Some suggestions on BEING LED BY THE SPIRIT

It is clear that the Holy Spirit of God can communicate with Christians in their spirits. 1 Cor. 2:10; John 16:13-15; Romans 8:16; 1 Cor. 12:8-11

The verses I have listed show different ways in which the Spirit communicates with us: teaching, showing, equipping, witnessing, leading. It is not a complete list. There are more. I would like to focus on the leading of the Spirit because understanding this valuable ability can really help us to be useful Christians. (Notice that the English Bible uses lower-case “s” to spell the human spirit and capital “S” for the Holy Spirit.)
Do you know your spirit? Every person has a spirit. Do you know what yours is like? Have you ever used it? Is it the same as a soul? We can go to our minds and remember and think about issues but can you go to your spirit, as it says in Romans 8:16, and hear the Holy Spirit witnessing to yours that you are a child of God? I think the easiest way for EVERY Christian to know what his spirit is like, is for him to remember the time when he asked Christ to be his saviour. You know, we only ask for forgiveness and salvation when the Holy Spirit communicates with our human spirit and convicts us of our sin, as it says in John 16:8-9. We hear Him and respond and accept Christ.

We can identify our spirits as what it is in us that reacts to truth from the Word of God.

Either it reacts with acceptance, or it rejects. The Bible says that the Spirit reproves the world of sin. And, since the Spirit speaks to our spirit, the part of us that is touched must be our spirit. If a Christian can remember that time in his life and remember what it was like to communicate, at that time, with the Holy Spirit in his human spirit, then what I am saying will make a lot of sense.
The human spirit is a real thing. Scientists may be able to explain emotions, ideas and interests in terms of hormones, nerve synapses and brain chemistry. God certainly made all of that. We cannot open a person’s skull and find the parts in there that could be put in a jar and labeled “human spirit” but those parts certainly play a part in the operation of our spirit. But we are simple people. We need to be able to just use our spirit without necessarily knowing what it is made of. The spirit is what gives the body life. Luke 8:55; Luke 23:46. In Genesis 2:7 it says that God breathed into the man he made out of dust and that man became a living soul. The Hebrew and Greek words for “spirit” in the New and Old Testament are the same as for breath or wind – air that is moving. What God breathed into man was spirit.
We know that the human spirit knows the deep things of a man (1 Cor.2:11) and that it can search out the things that we don’t know about ourselves (Proverbs 20:27.) In 1 Cor. 2:9 it tells us that we cannot understand the things God has prepared for us through sight, hearing or imagination but that they are made known to us by the Spirit of God. Singing and praying in the spirit (1 Cor 14:15) is contrasted with doing those things with the understanding so we can see that knowing something in our spirit is not intellectual. Using our spirit to communicate with God is not based on understanding. In fact, if we remember the exhortation of Proverbs 3:5 it says not to lean toward our own understanding. But, this does not mean that we will not understand with our spirit. If we communicate with God in our spirit, we will have true understanding. Yes, we are to understand with our spirits things that our minds cannot comprehend.
Continuing in 1 Cor. 2, the ability of man to use his mind is contrasted with the knowledge God gives by his Spirit. What it teaches here is that natural, or non-spiritual men cannot know the things of God, but spiritual men know them by the use of their spirit in connection to the Spirit of God. This enables them to understand and make godly decisions. Practically speaking, when I need to decide something, I can count on God’s Holy Spirit to remind me of things that are in the Bible and to help me apply them to the present situation. This means that I must read the Bible a lot. The promise in John 14:26 is that the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance all the things that Christ has said. If we have never heard or read the things that Christ has said we can not be reminded of them. So, I must read the Bible a lot. I can also expect the Spirit to give me abilities to do God’s work, and to direct my path in that work. I can expect him to be at my side, a paraclete, to counsel me and bring to my mind truth about things I am thinking about (John 16:13). He will make it possible for me to understand the Bible. I cannot understand the Bible without him (1 Corinthians 2:13-14). The Spirit gives me spiritual understanding beyond my natural mind so that I can have the understanding that is not based in normal logic or visible proof. Instead it is based in faith – the evidence of things unseen.

So, someone may ask, what do we actually do? What is first? What is next, etc.?
The safest way to begin to understand about being led by the Spirit is to look into the Bible and see examples there. There are many instances of men and women being directed by God in the Old Testament. But to make sure that we are teaching doctrine that is unquestionably “for the Church” let us look only in the New Testament.
In the Acts there are many things that were done by men who were directed by the Holy Spirit. But, again, these men were the fathers of the church. It was Paul, Peter, Timothy and many other Apostles or people with special missions. In order to be sure that we are teaching what is for the average member of the Body of Christ we will confine ourselves to what is said to people in the letters to the churches.

In the letters of Paul, Peter and John there are many behaviors that are done in the Spirit. Here is a list that may be incomplete: We can do these things “in” or “through” the Spirit:

Exist; begin; be made perfect; walk(behave); pray; live; wait for hope; sow and reap; grieve; despise; quench; fellowship; love; obey; use the Bible(sword)

And, the Holy Spirit does these things “in”, “with”, “for”, “to”, “through” us:

Is given to us; bears witness; makes intercession; reveals things; gives manifestations (gifts); baptizes into the Body of Christ; is earnest for us; leads us; produces fruit; gives us access to the Father; provides a means for us to be a habitation of God; strengthens us; fills us; speaks; sanctifies; quickens

In none of these places is it told how a person who does the things in the Spirit, or has the Spirit act in him, recognizes that he is functioning in the Spirit or at the leading of the Spirit. It doesn’t say he can see it, feel it, prove it by evidence or deduction. So, then, how can a person know that he is actually operating in concert or connection with the Holy Spirit? The answer is found in the teaching about the human condition in Romans 6.

Let me begin with some comments on verses 1 – 12.
We are free from the power of sin. We died with Christ. We were baptized in water as a demonstration of this truth. Sin has no more power over us. We should consider ourselves dead to sin and in a new life with Christ as our only resource. Christ died to sin and arose again. So then we also have the privilege to be in the same condition. We should not allow our bodies to sin.
Verses 13 – 15
We should not yield our members to the sin nature. Above, we were told not to allow sin to rule our bodies. This is now more specific. We should not yield our body parts to the sin nature. The arms, legs, brain, tongue, eyes, ears, and all other parts that we have control over (not heart or lungs, etc) should be yielded to God. It doesn’t say it here but what actually happens is that we offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). Which person of the Godhead accepts them? Well, the Holy Spirit is living within us, so it must be Him.
Verse 16
We can consciously yield to “obedience” (the Holy Spirit) or to sin. This is our responsibility. We have a free will. Before we were born again we did not have any freedom at all. Jump to verse 20 and see that we were “free from righteousness” when we were servants of sin (unsaved). We didn’t have the ability to do anything but sin. Now, we are able to yield our members to the Holy Spirit. Notice the teaching of verse 16: “Do you not know that to whom you yield you will obey?” Do we know this? It is automatic. If we yield to sin, we will sin. It is easy! Very natural for humans! But the principle works the other way too. If we yield to obedience, we will do righteousness. That is automatic too. And why? Because the Holy Spirit will meet us at that point and take control. We never yield our members up to a vacuum. We always yield either to sin or God. And either one will take us immediately and keep us until we withdraw. When we realize we are in sin and withdraw ourselves from that behavior, we find that we have the power to do that. We have power over our members. So, too, if we have yielded up our members to God, we can also withdraw them and be disobedient at anytime. We have the power to make decisions. But we should KNOW, as it says in the verse, what it is we are doing and the seriousness of it.
Verses 17 – 23
God sees us as perfect in Christ. The work is finished. We need to work out our salvation but these last verses speak as if we already have done that. God speaks to us here in the past tense. We have been made free and we are now His servants. We are producing fruit and enjoying eternal life.
In this 6th chapter of Romans is found the only clear test as to whether YOU have yielded your body to Christ. That test is in your will. You know who you are yielding to and so does God. You can have feelings about this. That is fine, but feelings are not the test. “Feeling spiritual” is not proof that you are behaving in the Spirit. It is necessary for you to be honest with yourself and decide if you are currently yielded to the Lord or not. Check your will. And then if you have yielded, then you can be sure that He has taken control and as long as you don’t withdraw from Him, your ministry, your love, your work, your prayer, your worship, your housework, your business, your relations with your neighbors and colleagues, all are being led, by the Holy Spirit
Speaking realistically, I must say that the time we actually are consciously yielding to the Spirit of God is often interrupted. We do it for a few minutes and then we slip back into being yielded to self or sin and we are no longer useful to God. Then we are called on to minister or to make a major decision and we know we need the Spirit’s leading in this so we yield to Him again. Then after a time we slip back into our old ways. I do not believe that we are yielded to the Spirit if we are not actively willing it. If we are not making a conscious choice to yield to Him, I think we normally slip back into self and sin. Maybe we do not do any big sins, but we are not useful to God while in this state. We are just wandering along in the flesh. The flesh cannot please God. So, being led by the Spirit is something that we need to concentrate on and learn to do over a long period of time. God knows this. He is patient. This is the promise of Philippians 1:6 and 2:12 -13. The chief way the Bible gives for helping us stay in this yielded position is found in 2 Cor. 3:18, Hebrews 12:1-2 and also in Colossions 3:1-2. It is dependent on where our focus is.

How to Be a Real Christian

Read Acts 16:31; John 3:16; Romans 10:9&10; I Corinthians 6; John 17

It really isn’t difficult to be a Christian. God doesn’t make it as hard as some people think it is. Going to church regularly will not make you a Christian. Being a really good person will not make you a Christian. All you have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Saved (rescued) people are Christians.
Two sides exist. One side is God’s side. The other side is against God. The side against God doesn’t believe in Him. They may even believe he exists but they don’t trust him or want him to be their friend. Believing in Christ means to depend on him to save you. Save you from what? From Hell. The Bible says that all the people who stay on the side that is against God will be thrown into Hell for eternity.
Becoming a Christian means that we take God’s side. We actually go over to him. Joshua, a man in the Bible, said “as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” Maybe as children we thought we were on his side, but later, we got confused about God and started to doubt about him and now we are not so sure what side we are on. We should just go toward him in our thinking and say to him and everyone else, “I am taking God’s side. I admit that I do sins and that I should go to Hell for that. I am choosing to go to him and depend on his death on the cross to save me from Hell.” When we cross over the line from Against God to For God, we immediately bow before Christ. This is necessary. It is proper. We don’t “hang around” with Christ. We don’t stand as an equal with him. We throw ourselves at his feet and beg for mercy. Then we stay at his feet, waiting for what he wants us to do next.
When Jesus died he took the punishment for our sins in his body. The simplest way to go over to him is to pray to Jesus and tell him that we want to be forgiven and belong to Him. We can believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead. We can believe in his name. The name “Jesus” means “rescuer.” That means we believe he is our rescuer from sin and death and Hell. There will be no flash of light. There will be no voice from the sky. Nothing will happen to prove that Jesus heard you. He has already said that if you believe in Him you are forgiven and accepted. You are saved. If you believe, He will do His part. If you believe, you have become a Christian.
If I take God’s side, I now depend on him. I love him. I trust him. I want to obey him. I expect help from him, so I pray and ask for it. I want to know more about him so I read the Bible, which is the only book that tells about him. Many other books say they tell about God but the Bible says only itself is really the truth about God.
Christians believe the Bible. They believe it is God’s pure words without any mistakes. Christians believe that many men wrote the Bible but they were writing what God put into their minds. They made no mistakes. Other books like the Quran and the Vidas and Zen Buddhism are not true.
Mohammad, Buddha, Vishnu and the gods of the pagans and the American Indians are not real. They are imaginary. They are not the same person as Jesus. Allah is not the same as God. He is imaginary. He is a “pretend” god. When we become Christians, we leave all other ideas of god behind.
When we go over to God’s side, we are totally forgiven immediately for all sins, mistakes, wrong thoughts, evil deeds, etc.. God does this because he wants to set his people free. God doesn’t want us to be afraid of punishment for those things. He says in the Bible that he has forgiven his people of all their sins. He can do this because Jesus took all the punishment for all our sins on the cross. They are all paid for. We are free.
The Bible teaches us how to live as Christians. Now that we are on God’s side, we need to act like it. We will want to do things his way. We will want to please him. If we want to know how to live, we read the Bible and it will teach us what God likes and what he doesn’t like. It will take a long time to learn everything. Most Christians do not know all that the Bible teaches. Most Christians still do sins. All Christians are forgiven for those sins and can learn as fast or slowly as they want to about how to live.
Usually, Christians like to be together. They can talk about what the Bible says and their problems and they can tell each other what great things God has done and how he has helped them. They can pray together. They can worship God together. This is why God made the church. It is the Christians being together. Christians love each other like brothers and sisters should. They help each other and depend on each other. If you are from England and go to the Czech Republic and you find Christians, they will treat you like you are part of their family.
Some people say they are Christians but they are not. They do not act like Christians. They are not living like they are on Jesus’ side. We need to be careful with them. Don’t listen to them and don’t do like they do. Some churches do not seem to be on Christ’s side either. That would be strange. But it is true. They are fakes. They have some goals that probably include getting rich and having power over others. They are not really very much like what the Bible says the church should be like.
Real Christians are only looking for truth and love and people that obey and love the Bible. Real Christians normally stay away from the fake churches. If a Christian doesn’t know where a real church is, he or she can pray and ask God to show them. It may take months, or even years, but God will do it.
Christians may have problems. If someone goes over to the Lord’s side, people on the side that is against God are against them. Jesus said “if they persecuted me they will persecute you”. In another place, the apostle Peter said “don’t be surprised if you are treated badly”. Sometimes this means that they will throw Christians to the lions. (The Romans did that.) Most times it will be less violent. The people on the other side may not want to be friends with a Christian and will break the relationship. Sometimes a Christian can have problems at work because colleagues are on the side against God. Maybe the boss is against God. Sometimes a Christian will have family members who are against God and they will treat the Christian badly.
Christians are wise but harmless. They know a lot about good and very little about evil. When we have to interact with people from the other side, we have to be careful, pray for help and be kind. Never fight back. Never take revenge. Leave that to God. Read, read, read, the Bible to get more and more knowledge of God and his mind. Be happy, because you will never end. It says “whoever believes in Jesus will not be destroyed but have everlasting life.”

Rock Music in Church

I like Rock’n’Roll. Not just any Rock’n’Roll but I like the music of the 50’s and 60’s. This is the music of my youth. My high school and college years. It seemed harmless. Adults didn’t like it much. My Sunday school teacher warned us about it. Our pastor spoke against it. I thought they were a little extreme. I never felt like doing anything nasty while listening to it. My son, though, as a high school junior, threw out his music collection because he said listening to it caused him to rebel against doing homework. I thought that was interesting. He was a very popular kid in school. Funny, good looking, outgoing. But he did have the courage of his convictions and he quit listening to Rock. I still like it though.
But not in church.
In the 60’s, guitars started to appear in Catholic Mass. They didn’t play with a rock beat. They played traditional Roman Catholic music. Then they switched over to more modern “folksy” music with Christian words. I even heard this on a Sunday at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. Some of these songs have been shared by the Protestant community. They used them at camps and other informal settings and quickly wrote more, but the Sunday morning services were all still hymn-book oriented with a piano or organ, or both, to accompany.
Sometime in the 70’s, there was a wonderful LP produced by Bill Gaither called “Alleluia: A Praise Gathering of Believers” in which they sang rousing praise songs to the accompaniment of a Rock band. The Rock beat permeated it as well. It spawned some of our standard Christian songs like “Let’s Just Praise the Lord”, “Something About That Name” and “Because He lives”. After that, many others got on the trend and since then, Christian recorded music has evolved to what is now called Christian Contemporary Music. “Christian Rock”, “Christian Rap”, “Christian Easy Listening” and just about every other type of music has been adopted by Christians and put under this umbrella. You won’t find many current Christian artists confining their repertoire to hymns out of the old hymnals. It’s all up-beat. Many of the songs have terrific words. Some are whole psalms set to music, but again, the elements of the Rock beat are the underpinnings. Just so we know what a Rock beat is, let me explain. It is a dance beat that differs from the waltz or the polka or the foxtrot in that its up-beat or off-beat is more prominent than its down-beat. “It’s got a back-beat, you can’t lose it….” Was a line in a popular song of the 60’s. This is true whether the tempo is slow or fast. Rock music can be both slow and fast. Most Christian Rock is slow.
Just in the past 10 years, we have seen a major change in the music that is made inside the church building at the Sunday services. The invention of the “worship team” has taken the place of the song leader and pianist. Now you will find keyboards, drums, guitars and even some wind and string instruments accompanying a group of professional-sounding singers who stand on the stage or platform and “lead” the congregation in a stream of praise singing. This can last a half-hour and can be spontaneous or pre-planned.
As I said, I don’t like Rock music in church. I think it is an offense and an abomination to God. I have biblical basis for this idea. God told Israel that when they gained access to their land, they should be careful not to adopt any of the ways of the people who had inhabited it before them. The Hittites, the Jebusites, the Perrizites, and especially the Canaanites and Philistines all had pagan rituals for worshipping their gods. They had statues, groves of trees, altars, and practices to enact in relation to them that were horrible. They burned their children as sacrifices and they fornicated with priestesses just to name a couple. God told his people to not adopt any of those ways of worshipping in their worship of Himself. He had strict instructions for worship which can be read in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The Israelites were to confine their worship to those ways. No where is music mentioned.
We know that, later, music was introduced. David wrote and sang Psalms to the Lord but there was nothing in the Law about doing that in formal worship in the tabernacle or, later, in the temple. We must remember that the Law of God given to Moses was not flexible. This was something it absolutely was NOT. It didn’t change. There was nothing added. There was no “further word”. The only changes that were ever announced by God came through the mouth of His Son, much later. We have no scriptural basis for thinking that what the Israelites may have begun to practice in the way of music, they did in their worship. We do have His instructions, though, for what He originally wanted. It is hard to think that He had forgotten or neglected to mention that He wanted instrumental music and later added it as an afterthought.
Why would God not want this kind of musical production in His worship? God, we know, is wiser than mankind. He knows our structure and how we can be tempted by Satan. He knows that some things which seem innocent enough now, open the door to trouble for us later. Could it be that antiphonal singing, as called for in the Psalms, was to be done somewhere else and not in the temple? If we compare scripture with scripture to find help with interpretation, we can come to that conclusion. Today’s Evangelical church room arrangement is patterned after the Roman Catholic basilica form. This was copied from the Roman temple worship of pagan deities. You have a clergyman up front facing the people who are massed below. Worship is “led” or administered, depending on the denomination. It has little resemblance to the Old Testament Hebrew configuration where people brought things to be killed and burned in a courtyard. Citing the use of Israel’s antiphonal singing as basis for using it in church today is comparing apples to oranges. There is no argument for it. So, then, Saturday night hymn sings or praise gatherings can be the place for musical ensembles, not Sunday morning church services. This is the only thing that can be derived from an honest reading of the Bible on this subject.
But even if it can be proven that God wants a rich musical program in the church's worship, is Rock acceptable at the praise gatherings?
Do we know the origin of Rock’n’Roll? The term is a Black slang expression for having sex. Before we demure, let’s think about what the reaction of regular Rock listeners would be if it was found out that this was untrue. Would they be glad? The name fits because it is risqué. The music itself is risqué. I won’t make that argument here. We ALL know it is risqué. It comes from pagan usage among people worshipping idols. This is documented and is actually boasted by Rock music aficionados. And not only that but celebrities as well as casual friends have said, at least in my hearing, that Rock music is their "religion". So, do we take this element and bring it up on the platform of our church, where many of us were saved from our sins, where we have heard about the Saviour shedding His blood to wash us, going through 3 hours of who-knows-what, after praying to the point of bleeding in the Garden, and we are going to offer this to Him?! Think about it.
I only have a couple of more thoughts. One is that I am sure Satan was already thinking up ways to deep-six the worship of God the day Adam was created. Is that a fair assumption? How would you go about contaminating man’s expression of love for his creator? Wouldn’t all the idol-worship up to the time of Israel’s establishment be an example? And then God selected Abraham. Satan was out-maneuvered. But he quickly adjusted and brought the idols in to the people of God. Whoa. Big victory for him, right? And it caused the Captivity and will still have ramifications in the End Times. But, God sent His Son. And, He established the Church. And, again, Satan is left behind. But not for long. Here he is again with his junk. He knows what God doesn’t like even if we don’t. Can’t we recognize that Rock music in church is just another of his devices? Aren’t there other ways of incorporating music in the church service? We COULD pray about that. I think God would show us.

Ideas About Worship

Christians are qualified to be involved in worship.
Heb. 2:12 (Psa. 22:22) Christ praises God through us when the church is assembled.
Rev. 1:6 This is possible because all believers, (we) are priests. A kingdom of priests.

Priests worshipped in O.T. times by offering fat and blood.
Ezek.44:15-18 Approach the Lord and minister to Him. No human effort. (garments should not cause sweat) Notice too how AFTER ministering to God the priests were promised the ability to minister to people. (verses19 & 23-24)
Lev.9:1-24 Offerings of animal parts, including fat and blood which are pictures of the excellence of the animal (the fat) and the essence of its life (blood). Look up the word for “darling” in Psalms 22:20 ( “[deliver] my darling from the power of the dog”) and see a more clear idea in it of the fat. He is referring there to the beautiful, perfect, precious life that Christ sacrificed. Think of what a person who was like him could have done for mankind if the world had not needed a crucified saviour. In normal terms, “What a waste!” And that is the essence of burning fat to the Lord.

When we eat the Lord’s supper, (communion) we are remembering Christ as our sacrifice, His excellence (corresponds to the fat) and His life (corresponds to the blood).
1 Cor. 7b-8 Christ is our Passover sacrifice.

Deut. 26:1-4 Other parts to worship in the O.T. were bringing tithes of their increase.

Today, our tithe sacrifices are spiritual, as well as material. (I Peter 2:5)
Praise (Heb. 13:15); Doing good and sharing (Heb. 13:16); Faith (Philip. 2:17); Our bodies, corporately (Rom. 12:1)

Our crops are the fruit of the Spirit which He cultivates in us through trials, obedience, edification, ministry, etc. and we bring the knowledge of these with us to the assembly of the church. There we praise Him as in Hebrews and what is in our baskets becomes food for the other priests (church members) who are present. We must spend time during our week allowing and cooperating with the Spirit so that there is something to offer to the Lord in worship on Sunday. Singing is good but there should be more. If we have communion, along with singing and praises, (testimonies and prayers of praise) as well as meditation upon what the Lord has done and what He means to us, then the Lord will be pleased. As is explained in Ezekiel 44, we need to minister to the Lord first, then, to the people. Our worship should be rich with truth about what He has done on the cross and also in our lives.


How should the Lord’s Supper be practiced?
If we look at the last Passover supper that Jesus ate with His disciples, we can see a model. They were gathered around Him and they were talking. Naturally, we would expect that He was the center of all their attention and conversation. This Man was someone who was altogether lovely. If He entered a room, all with pure hearts would gravitate to him. He attracted people everywhere, not just the sick. They followed Him to be near Him. If He were to come into our society today, bodily, in 21st Century clothing, I am sure that the results would be the same. He would attract people. No man spoke like this Man. You and I would be so captivated that we would not even think of our normal schedule. We would stay with him just to be near him. Think of the most wonderful person you ever met. Someone whom you want to be around all the time. This Man was more. His disciples left their jobs to follow him without a thought.
So, when He called their attention to His breaking of bread and told of its meaning and the drinking of the cup, their minds were full of appreciation and praise. Later, after His ascension, when they ate the Lord’s supper, they also were thankful. So they sang praises and thanks, they spoke praises and thanks, they prayed praises and thanks. It probably took some time. Just as at the last Passover, every man was free to speak. Every man was free to call for a song. They were all equal. There was no clergy. There was no designated person who would do all the talking, all the praying. The Lord, if He had been there, would have been the one, but now His hands were not there to break the bread so someone had to be led by the Spirit to do it. There was no pre-planned program of what would be done. It was left to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Even more than we today can be led by the Spirit, they then could be led because they were closer to His time. There had not come in all the error in the church that there is today.
The true way of remembering the Lord in the New Testament way is just the same. We need, first of all, to cast away the error that “doing it too often makes it less special” in some way. That is pure evil. Would you say that telling your family you love them every day takes away from your love? No. We need to do it more than once a month. The early church most likely did it every time they met. Maybe even on weekdays!!!!! We also need to spend more than 10 minutes at it. We need to reserve an hour. We need to have time for people in the gathering to meditate and to get up courage to speak praises. Most people have trouble praying in public. This takes time. We need to give it to them. Think of the offerings made by fire. They took time to burn. In our worship we need to allow “burn time”. It should not be programmed and carried out in an exciting way. Think again of the Lord with his people at that last Passover. Now think of how a loud, rock-n-roll, so-called “worship team” would fit in with that. Can you imagine that? God forbid.
In 1 Corinthians 11:3 the Lord is warning us about being beguiled by Satan into making the gospel into something it is not. This warning has not been heeded. The church today is saturated with man’s ideas. It has sold the truth and bought so many lies of the devil. Let us leave those ideas and let us be transformed back to what we should be by the renewing of our minds through the scriptures.

Thomas Kever

Sons of God (Eph.4:1&5; Rom. 8:29; Heb.2:10-13)

I would like to speak a little about Genesis 22 where Abraham is called on by the Lord to take Isaac and offer him. You know, a fine diamond ring doesn't just have one facet. If you look at it one way you see something. If you turn it just a little bit you see something else. That is the way it is with the Word of God. All of God's word is infinite and eternal. I'd like to turn the ring just a little and see another facet of this story of Abraham and Isaac.
To my realization, two things in the Bible are the worst horror stories: The story of Abraham and Isaac and the story of the Lord Jesus on the cross. To my realization, in human literature, and in human experience, there is nothing like these two stories. Very often you can begin to read this Word, with even a small amount of understanding, and the Spirit of God, enlivening and enlightening what happens, and your human heart melts.
I'd like, for the people who might not be very familiar with Abraham, to recount, briefly, a little of the history of Abraham. Abraham lived, originally, in a place called Ur of the Chaldees. At a time when Babylon was an ancient empire; probably very much like New York City today. Every one in that country was an idol worshipper, and Abraham was one who worshipped idols.
It's funny. What God said to him was, "Abraham, get up and leave your country; leave your comfort; leave your home. Leave the life that you have known. Go to a land that I will show you." Imagine that. This is where your family is. This is where everything that you've known is. And to go where? I don’t know. Imagine trying to tell your friends about what you are doing. The most amazing part of all was, that he did it.
This Bible is so spare, sometimes, in things you’d like to know. Why? Abraham, how could you do this? God appears to you and says "go". You're not even a worshipper of this God. But Abraham goes and for the next few chapters of the Bible the whole of God's Word focuses on this man, Abraham.
He was probably in the middle part of his life at that time. There were no trains or planes or buses. You just had to walk. When he walked, he left the well-watered plain and he ended up in the wilderness. He left civilization behind.
I don't want to dwell too long here but I want to give you the realization that Abraham was a man that God just kept coming back to. Do you realize that the first time He talked to him He not only said "Go" but He said "I am going to make you a great nation." And Abraham said, "Great". "I'm happy." And God comes back, and if I counted right. He came back five more times and every time He came to this man He not only said something about the situation, He also said I'm going to make your offspring as the dust of the ground. I'm going to make your offspring like the stars of the sky; like the sands of the seashore.
There is an old philosophical exercise where you begin to count the sands on the seashore: one.. two.. three.. and you start doing that in your mind and you realize: Oh-Oh, I'm in trouble here. And we begin to have some realization of eternity; and even that doesn't really show us eternity. Today we know that, of the stars, what Abraham could see was nothing. What Abraham thought was a star was really another galaxy of stars. God says, “Abraham, your offspring are going to be just like that.” Did you ever think of Abraham saying “Well, swell, but who needs that many kids?” I don’t know, but would you doubt God about something like this? That's a lot of children.
Not only that, but while God was promising this, until Abraham was 100 years old, he didn't have any. And there was that episode where when God told him his offspring were going to be like the dust, Abraham guffawed and said "Right." God said "What are you laughing for? It's true." But, Abraham said "Take a look here, I am 99 and my wife is about the same. Either you don't know how things work down here or you know something I don't." God was very patient with Abraham, wasn't He?
And then later on, when God showed up in human form at Abraham's camp on the plain of Mamre. He came with two angels, to discuss with His friend, Abraham, what He was about to do. Abraham makes a little feast and as they're sitting there, before the feast is served. God brings up this subject again. He says, "You know, Abraham, about a year from now you're going to have a son." And this time it's not Abraham, it's Sarah who laughs. She was in the tent preparing the food and she laughed. God says, "Why did you laugh?" She says "I really didn't laugh." God says, "Yes you did." This is an interesting conversation with God, right? What I want you to gain from this is the realization that everytime God showed up with Abraham, He mentioned these offspring. This is the history of the promise.
Finally, one day, the promise becomes reality. Abraham is about 100 years old. Sarah's about the same, and Isaac is born. Now, at least he's got one son. Forget the millions. At least he's got the one. I don’t know if you know anyone who couldn't have children for a long time and then one day they have a child. It's very precious to them. They appreciate that child. This is why, in that passage, we read in Gen 22: God, three times, says to Abraham, "Your only son; the son you love”. God knows. He made this man wait longer than anyone in human history. He knew Abraham loved this child. And that brings us to this strange passage in Gen. 22. Abraham finally has a son. God gave him a miracle child. And he has this child and by now he's grown up and Abraham loves him with all his heart.
One night he goes to bed and this same God comes to Abraham and says "Abraham." You know, Abraham did not hear the voice of the Lord all the time. He went thirteen years at one point and never heard a thing. He days "Yes Lord?" Then this God, whom he had come to appreciate and love, says something that he couldn't believe. He says "Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and go to a hill in the land of Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to me." Can you imagine anything worse? Anybody that's a parent can imagine this horror. To go 99 years before having a child and then to have God tell you to offer him as a burnt offering... You've got to be kidding!
This passage doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the Bible. This passage fits more in with the history of the gods of the Babylonians and the Canaanites. You know, a little later God says to the people "There are some evil things that the followers of Baal do. They take their children and offer them as burnt offerings." Devils are the ones who have you go and offer your children like that. Not the glorious God; the God that loves men. So this passage really doesn't seem to fit in so well.
Why would God put Abraham in such a hard place? Why would He do such a thing? Well, in my realization, the reason for this is that God wanted to show something about Himself. You know, God is not man. God says "My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts, but I want you to know me." And so He does it in a picture form with Abraham. In his mind, Abraham, knows God is saying "Though you feel like you're in jeopardy in this thing and though you suffer, you have to know that I'll never require that. I do this so that men can know me."
So I'd like to look at this from the view of what this shows us about our Father. You know there was another One who made a trip like this. Abraham was not on the true trip to Mt. Moriah. This Mt. Moriah, by the way, was the same area that the cross of Calvary was in. Some people think it was the same mountain.
God did this so that you could come to know Him. You know, the focus of this passage is not on Isaac. The focus is on Abraham. Abraham is the father. Isaac is the son. I'd like to center in on Abraham and see what we can learn from this about our Father.
You have to realize that not only Abraham had a history but God has a history. God is not a braggart. In fact in the Old Testament one of the old writers says "Thou art a God that hides himself. God is not pushy. He's meek. He just hasn't said much about Himself. But we know that before there was anything; before there was Earth; before God uttered "Let there be..." there was God. And before there was a heaven to contain the heavens, and all the spiritual beings in it, there was God. And this God was triune. In the Godhead itself there were persons: a Father and a Son.
You only get a few passages of scripture where God lets you kind of take a look, even dimly, back into that. One of them is in John 17. The Lord Jesus is praying. He says "Father I want them to be with me where I am. I want them to see the glory that I had with you before there was anything." Before there was a heaven; before there was an Earth. God was there and there was fellowship; the Father and the Son. There was something going on between these persons. There was a love. There was a glory beaming back and forth. And in God’s mind, that was the very best thing that ever was. Scripture begins to tell us that sometime before there was anything God had a counsel. The most clear place is in Acts 2. "Whom He delivered according the predeterminate counsel and foreknowledge of God."
What He's saying is that there was a time during which a lot of things got decided. I'd like to anthropomorphize that for you just to give you a little feeling for that. One day the Father was fellowshipping with the Son and there was such an enjoyment. And the Father says to the Son, "Son, isn't this good? Don't we have the best? Can you imagine anything better?" And the Son says, "Oh, Father! This is wonderful! I enjoy you. I love you. You are supplying and you are everything to me." And He says "Son, I'd like to fellowship a little something with you." "What's that?" (This is like you and your son, right?) "I have a desire.... I'd like to have sons as the stars!" There weren't even stars yet. I don't even know how He said it. "I'd like to have millions of sons just like you. I'd like to fellowship this kind of fellowship with many sons." And the Lord said "Huh! can it be?" And The Father says "Let's have a little council here." And they began to discuss this: "Yes, it can be." "How can it be?" "Well I've thought this thing through. It can be done." "Oh! Well! Let's do it!" "Well, let me tell you," the Father said, "the price is pretty high." "Price? What's a 'price'?" And they began to fellowship and as the Father poured out what He saw in Himself, I think the Son was saying, "Amen. Oh, that's good! Yes!" And part of this plan we know, another scripture says, was a "Lamb slain before the foundation of the world."
Part of what was included in this was "Son, you have to die. Not only die physically. What happens is you've got to take on their form in order to do this. You've got to leave Heaven. You’ve got to permanently leave the being that you've ever been. You're going to become something. And then you're going to have to suffer and you're going to have to die. It can be done, but Son, the price is really high for you. Because you'll have blood you'll be able to atone for all the sin and mistakes they make. And because you'll have the divine life you'll be able to transfer it to them. And the Son says "Father, Amen!" And the Lamb was slain in eternity before there was anything.
Then, after all this, in another place where it talks about this, it says that you were there. It says that you were known according to the foreknowledge of God. Before there was an Earth. Before there was a Heavens, God thought out the ways you are going to be that we don't know yet. Just like His Son. As a Godly architect, right down to the number of hairs on your head, God thought it all through. Every last detail. And, finally, when the plan was all done the counsel was over. We don't know how long a time elapsed between the counsel and the beginning of construction.
At first, when He began to create, there wasn't anything. There was not time, or space or heavens. God reached into Himself and demarked ... something. It's hard for us to know, right? Forgive me if I offend your theology. But within God a space was marked. This was eternity. Eternity is not bigger than God. It's smaller than God, and God stepped into eternity. And there's hardly anything revealed about this, but He began to make the heavens and He made all the heavenly creatures: all the cherubim and the serafim. We don't know how long that went on, but evidently they had quite a history. Long enough for one of them to go bad!
Then, one day God called all those heavenly beings together and He said “Come with me”. And He says, “Let’s go out to the backyard.” He went out to the backyard of the heavens and He began to speak there. And in the backyard He created a material universe. And He made stars and He made all kinds of stuff! And the angels are saying "Wow look at this! What's He doing this for? What's going on? Do you know? No. I don't know." But there's a verse in Job that says God did it to music. Did you know that? It says, when He was creating the earth, "the morning stars sang together". He said, '"Morning Stars Quartet', start singing." And the wonder in that heavenly realm! "What is He doing?. Look at that!" And then the greatest wonder happened on the sixth day. God reached down, took some dust and some dirt, and they said "Look! He made an image of Himself! It looks just like Him, only it's made of dust and dirt!" And then he breathed into it and it became alive and they said "Can you believe it? What's He doing? I don't know!" God knew. He wasn't acting willy-nilly. It was all in the counsel.
And then the people God had made had an encounter with God's enemy and they became un­like Him (except for their form). They became the opposite. Then, throughout history they all went astray. They all became idol-worshippers. Until one day God, that same God said.......

"Hey, Abraham!"

He did that so that you would know Him because He was going to take the same trip that Abraham did. One day the Son He loved became a man. Just like Abraham, the time came when it was no longer a plan. The plan had to come into action. And God, in Christ, one day stepped through the backyard of Heaven and into the reality of Earth. Into this reality. And He said goodbye to home and He started that trip and the Son walked on Earth and the Father walked with Him. I don't need to remind you of the times that He says "My Father is here. My father is speaking. The two of us are here." But in the Father's mind there was the realization: “Goodbye, my Son.”
The Father knew what was coming. He walked with Him. (With Abraham and Isaac there came a certain point where they could see the hill and they took the wood off the donkey and they put it on Isaac. Imagine this. Do you make a man carry the wood on which he is to be burnt as a sacrifice? Abraham took the wood and put it on his son.) And the Father walked on with Him and one day they came to the point where they nailed Him to the cross. And this is the point at which the story of God and the story of Abraham differ. Abraham didn't have to go through with it, but our Father had to. He actually let those poor creatures nail His only Son, the Son He loved, to the cross. God heard the hammer blows. He knew what was going on and He allowed it. But the worst was yet to come. There came a certain point where the Son says "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?!" And what did the Father do? Nothing.
You know, you have to think about this. What kind of a father is this who does nothing? You have to wonder, did He not love him? We know that's not true. Maybe He was unable to do anything. Believe me, He could have done many things. He could have spoken a word and there wouldn't have been anything again! Maybe He was indifferent. No. The Father was a million times more sensitive than you or I could ever be. We all know this. Maybe the Son had done something wrong. No! He was the only one who had ever done everything right.
This reaction really shows us something of God. Every time most of us pray, we begin: "Our Father"... You have to realize: in God's heart He felt this. He understood. He was bearing it. When your kids are in trouble, who suffers more? The parents or the kids? This Father was suffering. There's that verse "Who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up….” This was an active, willful choice on the part of the Father to turn a deaf ear. And it reveals that God, at that moment, had a desire that was greater than His desire to stop His Son's suffering. And what was that desire? It was the desire to bring many sons into glory.
We, as humans, can have somewhat of a realization of that. One time we, as a family, went for a walk in a gorge. We were a family with a couple of neighborhood kids walking along and the boys climbed up higher on the ridges and we were walking along about fifty feet below. Suddenly, I looked up and one of the boys kicked loose a boulder about the size of an egg. It came bounding down and before I could even say anything it hit my daughter right in the head. She just collapsed and I came running up to her and I didn't know whether to pick her up or whether to leave her lay. I didn't know if she was dead or alive. I saw this huge wealt, and blood's running out of her ear. I thought, "Oh God!" I began to pray and weep and picked her up and started to walk the way along the gorge to get back. I'm carrying her and they're saying "Run!" and my wife is all upset and gradually she begins to come out of it. And she begins to scream and says "What happened! What did I do?!" She's not acting right and we finally get back and take her to an emergency center.
The doctor says "It's not too bad. She might have a little concussion and she split her ear. That's where the blood is coming from. It's not coming from inside the ear. That's the good news. The bad news is that Novacaine won't deaden it. There is not enough flesh to allow it to work, so we'll just have to sew her up without it. You'll have to hold her head."
So, she’s lying there and he begins to stitch and I’m holding her head and she begins to scream "Take me home! ... Why are you keeping me here?! Why are you doing this to me!?"That was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. I, as the father who loved his daughter, had to participate in her pain. I had to be the instrument to hold her there to add more pain. That's somewhat like it was with God.
This really reveals to us what the Father was willing to suffer. Why? To gain you as a son. The Son was willing. The Father was willing. The Father was willing to suffer greatly. You know, if you just look at it theologically, it makes everything quite cold. But let me tell you, when you read "God so loved," you have to have some feeling for what God went through. Not only the Son on the cross but also the Father that had to endure. You have to have a new kind of appreciation. For you, in any kind of reality, to call God your Father it cost God a lot.
At the core of His character; at the center of His being is the desire to have sons.
You know, Abraham didn't need to have that many kids. He didn't. I'm sure he would have been satisfied with less. Do you need a million? Do you need kids as the stars of the sky? No. God was speaking something out of His own being. "I'm the one who wants sons as stars and sand more than you know. Because why? Because at the core of my being at the very essence of who I am, I am Father." He's not just all-knowing; wise; powerful; Superman. No. If you know the Father you know He is FATHER. And we need to thank and appreciate the Father for the suffering He endured to make you a son. His enjoyment with His Son was eternal; unbroken. His love for His Son was immeasurable and His sensitivity toward that Son was limitless, but He was willing to endure what we will never know in order to make you a son of God.
Verne Waldow

Church Discipline

It is a hard fact that the Bible teaches that sometimes in some cases a person has to be “put away”. This phrase comes from I Corinthians 5:13. It refers to a person who is a fornicator, covetous, and idolater, an extortioner a railer or a drunkard. The church is to judge those within it who are such persons and put them away from among themselves. This means what it says. It means that the church leadership goes to them and tells them that they can no longer come to church. This sounds harsh. But it is a fact that when people do such wicked things that God must do something to protect the rest of the church from their influence, to keep the rest of the church from being defiled, to keep the Lord’s table from being defiled by their participation, and also for their own sakes, that they may repent. (Cor. 5:5) It is normal that the leadership has first given such persons opportunity to repent and be restored before putting them away.
This principle has been so abused. It has been politicized to gain power (the case of Henry VIII of England). It has been used to exclude people from fellowship that those in authority feared (Martin Luther and Jan Hus). It has been used as a weapon to keep people in a church under control for fear of being put away. It is almost impossible to fight against this when it is abused. Those in power are very hard to remove or reform. They will take action against reformers. Most often people who have been victims of this have just given up and gone off and started new churches.
A lot of questions are raised in a discussion of this problem. I will try to deal with some of the main ones.
First, how can we make sure that the church has no “leaven” in it? We all continue to sin. We still have “sin” in our flesh and we allow it often. But there are certain sins that God considers to be so serious that he groups them together and tells us that we should not have fellowship with the people who do them. They are found in I Corinthians 5:11

Fornicator -- Someone who does a sexual act that is forbidden in the Bible
Covetous -- Someone who cannot be content with what God has supplied him but wants the same things that others have and is consumed with getting them.
Idolater -- Someone who worships a false god. This god can even be an ideology or a philosophy.
Railer -- Someone who is verbally abusive. They deride, harass, falsely accuse, and humiliate others.
Drunkard -- One who is “hooked” on alcohol.
Extortioner -- Someone who threatens another in order to keep control of that other. This sin is so common in the church but seems never to be identified when it is happening right out in the open.

For these sins, when not repented of, a person should be put away, or denied fellowship in the church until they repent.
First of all, I must know what the Word of God says about my behavior. According to the principles laid out in the Bible, can it be said of me that I am a drunkard? An adulterer? An extortioner? Or any of the other sins. We must be clear about this. We must be open to God and to His word and willing to own up to our sin and confess it. More than this, we must repent. Stop doing it. We are forgiven. The blood of Christ has washed ALL our sins away. It did so before we were born because Jesus died and rose before we were born. He says to us “Go and sin no more.” Maybe after examining myself, I find that I am not guilty of any of these. I even consult with other brothers and sisters whom I trust and ask if they think I am a covetous person. They say that they can’t see any of these things in me. That is about as far as I can go to clear myself. I can ask God to “search my heart and know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me” that I and others cannot see.
What about other people in my church? How can I be sure that someone else is not a serious sinner? God tells us, the church members that it is US who should notice (“notice” is the true meaning of the word “mark”) if someone is caught up in one of these serious sins and we are to accuse them. This is the right action because in I Timothy 5:19-20 an elder can be accused before 2 or 3 witnesses. Similarly, if a church member is involved in serious sin, he should be taken before witnesses and the matter should be made public.
There are some problems that come up, though, in deciding these things. If I one time, accidentally, become slightly under the influence of alcohol, (not falling down), am I a drunkard? Does one visit to a bordello make me a fornicator? We find that some of these sins have different definitions. Having sex with another man’s wife just once can get a man killed in some cultures, so it would seem that one time would constitute adultery. But wishing for a new wardrobe just like my neighbor has and buying some of the same clothes, only to repent of it and never again think that way does not make me a covetous person. Speaking out in a disrespectful way unjustly just once does not make a person a railer. But if I bow down to an idol, maybe I am an idolater. The issue is the little word “be”. “If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, etc.” What does it mean to “be” one of these things? We must be assured of that doctrine.
The decision seems to lie in the power of our fellow church members, because that is who Paul was admonishing here. He was saying that if you know that a brother (or a sister) is a drunkard, you, the members of the church, must put him away. It all comes from the beginning of the chapter where everyone knew that this man was having sex with his father’s wife and they were glorying in it. Paul says, don’t glory, put him away.
So, what if our fellow church members lie against us? They accuse us falsely and put us away? Here again, we need to use the word of God. What did they say about us and what did they do? If they followed proper church order and did not lie, we must be guilty and we should submit to them and repent. But if when we read the scriptures we find that what they said about us is not true we can go to them (Matt.18:15-17) and try to clear it up. If that fails, then we have to decide whether to leave or stay and ignore the false accusers. If the whole church is accusing us falsly we most likely will have to leave it, but we leave with knowledge that this group is an apostate church. It is very hard for any group to accuse a person of these sins when they are innocent. The person knows, and the accusers know, that it is a lie. I believe that this is why the only sins that can get a person put away are these extreme, public, easily identified sins in I Corinthians 5. For example, God does not have people put away for merely having a different opinion.
Opinions are troublesome. They can cause division in a church, but in themselves, if they are kept under control, they are not heretical. If a church leader says that if I disagree with him should I be put away? Marking a person according to Romans 16:17 is scriptural, but again, what is the offense? It is clearly defined. It is spelled out in black and white. Such a person causes division. He doesn’t just have an argument with the pastor. Causing a division in a church is heresy.
But wait. If the church is teaching that Christ was not God in the flesh or some other false doctrine and I speak up against this and others agree with me, now I am not a heretic. Now, I am a prophet and I am speaking for the Lord. If I am put out it is clear that the group that put me out is wrong. I should not fear them or the consequences of my actions. I need not listen to any of their threats, warnings or statements. As I said earlier, we must know what is being said and what is being done and compare it with scripture. That is the only way to know what is right.

This has been a discussion about a Christian being put away from a church. But what if I am a member of a church where there are some people who constantly criticize me and tell me I am not a very good Christian? I do not live up to their standards. Maybe I read novels. Maybe I watch television. They think these things are worldly and so they keep telling me I should stop it and they scorn me for doing it. Should I leave? Being put out of a church wrongly is one thing. Being harassed in a church wrongly is another. Remember Matthew 18:15. You should go to those who are abusing you and try to get it settled. If you go through all the steps and still these people treat you badly you should simply ignore them. But you have no permission to leave the church. Moreover we are admonished to let ourselves be abused and not retaliate or try to correct it. Be defrauded. Give the shirt from your back. Ask nothing if you have the grace to do so. But do not leave.
Also, there are times when the church is in a terrible state. No one is trying to put you away wrongly but there is so much sin! There is corruption! There seems to be no correction coming. Shouldn’t we leave then? Corinth was such a church. The Apostle Paul did not counsel the innocent members of the church to leave. He called upon the church to clean house. Get rid of the evil.
In all of these matters, there is often confusion. Things are not what they seem to be. It is hard to know how to deal with it. We wonder “Am I the problem?” or “Am I the solution to the problem?” or “Am I just an innocent victim?” Sometimes it’s hard to know. But we CAN know. We can investigate and we can read and pray. Then we will know. And we can do the thing that pleases God.
The bottom line is that there is the Holy Spirit. He works. He carries out God’s will. He can lead us. In all of the above possibilities, we must defer to Him. We should not start to do anything without His leading even if it is clear that it is right. It may be the right thing to do but the timing is wrong. Or the way we want to do it is wrong. We need the leading of the Spirit.

Who is the "ME"?

The Bible speaks to “me”. It admonishes “me”. It convicts “me”. Who is this “me”?
The Bible teaches that several changes take place when a person comes to God or is converted from being dead in trespasses and sins. It says that I am now a new creation. It says that I am saved. It says that I am born again. It says that I am a new man. It also says that sin still is with me. It says that in my flesh good does not dwell. It says that I should not walk in the flesh. The fleshly mind is enmity with God. The Bible seems to be identifying several different entities which all can be identified as “me”. How can I sort all this out? After all, if “I” have an idea or a desire or even an opinion, how can I know what part of the “I” is operating at the time? If my fleshly mind is enmity with God and if sin is still with me, how can I know if the idea I have has not been generated from that bad side that still exists? Moreover, if “I” still sin, “I” may think “I” may not be saved after all, since the new creation couldn’t sin, could it? Or could it? It seems like a crucial issue to be able to identify these different identities.
First of all, let’s get it straight as to “who” it is who is born again. The first thing that God does with us is to beget us again (anew). I was born in sin. In sin did my mother conceive me. As a natural man I am dead in trespasses and sins. It says that the natural man cannot understand the things of God, so I am unable to know that I am a sinner and need a saviour. This is taken care of by God. By the Word of God, applied by the Holy Spirit, my spirit, which was dead is born again. I do not have a part in this. God does it all. I am like Abraham who was walking around not knowing God, worshiping idols and God called him and chose him to be the patriarch of the Israelites. So, I am walking around as a sinner and God comes to me like he did to Paul, whom he struck with a bright light. God gives me new birth and I am suddenly aware that I am responsible to him. So, then, the part of “me” that is born again is my spirit.
The next thing that happens, and it may come immediately or I may take time to contemplate my next move. The next move is mine. I must choose Christ as my saviour. If I don’t I will go to perdition. But since the Bible says that whoever is born of God does not sin and that he who has begun a work in you will continue it, Christ brings me to God and I choose him and by doing so I am saved. The part of “me” that is saved is my soul.
Now, I am a member of the family of God. I am a member of the Body of Christ, a member of the church, and I am a servant of Jesus Christ. Who is this “I”? This is the soul. The soul is the person. When God made the first man he breathed his “ruach” (Hebrew for breath or wind”) into him and man became a living soul. The word “soul” can also be translated “life”. So man became a living life.

What is a life? It can be explained this way. Let’s use some common expressions. “Many lives were lost.” This does not merely refer to the ability to breathe and have blood circulating. It indicates the great loss of people’s experience, value to others, enjoyment of the environment they live in, even their sorrows and tragedies. Those are the “lives” referred to. Another one: “All my life I have wanted to have someone like you in my life.” Here a person is referring to the whole of his experience in this world in which he wanted to add another person who also is a life and will bring it into connection with his and enrich it. How about: “It is his life’s work.” This refers to the totality of the person being dedicated to some quest for a result. His life is a series of experiences, learnings, sharings, realizations, interactions with others.
I think you get the idea. When God says that man became a living soul, he was referring to the beginning of that kind of a life. When we are born in sin, our souls are separate from God by that original sin. We have a life without God, in effect, a death, rather than a life. We need to have our life/soul saved. Then we can begin to really live and live abundantly. So. The part of “me” that is saved is my soul.
Who is it, then, that prays? Who is disciplined? Who has a choice of walking in the spirit or in the flesh? Who is this part of the “I”? It is the soul. My soul is saved. Righteousness is imputed to it, but it needs to be developed. This life of mine can do works for God but it can also produce wood hay and stubble. I can be spiritual or I can be carnal. I can do all this as a Christian. I am saved and I am righteous in my standing before God, but I now for the first time have a free will and I am able to choose to obey God’s word or leave it gathering dust. I can take my place in the Body of Christ and minister my gift or become an overseer. Or I can cut myself loose, and sleep on Sunday morning, play golf in the afternoon and work late every evening. I can do this with my life. I, as a living soul, now, will go on either in the works that were ordained that I should walk in them or I can refuse to redeem the time and refuse to yield my body up with all the other bodies of the saints in that one great living sacrifice of Romans 12:1.
If I am admonished to be holy because God is holy, but I ignore that admonition, I can be sure that God, my Father, will discipline me. I will suffer some trial that will focus my attention on the life-style I have been living and its effect on my soul and I will be convicted to change my ways. This is not punishment for sin. Christ paid all that on the cross. This is a “spanking” that has the goal of improving my behaviour. If I respond correctly and do not rebel even more, then I will choose to walk again in the spirit. I will choose to be holy. I can only be holy by yielding to Him. My proper place is in humility at His feet. I have this choice.
Which part of the “I” has this choice? The soul. The spirit is always Godward. Once it is born again it only connects with God. In I John it says that the wicked one cannot touch him. The wicked one is our spiritual enemy; Satan. God is saying that our spirit is protected now from being possessed by Satan. My body, of course is under my own control. I can use it as I please; for God or for sin. So the “I” who chooses to do all this is the soul. If my soul becomes developed to the point where I choose more and more to yield my body to Christ I am doing what God intended for me when he made me.
I used to smoke. I (my soul) loved the smell and taste of tobacco smoke. God approached me and told me to stop. I didn’t. My soul loved it too much. God spoke louder to me through my Bible reading, through messages at church and in my conscience. (Conscience is a part of the soul) I still went on smoking. Finally, he brought a severe problem into my life and convicted me in my conscience the same way he convicted me of my need to be saved many years earlier. I was still saved now, but this smoking was an issue that needed to be submitted to God. I was desperate. I wanted relief from the problem that God had brought into my life as discipline. By the time the problem had run its course in my soul, I was convinced that I did not want to ever smoke again. I did not like the idea of smoking, I was not tempted by the smell when others lit up. I was changed. Who is the “I” that was changed? It is the soul. My soul made progress that day to come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The mind in my soul was convinced that smoking is in the past. I do not want to do it anymore.

Since then, I have had other changes. In my mind I loved many other things that the Bible says God does not love. I knew I should have the same mind as He does, but I resisted. Finally, He came in and brought discipline again and I changed my mind. I have also learned to change my mind as soon as God brings something to my attention that He wants changed. If I change my mind immediately maybe God will not need to send discipline. This is good. I don’t suffer as much now. I am learning.
Our bodies are sinful. By that I don’t mean that normal body functions are sinful. But the Bible says that sin dwells in my mortal body. The Bible teaches that my soul is saved but it is a babe in Christ and needs to grow. Paul speaks of feeding his converts milk because they were not yet ready for meat. In Romans 7 Paul says that the good that he wants to do he does not do and the evil that he doesn’t want to do he does. He says IT IS NOT "I" (quote marks mine) THAT DO IT BUT SIN THAT DWELLS IN ME. The “I” here is the soul. The soul is saved but gives in to sin that dwells in the flesh. I think that until we get our changed bodies, as in 1 Corinthians 15, we will be in the school of God constantly learning in our souls and being transformed by the renewing or our minds.
I know that I do not know everything. This paper follows scripture quite well, but since I am a soul that does not know all things, I may have made some errors. If you see any, I would appreciate having them pointed out. Always look for errors. Always, no matter who wrote the essay or book. Always question. Only the Bible is error-free.

Thank you.