|
|||
We must understand the proper relationship God intends between our reborn human spirit and our soul. This passage of scripture, along with the visual image it conveys, gives a powerful description of a major problem that exists today within the body of Christ; Eccl 10:5-7 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler: Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place. I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth. In this scene we have three entities: the prince, the servant, and the horse. The spiritual analogy is:
Our reborn human spirit is supposed to have dominion over our soul and our body. We are to be led by our new nature, not by our natural mind or our emotions. Our spirit is supposed to be the one in charge, even as it remains a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our soul is supposed to be the servant of our spirit. Said another way, our soul is supposed to be a "tool" of the new nature, much like a computer is supposed to be a "tool" of a programmer. The intellect, the mind, the will, and the emotions comprise the soul. Solomon laments that what he has seen most often is that the servant is the one in control. The servant is sitting on the horse giving the directions, while the prince is simply walking alongside … sort of just going along in whatever direction the servant dictates to the horse. The "type" would be; most of us allow our soul to be in the position of command. We allow our soul to "direct" our lives while the prince (the new nature, our reborn spirit man, the one who is supposed to be in command) must simply walk along whatever path our soul chooses to take. For most of us, the "reins of direction" are still in the hands of the soul, not in the hands or our reborn human spirit as they should be. This process must be reversed. The soul must be de-throned from its position of command and the spirit man must take the reins of our lives. Our spirit is the one in contact with the Holy Spirit and can, through fellowship with Him, receive instructions from the living Christ Who sits upon the throne in heaven. As our spirit receives those instructions from the Head of the Church, it takes the reins of our lives and causes us to travel down the path the Lord has directed for us. Our soul is to be the servant of our reborn human spirit. Our soul is to walk down whatever path our spirit directs (based on the leadership received from Christ via fellowship with the Holy Spirit). I am finding that the soul does not willingly come down from its position of authority. It has to be forced to take the place of a servant. It loudly protests against having any agenda (even the Lord's) prescribed upon it. Yet our spirit must take dominion. It has to treat the soul like an unruly child and force it to take its proper role as the servant. I am coming to believe that many of Solomon's proverbs concerning the "disciplining of a child" applies just as much to the de-throning of the soul as they do to raising children. Proverbs such as: Prov 22:15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Of course we are to take this verse literally when it comes to raising godly children, but it would also be proper to interpret this verse as meaning, "Foolishness (man's ways) are in the thought processes of the soul. But the rod of correction (God's Word understood and enforced by the reborn human spirit) shall drive it far from the soul (and the soul will begin to think like God)." By this process the soul progressively forsakes "foolishness" (man's ways) and comes to think and believe according to the mind of Christ (God's ways ... the ways of the Spirit). Not only was Solomon teaching on how to raise godly children, but Wisdom was also prophesying through him for us today regarding the de-throning of the unruly, childlike soul. Paul instructed the Philippians to force their souls to "think" in a certain manner: Phil 4:8-9 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, THINK ON THESE THINGS. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. Again, the soul is very much like an unruly child. It likes to "think" on whatever it wants, even if what it chooses to think about are things that directly contradict the truth of the Word of God. I want to emphasize that not only are we supposed to force our souls to think on the "written" Word of God, but also on those things which the Spirit of God has said to us through the five-fold ministry gifts and those things that the Lord has spoken to us personally from heaven as "rhema" (present hour speaking) words. Notice Paul said those things which they learned, and received, and heard, and saw in him ..., they were to DO! Those were the things delivered to them via Paul's ministry gift and manner of life. But the THINKING on those things precedes the DOING of them! In my own life I not only have to force my soul to "think" on the things delivered to me through the ministry gift of pastor Dave and others, but also on those things which the Lord has spoken to me personally via fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I find that if I do not force myself to regularly "think" on those things, my soul will choose to "think" on other things ... such as ... how "bad" I have it and how "hard" this walk is. Rubbish! I cannot allow my soul to think on those things. If I do, I will NEVER apprehend that for which I was apprehended by Jesus. Thinking that way will cause me to NEVER walk in the high call of God in Christ Jesus! If we are going to get serious about disciplining (training) our soul in the same way that we would a child, then we are going to have to implement similar procedures. We don't leave a child to just grow up on its own without sending it to school. We want our child's mind to be instructed, trained, and disciplined. We don't leave it to chance as to when those periods of schooling will occur. No, we force the child to go to school for set periods of time every day. If we are going to discipline our soul in the same manner, then our soul is going to have to have to endure prescribed periods of time where it will sit in the school of the Holy Spirit for training. One way to do that is to "schedule" periods of time for the soul to sit and be quiet while our spirit man is instructed by the Holy Ghost. I'm referring specifically to the soul just sitting and listening while my spirit fellowships with the Holy Spirit by praying in other tongues. My soul is to remain attentive in order to receive any instructions delivered to it by my spirit as a result of that fellowship. Another way to discipline the soul is to "schedule" periods of time for "Confession With Imagery" of God's Word ... both the written and rhema words. I used to rely almost entirely on confession alone. But I am learning the power of incorporating the entire soul in the transformation process. It is much more effective to hold the "image" of whatever you are confessing within your soul while your voice is giving utterance to the Word of God (both written and rhema). The image represents our "hope," while the time spent in confession represents our "faith." Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For example, it is much more powerful for a person to not only confess "By His stripes, I am healed!" but to also "see" themselves well and whole in their soul while they confess it. Faith is the substance of things "hoped for." Hope is in the realm of the soul. Hope is the image we hold there. Unless we actually "see" ourselves well and whole within our soul, there is no real hope. And if there is no real hope, then faith has nothing to draw substance from in order to manifest God's Word in the material realm. By this method we are forcing our soul to "think on these things," the "things" that have been freely given to us by God! By this method we are forcing our soul to dismount from its place of rulership in our lives and become the servant of the reborn human spirit. Back
« to the Teaching Menu
|
