PART 3
MF Blume Jan. 7/96
TO SEPARATE SOUL FROM SPIRIT
Hebr 4:12 For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The human being consists of a spirit, soul and body (1 Thess. 5:23). The spirit is the innermost man. Outside and around that innermost "room" stands the soul. Finally the body encases both the soul and spirit. God called us temples of the Holy Ghost. The temple had an innermost room called the holiest of holies. Outside of that room was the holy place. And surrounding both of these rooms was the outer court. If our lives are not in tune with God, as they should be, our souls act as bones and joints which form a shell around the marrow of the spirits within them. And God's Spirit is made one with our human spirits:
1Cor 6:16-17 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
And the human spirit is that part of a person that is born again of God's Spirit:
John 3:5-6 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
So, when the soul is hardened against God it is like a barrier surrounding the spirit and hindering God's Spirit within the human spirit of a born again believer to be blockaded from flowing outward. The soul can be either filled only with outward fleshly thinking, which includes the thought that works force God to bless us, or can be turned inward to the union with God's Spirit lying within the human spirit and perceive the wonderful world of FAITH. When it is turned within to the things of God that can only be related to by using the human spirit, as opposed to the flesh, we see the need of breaking self life.
The hindering soul must be broken. Faith is a work of the spirit. Works originate with the flesh. As the joints must be broken in order to divide the marrow from them (see Hebr. 4:12 again), the self-life (soul) must be broken by the Word of God in humility and servitude to God. This allows the Spirit of God, which is one with our human spirits, to flow outward and work through us.
The Word teaches the most basic principle of all of Christianity, which is: it is not the things of the flesh that will please God, but only the things of the Spirit. That is why we must let the Spirit of God within our human spirits an opportunity to WORK THROUGH US His will. He is within us in order to be able to use us. But he cannot use us if He is not allowed to manifest out through our lives. And a fleshly minded soul is like a barrier that hinders Him from coming through the vehicle of the soul and out to minister to the world.
The very need for us to abandon works in our desire to achieve God's blessings is the need to abandon fleshliness, for works fall under the category of outwardness and fleshliness. Self can thrive in the things of the world without being broken. Fallen man possesses a soul from birth that is directed towards the material things of the world. And the world is in sin, rendering the soul's desires sinful. But in order to serve God, self, or soul, must be broken. We must see soul broken by experiencing a death with Christ to the things of the world, and a new start of turning to the higher things of the Spirit.
The love of the world makes on an enemy of God. Here, in this aspect of breaking, we find the barrier that hinders our walk forward with God. It is symbolized by the Jordan. We have a fleshly Jordan, as it were. It must be rent as the veil in temple was rent when Christ died (and the veil represented Christ's flesh - Hebr. 10:20). Soul must fall on the Rock of Christ and be broken.
God's Word teaches us how to see the hindering soul divided from the spirit of a person in which dwells God's Spirit. In other words, it teaches us wisdom regarding how to allow God's Spirit to work within us by faith. Unless that barrier is broken, and God's Spirit of power is made free to flow outward, we will find ourselves bound in carnality and bereft of the promised blessings of God. Can you see the vital aspect of this truth!! Can you see how WISDOM is indeed a Tree of Life?
Entering the Rest of God can only be experienced through FAITH. Hebrews 4 stresses the point of "believing". Israel failed to enter Canaan due to their unbelief:
Hebr 3:19 - 4:3 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard [it]. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
What is it that we must believe? The WORD. And that Word is quick and more powerful than any sword. It is fully capable of dividing that element away from the indwelling Spirit of God within our human spirits, that He may rise forth and live through us!! He must do the work, but if we lock Him up within our spirits by continuing to live by self-works, thus robbing Him of opportunity of working, He cannot do anything through us.
The WORD teaches us all these things! It grants Wisdom. The soul that is humbled in obedience to God, and directed towards the unseen things of the spirit rather than the temporal things that are seen and are of the world, is the broken soul.
The Word stresses the power and blessings of God available to us ONLY THROUGH CHRIST'S DEATH for us. Learning this truth is what is referred to as acquiring WISDOM. It tells us to uphold the blood! The blood is our only access to God. Therefore, the upholding of the ark with the blood of the lamb on it, represents upholding the TRUTH of Jesus' blood as being our only access into the promises of God, of which the Word of God has spoken to our hearts. God looks for such faith and, upon seeing it, grants delivering power to cross any barrier before us!
Recall the carnality that Israel exhibited before God while on their way to Canaan:
Hebr 3:8-11 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in [their] heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
Such a state of the soul must be broken in order for faith to arise. A soul that disbelieves God is a soul that is hardened and must be broken. It is a soul that is carnal and doubtful. It is a soul that has never learned the WISDOM of God. Only a soft heart of faith can allow the flowing forth of God's Spirit from within. God's Word can break that hard heart if we let it. We must choose to fall on the Rock and be broken. The Rock is Christ and is truth.
Matt 21:44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
The above verse is understood when we see that the Rock of Christ is the SOLID foundation of the Teachings of Christ regarding His salvation for us through the death of the cross. Receiving the truths of God's Word is receiving WISDOM. No wonder Hebrews said that Wisdom is a tree of life!
The land of Canaan is similar to the Garden of Eden. In order to enter Canaan's blessings today, the promises of God's Word, we must learn Wisdom. And the treasures of wisdom are found only in Christ since the truth of Christ's death teaches us that faith in it is our only way into those promises. "In Christ" is a phrase that describes the reliance upon His death as our only access to God and His blessings. We are IN CHRIST when we rely upon His death for our blessings and promises from God.
Wisdom was placed upon Joshua enabling him to understand how to enter Canaan. Wisdom sees into what God's will for our lives is today. Wisdom crosses the Jordan barrier - the veil. If we know that all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ (Col. 2:3), then we must REMAIN In Christ by ever relying on Him alone to bring us to perfection. That will see us discover all God's Wisdom He has for us. We will learn all biblical teachings and mysteries when we see that in Christ, in reliance upon His work on the cross, these treasures exist. After all, all truths in the Word point to Christ. We will understand God's Word when we stand firm "in Christ" and apply that position of our faith to all the Word speaks about. We will understand that which points towards Christ - the whole of God's Word. Without being in Christ, a person will not understand how to grow righteous in activity and behaviour, and thus be unable to achieve spiritual maturity. Scriptures will only make sense when we have Christ in mind as the ultimate fulfillment of all scripture! By acquiring the wisdom of God we will find our lives for Him as those which are in the true Garden of Eden - the fullness of Christ. We have made the journey complete into the Garden again! After all, the Tree of Life is in the Garden!