#312 Kingdom: The Salvation of the Soul
As we grow in the natural life (psuche) the soul is our only information processing center. Everything is processed by the soul, thought about in the soul and evaluated by the soul. How we interpret our business, our marriage, our finances and our fellowship and goals are all decided in the soul. After we are “saved” the soul continues upon the same path.
1Thes:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. [24] Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
Heb 4: 12] For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (machaira), and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. [13] And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
1 Cor 15: 45] So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. [46] However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. [47] The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. [48] As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. [49] And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
After we are born-again our little baby spirit comes alive with His life. It is called the new birth. Now a process must begin where there is a reversal in the roles of the soul and the spirit. What was processed by the soul must now be processed by the spirit of man. The problem is immediately experienced when we discover our little spirit has not grown enough to begin to become the process center of our new creation. Even if we attempt to “make a decision” based upon our spirit, we discover the soul is still the processing center of our being. We really want to be spiritual but we find that we are still soulish. That means controlled by the soul. Dependent upon the soul!
Now we are in a Romans 7 confusion. I really want to be spiritual so I will just step into the spiritual dimension, make a positive confession and begin to move in the spirit by faith. I will begin by prophesying, laying hands on the sick, cast out demons and command the blessing to fall during “MY MINISTRY.” It may take a few years until we must confess “Oh, wretched man that I am.” But we found the scriptures that indicate that this is God’s will for all believers. Jesus sent us out to do these things. We believe in miracles, healing, the gifts of the Spirit and in the power of deliverance. Why is it that I have failed to demonstrate this spiritual dimension? Have these things passed away with the last Apostle? Not at all! The problem is these are spiritual manifestations and I tried to practice these spiritual truths by processing the facts by my soul in that same way I have processed everything in the soul since I was a child.
My problem is not that I misread the facts or mis-processed them but that my spirit was not developed in accord with the demands of that ministry. This was my experience for several years after I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1970. I was preaching, teaching, casting out demons, laying hands on the sick and counseling people according to the ministry I was taught was normal for every believer. Because I was doing those things and I saw some measure of “success” I assumed I was “spiritually mature.” The fact is I was processing these things in my soul and declared them to be “New Testament Ministry.”
I could read a book or I could read the Bible or I could listen to a tape or I could listen to a message but I evaluated everything by processing them with my soul. The fact that I had a new baby spirit was irrelevant to my ministry because I was locked into the realm of the soul.
Still, God was at work in me and as I cooperated with Him eventually my baby spirit began to grow. I practiced the gift of tongues because I understood in the soul that if I prayed in the spirit I was exercising my little spirit and was building it up as I prayed in tongues. As my little spirit received some spiritual food and I continued to exercise my spirit it began to grow. Now after 35 years I am able to process a few simple things within my spirit but it seems that most things are still processed by my soul. In those areas I am still soulish and immature.
I am nearly 80 years old so I am not immature in my body or in my soul. My problem is discovered when I attempt to “walk in the spirit” for a day and I discover that I was just processing the world around me by my intellect, my mind, my soul my psuche.
Now I ask myself, when will I make the transition to the Holy Place Life and ministry when the roles of the soul and the spirit must be reversed. When does God sanctify (set apart) our spirit, our soul and body for Himself? Is this automatic just because we are believers or is it at the Consecration Offering when we sanctify ourselves or set ourselves wholly apart to be God’s own possession?
John 17: 17 Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. [18] “As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. [19] “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
It seems that God will sanctify us as we sanctify ourselves so that others may also be sanctified in the Truth. If our “baby spirit” has not grown we will see no reason to sanctify or Consecrate ourselves but we can still process this information in our soul and determine that we are not saved by works so this “Consecration Offering” is just Old Testament and irrelevant for us.
The logic of the soul and carnal reasoning will render the Word of God powerless to change our life to become like Jesus. The natural man can hear eternal truths and think they are foolishness because the spiritual truths cannot be processed by the soul. However, if we want to speak God’s wisdom or explain the mysteries with spiritual words to “believers” we are limited to those in whom the spirit has grown to some level of maturity.
If the soul is going to give us all this trouble why are we talking about the “salvation of the Soul?” Obviously the soul is in a precarious situation in which it is not ALL that God designed it to be or to become. We must be obtaining once again the lawful use of the soul in the plan and purpose of God. Since this sounds a little strange it will need some explanation that is very difficult to clarify. If we were familiar with some of the cult and occult practices in the use of the fallen spirit to contact the evil fallen spirits without bodies we could understand returning to the “lawful use of the spirit to contact God, who IS Spirit.”
HEB 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Preserving is translated from the Greek word “peripoiesis” which is translated as acquiring or obtaining something and refers to gaining a complete salvation of the soul.
Obviously obtaining a complete salvation of the soul is not speaking of “saving from hell.” I am speculating that means a complete transformation of the soul from its former position as sole processor of spiritual truths. Or “saved” from its role of dominion over our spirit to obtaining once again its rightful or lawful position as subservient to our spirit. The reversal of the roles of our soul and spirit means that spiritual truths are processed by our spirit and then transferred to the soul for understanding. Ministry then, in this dimension, means speaking out spiritual thoughts with spiritual words that have been given by the Spirit.
The “spirit is up front” and the soul is trailing behind in spiritual matters. The “renewed mind / soul / psuche” means renewed to its former position as subservient to the spirit. This is interpreting 1 Cor 2: 6-15 assuming the soul is in that subservient position and the spirit of man up is up front receiving revelation from the Spirit of God and ministering those words taught by the Spirit.
After years of soulish ministry, this next restoration with its reversal of the roles of the soul and the spirit will be very traumatic and confusing. It will require that we step over into this realm as spiritual babies once again but this time we will not have need for man to teach us but now the anointing will be in us to teach us all these spiritual things. If we try to rely upon some man to teach us these things, where will we find such a person? No! This “spiritual wisdom” must be taught by the Spirit combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words that will be a foreign language to the soul. The “language of the soul” is now our native language and the “language of the spirit” is like a foreign tongue. It is our spirit that must become the interpreter of this new spiritual language for the soul to obtain understanding.
This is the failure and breakdown within the ministry that is promoting an intellectual Christianity and interpreting the scriptures with the soul / mind / intelligence / psuche and using this “private interpretation” to promote a personal agenda. That may be “reasonable” to the natural mind but it has not produced a “spiritual Christianity” that can at last be taught by the Spirit. It has produced a “job security” for soulish teachers who assume that we will never outgrow our need for carnal ministry. It is my opinion that more and more people in the pew are dissatisfied with the same old, same old, Outer Court level of ministry and are longing to hear some spiritual words that convey spiritual thoughts that have been given by the Spirit.
The gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit within the Outer Court anointing should be sufficient to help the believers get the foundations in their lives experientially and to make the transition to this next spiritual dimension of the Holy Place. The gift of teaching is valuable to teach the first principles but the “anointing that abides with us and in us is supposed to teach us all the next things.
1 John 2:20] But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.
1 John 2: 27] And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
ANYTHING the Holy Spirit teaches us is true and is NOT a lie. One of the things He teaches us is to “Abide in Him.”
Now all this would just be “another concept” for the soul to consider and evaluate if we were not quickly approaching another realm of ministry beyond the capacity of the soul to participate. For example; The soul CANNOT function in the Holy Place Life and ministry which IS 100% spiritual. That is because there is no natural light there but ONLY the illumination of the Seven Spirits of God. The other reason is because the Lampstand Church has no wood in it and no provision for anything natural. Another reason is because the priesthood that has access to the Holy Place life and ministry is 100 % dependent upon God for everything. That means; NOT like Nadab and Abihu who reverted back to their own carnal ideas and soulish concepts of what worship of God means. Burning strange fire before the Lord means not being 100 % dependent upon God for instruction. They were actually taught of God what was acceptable in the worship of God but choose their own ideas over God’s demands. They were trying to serve God by the “grace of their own making” and ran directly into the Sovereignty of God. They were burning “Grace Fire” but ran into the “Sovereignty Fire” of God’s Kingdom Government.
LEV 10:1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. [2] And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. [3] Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the LORD spoke, saying, `By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.’”
The “grace of serving God out of the soul” by our own opinions, ideas, intellectual experiments, and following the leading of “successful men in ministry” will become dangerous in the dimension of 100 % Spirit. We should recognize the difference between the “grace anointing upon us” in the Outer Court and the “Sovereign anointing abiding in us” in the Holy Place!
We have all seen the counterfeit ministries of the last 35 years and the Outer Court anointing that seemed to have God’s blessing. We have seen healings and miracles, heard prophesies and revelations. We have seen prophets and apostles and experienced their ministries. We have seen evangelists win thousands to the Lord and experienced the gift of teaching by anointed teachers. We were part of the Shepherding Movement and experienced the new music and worship of the Charismatic Renewal. All this was good and we appreciate everything that was restored. We sincerely believe that God was in those things! However, we are just as sure now that God has passed beyond these things.
As we look back over the last 35 years it seems clear that too much of what was done was just out of the “redeemed soul” and not the ministry of 100 % Spirit or spirit. Becoming more honest about my own attempt at serving God I recognize that most of what I accomplished was out of knowledge, study, listening to other ministers, trying various experiments, reading books, listening to tapes, and developing “my soul to do the ministry.” The result was more “intellectual Christianity” that was just about devoid of spiritual growth but well informed about objective truth.
Again being honest about my own “growth” it is clear that most of my “growth” was in the realm of the soul and developing a natural ability to speak about spiritual things. I learned how to use graphics and examples to teach spiritual and eternal principles that was very helpful to many people in several countries. However, the eternal benefit (IF there was any) of all that cannot be evaluated at this time. Still, I have no desire to continue in this same path any longer because I understand that this degree of “spiritual ministry” is far too shallow for the next restoration of God.
Now it seems apparent that I need to be saved “from the soul.” That is from all this soulish ministry that proceeds out of the intellect and natural opinions and ideas. Someone comes out with a new book on the “Purpose Driven Life” and every “soul” jumps on the band wagon and tries to implement the concepts and give testimony of how well it worked. Apostles and Prophets are quick to lay hands on “souls” to activate and empower these “souls” to live the “Purpose Driven Life.” Of course this is not “evil” nor is it “good”, it is nothing, zero, futile.
We are certainly not against the five-fold ministries but we are frustrated with the Outer Court nature of these ministries. If these are the “leadership ministries” they should be leading the church someplace instead of all this either counterfeit or pretend ministry of laying on of hands and giving an “Outer Court word” to a soulish people that don’t have a clue about spiritual ministry. Now, I include myself in this “class of ministry” that is not moving the believers into the church that He is building.
It is not difficult to find big ministries with a huge following that are preaching and teaching and stirring up the expectations of spiritually shallow people that God is going to pour out on their flesh a double portion of His new and improved anointing oil and these “souls” are going to do exploits for God and become a mighty army. What silly nonsense! Should we say it one more time; The Lampstand is NOT in the Outer Court!!!
The frustration increases when we realize that these “big ministries” are just preaching and teaching out of the soul and stirring up the “souls in the seats.” Some are so comfortable ministering out of the soul that they make it appear that their ministry is by the anointing. They even speak in tongues once in a while during the message to prove that they are “in the spirit.”
My real frustration is not with these “ministries” but with the fact that I can’t seem to break out of my dependence upon the soul either. I have no idea what it would be like to minister a whole meeting “in the spirit.” That means from “spirit to spirit” instead of “soul to soul.”
When these ministries “work the crowd” they are just “working the soul of the crowd.” When the Holy Spirit ministers out of our spirit to convey spiritual thoughts through spiritual words given by the Spirit, does He first require that we work the crowd into a frenzy with wild music and synthesizers? No! This is a soulish trick to stir up the souls of the congregation. But if the words of prophesy appear to be accurate does that validate the prophet and his methods? Not at all. The prophets of Baal use similar tactics.
Even IF God winked at all this in the past, that is NOT what He will accept in the future. I think that time has passed and we must make the transition now from the soul to the spirit. That means there must be a reversal in the roles of our soul and spirit in ministry.
My theory is that the fulfillment (in our experience) of the full Consecration Offering removing the flesh and carnal desires from our soul so that it is usable to our spirit IS the requirement for us to experience the next restoration. God is not trying to kill our soul but to sanctify and refine it by the removal of the flesh and its natural tendencies. Of course along with the sanctifying and refining of the soul there must be a growth of the spirit so the spirit can take the lead in ministry.
Today there would be very little ministry if we excluded the soul from leading. Even if we laid hands on the soul and activated the spirit and imparted the new wine and then prophesied great things, the basic fact of the soul remains the same. We are still just a “living soul” like Adam until we begin to experience that “Life giving Spirit” which IS Christ in us our hope of glory.
Whatever is left of the “Adam the living soul” must be eliminated by the fire of consecration before we come into the fulness of the “Life giving Spirit.” If we had better words we might make a distinction between the proper and legitimate function of the soul and what we have referred to as the unlawful use of the soul in the ministry of the Word. “Unlawful” refers to the carnal, fleshly, soulish, intellectual person who is controlled by the soul and is functioning outside the realm of the government of the spirit. In fact the soulish person appears to have NO GOVERNMENT in his spirit but is functioning according to his flesh. That means according to his opinions, concepts, character and attitudes that he has retained since he was born again. The soulish person will generally gravitate towards “his own brand of carnal religion” thinking it is a new spiritual dimension that other don’t yet understand.