This does not, of course,
mean that you are an absurd little personal god. You are person an
individualization of the one and only God who was first individualized in
the person of Jesus Christ. The new creation life of Christ within you is
not "another Christ" or "another God," but the
manifestation of the life, mind, will, nature, power and glory of the one
and only true God - our Father! God
is neither one person, nor is He merely a Trinity of persons – He is a
vast family in and through whom He is individualizing Himself, reproducing
Himself, extending and projecting Himself.
Regeneration is the beginning of the new man within us. All our
experiences of spiritual life are matters of the new man within us, for
this life is an entirely new element, not of earth below, but from heaven
above. This life gives us the wonderful capacity to communicate and
fellowship with God. It is the spirit that causes us to be able to sense
God and spiritual things and to contact God. The senses of the spirit
are SPIRITUAL SENSES and are, therefore, the gateway to the spiritual
world of the Kingdom of God.
The soul, which is situated between the spirit and the body,
is our inner, psychological part which includes our human desire,
emotion, will and mind. The desire is the organ for fancy,
lust, inclination, drawing and aspiration; the emotion is the organ for
pleasure, anger, sorrow and joy; the will is the organ for formulating
opinions, making decisions and inciting actions; and the mind is the organ
for thinking and considering. The senses of the soul are
PSYCHOLOGICAL SENSES and comprise man's ego or self, giving him
self-consciousness and enabling him to contact the psychological world
around him. The soul thus
refers to sensation, knowledge and conscious experience.
The Greek word for “soul” is PSUCHE.
It is the root word from which we get all our English words dealing
with the psychic – the mind, the mental life.
Words such as psychoanalysis, psychology, psychiatry, all have the
same basic root PSUCHE in them.
The soul is the seat of SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
The soul, when divorced from the life and dominion of the spirit,
is SELF-centered and SELF-ish. Have
you ever noticed the advertising campaigns of some of the most successful
fast food restaurants? McDonald’s
proclaims, “You deserve a break today,” while Burger King advertises,
“We do it your way.” Both
of these are what the super salesmen call the “you” approach.
The advertisers tell you that you are important. You are going to get what you need.
You are going to get what you want.
They are going to make you beautiful or handsome; they are
going to cure your aches, pains, halitosis, or get rid of your
wrinkles or your obesity. You
see, advertisers motivate us by telling us what we want most to believe:
that not only are we important, but we are right!
Perhaps nothing is so appealing to our human nature as the
commercial that promises, “We do it your way.”
After all, we really want things done our way, don’t we?
Yes, the “you” approach sells a great many hamburgers, and many
other products as well. Why?
Because as humans, we are born with the mentality to envision the
world as revolving around ourselves.
The appeal is so the soul – the very same appeal made by
the serpent in Eden long millenniums ago!
Oh, yes – the serpent was a master – salesman!
On another plane, in these days on increasing mental and emotional
conflict and strain, many people, including Christians, have been
encouraged to turn to psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis for the
solutions to their emotional problems.
This is a dangerous trend for at least three reasons: First,
because the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalsis are highly
speculative, radically experimental, and anti-biblical, and anti-spiritual
in their basic theoretical suppositions.
All the great pioneers in these fields have been godless,
humanistic men who rejected the Word of God and devoid of any life in the
Spirit. They accepted
authorities in all these fields start from the unscriptural theory of
evolution, denying man’s spiritual existence and need.
Second, these programs, including so-called “Christian
Psychology,” invariably result in giving the changing theories of men
precedence over the testimony of the scriptures and the power of the Holy
Spirit. Third, it leads
people to seek the solutions to their problems within their own souls
apart from submission to the Word of God and the life of the Spirit,
leaving them with a false hope and a rude awakening.
Self’s trickery and treachersousness is responsible for the fact
that psychiatry and psychology have evolved into such complex mazes of
pseudo knowledge. Those
theories are like a house with many rooms added on haphazardly here and
there to take care of all the different situations.
Psychiatrists and psychologists, while believing that they are
gaining more knowledge, are only being led further and further into the
maze of the deceitfulness and wickedness of the human heart, which is
endless. Their attempts to
untangle the secrets of the old nature are like tyring to find the end of
a piece of string which is tangled into a huge ball, without knowing that
the string is in fact a loop. There
are no ends. We can trace
things in our self forever, but we will only get more lost.
And if we mistake the manifestations of the soul for demons, we
will then find an endless supply of them to cast out and an equally
endless stream of more incredible explanations for why they keep coming
back and why more are always showing up.
Psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis are but flimsy fig leaves
to cover the exposure of the flesh-nature activated as a result of eating
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Each leaf is a facet of our self-image, and when we identify with
self, we feel the need to hide from the true God (the Spirit) behind our
soulical images. THE THREE SETS OF FACULTIES
When one has a clear understanding of the three parts of man it
becomes increasingly obvious that man possesses a set of THREE OF ALL HIS
FACULTIES. Each part of man is a potential kind of man, complete on
that level within himself. In our last Study we considered three kinds of
hearts: the biological heart which is the physical heart of the
body; the psychological heart which is the emotional and
intellectual heart of the soul; and the spiritual heart which is
the regenerated heart of the spirit. These three different hearts can act
on three different levels at three different times and the child of God
can act as three different kinds of persons and live out three different
kinds of lives. For example, a brother can lie in bed in the morning and
the only evidence of life will appear on the biological level: slow,
rhythmic breathing and a pulse - the arterial indicator of the functioning
of his biological heart. When he awakes and rises to wash his face and
dress he may seem very affable as a person. At noon, this same brother
gets angry with his wife, shouts at her, slaps her, with the sudden
thought that he hates her and wishes he could divorce her and marry
someone else. These actions and thoughts are products of his corrupted psychological
heart, and this heart, according to the prophet Jeremiah is "deceitful
above all things, and DESPERATELY WICKED" (Jer. 17:9). Who can
say they do not possess such a heart? This brother who in the morning
seemed so congenial now resembles a demon! In the evening, the same
brother is convicted of his earlier conduct by the dealing of the spirit
within and sees that he has shamefully wronged his wife. He confesses his
sin both before God and his wife, asks for and receives their forgiveness,
kneels and prays with his wife and together they rejoice and commence to
bless and praise God in the Spirit. These are now actions of the spiritual
heart. Thus, within one day this brother acts as THREE DIFFERENT PERSONS,
living out three different kinds of life which are, potentially, three
different kinds of men. In the morning he is affable as a man, at noon he
is fierce as a demon, and at night, after dealing with his sin, he
manifests the likeness of God. Within twelve brief hours, man, the devil,
and God are all manifested in his living. The reason he can act in such
diverse ways is that within him there are the realities of three
trees of Eden and the three lives of man - body, soul, and spirit. When he
lives according to the life of man, he is like a man; when he walks
according to the devilish life, he is like the devil; and when he acts
according to the life of God in the spirit, he manifests the likeness of
God. Whichever life we live in accordance with, regardless of the life,
that life determines what we will live out. The tripartite situation of
man which existed on that day in the Garden of Eden exists also in us
today. We can say that within us is a miniature Garden of Eden with Adam,
the serpent, and God – all three – present. Therefore, the Garden
concerns us today!
I cannot over emphasize this wonderful and little understood truth
that each part of man's being contains a complete set of faculties. For
example, let us consider the WILL of man. Within your body you have
a biological will which is physical, bodily will. This will is
seated in the glands, brain and nerves of the body. This is the will that
causes you to breathe and move, to jerk your hand away when you
inadvertently touch a hot stove, to shiver when the temperature drops, to
sleep at night and awaken in the morning. None of these things are
functions of either the will of the soul or the will of the spirit. They
are all physical reflexes and functions of the will of the body.
Within your soul you have a psychological will which
is an ego will. This is the self-conscious and self-seeking will which is
ever opposed to God and His will. This is the will Jesus brought to the
cross when He said, "Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from
me: nevertheless NOT MY WILL, but Thine, be done" (Lk. 22:42). Within
this psychological will is the wretchedness of sin and the power of death,
in that man would do his will rather than God's will!
Within your regenerated spirit you have a spiritual will
which is naught but God's will. This is the will of which Jesus spoke when
He said, "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent Me" (Jn. 6:38). The location of God's will
is settled in Phil. 2:13 where we read, "For it is God which worketh
IN YOU both to WILL and to do of His good pleasure." Jesus Christ
became man to bring us back to the blessedness of doing God's will.
The great object of redemption was to make us and our will free from the
power of sin, and to lead us again to live and do the will of God. In His
life on earth He showed us what it is to live only for the will of God; in
His death and resurrection He won for us the power to live and do the will
of God as He has done. It is this life of obedience, wrought out by the
Lord Jesus in the flesh, that is not only imputed to us, but imparted
through regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Through His death the Lord
Jesus has atoned for our self-will and disobedience. It was by conquering
it in His own perfect obedience that He atoned for it. He has thus not
only blotted out the guilt of our self-will before God, but broken its
power in us. In His resurrection He brought from the dead a life that had
conquered and destroyed all self-will. And the believer who knows the
power of Jesus' death and resurrection knows that His resurrection life
gives us power to live as He lived. Jesus Christ enables us, through the
indwelling of His Spirit as our new spirit life, to walk not after the
flesh, but according to the will of God. This wonderful potential lies
within us!
Every child of God has also three sets of emotions. Within your
body you have the biological emotions of hunger, thirst, pain,
health, sickness, sex drive etc. Within your soul you have the psychological
emotions of sorrow, hatred, greed, lust, pride, strife, fear, envy,
selfishness, jealousy, aggresiveness, pleasure, etc. Within your spirit
you have the spiritual emotions of love, joy, peace, righteousness,
meekness, faith, worship, praise etc.
Man also possesses a three-fold conscience. Within your body is the
biological conscience which distinguishes between things which are
cold or hot, painful or pleasurable, bitter or sweet, pretty or ugly etc.
Within your soul is the psychological conscience which judges
whether things are good or bad, legal or illegal, honest or dishonest,
profitable or unprofitable etc. Within your spirit is the spiritual
conscience which determines WHETHER A THING IS OF GOD OR NOT OF GOD. The
natural man is guided entirely by his biological and psychological
consciences, making all judgments upon the basis of good and evil.
The spiritual man, however, discerns whether or not a thing is of God.
We have learned a great truth when we learn that many things in this world
may be called "good" but yet not be of God. Let
me put it this way – you can know God or good and evil, but not both!
Knowing God and knowing good and evil are mutually exclusive.
God is known only by the tree of life – good and evil are known
only by the tree of death. It
is not a matter of right or wrong, yes or no, good or evil – it is
entirely a matter of God, a matter of life.
Therefore, no matter how much mankind tries to be good, and tries
not to be evil, and no matter how much good a man does, even religious
good – he is still living off the fruit of this tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. It is not
until life and truth come spiritually, that we see there are two different
trees. Not only is
there a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but there is also a tree
of life; and good and evil do not belong in the realm of life!
Good and evil are simply a knowledge while the tree of life brings
life, and reveals life. There
is a world in which all that exists is LIFE and neither evil nor good has
meaning. This world lies
beyond the frontiers of good and evil. It is the realm of Living Reality
– the Kingdom of Heaven. Today
most people and church are teaching and living from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. Every
thing that is "good" is not according to God's will nor a
product of His life. The fleshly religious systems of our day are ever
seeking after some "good" tactic or method by which to
"promote" the Kingdom of God. Their methods are "good"
alright, the only problem being that generally they are NOT OF GOD! The
entire religious world today is walking after the psychological conscience
of the soul, choosing between "good" and "evil,"
always choosing the "good" and thus walking in fleshly wisdom
which seems so logical to the carnal mind. Fleshly wisdom always seems to
make more sense than does the wisdom of God! Satan causes carnal wisdom to
prosper because it is a denial of the life of the spirit and the will of
God by the spirit, so that many times christians and churches operate
contrary to the spirit with the argument that it is "good" or
that "it works!" Their method of evangelism is contrary to the
spirit, but since it "works" they continue in it. The
"program" of the church, the "organization" of the
church is contrary to the ways of the spirit, being built generally around
flesh-appeal activities of concerts, social activities, ball teams, Sunday
School contests, puppet shows, or movies, speakers, ceremonies, rituals,
drives, etc. etc., but they continue in it because it all seems so
"good" and "it works," causing the "church"
to prosper in numbers and finances, while their spirits remain dwarfed and
hideously shrivelled and stunted, if indeed they have been quickened at
all! The soulish conscience will always make decisions and direct a course
of action based in a knowledge of good and evil. The spiritual conscience,
on the other hand, will always DISCERN THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT and choose
to WALK IN THE MIND OF CHRIST. The soulish conscience will judge upon the
basis of the external form of works, whereas the spiritual conscience will
discern what is behind the works, whether self-effort or the working of
the Sprit of God. This explains the admonition in Hebrews where the writer
says. "How much more shall... Christ... purge your conscience
from DEAD WORKS to serve the LIVING GOD" (Heb. 9:14). After
the end of World War One, the famous desert fighter, Lawrence of Arabia,
brought several Arab leaders to Paris to represent their interests at the
Versailles Peace Conference. These
sons of the desert were filled with astonishment at the sights of Paris,
but nothing intrigued them quite as much as the running water in their
hotel rooms. In the desert
water was such a luxury, and here in their rooms it seemed to be free and
never ending, at the turning of a tap.
When it was the time to leave Paris, Lawrence found those Arabs
removing the faucets, believing that those magic instruments would give
them water at will in their native Arabia.
Only with great difficulty did he finally convince them that their
faucets were no good if detached from the water supply. “No good if
detached!” What a striking
picture that is of all our good, of all the forms, rituals, ceremonies,
traditions, creeds, means, methods, and works of religion – all that is
not of the tree of life is empty, powerless and void.
They are but dis-connected faucets, one and all. The
Spirit-substance that nourishes our spirit is the life of the Father
within. When we live out of SPIRIT we walk in GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS and
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS has no place. If any man speak, let him speak as the
oracle of God -- out of his innermost being. When one speaks the truth,
when one speaks and performs what he hears from the Father, it is GOD IN
MANIFESTATION, and self is there crucified upon the cross in God's heart.
God is raising up a people today, sons who no longer are self-conscious.
The secret of Jesus' sonship was that He paid no attention whatsoever to
Himself. "Whatsoever I see the Father do, that is what I am doing,
whatsoever I hear the Father say, that is what I am saying." The
Father said, "You are the way, the truth and the life," so He
said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." He did not say it
with His eyes turned to the outer man, thinking how important He was, how
vital He was to the situation. He said it because His heart was set on the
Father. He said, "The Father has given Me the words I should
say." And He spoke the words the Father gave Him with no
self-consciousness at all. The higher we go in God the more refined become the testings. God is causing us to take positions and stands, not against the BAD simply, but against things that are GOOD. Of course, if you take a stand against things that are good and were started by God, formed by God, ordained by God, it will appear as if you are an instrument of the devil out to destroy the work of God. But God said once, "That which I plant, I will pluck up" (Jer. 1:9-10; 18:6-10). I rejoiced for years because I saw that "every tree which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up" (Mat. 15:13). Now, as we move on in God, we must rejoice when we see God pluck up that which HE PLANTED. God says, "That which I built, I will destroy." We are to rejoice when we see God destroy that which He built. Unless God has done a work in our spirits by the power of the Holy Ghost, we cannot believe that. Our own concept is that if God built it, the only one out to destroy it is the devil. But God says: 'I will destroy." May this decade be a decade in which we are prepared to lose the good as well as the bad, prepared to see God pluck up that for which we have given our life to see it planted, where we see God break down and destroy that for which we have sold ourselves out. Most of us have no problem as to our bad, we know the flesh and all that it represents must go to the cross. But all of us have areas in our life which we think are good: a devotion, a commitment, a consecration, a faith, a prayer life, a knowledge, a ministry, but which are as much SELF as the bad temper, the lust, and the rest of it. God is saying that everything must go. That which is left will only be CHRIST HIMSELF formed in us. Why is this? Because when God has planted something, after a while we become idolatrous about it. Idolatry is really the self-life projecting itself into the things of God so that they turn into idols because they become the thing which is produced by our consecration, our prayers, our dying. But we do not want it to die, because it has cost us too much, and it represents a work of God in our life. We have given our whole life to see this thing come into being, and anyone that comes along to destroy it is destroying all our consecration, the prayers we have prayed, the reputation we have lost, the deaths we have died. After God has established it, you are telling me that it has to die? But that is exactly it! If it lives we will do what Israel did with the brazen serpent. We make an ephod out of it and go after it to worship it. I know people today who instead of worshipping God, worship worship. It is not the Lord they delight in, but the soulish sensation they get out of “worship.” Others worship a message – the faith message, the sonship message, the Kingdom message. Many worship experiences and ministries. Wherever God has brought us in previous dealings, God is progressively moving forward. Today He says: “Build it," tomorrow He says, “Destroy it." Today He says: “Plant it," tomorrow He says, “Pluck it up.” Today He says: “Get a harvest,” tomorrow He says, "Let the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die.” He who has a right to build has also the right to destroy when He is through with a thing. And, woe! unto that man who cannot discern the times. The cross must strike not only at our carnality and sin, but at all our blessings and experiences and attainments in God. While we praise God for all His mighty acts on our behalf, in and through us , it must all be slain by the cross until we no longer talk about the work of God wrought in us, for that is duality --- God and me. When men saw Jesus, the salvation of God, they saw more than a work of God; they saw the PERSON OF GOD, for, 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). Ultimately God's purpose is that when the cross has done its work Christ will be so formed in us, so expressed and revealed through us, until he that sees us sees the Father. The
woman represents THE SOUL For
man was FIRST a Spirit The
soul, outside the Spirit, So
let our souls be subject Now
the serpent was a TARE SEED The GOOD SEED is The Word of God “Yea,
hath God said he shall not eat “Why,
God said we could eat of all, but one, “Surely
die? Of course you won’t! “Why,
yes,” said she, “it’s plain to see “This
glorious tree must be the key The soul that’s IN The Spirit She
did not ask her husband “…
not only is it food for food, Thou
shalt not eat the cursed thing Its
root is dry, its limbs are bare; For
all man’s works are filthy rags, But
there is a Tree that God did plant The
devil had inspired in her Man
has to learn the folly The
soul did HEAR the serpent’s lies, She
SMELLED the sweet smell of success Now
the senses are the gifts of God –
Lora Huston THE THREE MINDS
Not only do saints have three kinds of hearts, wills, consciences,
eyes, ears, feet, hands, and emotions, they have also three kinds of
minds. Within your body you have a biological mind called the
brain. It consists of a mass of nerve fibers, in the form of thin, white
strands, at the top of the head. These nerve fibers connect with other
nerve fibers that stretch from the brain to all parts of the body. They
carry messages to and from the brain in less time than it takes to bat an
eyelash. This "computer system" of nerves enables a man to
think, have consciousness, and relate to the physical world in which he
lives. Special centers inside the brain control our bodily senses, such as
sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Every other member of the body is
controlled by the brain so that if the brain is damaged some parts may be
paralyzed, or the body members may not be able to function, bringing
death. The one thing you will notice about all this is that of the brain
is the biological organ that controls the physical sense of the
flesh.
Within your soul you have a psychological mind. Paul calls
this mind the "carnal mind," for it is ever minding the things
of the body and the soul. The carnal mind is an insane mind.
There are many species of insanity.
All sin in insanity, in different degrees. The carnal mind is an insane mind given wholly to destructive
delusions. The natural man is
mentally ill beyond comprehension. The
carnal mind is spared from this classification in our world, only because
the vast majority of the inmates in this vast asylum called “society”
is equally mad and in consonance with the delusion.
There is a universal insanity of the so-called “wisdom” of the
world, but the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God – the
Spirit. The mortal, sinful, sick, warring, confused, sorrowing,
imperfect, carnal children of men are counterfeits, to be laid aside for
the pure reality – man in the image of God.
This mortal, this deranged mind of old Adam, must be put off, and
the dispensations since the garden of Eden men have been walking after
their carnal minds. They have
proudly imagined that they could understand the things of God with the
human mind. But this can never be. All
through the ages there has been a small number who by the grace of God
were able to crucify the flesh, put off the carnal mind, and become
partakers of the mind of Christ. Rom.
8:6-8 says, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." It is very
striking that the carnal mind is equated with death.
According to this verse the carnal mind and death are not two separate
things - they are the very same thing. "To be carnally minded IS
DEATH!" It will aid our understanding of what is meant by death if we
first understand what life is, for death is the opposite of life.
In the natural world we know that a dog which runs and barks is alive.
Usually we can tell by its actions if a thing is alive. A stone does not
act. Things happen to a stone. A stone does not of itself make
anything happen, either to itself or to its surroundings. If something
moves and changes and acts by itself it is alive.
There are some things which are not alive that seem to act as if
they were alive. The wind blows. The rain falls. The river flows. Fire
burns. Each of these have movement, change and action. But these things
move only when they are caused to move by some external force or
law. Life, on the other hand, is an internal power that does not depend
upon some other cause for its movement, change or action. Life moves,
changes and acts out of its own inherent power. When anything ceases to function – can no longer move, change or act out of its own energy - it is DEAD. Death may be either partial or complete. Part of the organism may no longer function in life, or all of it may cease to function. Suppose the case of a man who by disease or accident has been deprived of the use of his ears. The deaf man's ears, in virtue of this imperfection, are said to be "dead." That part of him is no longer functioning. If we suppose that this man then loses his sight, the beauty of the sea and sky, the forms of cloud and mountain, the features and gestures of friends, are to him as if they were not. They are there, solid and real, but not to him; he is still further "dead." Next, let it be conceived, the subtle finger of cerebral disease lays hold of him. His whole brain is affected, and the sensory nerves cease altogether to acquaint him with what is happening in the outside world. The outside world is still there, but not to him; he is still further "dead." And so the death of parts goes on. He becomes less and less alive. Finally, the lungs can no longer breathe, so the heart can no longer pump the blood and the blood can no longer transport the oxygen – the thing, for it is now a thing, is dead. Next it will be manifest that every living thing lives and functions on a particular level, and while it is alive on its own level it is, an a true sense, "dead" to those things on all other planes of existence. A tree, for example, while it lives on the plane of the vegetable kingdom, is "dead" to the higher realm of life of the animal kingdom and all kingdoms above that. It has neither eyes, nose, ears, mouth nor hands and so does not see, smell, hear, taste nor consciously touch the whole world around it. It is alive on one plane, but dead to all others. So far as consciousness is concerned, we should be justified indeed in saying that it was not alive at all. The murmur of the stream which bathes its roots affects it not. The marvelous insect-life beneath its shadow excites in it no wonder. The tender maternity of the bird which has its nest among its leaves stirs no responsive sympathy. It cannot relate to those things. To stream and insect and bird it is insensible, numb, dead. This is DEATH, this non-functioning, this irresponsiveness.
This brings us to a most wonderful and momentous realization of
truth as stated by Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
"The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned." Jesus stated the same truth in
different words, saying, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God" (I Cor.
2:14; Jn. 3:3). It cannot be said of the unregenerated man that he is
living in contact with the spiritual world of God. Since that fateful day
in Eden's garden when man was banished from the glories of the Tree of
Life the natural man has been dead to all spiritual things and has
positively no communion on the plane of divine life. The natural man
functions and knows in this present material world of corruption and death
while being completely dead to the higher realm of God and
spiritual realities. That does not mean that the natural man has no spirit
– it means that his spirit resides in the state of sleep or death, that
is, unresponsiveness to God. A
corpse is still a body, a man, and has all its members but it has no
consciousness or responsiveness to the world about it.
And so, until the spirit of man is quickened by the Spirit of God
– the Spirit of God is that which KNOWS – it is impossible for him to
have any understanding, either of God, or His Word, or His ways.
The Holy Spirit who knoweth all things has taught us in the
simplest and most beautiful words that "we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which
are seen are TEMPORAL; but the thing which are not seen: are
ETERNAL" (II Cor. 4:18). All the things which can be seen, heard,
tasted, touched or smelled by five physical senses or discerned
by the psychological senses of the soul are TEMPORAL and are passing away.
This was already a fact in Eden's fair garden, for where is the scripture,
O man, that tells us that in distant beginning the plants were immortal,
or that the beasts of the field possessed eternal life, or that the roses
never faded, that the leaves of the trees never withered, or that no tool
in the hand of man ever wore out? I declare to you that not only today are
the things that are seen TEMPORAL, but the things that can be seen HAVE
ALWAYS BEEN TEMPORAL since the day they came fresh from the hand of the
Creator. The awe-inspiring wonder of the Tree of Life in the midst of
God's creation is that God held out to His creation the potential to be transformed
and transferred out of the realm of the natural into the Kingdom of
the Spiritual. I Jn. 2:17 has always been true: "And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God
ABIDETH FOREVER." Can you think of any visible thing that is not
passing away? Every form of life upon the earth is passing away, and even
the earth itself shall pas away. The visible universe of suns and moons
and planets and stars and innumerable galaxies will one day be rolled up
like a scroll (Rev. 21:1) and the magnitudes of time and space shall be no
more.
We know that God is Spirit but what does that mean? Well, Spirit is
that which cannot be destroyed or damaged or hurt in any way. Spirit
cannot deteriorate. It cannot grow tired or old. It is the opposite of
matter. Matter is always deteriorating. While you sit reading this page,
the paper is actually wearing out. The clothes on your back are wearing
out. The building in which you are sitting is wearing out, and your body
itself is wearing out - and some day all these things will be dust. True,
it will take a long time according to our ideas for these things to happen
but happen they will. There was a time when great cities filled with
imposing buildings and splendid monuments flourished in Africa and Asia,
cities of which every trace has now disappeared, for they have become one
with the desert sands. This is inevitable because matter is always wearing
out! "Man who is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a
shadow, and continueth not" (Job. 14:1-2).
This is really a splendid thing because it means that the world is
constantly being renewed. It is splendid that old imperfect things should
disappear in order that newer, cleaner, and better things may take their
place. If clothing did not wear out, many people would continue wearing it
for many years until it became out of style and saturated with dirt,
instead of which we get new clothes at frequent intervals. If automobiles
did not wear out we may might still be using the primitive models of fifty
years ago. Who would want to eternally preserve something that is
imperfect, soiled, ruined, or insufficient? Because everything of the
material realm IS IMPERFECT God has, in His great wisdom and goodness,
arranged it so that all things of this realm ARE TEMPORAL and are passing
away.
Matter wears out, but the Spirit of God does not wear out because
the Spirit is eternal substance. Our fleshly bodies of humiliation
are composed of matter, whereas our spirits are the offspring of God's
divine Spirit. Herein lies the folly of those who presume that they have
already put on immortality in their physical bodies and cannot die. I have
known many precious and sincere brethren who believed that they had passed
over the grave, but I can tell you that today all of them are both dead
and buried except those who have not yet reached the age where death is a
certainty. hearken, my brother, and hear, my sister, the words of wisdom
and understanding from God: "The things which are seen ARE
TEMPORAL; but the things which are not seen ARE ETERNAL." The
Spirit here reveals the great truth that there simply is no such thing
as INCORRUPTIBLE MATTER. There are no IMMORTAL MATERIAL BODIES walking
around anywhere on God's earth! If they are composed of matter and visible
then they are not eternal and endure. It is a contradiction of terms.
Nothing that is seen by the mortal eyes of natural men can be eternal.
There must be a transformation, a transferal from one kingdom to the
other.
The incorruptible body of the resurrection is not a material body
at all, it is a SPIRIT BODY. The words of Paul to the Corinthians must be
made very real to our hearts: "There are celestial (heavenly) bodies,
and bodies terrestrial (earthly): but the glory of the celestial is one,
and the glory of terrestrial is another. So...is the resurrection of the
dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in
weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown NATURAL BODY; it
is raised a SPIRITUAL BODY. There is a NATURAL BODY and there is
a SPIRITUAL BODY" (I Cor. 15:40,42-44). It is plain to see that
our present bodies are "natural bodies." The "spiritual
body" supersedes the "natural body" and is called in the
Greek a "spirit body." The natural body and the spirit body
belong to two entirely different kingdoms. The former is visible, the
latter is invisible. The former is temporal, the latter is eternal. The
former is of the earth, the latter is from heaven as Paul explains:
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building (body) of God, an 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. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life" (II
Cor. 5:1-4). Our "earthly house," our physical body, is characterized as a "tabernacle" or a better translation would be "tent-house." The transient character of the earthly body is thus revealed by this symbol. This house is to be "dissolved." "Dissolved" comes from a Greek word meaning "loosened down," as the ropes of a tent are loosened and the tent is taken down. The "spirit body," on the other hand, is described as a "building of God, eternal in the heavens." The metaphor changes, interestingly, from a "tent" to a "building," from that which can be "dissolved" to that which is "eternal." My beloved brethren! I have absolutely no desire whatever to have God embue with any eternal qualities this poor, imperfect, limited, restricted, humiliating, earthly, animal body! My hope of sonship does not rest in preserving forever a body that must be washed and clothed, fed and rested, groomed and manicured, and powdered and deodorized. There is another body, thank God! formed of the Spirit of the resurrected and glorified Christ of God and this marvelous body is from heaven even as my present body is of earth. I declare to you that as a man puts on Christ he puts on not only the Spirit of Christ but also the RESURRECTION BODY of Christ and this body is our house from heaven. Even as our earth body has come from Adam, and is Adam's body, so our spirit body comes from Christ and is the body of His resurrection. As the pure and holy life of the Son of God is formed within us God shall also give us bodies worthy of such divine life, bodies capable of expressing all the wisdom and power of that blessed realm beyond sin and death, yea, beyond time and space and matter!
It must forever be settled in our hearts that there is no true
reality any of the things that are seen, for how can we say that
things which are always changing and passing away are realities? The only
eternal things in the whole universe are the things which are not seen,
and yet it is not that they are really invisible, for they are merely
invisible to the kinds of eyes we mortals have. Eternal things are only
inaudible to the ears of the natural and can be perceived only beyond the
senses of the soulish man. The Holy Spirit has faithfully recorded of
Moses, that grand hero of faith and spiritual vision, that "by faith
he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing
Him who is invisible" (Heb. 11:27). In this verse we have from
the history of Israel, on their way from Egypt to Canaan, the truth
confirmed anew that in all God does in His great and eternal purposes, on
man's part faith is the beginning and the ending. Faith is an attribute
and faculty of the NEW HEART and the NEW MIND, and the one outstanding
feature of this spiritual faculty of faith is its ability to SEE THE
INVISIBLE! Moses "endured, as SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE." This
was done by faith – which sees the invisible One. Here is the
mighty power of the new creation: it sees what others cannot see! It sees,
amid the thousand things natural men see and are guided by, something
infinitely greater and more real – it sees God. No wonder it
leads a man to think and act differently from other men. On everything it
looks at the bright light of eternity is shining. No wonder that under the
inspiration of that vision it can do mighty deeds, for it sees God its
helper and strength. Let me here say to every believer that just as, in
any pursuit, the eye can be trained to see what others cannot see, so the
spiritual eye of the new creation can be trained to see God everywhere.
Abide in His presence until the heart is filled with it. You will begin to
recognize HIM in everything that happens. Seek to walk in the light of His
countenance. Seeing the INVISIBLE will make it easy to forsake the world
and do the will of God!
Just as there are five natural senses in the natural realm, so also
there are five spiritual senses in the spiritual realm. The five senses of
the body and soul are able only to see, hear, taste, touch and smell
natural things, but these same five senses in the realm of the spirit are
able to see, hear, taste, touch and smell all spiritual things which are
invisible and incorruptible, as Paul explains: "… eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man (by any
natural sense of power or perception) the things which God hath in
reservation for those who love Him - but God HATH REVEALED THEM UNTO US by
His Spirit; for the spirit searcheth (out) all things, yea the deep
things of God" (I Cor. 2:9-14). When we are born of the Spirit the five
senses of God become resident and operative within our spirit.
Gradually, as we are quickened to become aware of these senses, the EYES
of our understanding open wider and wider to the things not seen by the
natural eye; by degrees the HEARING of faith increases until every good
promise of God established as truth within; in time we come into TOUCH
with the Lord and His invisible presence and powers; little by little we
TASTE and see that the Lord is very gracious; after a time we come to
appreciate those sacrifices and incense-prayers and praises and graces,
which are a SWEET ODOR to the Lord. As the natural senses can be
cultivated, so can the spiritual; and the cultivation of these spiritual
senses constitutes marks indicating our growth in grace, our development
as sons of God, to the completeness of our new selves in the glory, honor
and immortality of the divine nature.
When one walks by the spiritual senses of the new creation He, like
Christ, has meat to eat that others know not of and drink to drink of
which those around him have never tasted. Under the curse of death and
separation from God man was banished from entrance into this blessed realm
of reality in the Spirit. The heavens became shut up from him. He could
not see eternal things. He could see only natural things. He
could not hear spiritual and eternal things. He could hear only
the lower sounds of earth. He could not taste spiritual things
but only such things as he could eat with his physical mouth and take into
his soul of the spirit of this world, none of which contain one iota of
life or reality. He could not smell the more glorious fragrance of the
heavenly realms, but only those perfumes which issued forth from things of
earth. Neither could he feel the glory of God's presence, but his
feeling was confined to the tangible and corruptible things of earth. He
was condemned to live after the flesh, for the gate of the spiritual world
was closed to him.
Jesus has opened the gate, blessed be His name! He now bids us come
to the place of feeding upon heavenly manna, for He says, "Behold, I
stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Rev.
3:20). The first taste we have of the Lord's table, is when we enter into
our secret closet and close the door; shutting out everybody and
everything, all our thoughts and desires, all sounds from the world, and
all the six hundred sixty six voices of Babylon's religious systems.
It is upon the door of this closet of communion in the SPIRITUAL REALM,
that He comes and knocks; it is there He enters; and when we have shut the
door, He spreads a table before us, and we sup with Him and He with us.
He spreads this table with heavenly viands; and we not only taste
of the hidden manna, but we learn to feed upon it ONLY and CONTINUOUSLY;
we drink of the living water more abundantly.
We cannot sit at this table with our voices clattering and every
avenue of our being filled with unrest. We cannot abide at His feet and
hear His voice when our opinions are rampant, and our thoughts wandering
to and fro like the tramps in the alley that feed upon the refuse in the
garbage cans. We cannot eat of this table while the wine of Babylon's
doctrines and spirit is filling our stomachs and defiling our breath. We
must turn from it all, from tradition, from the world, and from self to
seek Him diligently and yield to Him in quietness and confidence. We must
follow every direction He gives us if we would find this table and abide
there; for we can only sit at this table of the Lord when we have
commenced to partake of the grace of silence within and without.
When the Lord was on earth, He told His disciples that He had meat to eat
that they knew not of; and He added: "My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent Me." The Sons of God will be known first of all by the
fact that they make the WILL OF GOD to be their meat and drink. And it is only
as we get still before HIM, that we learn to know and do His will. Body
and soul must be silenced! The sooner the better. The body man shall pass
away. The soulish man shall likewise pass away. But HE THAT DOETH THE WILL
OF GOD ABIDETH FOREVER. He that doeth the will of God is THE TREE OF LIFE
KIND OF MAN. This hidden feeding upon Christ, the tree of life; this
hidden table of communion, at which none ever sits with us but our Lord,
is the King's table. Only when He is King of our lives can expect He will
reveal to us His secrets, or take us into His confidence, or share with us
wisdom and power. If Christ were sitting upon the throne of our lives
continually, we would be sitting at His table continually.
The natural man cannot smell the more glorious fragrance of the
heavenly realm, but only those odors which issue forth from the things of
earth. In the Song of Solomon it is written prophetically of Christ:
"Thine oils have a goodly fragrance; Thy name is as oil poured
forth" (S. of S. 1:3). The very name, "Christ," means the
"Anointed One." When the wise men came from a far country to
search for the Messiah, they brought to Him gold, frankincense and myrrh.
It did not just happen that the wise men brought these gifts to
Him. Nothing ever happens; for our God is over all things. They
brought to Him the gold, which symbolizes His divine nature; they brought
to Him the frankincense, which is an emblem of His glory, together with
the praise toward God which came through Him. They brought to Him the
fragrant, but bitter myrrh, which is a symbol of His fragrance of joy,
obedience, confidence and victory even in the bitterness of the suffering
and death through which He would pass. Those who brought these gifts
perhaps saw no significance in them; but the meaning is very clear to one
who sees the symbolism in the metals, the sweet spices and gums were used
in the worship of Israel.
We hardly realize how ill-smelling our own fleshly attributes are,
and how many flies have gotten into the oil which the great Perfumer has
commenced to put within us, until we have drawn close enough to HIM to
discern the fragrance of His pure oils. It is when we smell the goodly
fragrance of His humility, that we begin to detect the offensive odor of
our pride. It is when the sweetness of His purity and holiness, His love
and longsuffering, breaks in upon us, that we smell the vile odors of our
flesh, our stiff-neckedness and willfulness, our lack of love and
short-suffering. It is when we smell the perfume of His patience and
forgiveness toward us, that we get the real offensive odor of our
impatience and unforgiving spirit toward one another. It is when we sense
the fragrance of His joy and peace and righteousness that our own
confusion, temper and carnality seem so putrid and unclean. How sweet and
altogether delightful are the fragrances of the heavenly realms! How
beautiful the sights! How delicious the taste! How enthralling the sounds!
How transforming, heaven's touch!
In the tree of life, Christ, he heavenly Father showed us in Jesus'
earthly life what the life of heaven would be like when it came down into
the conditions and circumstances of our human life. In His death and
resurrection He took all that heaven's life is and poured it out
that we might partake of its fullness. When the high priest, who, with the
holy anointing oil upon him, had been ministering before God in the Holy
of Holiest, came out and passed among the congregation of Israel, the
fragrance of that holy oil enveloped him. No oil like unto this could be
made by any man or be put upon any flesh; it could be only upon those who
ministered before God, and only upon them did this holy perfume linger and
ascend before God. So with those who draw close to their Head, Christ, as
members of HIS BODY, the body of the High Priest, having boldness to enter
into the Holiest by a new and living way which He hath consecrated,
through the veil, drawing near to minister before HIM; His oils are upon
them, His likeness and fragrance surround and emanate from them; and all
who come near them know that they have been abiding in the presence of the
Lord. It is only to those who have seen their own vileness and have turned
to Him to be washed in the fountain of His blood, that His name is as
ointment poured forth. It is to those who have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb; it is to the virgins who follow the
Lamb whithersoever He goeth; it is to that blessed company of the sons of
God who overcome all things to sit with Him upon His throne; to those who
love Him above all else, that His name is as oil poured forth. Do you long
to be fragrant, dear child of God? Hasten to HIM whose oils have the
goodly fragrance of heaven's divine life and glory; call upon Him whose
name is as oil poured forth; put off all the attributes and weakness of
self, and put Him on. Put off all the Babylonish garments of man's
religious exercises, and put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put Him on!
Clothe thyself in HIM, let God forevermore hide thee away in Him. Then
shalt thou be a Son, then shall those about thee smell such fragrance a
has never been discerned upon thee; and they shall know that His good oils
have a goodly fragrance, and that His oils are upon thee.
The very nature of our walk in the Spirit as sons of God requires
the most drastic change in ourselves. It is impossible to walk as a son
until this great change has taken place in us. We cannot hope to enter
into this high and holy realm with any hope of walking in the Christ life
until a whole new set of faculties has been given us and we, like
children, have learned to use them and abide in them. When our
minds begin to comprehend how completely the natural man is locked out of
the Kingdom of God and barred from all spiritual experience because
of the death that has come upon him, then we are able to understand more
clearly why it was that Jesus said, "Except a man be born again
he cannot see the Kingdom of God." Thee is far more to that
statement than any religionist has ever understood, for just as death
deprived Adam of any possibility of the sight and presence of the eternal
spiritual things of God's Kingdom so also does the new birth bring them
back into view. The same heavens that were closed on that day in Eden so
long will once again begin to open to us that we, being born again, might
live in the light and reality of the Kingdom of the Lord.
That Kingdom is one with which the natural man has no
correspondence at all, with which he naturally has no power of
communication. Take a walk around the garden. Walk down by the cabbages
and vegetables and talk about, well, anything you like. What would the
cabbages think about you? What would the turnips say about you? They
neither hear nor understand what you are talking about, whatever it is.
Their kind of life is not your kind of life. Their faculties are not your
kind of faculties. They are not constituted in your kingdom. There is no
correspondence between them and you at all. They have not the capacity,
the ability, the qualification, the faculty for the most elementary things
you may be talking about. You may be talking about such foolish things as
cars, ordinary everyday things, but they do not know it. That is how it
is. There is just as great divide between the natural man and the Kingdom
of God. The divide is so utter that if you and I were brought in our
natural state right into the place where the Spirit of God was speaking,
unless the Spirit of God wrought a miracle in us, the whole thing would be
of another world. Is that not how it is? You believers go out into this
world and talk about the things of the Lord and see men gape at you! It is
all foreign to them! "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
Kingdom of God." And to actually enter into this Kingdom as a
King-Priest after the order of Melchisedec, which is the order of the Son
of God, something has to happen to us, and that means we have to be
constituted anew, with altogether other qualifications and abilities and
faculties for the realm of the Kingdom of God. You go out into the church
world today and begin to talk about Sonship, Perfection, the Firstfruits,
being changed while we stand on our own two feet, Overcomers, the Temple
People, the Book of Life Company, Saviours on Mount Zion, no Rapture, no
golden streets and no harps and no white night gowns and no marriage
supper on a cloud eating porkchops – I can assure you that the christian
will gape at you! It is not that they do not have the spiritual
faculties of the new creation man to see and discern the deep things of
God, only that they have not developed them! A baby has ears, eyes, nose,
mouth and hands, but discern very, very little of the world into which he
has been born. And if that baby were brought into a world where there no
other human beings, he would never learn to talk nor do the thousand and
one other things that make intelligent, rational human beings. Beloved, if
we would grow up in the Kingdom of God there is one thing necessary:
Constant fellowship and communion with the One who inhabits that high and
holy realm – Jesus! Only through intercourse with HIM are we able to
develop the faculties of our spirit that we may become the sons of God.
There is no other way!
Few statements have ever been made that carry a more intense
message than these words of the apostle Paul written to the Roman
believers: "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6). To be spiritually minded means
to walk in the spiritual mind and pay no mind to the desires,
thoughts and claims of the carnal mind which minds only earthly things.
The three trees of Eden are three kinds of men, three potentialities
within man, and three kinds of lives that may be lived out by every
regenerated person: body life, soul life and spirit life. It is
interesting to watch these three kinds of lives revealed in a gathering of
the Lord's people where there are saints who are walking on different
levels of spiritual development. When a deep revelatory word is coming
forth, and the Spirit of God is probing into the depths of the hearts of
those saints walking in the SPIRITUAL REALM, others seem to withdraw and
appear to be bored with the service. Then if another voice begins to
speak, appealing to the SOULISH REALM, with shallow sentimental preaching,
peppy music, clapping of the hands, emotional appeal for people to
"come forward" for this and that blessing, this second group of
saints suddenly becomes alive and responds accordingly with their
manifestations. And finally, as yet another voice speaks and announces
that the meeting has ended and donuts and coffee will now be served, there
is this third group who live in the BODY REALM, who endured all the
service thus far, who now begin to respond and come alive. Each has seen,
heard, tasted, touched and smelled on one of the three levels, whether of
the spirit, the soul or the body. The sons of God are called to be THE TREE OF LIFE KIND PEOPLE. Those pursuing this calling in God will more and more know what it is to be lifted beyond the pale of natural things to behold the realm where God lives in the Spirit. It is the glory of His presence and the power of His life that changes us from corruption to incorruption, that transforms the ragged garments of our mortality to raiment which is white and glistening. God is moving in our heart and preparing us for a great change in which we shall move completely out of the tripartite nature of spirit, soul and body to live only and forever in THE REALM OF THE SPIRIT. There, beyond limitation and imperfection, we shall see Him as He is and know Him even as we are known of Him. Our vision of heavenly things has been so distorted due to our looking through physical and soulish eyes. You have sometimes seen a window made of fluted glass, and you know that if you look at the street through this window everything will be distorted. The passers-by and the automobiles will appear to be warped and distorted in absurd and ugly ways. Nevertheless, you know that these things are really quite alright in themselves, and that the distortion arises from your seeing them wrongly. The pure eyes of our regenerated spirits have had to filter through the fluted shell of our carnal minds and the marvelous things of the realm of God's Spirit have been distorted into myriads of carnal doctrines, traditions, rituals, concepts, interpretations and religious systems and exercises. This distorted vision of heavenly things is really what we know as "Christianity." It is a seeing, but a false seeing. It is knowing, but a false knowing. The sons of God are arising to pass through this veil, to abide forever in the Holiest of all. Our Leader and Forerunner opened up this path to God, in which He first walked Himself, and then draws us to follow Him. The veil is the flesh. The veil that separated man from God was the flesh; body and soul under the dominion of sin. Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and dwelt with us here outside the veil. The Word was made flesh. Through the rent veil of His flesh, His will, His senses, His earthly faculties, His human life, yielded up to God in death, He entered beyond the veil into the Holiest. Through the rent veil He rose to the very throne of God. And this is the way He has dedicated for us. As little as He could open and enter the Holiest for us, except in His path of suffering and death, as little can we enter in unless we walk the same path of obedience and death to self. He is our way. Let us arise and follow HIM! |
Other Writings in This Series:
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