Chapters 19-21
Chapter 19 – Subverted Man
I was curious about the author’s choice of the word “subverted” and looked at the thesaurus regarding it and it became clearer as to why he used this word. The related words are: undermine, challenge, threaten, weaken, destabilize, and sabotage. It sounds so all-encompassing of the treachery, trickery of the Evil One. Even considering the words weaken and destabilize…what a picture of today’s world and a world without having access to real Wisdom.
The previous chapter clearly defined that the source of wisdom is not within us. We have access to wisdom through our spirit to God’s wisdom. As Eve was deceived by Satan into believing she could gain that wisdom from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the boundary was crossed. The boundary continues to be crossed each time we attempt to get wisdom in any other way than through the wisdom of God. If we did, we wouldn’t need God and we certainly can see the results of folks denying God, wanting to use their own “wisdom.”
When Satan lied to Eve, he indicated to her that she could have this same wisdom independently of God when she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Actually, the wisdom she sought became the very thing that kept her, and all humanity following, from receiving from the tree of life. This tree of life is Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” When He died on another tree at Calvary, He provided us with the opportunity of life again, and with it, the wisdom from God. Without that redemption, we embrace ‘wisdom’ that is earthly, foolish, without the spirit, and demonic, as James 3:15 tells us. This leads to the crucifying afresh the Lord of glory.
The spirit dethroned
The turn-a-bout in what was lost to humanity is devastating in that being cut off from God, the divine order in our nature was ruined due to losing the power and authority in the spirit. Without the power and authority in the spirit, our soul powers and physical appetites become inflated. Just think, all from choosing to want to be God-like and to have the same power and wisdom without Him. Sounds so basic, why would they choose that? But we can see, and we know all too well, how something seems good to eat. It fits well with the scripture, For all that is in the world—the lust of he flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. (James 2:16)
The proof that neither soul nor the body was ever meant to rule stares us in the face everyday. Let us be ever so watchful to allow the Holy Spirit to communicate with our spirit for the control of the soul and body.
As the author states, the unregenerate person still has a functioning human spirit, therefore, can have spiritual experiences which would not be of the Spirit of God. These experiences are related to a demonic activity seeking a person’s spirit to “suck it dry”.
Chapter 20: Converted Man
Through the experience of the new birth, each human spirit is created afresh and restored to a life-relationship with God, or in other words, put right side up again. As the author states, “God the Father is the Father of the spirit of each one us and it is this spirit that is ‘…created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness’.” (Eph 4:24). I love that statement, or should I say, I love these words of life to us.
Along with restoring us to a life-relationship with God, the spirit is restored to being over the soul and body again. The soul must come to the cross to yield its claim to rule...then it is liberated.“When the soul-life loses itself……., and the human spirit is filled with the Holy Spirit, the power of the Spirit is released from within the human spirit to sanctify and harmonize the faculties of the soul and to heal the body.” (pg 188)
A Catholic charismatic movement uses the term ‘the release of the Spirit.’…and it indicates the all-pervasiveness of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The power and authority of the Holy Spirit is to be mediated to us in a certain order: To our spirit, then the soul, then the body.
The Spirit is alive. The mind is life and peace. Life is given to the mortal body.
So the next chapter and on helps us in “how this truth can be translated into actual experience.”
Chapter 21: The Functions of the Human Spirit
Tom Marshall, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit became aware that he had a spirit that was different than his mind. I find this so encouraging. He describes knowing the soul, not because I am aware of its functioning as mind, emotion and will; but, I think, I feel and I decide…that is when we are living out of our soul.As others state, when you are laughing at something, you aren’t analyzing it at the same time…it can’t be done. It is the same with the spirit. When we are aware of certain functions or when we are doing them, we are living out of the spirit, such as:
In Knowledge:
This knowledge is a direct knowledge and comes intuitively, and not from our rational or deductive ways. We do not know with our minds, we know with our spirit and then understand from our mind. The author explains that this is the way the great inventors used their faculties…it is from intuition and then the mind takes that to bring order into the intuition. Such as a sculptor, he “sees” an image in a large piece of granite or stone, and with his soul and body, he produces that image in the stone. The same could be said of writing a book…the concept comes into our spirit, the mind bears upon it and brings order to all the intuitive ideas, etc that come into our spirit. This allows us to write it into a readable book or article, etc.
The author indicates that women are more familiar with this type of knowledge. As others have taught us, it is the feminine side of our being that is the intuitive and receives wisdom and creativity from the Lord. The masculine side of our being brings the order and the ability to make it happen. We are all masculine and feminine to various degrees and therefore many men have great intuitive and creative strengths and the power to make it happen. As well, many women have the ability to bring something into being after receiving the intuitive idea. It seems this is the way that we have balance as individuals…both men and women.
Knowledge of God:
We can only know someone directly and intuitively by the spirit. We relate to God in this same way…in this personal relationship.To understand why we really don’t “know” each other, it is because we aren’t reaching the spirit of the other. It is this same way with God. It comes by this same direct and intuitive way. Often we can’t “explain” things, but we “know” them. And so with God, we just “know” that He has spoken or revealed something to us and we may not be able to explain it. No doubt we all have experienced this in many ways as well. The disadvantage to not realizing this, is that we can miss “hearing” a word from God that would give us the wisdom, etc. needed.
I have to agree strongly with the author’s statement: the tragedy is that we have made the Christian faith so much a matter of head knowledge that these experiences of the human spirit have been almost totally neglected. The mind cannot receive life, it can only handle information or data. Only a person’s spirit is able to receive life. It is the only way that it can.
We share life when our spirit connects with another’s spirit…and as God shares with us, we experience this life, eternal life.
Conscience:
Conscience is a function of the spirit and God speaks to our conscience. We begin to “see” general moral truths:
The conscience form tells us when we are doing right and when we are doing wrong.
The content of the conscience tells us what is right and what is wrong.
When the Holy Spirit awakens our conscience about a standard of holiness or love, isn’t it wonderful that He also points us to Calvary to deal with guilt and then to speak the peace that is so needed.
Obedience is absolutely fundamental as it makes our conscience ever more sensitive and able to grow into purity.
The conscience also bears witness to the truth and this truth gets received into the conscience, not the mind. The illustration that when we hear something stated as “true”, but inside we “know” as not true, is so practical because we learn to trust that part of our spirit to see/hear truth. I thought it was interesting that he stated that the apostolic preaching was directed not at the mind but to their conscience. That is a good lesson for us. Truth does not have to be proven…just declared and the conscience validates it. I think we find this so true in our relationships with others…we don’t have to prove it but, in love, we can share truth, trusting the Holy Spirit to reach into that other’s spirit to reveal that truth.
An ongoing clear conscience (clean by the blood of Jesus) is the only way to accurately bear witness to the truth. The author mentions that in all the heresies that have been stated, we would find a defiled conscience of that person, and he would be unable to discern right from wrong.
Communication
This essentially is worship or communion. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24).I really appreciate these thoughts that we communicate through our spirit…to others and to God and there is no real communication if we don’t reach the other’s spirit. This is something to ponder and reflect upon deeply so we can become aware as to how to reach another’s spirit.
Tom mentions reaching out to a child’s spirit in this way and I couldn’t help but reflect on childhood. My mother had great difficulty in communicating in words, especially, but she was also tied up in her ability to reach me by her spirit. I have come to realize over the last number of years that this lack of ability on her part to reach my spirit caused some difficulties in my relating to people…seems I didn’t feel understood, etc. So this section helps clarify this area of my life. I’ve sensed it, but this has opened up this area in a deeper way.
God is always reaching out in His spirit to us: The Holy Spirit ‘goes out from the Father.’ (John 15:26) Even in prayer, if we don’t reach out in our spirit, there is no communication…we are just “saying” prayers. This is so helpful. How often do I find myself wondering if my prayers are effective, etc. But when we sense that we are praying out of our spirit, we can know that there is an effect from those prayers. Really neat.And, as the author states, we don’t even have to use words in order to reach out in our spirit. I really like that one!!…even though I would like to be adept at “words.”
Essentially, if we are not willing to give ourselves to the other person, we cannot give him Christ.
Next week, let’s read chapter 22. Blessings on your week! - Joan
Here's some random thoughts....
ReplyDeleteI read the chapter and was struck again, not just from reading it, but thinking about childlikeness and longing for it. What does being a child look like in a grownup body? Particularly for so many who weren't much of a "child" when they were a child....
And I also think about some children KNOWING their parents and some parent's KNOWING their child and since God is my Father - I want to know Him in that way - to love Him and seek out His thoughts and intentions toward me rather then know them in my head. And yeah, as the author said, the mind gets in the way when it's unrenewed, which is why the importance for TRUTH to penetrate every portion of my life. Though there are areas within and without that resist the transformational move of God - oh, I ask Him to come and invade all of me. To make me like a child and I know that He will (and probably is) resisting and warring against every enemy and barrier that's in the way, and many times it's me.
I guess it all goes back to throwing my hands up into "surrender" and laying in His arms that hold and embrace me and stand in agreement in His love toward me. That's a scary place to be, but it's scarier outside of that.