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Let’s see what God has to say about it in His Word. His Word is truth and the only thing that matters. It is HIM speaking TO you. God’s Word is for instruction and   correction (2 Tim. 3:16). 1 Peter 1:23  For you have been born again , not of perishable seed, but of imperishable , through the living and enduring word of God. God’s Word is imperishable and that is the Word that we believed. It never goes away. Trust Him. 2 Cor. 5:17-19  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature . Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, Who has reconciled us  to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation; That God was reconciling the world to Himself , not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. This is not only for sins of the past. This is of ALL sin. And He is Faithful to do it. Trust God . 1 Peter 2:1-3 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk , so that  by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter (all of the Epistles) is written to believers. Isaiah 12:2 Surely God is my salvation ; I will trust God , and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become  my salvation. Ephesians 1:13  In Whom you also trusted, after that you heard the Word of Truth, the good news of your salvation; in Whom also after you believed were sealed  with the Holy Spirit of promise. 2 Cor. 1:20-22  For all the promises  of God in him are “yes”, and in Him “Amen” (“so be it”), unto the glory of God by us . Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm  in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us , and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing  what is to come. Ephesians 4:30  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the Day of Redemption. Did you know that doubting your salvation or believing you can lose your salvation grieves the Holy Spirit? Repent, for the Day of the Lord is at hand. Ephesians 6:17  is taking the helmet of salvation…for what? Like 2 Cor. 10:3-6 says to protect our thoughts from lies against the truth of God. Salvation is eternal. Anything that pops up in  our heads or to our heads that says we lose our salvation is a lie . We cast down that lying thought with the Word of God just like Jesus did in the wilderness when He was tempted by the devil. Jesus spoke to those lying thoughts snd visions. If you are having a hard time believing that you can lose your salvation then get on your face before our great and holy God and ask Him to reveal it to you. Read John 3; Ephesians 1-3; Galatians; 1 Cor. chapters 1-2; 5:1-5 and chapter 15; 2 Cor. 1 and 5, and Romans...even Hebrews chapters 7-9 until you know, that you know that God has said over and over again in His Word that you cannot lose your salvation.

BATTLE OF THE IMMORTALS -  and KNOWING YOUR AUTHORITY. (I will only be noting most scriptures for brevity in this article. You will have to look them up for full insight. It will build your strength.) 1. Greater is He that is in you, than he who is in the world - 1 John 4. 2. Creatures in the Old Testament 3. How to fight 4. You don’t know what don’t know…and it can kill you 5. Seed War 6. Power of the enemy 7. Enemy’s Tactics _____________________________________________________________ 1. Greater is He that is in you, than he who is in the world - 1 John 4. My people perish for lack of knowledge … Hosea 4:6 Ignorance of the enemy is not a justifiable excuse if we lose.  And losing can sometimes mean losing your life before your time and not fulfilling your calling. It’s vital to know what Jesus has given you in Him  to fight: Spiritually and Physically. You have to know that Jesus in you is greater than anything the enemy has.   Anything! I say this because of how things are in this world and what is coming - Days of Noah - ( Luke 17:26-30 ) . This passage on the surface says one thing but as you study this out you find it means something far bigger, especially if you read 1 Enoch and Genesis 6 . It speaks of something far more sinister. We are at the start of it and things will get much worse to where fallen angels, and all of their offspring like giants plus all their hybrid creatures (cryptids from mythology and folklore) including “aliens” will be seen by everyone . Many are already sharing on social media their encounters. It will soon be everywhere, including on the news broadcasts. This is what God spoke of in those passages about the “Days of Noah” and many other scriptures that speak of these monstrous creatures -big and small. These offspring of the fallen ones are what God calls “inhabitants” in His Word . And it’s all over  the Old Testament. Like Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Chronicles, and even Daniel 4 where Nebuchadnezzar gets turned into a wild animal for a period of 7 years as a judgement  before God returns him back to normal. Practically all of the Old Testament speaks of these types of creatures…we just never realized it until the Lord recently opened it up, I would say on the whole for the Body of Christ scripture has been opened up by the Lord the last 10 years. These creatures - all of them - are  the immortals. Once a creature is alive it cannot cease to exist. God is life and there is no darkness in Him. Just like any parent with their children, the parent cannot control their children. Their children will do what they want to do. Same with God and all of His creation. He has given them life. What they do with it is up to them. God has given rules of how to operate but His creatures don’t have to behave. It is up to their free-will. This is why He gave His Son Jesus to destroy ALL the works of the devil ( I John 3 ) and what Jesus did stands for all eternities and worlds - forever - Ephesians 1:21 (17-23) & 3:21 (14-21) . This disobedience will never happen again. Read Revelation chapters 19-22 with this in mind. Those that know how to stand in Jesus will be fine. Those that do not…with the strong delusion as 1 & 2 Thessalonians  calls  it …well…it’s obvious. Luke 21:26  “men’s hearts fail them for what they see coming on the earth.” * 2. Creatures in the Old Testament In the Old Testament all of the wars were against giants and hybrids which is why God wanted them totally wiped out, including their animals (we can only imagine what the “inhabitants” were doing with their animals). I call those cities and “inhabitants” - for they are not “men” - I call them “ites”. Like Jebusites, Hittites, Canaanites, Moabites, and so on. God also uses the term “mighty men” or “mighty” to refer to the offspring of fallen ones: nephilim/giants. Re-read  Genesis 6  and Joel chapters 2-3.  Joel 2-3 has yet to occur! Take a look at  2 Samuel 23: 20 ; 1 Chronicles 12:8 .  Second Samuel talks of lion-faced men, that is what “arials” mean, and Moab is pagan and infiltrated with offspring of the fallen ones, it’s one of the “ites” cities. 1 Chronicles 12:8 also speaks of lion-faced men who were fierce in battle. And Jasher 36:26-35  - (part) “There is a great and terrible storm that came across the sea and settle on the asses…a group of about 120 great and terrible animals to come out of the forest  by the seashore by Anah feeding his asses. And those animals, from their middle downward, were in the shape of the children of men, and from their middle upward, some had the likeness of bears, and some the likeness of the keephas, with tails behind them from between their shoulders reaching down to the earth, like the tails of the ducheephath,  and these animals came and mounted and rode upon these asses, and led them away, and they went away unto this day.” This account in Jasher so scared Anah the donkey herder, he never went out again. Now I don’t know what “keephas” or “ducheephath” are, I haven’t been able to find it anywhere…but we know it isn’t good. These are the types of creatures that are coming back. And notice, they came out of the forest. There are many current reports of creatures found in the forest and national parks. Knowing who you are in Christ Jesus and the power of His Blood is the only way to fend off these creatures - “They overcame him (satan and his forces) by the Blood of The Lamb and by the Word of His testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Revelation 12:11 . Look at how Jesus did it in Luke 4  and Matthew 4 . He spoke the Word to the devil. * 3. How to fight Knowing you are IN Jesus, It’s The Lord who will strengthen you Stay in relationship with the Lord, talk with Him and stay in His Word because His Word is Him speaking to you! He will lead you by His Word. Elisha stayed in constant communication with the Lord and knew how to fight! There are many ancient documents that were the first writings of the Bible like the Book of Adam; 1 Enoch; books of Noah; books of Abraham and Jacob - I’m certain both Elijah, Elisha, and all the prophets of old used these books. You can see it in how they stood up for God. Elisha knew that God had his back even when he was up against demonic rulers because of what he read and staying in prayer. Check 2 Kings 6 .  Observe throughout the Bible how the men of God fought, fought against these hybrids - they always went to God first! Always ask Him what He wants. This is what we are to do. In Joshua we see how Joshua went to God before the battles. Chapter 7 shows the one time when he didn’t and what happened. David was also an amazing warrior in battle but he had tough times and we see how he got through it - Praise ! When David was at his lowest he praised God! This stirred up his faith in “Who” God is and his strength was built up and brought out the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord  is our strength ( Nehemiah 8 ). It’s part of the fruit of the Spirit and it has to be tapped into by praise. This is how we get through it. In fact “praise” defeats the enemy every time  - look at 2 Chronicles 20 -  there was a great army of “ites”, 2 armies actually, and the king - Jehoshaphat - called all of Judah and Israel together to pray and fast to the Lord and said, “Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” , verse 12. God told them that the battle was not theirs but God’s ! Then He told them  to sing praises to God as the armies were mounting against them, the Moabites and Ammonites were struck with terror and turned on each other and killed one another!  1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2   Chronicles and other heroes in the faith like in Judges (including Deborah, for the ladies reading this), and Numbers are more great examples of men and women fighting and won with God on their side. In Judges with Sampson we see someone, a prophet, who was disobedient and what happened. We have all been disobedient with our callings at some point. But when we get things right, like Sampson did at the end, we can see what a big difference it makes for the Kingdom of God living up to the calling that God has given each of us.  God will bring His Word to pass no matter what. For those that don’t fulfill their calling, someone else will step up and do what God wants done. Isaiah 55:11  God’s Word will not return to Him void but will do what He pleases and it shall accomplish the purpose for which He sent it. In the  Book of Jasher, chapters 37-40  is another great example of physical wars against Nephilim that the sons of Jacob fought.  Simeon, Levi, and Judah were fierce in God! Jumping up enormous megalithic walls and landing on top of them and wiping out hundreds of the Nephilim; the next day they did the same thing with another city of giants - Because they knew that God was on their side, they asked God to strengthen them - and He did - and they knew God was greater than all the demon-gods the Nephilim worshiped,  they knew  that God had their backs! God the Creator of All! Here’s another interesting tid-bit I share as a detail, because this sort of sorcery is how the enemy operates: Genesis 31:19  where Rachel steals her father’s idols. It never made sense to me until I read about it in Jasher 31 . It describes in detail what Rachel did by stealing her father’s idols and why it was so important. The idols were the heads of sacrificed children to demon-gods that had been passed down for generations. There was an entire room dedicated to this. The families father’s, grandfather’s, great-grandfather’s and so on would sacrifice their first born child to these demons. (Clue here: this is why God had the first born in Egypt killed during the time of Moses with Pharaoh, both of men and animals.) The heads were severed and the skulls cleaned, the child’s hair placed back on them, the mouth opened and a coin put on top of their tongue to prop the mouth open and then they would dedicate those skulls to specific demon-gods in order for the demons to use those skulls as a type of portal to speak into this world. They always need an access point. When the demon-skulls were asked a question, those skulls would answer. This is why Rachel stole them. She didn’t want her father to ask these idols where she and Jacob with all their belongings had gone. * 4. You don’t know what don’t know…and it can kill you Many believers know this stuff but unfortunately there are many more in churches who do not. They don’t have a clue. If this has been you I suggest praying the Ephesians 1:17-23  prayer over yourself for God to show you wisdom and revelation knowledge of what He wants you to “see” and then get into Genesis  and read chapters 1-3  and 6-11 . Do additional research in 1 Enoch , Jasher , and Jubilees  - there are online versions of these. Look up scriptures in the Bible that speak of “giants”, “mighty men”, “inhabitants” and “sons of God”, see how many cities had “inhabitants” versus “people”, then ask the Lord what is your place in all of this. We all have one. These chapters in Genesis are the base for everything. They explain how all this started. What has been will be again and there is nothing new under the sun - Ecclesiastes 1:9 . Why will this happen? Very simple…God’s judgment on people who have been disobedient and stubborn. He’s done it before and He will do it again. Isaiah 28; Matthew 11:22-24; 2 Peter 2-3; Jude 1:6; Revelation 9:15; Daniel 7:21-25; Zephaniah 1:7-13; Revelation 16:14; Luke 11:31; Hosea 9:7; Ezekiel 30:1-9. * 5. Seed War Genesis chapter 3  is what this entire world is about: a seed war - the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman (mankind). These are the two types of humanoids on the earth. God’s creation - mankind, made in the image of God, with the animals that He  has made - (notice how God is the one  who had to bring the animals to Noah and I don’t recall which book it’s in, either Jubilees or Jasher,  there was something like only 200 pairs of animal types. That was all. Satan’s creation - hybrids (humanoid-demonic hybrids; alien-demonic hybrids; animal-humanoid hybrids; fish-humanoid hybrids - including mermaids ( 1 Samuel 5 ); and many other cross-breeds they have created like the book Dr. Moreau)  God wiped out with the flood. These creatures existed before the flood and they have been making creatures after the flood. They are coming back like the days of Noah. This is why God had to wipe out the planet with  the flood. The fallen angles as well as the inhabitants have been creating offspring and hybrids since the flood. Both animal and human types. They never stopped. And not every person you meet is truly human. Their numbers have surpassed ours. Read Revelation 6:8  - the wild beasts of the earth. They have been hidden but will be released as part of judgment. Research the battles in the Bible. It will really help!! This is a part of the seed war. Know “who” you are in Christ Jesus. Stay in the Word and in Praise. I will place some additional scriptures at the end for you to research in your own time. There are many more than what I list. Know you are in Him which gives you certain rights and privileges of having Father God on your side when you’re doing things according to His will and don’t have sinful ways in which you knowingly  operate in.  You will see after reading these scriptures the enemy keeps doing the same routine. The plan, the enemy’s, is always the same BUT Jesus is THE POWER that has already  defeated him and has given that power to you!! Use it!! And I would suggest reading some mythology. God considers them a type of earthly history books because these creatures are real. Luke 21:26   men’s hearts will fail them seeing the things coming on the earth. * 6. Power of the enemy Luke 10:17-19  and Genesis 1:26, 28  are key in understanding your Authority over ALL the power   of the enemy. This is not only the devil. This includes all his fallen angels, their offspring the nephilim, and all their monstrosities they have created like dogmen, big foot, mothmen, lionmen, and the like. Just like the creatures in mythology - it’s not a myth, but actual creatures. You have God’s Authority over them all  in this realm and all  of their spells, witchcraft, sorcery, and divination. I also suggest reading Exodus chapters 1-12. The magicians of Egypt had powers . Demonic powers = demonic supernatural powers! But Moses stood up to them in the Lord , the way the Lord told him to confront them. Will you take on that same spiritual fortitude that Moses did with the Lord? God is no respecter of persons. (You may want to read all of the Authority  and Warfare  articles, and the Crucifixion  article, they will help.) In Genesis 1:28  the definitions of the words “subdue” and “dominion”:  subdue  -  assault, bought them into subjection, forced into bondage, forcing, trample, tread under foot, underfoot. Dominion  - to tread down, subjugate, to crumble off. THIS IS WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO UPON THE EARTH BY TAKING AUTHORITY IN HIS NAME OVER THESE EVIL CREATURES, WHAT GOD CALLS “the wicked”. * 7. Enemy’s Tactics The Lord tells us all the enemies tactics in scripture: he kills, steals, destroys, lies, murders. Occurred with Eve in the Garden, Jesus in the wilderness, the mad man of Gadera, and with you. How to defeat him is by using the Word of God, speaking it against him as a shield and sword coming out of our mouths.  But if we “don’t see ourselves” truly in Christ and all of the victory that He gave us, we will have trouble when it comes to spiritual warfare. Warfare is getting more intense and it is not going to let up - it will get worse. I’m seeing more demonized people in public. It wasn’t like this just 10 years ago (It’s 2024 at the time of this writing.) “People fainting from fear at the expectation of what they see coming upon the earth , for the powers  of heavens shall be shaken ” - Luke 21:24 with Revelation 12:7-9  “And there came to be fighting in the heavens : Michael and his messengers fought against the dragon. And the dragon and his messengers fought, 8 but they were not strong enough, nor was a place found for them in the heavens any longer. 9 And the great dragon was thrown out , that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who leads all the world astray. He was thrown to the earth, and his messengers were thrown out with him. ” They are coming. And we can see more and more manifestation now than ever before. People are seeing dogmen (cryptids) and other strange creatures. Revelation 6:7  -“the wild beasts of the earth”. We have to know “who we are in Christ Jesus” for what is coming! These are the Immortals. They will ultimately end up in the Lake of Fire. Some have been walking the earth. Some roam the earth, some were imprisoned by God deep within in the earth and will be freed during judgement as Jude  states: verse 6  - “And the messengers (angels) who did not keep their own principality, but left their own dwelling, He has kept in everlasting shackles under darkness for the judgment of the great day .” Along with verse 13 - “wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame, straying stars   for whom blackness of darkness is kept forever .” God uses the term “stars” to refer to angels. The book of Jude is key about speaking of these rebellious angels. There are some as leaders of churches as verse 13 states and some that have been kept in prison by God until they are released upon a rebellious people, verse 6. Look at Revelation 9:14. And in  Exodus 10 and 12 also show God using these “wandering stars” for judgment upon people.  What God has done before, He will do again… including the days of darkness like  Exodus 10. Consider:  Joel 2:2,10; 3:15; Isaiah 13:10; 60:1-2; Amos 9:8; 5:8, 18, 20; Ezekiel 32:7-8; Matthew 24:29-30; Luke 21:25-28. And just like in Egypt, God’s people were safe in Goshen but they did not go outside. They stayed covered with the blood of Lamb just as we will have to. The darkness can be felt. It is alive with demonic spirits. I do not know how long this will be. If it’s exactly like Exodus then it will be 3 days. Whatever it is God protects those that trust Him and do what He tells them to do. God gave us all we need in His Word and we need to know His Word and use it. His Word is life. His Word is light. And His Word is  revelation on what we need to live this life victoriously. Additional Scriptures: * Read the Word as an instruction Manuel, a fighting plan. Yes, it builds your faith and joy - Praise God!.. and the Lord speaks to you through His Word - He also instructs on how to stay steadfast in Him and fight. Stir up your the anointing of joy with praise; stay in the peace of God - never make a decision unless you have the peace of God in your heart, not your head. And definitely stay in love!! All things when done correctly come from Love. 1 Peter 3-4 Colossians 2:15 Job 1-2 2 Peter 2-3 1 Corinthians 2 Hebrews 1 Philippians 2:9-11 Ephesians 6:10-18 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 Colossians 1:13 Philippians 1:6 1 John (all) John 3, 10, 12, 14-17 Ephesians 1-3 Romans 8 (especially vs. 31, 37-39) Mark 16:17-18 Psalm 91 2 Timothy 1:7; 4:18 Psalm 27:2 Psalm 34 Psalm 121

Faith Has A Speed! There’s a flow of faith that we as believers must enter. Hebrews 11:1 “ Now faith is  the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith has a flow! Use your faith on the Word of God to pray over your circumstances. Add your faith substance to your prayers by  expecting God to bring your victory. Faith has a flow. Faith has a speed. Faith has a speed that is immeasurable by natural law, but one that is always NOW. Faith never stops, ever!! How To Move At The Speed Of Faith Faith can supersede natural laws and defy logic to bring about supernatural results. No circumstance, hurdle, setback or enemy can pause our faith or bring victory to a halt. It cannot be defeated, and it will not quit. Even the gates of hell cannot prevail against us, bringing glory to God! Sin, doubt, fear, insecurities, unforgiveness, negative words and a lack of the Word in your heart will stop you in your tracks. But make no mistake, faith will keep moving—with or without you. The flow of faith and its speed is IN you! 1 Corinthians 15:57 “But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory (making us conquerors) through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Because of Jesus, we are not fighting for   a position of victory, we are fighting from  a position of victory. But you have to see your victory in Him no matter the current circumstance. To see anything else is to lose step with the speed of faith. Always see your victory. Victory is final and complete supremacy, meaning the victory has already been won—our victory. To move at the speed of faith, you have to see things the way God does. You have to see your victory in Christ out in front of you all the time. You can only do that by staying in the Word with what it says regarding your situation. The victory is yours!! Jesus already did everything. Now speak over the situation and praise God for the victory!

Spirit, What is my spirit, Soul, What is my soul, Are Soul and Spirit the same, are spirit and soul different, body, God, Jesus, Bible, Scripture Spirit, Soul, & Body How to Discern the Difference Article below or click link for downloadable PDF PDF Spirit, Soul, & Body HOW TO DISCERN THE DIFFERENCE The difference in “who” is talking to you and how all of this operates. We are a Spirit, we have a Soul, and we live in a Body. * You will at different times hear from your Spirit, Soul, and Body, and from the devil. Learn how to hear each. Learn how to take authority over your soul. Learn how to be disciplined. In this, you will learn how to walk with the Lord and re-train yourself. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 - All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God may be mature thoroughly furnished until all good works. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 - and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God, your whole spirit, and soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. NOTE: The initial letter for “S” for “Spirit” is capitalized when speaking of God and kept in lower case when speaking of mankind. When the two are referred to as together it is capitalized. For “Spirit”, “Soul’, “Body” & “Word” it is usually kept in lower case but when a point is made or to stand out it is capitalized. I also emphasize certain parts of scriptures in italics or bold. Lettering emphasis can only be seen on PDF of article. * TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: LET’S BEGIN WITH THE BASICS CHAPTER TW0: LEARNING TO WALK WITH GOD CHAPTER THREE: FURTHER DETAILS ON THE BODY CHAPTER FOUR: FURTHER DETAILS ON THE SOUL CHAPTER FIVE: MORE ON THE SPIRIT CHAPTER SIX : CONCLUSION SCRIPTURE REFERENCES CHAPTER ONE - LET’S BEGIN WITH THE BASICS Notice how sometimes these words are used interchangeably in scripture - while they can overlap they do have distinct differences and we should be reflective on the distinction to allow the Lord to reveal His hidden aspects of how He made us: spirit and soul; spirit and heart; heart and soul. Spirit : The spirit encompasses the heart and the soul - they are connected and cannot be distinguished from each other except with the word of God, Hebrews 4:12 , and is the immortal part that connects with God. (Proverbs 20:27 & Genesis 2:7, & John 4:24 .) Another way to say it is the spirit is the “housing” for the heart and soul. Soul : Is within the spirit. The soul houses the innermost part of a person encompassing emotions, will, mind/intellect, personality, and moral character, it is the center of thought and decision making. The soul encompasses the heart. The soul encases the mind that is within the heart - the mind needs to be renewed - Romans 12:2 , not the spirit. The spirit gets recreated with God when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. The spirit is brand new. 1 Corinthians 5:17 - you are a new creature. It is the mind which is encased in the heart within the soul that needs to be re-trained by you, through the Holy Spirit. Your mind effects your heart, and is a part of your soul - Proverbs 4:20-27 . Heart : Is within the soul. Reflects the spiritual state and intentions of an individual. It reflects one’s entire being and actions and is a part of the spirit and soul specifically dealing with the mind and will. It is the “inner man”. Purity of heart - or of the mind and will - is linked to the ability to perceive and experience God’s presence. If you struggle with perceiving and experiencing God - check your mind, how you think of yourself and how you think of God; and check your will. This is powerful if you are willing to go there. Heart is used interchangeably with soul but is specific to the moral compass and influences of one’s entire being and actions. Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. When there are heart wounds, it crushes the spirit and is reflected in the body, not only in mannerisms and carriage of the body but also in health. The heart is a battleground for spiritual warfare, the mind and will - Ephesians 6:14 - the breastplate of righteousness covers the heart and protects it, when you are mindful, on purpose by decision to not take offense or bitterness which damage the heart, and instead forgive no matter how much your mind and will don’t want to. Do it on purpose because God said so. (Matthew 6:14-15 .) Ask the Lord to let you know when these things happen so you can guard your heart - Proverbs 4:20-27 . (See Images shown on page 5 of PDF of article) Restate in another way : Spirit : The spirit encompasses all of it - the soul and heart, and is the immortal part that connects with God. The heart and the soul can be injured and not open to God, not sharing with God, and not yielding to God, and opposed to God, yet the spirit still yearns for Him. This is why so many people in the world are so unhappy. Looking at the other aspects of the spirit - soul and heart - is a means of taking the specific geography of the spirit, how your soul or your heart are placed in relationship within your spirit for your own discernment, to discover what may be in the way or hindering our relationship with God. If something is hindering there is always some sort of offense/unforgiveness (discouragement, mis-judgment of Him or us, hurt, bitterness), or pride that has gotten in the way of our being able to hear Him. This occurs in the mind/thoughts. Then the will steps in and an unconscious decision is made to be “hurt” or take offense, because “how” could someone “do that to me.” This, my friends, is offense. It occurs wholly in the soul. Specifically in the heart through the mind. The spirit houses it all, like Ezekiel 36:26-27 . This makes sense with what we have discovered with the heart being a part of the soul, and mind is distinguished as a part of the heart and soul because decisions are made here - in the mind. This is why we have to renew our minds. Proverbs 20:27 - (NIV) The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord that sheds light on one’s inmost being. (NKJV) The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Your spirit by the Holy Spirit leads you and sheds light on what is going on in your soul and heart. Father God will reveal the decisions, even subconscious ones, that are hindering you. He will also show you your successes! Genesis 2:7 - (NKJV) Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. From this scripture we see how spirit and soul are synonymous, but different: Hebrew for spirit (ruach) means the “breath of life.” Hebrew for soul (nephesh) is “living being”. Job 33:4 - The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. The spirit encompasses the heart and soul; and is the immortal part that connects with God. Matthew 22:37 - (NIV) Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This passage and others show a distinction between parts of the spirit: heart, soul, and mind for clarity of what we are dealing with. Notice it says “with all.” Which means we can do it in “part”, not all. Like the phrase of “being half-hearted.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 - (NIV) May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, (whole) soul and (whole) body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it. I repeated the word “whole” with “soul” and “body” in that passage because in the English language it is understood they go together because of the comma usage. God helps us with our entire spirit, our entire soul, and entire body; and yearns for us wholly, not just in part! Just like any parent. Heart : Another way to think of the heart: refers to the core of a person’s being, encompassing emotions and thoughts. Scripture often contrasts a hardened heart with a receptive heart. A hardened heart is resistant to God’s word and will. A receptive heart is open to God’s influence and guidance. This is why God looks on the heart, 1 Samuel 16:7 . The heart influences one’s entire being and actions, Proverbs 4:20-27 , and the pathways to the heart are what we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and what comes out of our mouths. This is why the Lord speaks about the words we say. (Matthew 12:34-37 .) Watching these three areas can be very overwhelming if you have never done it. You will quickly see what is in your heart. Take the opportunity for personal reflection to see where you are at. It is quite eye opening. You may want to study passages with the word ‘heart”, particularly in Proverbs. However it is all throughout the Bible. Proverbs also says much about our words. The Body : It is our “outer layer” and speaks according to the 5 senses - what you can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Yes, this influences the heart. That is why distinguishing between the input coming in and what is influencing our decisions is vital. This is also why illness can be a serious hurdle. It is in times of sickness that pressing in to God and what He has said is imperative, because it goes contrary to what doctors say and to how you are feeling. Trust Him to direct your steps - and He certainly will. Proverbs 18:14 - (NIV) “The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” [Whatever the Lord tells you to do, do it. I will explain a personal situation in regards to this with illness later.] The body is the part of us that touches the world around us. Helps us interact with the physical world. To know if it’s hot or cold, to know when to cross the street, or when we are thirsty or hungry, and so on. Some people are controlled by their body. How their body feels with its sensations at any moment takes precedence over spirit or soul. This is a dangerous way to live life. *** Hebrews 4:12 - For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing between soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. What can be divided means it is connected. But until we receive Jesus Christ into our heart we are unable to understand what is happening with us. We can’t distinguish the difference. Our heart can only be circumcised by Him, cutting away the “old man” from our Spirit. The soul has to be renewed - it is the “renewing of our mind” Romans 12:2 & Ephesians 4:23 which happens by putting Proverbs 4:20-27 to work! We have to literally put the word into our eyes, ears, and out our mouth in order to uproot the bad stuff that has been planted in our hearts. These things get planted by our parents, relatives, siblings, teachers, etc. They are things we are told we “are” that have no bearing on who we actually are. And we take them on as our “identity”. It’s time for an identity EXCHANGE! To no longer be what we are told and instead to be who Christ tells us we are! HOW TO : Get scripture regarding the area of struggle for you. It always has to do with self-image. Look at “who” God says you are, who you are IN Christ Jesus. There are a plethora of scriptures in the Epistles that say “in Him”, “in Christ”, “in Christ Jesus”, “in Whom”. These scriptures are “who” you really are. Read them over and over. Read them until they simply come out of your heart as you speak. You don’t have to think about them. THIS IS NOT MEMORIZING! Your heart will influence your memory! And the scripture will bubble up out of your heart when your heart is full, Matthew 12:34-37 - Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. THIS is how you change the image you have of yourself, in your subconscious…which in your heart! Use the scriptures that EXCITE you. THAT is how you tell what the Holy Spirit is “highlighting” to you. Use them! As you do this He will highlight more and more to you! And then He will give you revelation about that subject. It’s AWESOME! Read and re-read those scriptures, speak them out loud. Do it every day. Your getting the words and image in your eyes, out your mouth, and in your ears as you speak them - (Proverbs 4:20-27 ) you are using all the pathways into your heart to uproot the bad and plant the good seed! (Matthew 12:34-37 ). Then you water the seed by continual speaking of those scriptures. (Mark 4:13-20 & Ephesians 5:26 - By being sanctified [or separated unto God] and cleansed with the washing of the water by the word.) This will renew your mind. It will change how you think of yourself. The Lord may lead you to other scriptures to add - add them. Or perhaps that season (maybe the season was a few months, or even a year) whenever the season is done you will “know” in your heart. You won’t be excited about them in the same way. You’ll feel restless deep down, in your inner man. When the season with those scriptures is completed and He directs you to others, do it. Or perhaps He will direct you to reading whole books of the Bible or chapters; or prayer. You can tell because your “want to” with those same scriptures diminishes and shifts to go another way. Again, your “excited” about this new direction. That is what you follow. After all, the joy of the Lord is your strength - Nehemiah 8:10, 12 - and you get the joy of the Lord from what you understand in His word! This is part of learning how the Lord leads you. His leading ALWAYS causes joy and “revelation knowledge” - Ephesians 1:16-23 . You can’t truly hang out with the Lord without revelation knowledge. That is Who He is. Recall what people said about Jesus when He was preaching in the synagogue. They were constantly amazed at His preaching and had never heard anything like it. Thats because of the revelation knowledge that He speaks through the word and in your heart. *** In our daily life interacting with this world typically the soul or body has priority over our spirit man = spirit is where God speaks, God is a Spirit and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth (or the word, John 4:23-24 & 17:17 ). If the soul - our intellect/mind, emotions, personality etc. has priority - then the second in command is the body and we are unable to focus on when God is speaking with us. We have our priorities messed up. Both the soul and body have not been renewed yet until we choose to do it. This is why they cause such trouble and we can’t hear God when we haven’t learned how to take authority over those parts of us in the Name of Jesus. This is why it is imperative to live a life in the way as described in blue text above, renewing your mind with scripture to change the image you have of yourself in your heart; and always follow the Lord’s leading. Period. Even when you miss it, ask for forgiveness and get back on track. It’s not a big deal. We are in sin ridden bodies living in a fallen world - we will mess up. Guaranteed. BUT God removes sin as far as the east is from the west, and He does not remember it. (Psalm 103:12 & Hebrews 8:12 & Isaiah 43:25 .) He does not strip you of your salvation just because you mess up. YOU ARE A NEW CREATURE! You have been born again. We know how God is about birth and abortions. If He’s adamant about physical ones He is certainly adamant about spiritual births. He will not take it away from you! That would be against His very nature = God is life! Not death. If this is something you have struggled with I suggest reading and re-reading John. If you don’t want to read the whole book then spend time in John chapters 3, 10, 14-17 . Notice how many times it talks about being born again is ETERNAL. And out of two or three witnesses let every word be established - this is way more than two or three times stating the same thing. (Matthew 18:16 .) The Spirit : this is the part that has been recreated by accepting Jesus into our hearts and is in contact with God. It’s that part that has “changed” and you can’t explain it - you simply “feel different” but it has nothing to do with “feelings” as in emotions. Unfortunately the English language does not make a difference. He speaks to us through our spirit and only the word of God and things pertaining to the word of God come through our spirit. Jesus is the word made flesh. (John 1:1,14 .) God and His word are the same thing and this is how He speaks, things that go in line with His word. As you get used to hearing Him, He will use plain English phrasing and words but it is still entirely coming from scripture. The more scripture you “know” in your heart the more secure you will be at discerning the “voices” that you hear - weather it’s from God, your mind/heart/soul, or the enemy. The enemy only speaks bad things to you, about you… and he does it sneakily, sounding like you talking to yourself in your mind and putting you down. Almost every time that is him. Sometimes it is your own thoughts that are speaking the negative junk you got programmed with, so renew that part of you; but it is typically the enemy. Then once he’s aware that you know his game he will speak to you directly and tell you he will kill you. So what else is new. John 10:10 the enemy has come to steal, kill, and destroy, and he’s a liar (John 8:44 ), these are the things he says to you and about you and about your loved ones, to you. It’s not God. Never. Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly, He is love, His is life, He is the word, He is revelation knowledge and He is joy. Even in correction the Lord gives it is done with love and life, not condemnation. (Hebrews 12:11; Proverbs 12:1, & Romans 8:1 .) So what do we do with those thoughts he tries to trickle or slam into our minds? 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 - we cast them down in the Name of Jesus and then REPLACE those thoughts with the word that contradicts them. There may be specific scripture that bubbles up out of your heart (by the Holy Spirit). Use it! Like, if the thought comes up: “You can’t possibly do this project, are you kidding!” - that’s a demonic thought. So speak out loud to yourself: “That’s a lie! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! I’ve got the Mind of Christ!” (Philippians 4:13 & 1 Corinthians 16 .) Plus there is another scripture in Philippians 4:7-8 “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren whatever is true, whatever is honest, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report; if there be any virtue and any praise THINK on these things.” Following your “peace” is key and keep these thoughts from the word. By doing these actions you are renewing your mind and kicking the devil out. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t “easy-peasy”. The devil will put up all sorts of junk in your head as you go about renewing your mind and heart. Always tries to throw a wrench in things to get you off of following God, and he wants to keep you prisoner to his machinations. Don’t fall for it! He won’t stick around long. It may take two or three days, but after that it’s smooth sailing and when he shows up again at a later date to try to pull the same junk - because he doesn’t have anything new, it’s always the same - cast down the thought and replace it with what the word says. It’s simple but initially it’s not easy. It’s gets easy once you’ve done it and live your life this way. *** Our Spirit is what is called the “inward man” - or the “inner part of the belly” - Proverbs 20:2; Ephesians 3:16; & Psalm 51:6. It’s deep down within us. If you place your hand on your upper belly, the soft area at the opening of the rib cage, deep within that region. This is where you get those “gut feelings.” That’s where your Spirit is. When you “get” an unction, a revelation, from the Holy Spirit through your spirit there is a quality to it…it’s “good.” You think: “Man, that’s good!” There is a sweetness to it. And there’s peace to it. Your belly is just so, so, good and likes what it “heard.” Totally satisfied, like you ate a really good meal. *** Hebrews 4:12 - (NIV) “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit…” Be aware of “naming” things coming from your soul (heart, mind, will, emotions, personality, thinking) with the same terms used for the spirit. Yes, the soul is a part of the spirit. But for proper discernment you need to know the distinction. You are deceiving yourself if you don’t. You are buying into a con game either from your own thinking or from the devil to hoodwink you into thinking or “reasoning” it is coming from your spirit, when it is not. A person will always be deceived when this happens - James 1:22 . The way to do this is with the word. Test the thing you “hear” or think against the word and with the Holy Spirit. John 4:23-24 , 17:17 . You can’t be hood winked for long. The “unction” you get in your gut, it just doesn’t “settle” in you. It makes you uncomfortable. You simply don’t have peace about it. Colossians 3:15 - (AMP) And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ RULE (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s ] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always]. Trust what the Holy Spirit is impressing on you - do you have peace or no peace. Both are means of the Holy Spirit speaking to you. If you do not have peace, stay away from the situation, person, etc When you have questions regarding a situation, that means you don’t have peace. If you’ve been struggling for a while, you can always tell by the fruit of your life, what do you have? If you don’t like what you see, talk with the Lord. Ask for His correction. Repent when He shows you, and make the changes He tells you to make. Our bodies will be rebellious and we need to keep them into subjection to the word. They are not re-created yet. So they will be disobedient. You can count on it. This is the reason why it is important to fast. To keep our bodies under and not rebellious. To take charge, on purpose, what you allow your body to eat and when. This is telling your body “who” is in control. Because the enemy is in this realm and makes plans against the body. Fasting helps our spiritual ears to hear the Lord more clearly when our bodies aren’t fussing. Now you don’t need to do long fasts. They may be for one meal. Go as the Lord leads. Don’t just do what you “think” - go with the Holy Spirit and His unction. 1 John 2:20, 22 KJV. “But you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things…But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and is truth and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in Him.” And with that time that you would eat, instead pray and stay in the word. Always follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in ALL things. He will lead you and teach you. John 16:16-17, 26-27; 16:13-15 . As the Holy Spirit is leading you it will ALWAYS glorify Jesus! We discipline our bodies by not allowing it to rule us. Instead we give God the priority and allow Him to rule us through our spirit. We have to give one part priority and the other two into subjection. This is the way our system works. And until we learn how to do this from God’s word, we are either ruled by our bodies or ruled by our souls. For those that have relied on their intellect, it can be a struggle. Because you can’t count on what you think. It may be different to what God says in His word. We then follow whichever one we are giving credence to and speaking along those lines and doing actions along those lines we are bringing the things to pass by “speaking” and “doing” what is ruling us. You can always tell what is ruling you by listening to what comes out of your mouth. Then you will know what is in your heart and what is ruling you. We can change this by doing what God says to do about it. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks - Matthew 12:34 . It is sobering to observe what comes out of our mouths. Whatever is in our heart. If it’s contrary to the word of God it is coming from our soul or body, or from the devil and we need to change it. Yes, the devil throws thoughts at our heads and if we take that thought and start speaking it, which is what the enemy wants, we will bring that word to pass. Because the things we speak are what we have. Genesis 1 - God spoke and it was so. We are made in His image. Instead let’s choose to have God rule from our spirit. We are one Spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 - Whoever is united with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. Hebrews 4:12 - For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing between soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart. We see from what the Lord has said in these scriptures that we are ONE with HIM in our inner man, our spirit! It may not “feel” like it but we are. We also see that If you can divide spirit and soul, then that means they are together. Which shows us we can’t tell “what” or should I say “who” is speaking unless we use the word. The Word is the only way to discern who is “talking” and what you are being motivated by: spirit or soul, or body, or the devil. They each have a “voice” and a particular way of speaking to us as stated at the beginning of this article. And we can discern what part is “talking” to us with thoughts when we dive into the word and believe what He says about us! When you ask the Holy Spirit for insight He will let you know whether that “thought” was from your intellect, emotions, five senses, personality, the devil, or from Him. It helps knowing the difference, it’s actually a comfort. Weird, I know. But it helps. And it’s all handled the same way: cast it down in Jesus Name and replace it with the word. As we do this the Holy Spirit “shows” us things…I call them “a-ha” moments. These are times when we get the “a-ha” about a particular situation we are wondering about. Our spiritual eyes “see” what is happening. That’s called: revelation knowledge (Ephesians 1:17-18 ), which we get from the Holy Spirit. He IS revelation knowledge. The more you “hang out” with Him the more revelation knowledge you get. Yes He is always with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you. But doing it on purpose to share time with Him is what He desires from you. God wants to hang out with His kids! “Choose” - on purpose - to spend time with Him and listening for His leading/unction and following what He says. The more you do this, the more revelation you’ll have…if you are willing to receive it. We always have to be willing to receive. Sometimes that can be challenging. Often I have seen many brothers and sisters in Christ not receiving because “deep down” - in their heart - the “image” they have of themselves is that they are not worthy. But that’s a lie. They haven’t taken the time to retrain their heart. God sent His only Son to die for YOU! He poured everything He had into Jesus and Jesus poured it all out on the cross to save you. That’s a mighty gift! RECEIVE the FULLNESS of it! To "receive" is a decision! Because bless God, we can do it through Him because we “choose” to believe Him and do what He says to do. As we continue to spend time with Him we begin to notice when we are being “just us,” being weird, “fleshly” - in our carnality; or if we are “seeing” through the lens of the Holy Spirit. This only happens as we talk with the Lord about it and stay in the word about the situation and do what He reveals and tells us to do. A friend said to me once, “Discernment is not knowing right from wrong but knowing right from almost right.” Huge insight to her statement! (That’s the Holy Spirit operating through someone else to giv e the word that is needed! I thank God for that.) We need to press into the Holy Spirit to “see” what is right from almost right with all things, and in this case from “what” or “who” is speaking to us: spirit, soul, body, or the devil. Each speaks differently. You know, if you have a friend who is from another country - they have a certain way of speaking, catch phrases, subject matter they like to discuss, metaphors, and so on. It’s the same here. spirit, soul, body, and the devil, all speak differently and come at you from particular places: Spirit - God deep inside your being speaking in line with the word of God; He gives you that still, small voice deep down within you, 1 Kings 19:11-12 . Soul - occurs in your thinking or emotions, or personality; Body - things of the 5 senses which are needed for this physical world, bear in mind your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit so how we treat our bodies is important; devil - from outside of your body to your head as thoughts coming from the outside-in pretending at being “you” talking to yourself. Sometimes pretending to be God - Isaiah 14:12-14 . Always saying bad things about you, to you, so that you think it is “yourself” - he has been running con jobs, always a liar and skilled liar of which he is the father of lies, hides the lies within truth, he even knows scripture and will quote it to you in the wrong way just like he did with Jesus in the temptation in the wilderness. Always speaks about bad things you’ve done in the past of which God already forgave you of and has no memory of it - He has removed it as far as the east is from the west - Psalm 103:12. BE SURE YOU RECEIVE THAT FORGIVENESS. Plus the devil always comes from the five sense realm (body) or emotions (soul) because the senses and emotions can “drive” someone. Whenever you are being “driven” - “pushed” to do something and you can’t control it the devil is always behind it. When we operate with God in the Spirit, through our Soul, and to our Body we will get the victory. Giving God priority makes the difference, rather than soul or body. He is who we go to everyday. It’s a shared relationship, just like you do with your spouse. You share. It’s no different with God. You share with Him and He shares with you. *** The spirit is the enigmatic part of us that most born again brothers and sisters have no idea how to operate from; and people who are not saved do not have any idea at all - it’s’ not possible because they are not spiritually alive, it is spiritual death without the Lord. 1 Corinthians 2:9-14 - 9 But as it is written:“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Romans 8:6 - The mind of the flesh is death but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Romans shows us there is a mind of the flesh, carnal thinking; AND a mind of the Spirit. That’s a revelation! This is how we have the Mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16 .) Whatever He tells you to do, do. So if He says you need to eat vegetables for a few days, do it. Or if He tells you to get more rest, do it. We do this no matter what our bodies want = the mind of the flesh. We give God the priority and do what He says. He always has a good reason, and the reason is for our benefit. But it is up to us to discipline our flesh when it rears its ugly head with its thinking and wants to do things contrary to the spirit. How do we do that? It is the same whether it is for our flesh/body or our soul: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 - For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4. For the weapons or our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. 5. Casting down vain imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 6. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. This is a great scripture for step by step instruction of “how” to deal with the unruly flesh/body, as well as our soul, or the devil, when they are causing havoc. What is a “strong hold”? It is a belief system that we have. We identify with it. We think it’s “the truth.” But it is simply a thought we were taught somewhere along our life and have treated it “as truth.” We do this, it defines us. BUT we can tear it down through casting down the thought in Jesus Name. We will get into this more in later paragraphs. Verse 5 can be phrased another way for seeing the order of what we are to do: “By casting down vain imaginations, and every high (or lofty) thought that exalts itself over the word, or speaks contrary to the word brings that thought into captivity to obedience to Christ, and being ready to revenge all disobedience from our bodies, souls, or the devil.” Many times the common Christian phrase that is used is: “rebuke that thought” for a thought that comes up contrary to God and His word. But this is only half of what needs to be done. The next part is to replace that thought with the appropriate scripture that contradicts that thought. Or in common writing terms when you are using a word processor, you use the key for “find and replace.” That’s what we want to do with the word. Find the appropriate scripture on a situation and replace your previous “ingrai ned” thought(s) - or “strong hold” - speak them out loud so your mind hears what your mouth is saying and cancel them out in Jesus Name and replace it with what the word says. For example : a thought comes to your mind that you have no will power to eat healthy. You may even make a statement in jest to someone along those lines. As soon as you realize it (even if it’s hours later), speak out loud to yourself. Say: “I refuse that thought in Jesus Name, and cast it out! I HAVE the will power because I am a new creature in Christ Jesus. Old things are gone away and ALL has become new!! (2 Corinthians 5:17 .) I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13 .) This is what you do with thoughts and words that come up from your heart or into your mind and out of your mouth, to take authority over them. When you first do this you will feel like you’re are lying to yourself because you had always thought that negative thought. It was a “strong hold.” But now you are replacing the “you” with God. Identity exchange! It is His thought of who you are and you are making it yours. On purpose. He’s right. Always. (God being right is a decision you will have to make. We all have to and do so whether we are aware of it or not.) This first day you will have to do it a lot. It may seem like every 10 seconds you’re having to cast down thoughts and replace them with the word. But as you stay persistent it will get easier. Even the next day will be easier. By the third day it will be even easier. By the fourth day you’re doing a victory dance because it’s over. There will be times here and there of the flesh rearing its ugly head or the devil tryin to jump in, but it’s laughable when it happens and you treat it the same as you did at the start: cast down that thought in the Name of Jesus and replace it with the Word. You can always ask the Holy Spirit for His help, always. He is our Helper. John 14:26; Psalm 141:3 - “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers; do not let me eat their delicacies.” There’s another in Psalm 139:23-24 - “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” But one word of caution…. using this scripture is telling God you are ready for a test. Be sure you are. Because a test will come. If the Holy Spirit is leading you to pray this, be ready because the test will come. He would’t lead you unless you are ready. And when a test comes and your in the midst of it and your praying about it, most of the time the Lord will not speak or lead. He’s quiet. Just like taking a test in school. The teacher (Holy Spirit) is sitting at the desk quietly while you are taking the test, he (He) doesn’t talk. After the test is over, He speaks/leads. *** As you live your life this way He will highlight to you when something has come out of our mouth, or thought, or action that is contrary to the Word of God. It’s that scratchy “feeling”, uncomfortable, in your inner man-your belly. Take action on what He is telling you to do. Let’s look more closely at Proverbs 4:20-27 : What goes into our eyes and our ears can get into our heart. Mouth is a two way gate. We speak out of the abundance in our heart, that’s how we know what is in it; and we can speak the word out loud to change what is planted in our heart. This is our body and soul working together. That is how we are made. And the Lord gave us scripture for this: Proverbs 4:20-27 - Berean Study Bible: 20 My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body. 23 Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life. 24 Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech. 25 Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. 26 Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil. In verse 20-21 we see word(s), what we hear causes “images” to come up. We see what was said. This happens no matter what is spoken. This is why we have to be careful what we “hear”. It causes images in our mind. If we keep thinking on it, it will come out of our mouth. If we are “inclining our ear” to the word of God we will be storing it in our heart and have life and health. Out of our heart springs life. But if we are storing things contrary to the word of God, then we are springing up death from our heart and those words we speak will be “death” types of words. Like when someone constantly has negative things to say. They are hard to be around because they are so negative. That is a heart issue, a heart filled with sickness, death, disease, destruction. And we know who is the instigator of that - John 10:10 the devil has come to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came to give life and that more abundantly. The remainder of the verses are about staying focused on God’s word and doing it. The steps are simple. The “doing” of it is initially a challenge due to our “feelings” but the Lord also changes our “feelings” when we do this and He is with you every step of the way and will help you. *** I’m going to repeat myself again, I am choosing to do that in this article because this is important: Watching our words is the first thing to notice and when something comes out, we say something that is contrary to the word, immediately repent of it. Not just ask forgiveness. “Repent” - which means to change our way of thinking about that situation. Then cancel those words out in Jesus Name, because they create. AND then replace them with what the word says about that situation. STOP yourself when you realize you said something contrary to the word - even if its hours later. Then say: “Sweet Heavenly Father, forgive me for saying that. I change my thinking with what Your word says about me. I forbid my body to have control over me in Jesus Name! I keep my focus on You in my spirit through the Holy Spirit in charge of my physical Body and Soul, and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It’s not my strength, it’s Yours! And I thank You for giving it to me.” (Philippians 4:13 .) *** CHAPTER TW0: LEARNING TO WALK WITH GOD Now that you know the basics you can begin or renew your relationship with God. And we do all of what was mentioned on previous pages because we love the Lord and want to clearly hear Him and be directed by Him. It’s about our intimate relationship with Him. He is closer than a brother. He is always on our side and wants to help us. Proverbs 18:24 . He is your biggest fan! Spending time with the Lord is the most important thing. Any relationship needs time with that person. Our relationship with the Lord is no different. The more you read His word the more you learn how He talks. Where most people miss His voice is when they think they hear themselves, but it’s really Him. Like those “ideas” that just “pop” up in your mind that are key for whatever you are doing at work. Try this at work: discipline yourself to ask for His help. Ask: “Okay, Lord, how do I do this?” An idea or hunch will come from deep within your being to your head as a thought. You check that “thought” this way: a.) Do you have “peace’ about it? b.) Do you have joy about it? If you have peace and joy, it’s Him. Especially joy. (Colossians 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Psalm 16:11 .) Love, joy, peace are all results of hearing from Him, they are Him and He exudes them. When He speaks to you they are always present. Even when He is correcting us! There is peace and love. While it’s sobering, there is liberty - freedom in taking His correction, never bondage. If there is “confusion” - that is not God. He is not the author of confusion but of peace - 1 Corinthians 14:33 . Be sure to give God the glory for sharing and directing you. Another example: you know that friend or associate you have that is so great to be around. You feel great about yourself when you’re with them. You laugh. Have a good time. Enjoy each others’ company. This is what it’s like with the Lord! Even more so because He is the creator of all that exists - and you are a friend of God and His love for you is all encompassing and everlasting. Basking in that relationship with Him…there’s nothing like it. CHAPTER THREE: FURTHER DETAILS ON THE BODY Ephesians 6:12 - For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Proverbs 18:14 (NIV) - The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? In this Ephesians scripture we can see the relationship between the devil and the flesh. They are symbiotic. This world is where he roams and attacks come in the material world and will affect our bodies. All ways, and always. Proverbs says our spirit can endure through attacks on the body, sickness, if our spirit is healthy. Which doing all the afore mentioned things will restore a damaged heart and crushed spirit. Let’s face it, we have all had times where these things have occurred that damaged our hearts and spirits. Allow the Lord to heal your heart - He came to heal the broken hearted - Luke 4:18 . Attacks can also come to our minds as “Thoughts.” They come from the outside into our heads. Usually that’s his doing. Sometimes thoughts from other people come by the things they say. Thoughts also come from the outside from whatever we are giving our attention to, like books, movies, music, and conversation. But this is where we need to control what comes into our “gateways.” We have to guard our heart. And in the flesh realm is where we see the devil roams in scripture. Look at Job 1:6-7 and Job 2:1-2 . He is roaming the earth. And we see in 1 Peter 5:8-10 he is roaming the earth to seek someone to devour. And devouring was on his mind with Job. God wouldn’t allow him to devour Job but He allowed the devil to do it to Job’s family. I have heard people ask “why did God allow that?”. When you read the first couple of chapters you see that his kids were in sinful behavior, his wife was in sinful behavior (complaining about God, like Israel did in the desert), and we see Job was in fear because of the sacrifices he offered continually for his kids because of their sin. A parent or whomever is led to intercede for someone in sinful behavior is only allowed for so long. God expects the people (or person) to make it right. God had to allow it when He was asked by the devil by His very own truth, law. Job was supposedly the first book written, before the law but God’s law is forever. God is forever. His truth is forever. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And being disobedient to Him knowingly or unknowingly, although they had no understanding, allowed the devil to pounce. An opening was created and when the devil asked permission God had to allow it. The only way the devil can have access is if someone allows him by their thoughts/emotions (which includes “pride”), words, and actions. We have Authority over him as Jesus told us in Luke 10:17-19 . We are to use that Authority that Jesus gave us in His word, in His Name as He said and do honor to His blood that was spilt for us. He upholds all things by the Word of His power! (Hebrews 1:3. ) And when someone is in sin there is always a result for the sin. Repentance sometimes voids the result or outcome, sometimes it does not. There are times when people in the Bible had to go through the result of their sin even though they got their hearts right with God. I believe Adam and Eve were the first; Abraham - yes, he brought Lot with him who was family and yet Abraham was called God’s friend and Jesus was able to come to the earth because of Abraham’s faith for God to raise his son from the dead. (Hebrews 6:13-20 .) Abraham’s faith was more important than the sin of taking his nephew Lot with him on his journey. But who knows how that would have happened if Abraham didn’t take Lot. (Genesis 12:1, 4-5 .) James 4:7 - Submit yourself to God…..resist the devil and he will flee. Consciously submit and yield ourselves to God!! We do this first. Then as we resist the devil by casting down his thoughts and accusations he will flee, but we have to resist. Resist the thoughts he throws into our heads and the drives of our bodies. In fact, if there is a bodily “drive” that you cannot get away from it is always demonically induced. Same with patterns or cycles. In these cases ask the Lord what’s happening and He will tell you the spirit behind it, then cast it out in Jesus Name and cut all cords. (Luke 10:17-20 & Proverbs 5:21-23; Psalm 129:4-5. ) Now some may have a problem with what I just said, “thinking” that a born again person cannot be demonized (demon possessed). It can happen. I’ve seen it and personally experienced it many times, but I’ve always seen victory through my Lord Jesus Christ when the opportunity was right. The flesh can have a demon attached and so can the soul, particularly the mind. They can burrow up in organs, causing break down and tumors, cancers, and other diseases. (Pray for the Holy Spirit to cleanse that organ(s) once you’ve cast it out in Jesus Name and ask the Lord for the Balm of Gilead on the organ. Balm of Gilead symbolizes hope and restoration, Jeremiah 8:22.) Not all illness and disease is caused by demons. Because sin and death are in this material realm the body goes into breakdown and when there are family curses they can cause the body systems to be weakened. However, family curses always have demons attached even if they are not activated. You can study this out in your own time. There’s much to it. Every believer should go through deliverance if they have not. There is always some spirit attached from living in this world. You can’t get through life without experiencing it whether you know it or not. Symptoms: feeling “pressure”, impulse or drive to do something or behave a certain way, repeating cycles of behavior - things that you can’t break the habit of doing (whether minor or major things), constant running negative thoughts that you can stop using the word but they always come back even after years “you just can’t stop it”. That’s a phrase you want to give attention to! These kinds of “pressures” or “being forced” when you know it’s wrong and you don’t want to do it is always demonic. This is not depressing, it’s liberating. That “depressing” feeling is also coming from a spirit. Get rid of it in Jesus Name and ask the Lord to cut the cords that enabled it to be there, repent of any sin that enabled it be there as well. *** We can take Authority over our flesh through Jesus and His Word. It keeps our body under. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27 - “but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” Romans 13:14 - But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. These scriptures are talking about the body according to the fallen state. That’s why we don’t want to give the body priority. Sounds good in concept but it can be trying when your going through illness. Which leads me to this. I had said I would share something and here we are. I have had many health trials throughout my life, since I was 16. A lot of weird things. Yes, there were family curses involved. Deliverance and breaking curses has been done and sometimes there is still the fallout from the curses even though they have been broken, which is what I’ve been going through this year in 2026. Brief but partial past history: I’ve had scarlet fever, blood clots in my lung that collapsed 2/3 rd’s of it, a massive stroke when I was 26 that doctors didn’t think I would survive (I was in a coma for three days, awoke paralyzed and couldn’t speak, read or write- Doc’s said I would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, but I have never been in one, glory to God; took 17 years for full recovery but the Lord healed my brain to such a state that when I had a recent brain scan with a different neurologist/neurosurgeon she said that she thought the stroke was mis-diagnosis because she didn’t see damage - Praise God!), and this year I have defeated cancer this year because of the Lord! I currently still have a benign brain tumor that needs to be removed because it is bleeding. It will be removed towards the end of summer. And that’s not everything. It’s crazy, I know. I’ve lived it. BUT God!!! He has brought me through all of it. I give Him all the glory!!! Because of all of this stuff, I have gone more the alternative route in healing in the last 25 years. Rarely will I go the way of western medicine, however, when the Lord says to do otherwise, you do it. Which goes against my “thinking”. In this recent incident at first, before I was diagnosed, I was doing my alternative stuff. It wasn’t helping. Not enough, anyway. I could tell something was off and it wasn’t getting better. Had been like this for 2-3 years. I was having weird symptoms. So finally I prayed. Imagine that! Chuckling to myself, finally instead of going my way to ask Him. Place “humph” emoji here. Yes, I was being hard headed. Took me a while. I should have asked Him earlier. I thank God for His forgiveness. Anyway, I asked “What is going on?!” I didn’t hear a response but that night or a few nights later I had a dream. Again, this was before ANY diagnosis. The Lord showed me two images side-by-side. One on the left was me in a hospital going through cancer treatment and the other image on the right was me in a hospital bed after having brain surgery. I “knew” - unction - that the two events were not related. The brain tumor was not cancerous. So when I got up, I did my “God time” - that’s what I call it. I asked the Lord, “What did that dream mean? Am I going to go through this?”. He said, “You have to go through this. I’ll be with you every step of the way. Rest in My hands.” And I “knew” that meant I had to go through “it” with western medicine - ‘cause I still wasn’t clear in my mind, not my spirit (two different things), that “it” meant cancer. I just understood that I had to go through “it”. There was no stopping “it”. The wheels were already in motion and I had to go through “it”. Bear in mind that sometimes we can doubt ourselves when God “gives us” something. Not initially. But later down the road we may doubt that we heard correctly. I had that experience here. BUT I had His spoken word which kept me stable through my doubting myself. God knew this would happen. That’s why He handled it this way with me. I “stuck” to what He told me: “You have to go through this and I’ll be with you every step of the way. Rest in My hands.” The reason why that’s important is to know how I doubted. Remember, Proverbs says that a healthy spirit can endure through sickness. I wasn’t sure if both situations were truly different or actually both cancerous. Which…being honest here…caused a wee bit of panic for a moment. But it was a moment. Either way, I “knew” IN my inner man that God was with me through all of it and was guiding all of it, no matter what…cancer or not. He has this. He created the entire universe - He can handle a piddly little thing like this! Pffffttt! Puh-lease! I trust Him. In fact, I told Him I wasn’t excited about this but no matter what I trust Him and that I know He’s got this and He’s got me. And when I got the initial diagnosis, the report said “head and throat cancer” that was stage 4. Which initially my body stressed because I had an instant thought that the brain tumor was cancerous as well. That was “pressure”! HOWEVER….after the initial “flutter” I could feel in my chest I IMMEDIATELY went to the Word God spoke to me and spoke it out of my mouth: “I DO NOT CARE WHAT THIS REPORT SAYS! GOD SAID I HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS AND THAT HE’S WITH ME, AND TO REST IN HIS HANDS, AND I DO, IN JESUS NAME!!! NO EVIL SHALL BEFALL ME, NO PLAGUE OR CALAMITY SHALL COME NEAR MY TENT!!” Those were the first words I spoke. The second part came out of my heart by the Holy Spirit - it just bubbled up and out of my mouth. That’s from filling my heart with the Word. It is my identity. Then when I looked again at the report the Lord reminded me of something I had read (I have a background in body work and have done a lot of research on medical things over the years), that when cancer shows up somewhere else besides the initial tumor, it is then classified as stage 4. There was a large tumor in the back of my tongue and a small bit of cancer cells in a lymph node under my tongue. I “knew” in my spirit that it wasn’t truly stage 4. And all three of my Oncologists said head and throat cancer does not spread anywhere else in the body! And that what they saw in the biopsy and PET scan were actually stage 1. Praise God!! That dream was around September of 2025. In November and December was when I went through a series of tests and found out what was happening. I had both, throat cancer and a benign brain tumor. I trusted each doctor that came across my path BECAUSE God was with me and guiding the entire situation, as He said He would do. So I just rested in His hands, no matter what, no matter how “scary” things may have sounded. I didn’t care because I had God’s Word on it! That settles it. I didnt fret about it. I knew I would get to the other side of it. Even when I had moments of “wondering” if the phrase of “getting through” meant dying. So to stop my mind from going nuts with this I looked up the word “through” - like going through a stop sign…your still in this world, you don’t shift to another plane of existence. That settled it for me. I never stressed about it again. This was not going to kill me. And even though I handle things alternatively - and definitely how I think - that was not the way to go with this from what the Lord said. I “knew” that by unction of the Holy Spirit deep within the belly that is what that dream meant, to go through western medicine. In fact, a friend of mine had the same cancer and was handling it alternatively but nearly died from it. She too had to go with western medicine. That is what the Lord told me to do and so I did it. And I definitely needed to trust Him and rest in His hands because there are rough spots and times with the treatment and much pain and discomfort, and times that could freak people out if they don’t do this with the Lord. That’s why He told me to “rest in His hands”. Especially during times of not being able to breath, swallow, move, or eat, a lot of pain, and throwing up. But He helped me through all of it. All glory goes to God because I am now cancer-free!!!! I am still going to have brain surgery in August, but that’s no big deal compared to all I experienced with the cancer treatment and recovery. God says He gives us new a heart…well, He can give us anything new we need! All glory to God in the highest! The reason why I share this is it takes trusting the Lord in what He tells you, even in tough situations especially with the body, because of the pain and you feel so sick and you can’t get away from it. You have to go through it. Then emotions get involved and can cause havoc. You have to cast those emotions and negative thoughts down and replace it with the Word. It’s crucial. In this case it was replacing it the Word that He spoke to me. It did help that I have been through so much already, I already “knew” in my heart who I am in Christ. I had taken the time…even years…of putting God’s Word into my heart to change how I think of myself. That I am already healed and made whole by the blood of Jesus and the enemy is trying to make me take sickness. I won’t do it. I can’t. It’s not who I am. Everyone around me from my husband, to family, in-laws, doctors, nurses, all say how great I’m doing and are amazed at how “positive” I am. It’s all because of Jesus Christ! And because I know Him and what He has said. Period. You can’t move me off of that. And this effects all those around me. They instead look at it from a positive place rather than negative…and it makes a huge difference. Matthew 26:41 - Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We are to keep “watch” and pray. “Pray” in straightforward terms means: in conversation with the Lord. We can do this all throughout the day. It’s conversation. This is what Paul means by “pray without ceasing” - 1 Thessalonians 5:17 . As we keep our hearts in tune with the Holy Spirit, He warns us of what is coming and the enemy’s traps. He then leads us to pray against it to stop it or decrease the severity of it (John 14:26 and Romans 8:26-27 ). The next part of the Matthew passage is key: our spirits are willing. This born again part of us is in union with Christ, as 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, and they are willing. We are one spirit with Him. But our flesh, which is in two parts: physical body and the flesh nature (or sin nature, or sometimes called “human nature”) is what needs to be crucified: Galatians 5:16-17, 24 - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In verse 24 for us to “belong to Christ Jesus” is a choice…daily, after we are born again. We have to “put on the new man”. This is a daily choice. Or as Romans 12:1 says it’s a sacrifice. Just because one day we do it and the next day we don’t doesn’t mean we lose our salvation. I’ve already spoken about that. We are one Spirit with Him. When we don’t “put on” our identity in Him, we will struggle because of the sin nature. If we take this scripture and compare it to Romans 7:14, 25 and Chapter 8 and Galatians 5 we see that there is a “struggle” between our flesh and spirit. They are contrary to each other. And we all know brothers and sisters who “got their life insurance.” Meaning they received Jesus into their heart but they are not submitted to Him. Yielded. Being submitted to the Lord and yielded to Him is a big deal. We have to yield to Him to “belong” to Him. They are saved. They will go to heaven. But they won’t receive a crown. And the Lord is not pleased with them, yet they are still His children - only disobedient ones. I know believers who do not submit and do not yield to the Lord. Walking in the Spirit is a constant choice. Everyday. We must walk in the Spirit in order to have crucified the flesh - Romans 8 . It’s an “if”/“then” statement. If you walk in the flesh you will not walk in the Spirit. Even if we walk according to the flesh, our inner man, the Holy Spirit though our Spirit will be grieved because we are not doing what He says. (Ephesians 4:30 .) He will give that inward feeling of “discomfort” or “scratchy” - “unsettled” and “uncomfortable” but if we continue to disobey He will stop warning us and let the result of the sin come upon us. I went through that in my earlier life. It was rough! I had no idea that I had created it all. There are many brothers and sisters who do not walk in the Spirit and their flesh isn’t crucified, and consequently go through turmoil. How do you know? Their fruit. You can always tell by what inhabits and surrounds a person’s life. (Matthew 12:33 .) BUT all we have to do is repent. Sometimes we still have to go through the result of that sin, like David with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12 ) but the sin is forgiven. Repenting doesn’t always get rid of the result but it does make your hearing from the Lord, intimacy with Him, get back on track. Ephesians 2:3 - All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. Romans 6:6,16 - For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin….Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? We are always obeying somebody. Either the flesh and sin, the enemy, or God. We have a choice. Choose you this day life or death, blessing or cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live: That you may love the Lord your God and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave unto Him: for He is your life and the length of your days… - Deuteronomy 30:19-20 . The Holy Spirit in our inner man is who we have to give priority over our flesh. Especially when times are rough. The two - flesh and spirit are against one another: Galatians 5:17 - “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do what you want.” Romans 7:14, 25 (part, in my words) - “Thank God because He delivers me through Jesus Christ my Lord! I myself in my mind serve God, but in my sinful nature am a slave to the law of sin.” What that means as born again believers is we are constantly presented with a choice. Choosing to abide by the sinful nature or choosing to abide by God’s word. He gives us the choice. He never forces it upon us. The word “death” in Strong’s means: Greek- #2288 separation from the life of God. Before we were born again we were in “death”- in sin. We were separated from God. Genesis 2:17 -“But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit they died immediately in the spirit-soul-body. They were separated from God in all three areas - or realms. Notice God didn’t know where they were…He asked, “Where are you?”. They had been separated. It was hundreds of years until their bodies learned to die. Yes, their bodies had to learn to die. They were not created to do so. Even today scientists have found that our body is constantly making new cells and we technically shouldn't die, but when an over abundance of breakdowns occur it out-weighs the new cell replacement. The natural man or flesh, or one who is separated from God cannot spiritually discern because they are spiritually dead (I don’t care how much yoga and meditation they do…but that’s another story…I digress) - the spirit is separate from God, the soul is separate from God, and the body is separate from God. When we are born again our outer man is perishing but the inward one is renewed day by day - 2 Corinthians 4:16 . (This is a great confession to do each morning!) This is why 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 is so important. Our bodies need to be recreated in their original, un-fallen state. Immortal. We won’t have blood running through our veins, instead it will be the glory of God. Just imagine what that will be like!! (Luke 24:39; Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 1:21 ) When we receive Jesus as our Lord and receive His sacrifice for us, that brings us into union with Him. No longer separate in our spirit from the Spirit of God. But our soul and body are not changed. Originally we were intended to be entirely a part of God - spirit-soul-body. Like Adam when he was first created before the fall. Adam was amazing in the state that God first made him. Adam named all the animals in creation in a day! I can’t even imagine naming 50…that would be exhausting. But now that we have received Jesus our spirit is alive unto God and a part of His Spirit, 2 Corinthians 5:17 and 18 (AMP)- “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (new species of being), old things are passed away and all things are become new. And all things are of God, Who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” And 1 Corinthians 6:17 - But he that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit with Him. Just put yourself in the Father’s shoes. He created His children before the foundation of the world and wrote our names in the Book of Life (Ephesians 1:4-6; Revelation 3:5; 17:8; 13:8; and Genesis 3:15 ). We are His seed. We are part of His Spirit even though there’s the torn aspect of His Spirit done by the enemy in the fall, tearing us away from Him. Imagine how much the Father hurts and yearns to bring His kiddos, His children back to Him!!! Reconciliation! No more wounds in the Father’s Spirit from being torn away from Him once this age is complete. I believe that is why God the Father won’t allow His children to be stuck in hell for eternity - this is scriptural - even if they never received Him in this world and went to hell, at the last Judgement in Revelation 20:11-15 …specifically shows that the Father has all the books written on people’s lives AND the Book of Life with His children’s names in it so He can see who is His seed and who is not. If any that were in hell have their names written in the Book of Life, they are taken to be WITH HIM! For eternity!!!! Unfortunately they didn’t receive Jesus’ sacrifice for their sins, so they had to pay it…and they did by going to torment in hell. The debt paid. And any sin that wasn’t completely paid for is covered by the Blood of Jesus. Once these folks see Him as He truly is, they will fall to their knees in repentance and worship of Him and His love and all that He did. They will no longer be hindered by the enemy’s scheme. They will be with us and the Father for eternity! THAT’S big!! We have not understood the depth of salvation and God’s gift through His Son, Jesus. The first Adam and the last Adam - Jesus Christ - 1 Corinthians 15:45 “It is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being,’ the last Adam, a life-giving Spirit.” This is why when we receive Jesus into our hearts we have life the moment we say “yes” to Him. You know something happened. “Something” changed. You don’t know “what” it is. You now have the life of God in your spirit. Adam at first was entirely one with the Father - Spirit-Soul-Body. Imagine what that must have been like?? We will soon get to experience that for eternity!! When the fall happened he was entirely separated spirit-soul-body. Imagine what that must have been like for Adam and Eve to experience both. Jesus too, when He was on the cross and said, “Father, why have you forsaken Me?” Jesus had always been one with the Father and then at the cross He was entirely separated from the Father, and the Father had to turn His back on His Son because He was laden with all of our sins. (Habakuk 1:13; Exodus 33:18-23 .) That was devastating to Jesus to have His loving Father have to turn His back to Him. Scripture says Jesus gave His Spirit up to death. It was not taken. I believe He died of a broken heart and gave up His Spirit. *** We are to take authority over our bodies and souls: 1 Corinthians 9:27 - (TPT) But I keep under my body (make it my slave) and bring it under subjection…. and our souls (thoughts, emotions, personality, will). 1 Corinthians 10:10-13 (TPT) - “And we must not embrace their ways by complaining-grumbling with discontent, as many of them did, and were killed by the destroyer! All the tests they endured on their way through the wilderness are a symbolic picture, an example that provides us with a warning so that we can learn through what they experienced. For we live in a time when the purpose of all the ages past is now completing its goal within us. So beware if you think it could never happen to you, lest your pride becomes your downfall.” We all experience times of testing which is normal for every person. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape, that will bring you out of it victoriously. (1 Corinthians 10:13 .) Praise God, He is with us through all tests and trials and provides a way out. These tests and trials come in this material world, like the parable of the rain that beats upon the house. Much of the time tests and trials come through our own bodies - health issues. Sometimes through the soul - thinking and emotions. Sometimes through friends, family members or work. And we are warned not to grumble and complain spoken words against God. They create. And it killed the Hebrews in the desert. A very sobering warning. One thing of note: when you are in the midst of a test/trial, notice that is when you do not hear the voice of God. Like when you took examinations in school, the teacher was there in class. He or she was at their desk. Never said a word. They waited until the test was finished. This is important to know. You will still have unction/knowing from the Holy Spirit. Stay highly tuned to His direction during the test. Whether you obey or not will either decrease the time of the test, or increase the length of time of the test. And important to realize there is difference between a test/trial, tribulation, and a temptation. The Lord does test - but He doesn’t tempt. Remember Jesus in the wilderness tempted by the devil, Jesus had to deal with His soul while in prayer and fasting. In another passage when Jesus and the three disciples are in Gethsemane, He tells them to pray that they do not fall into temptation. (Luke 22:39-40 .) Temptations do not come from God as James 1:12-16 - we encounter them because of our flesh and soul: “Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive that crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does He tempt anyone; but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished brings forth death.” Tribulation is a part of life. It’s simply how it is, John 16:33 - “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” *** IT ALL COMES DOWN TO WHAT WE FOCUS ON : Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 - “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Another passage that is imperative to read is Romans 8. The entire chapter is about the difference of focusing on the Holy Spirit or focusing on the flesh and the outcome of both. There is another aspect to be aware of with the body: CRAVINGS - and PERSONALITY SHIFTS - this goes with what I said earlier about not having control over something with your body. A reminder that any “impulse” from the body that is hard to control or you have no control comes from a demon. Yes, they can be attached to the personality in your soul, even if it seems “minor”. (Recall the mad-man of Gadera.) Many times it is attached because of unforgiveness and/or fear. It can even be attached because of new age stuff and of course witchcraft, even white witchcraft. And yes, it may be a family curse. If you are experiencing these things ask the Lord how to go about it. It requires repentance either for yourself, or in the case of a family curse repenting for your forefathers and foremothers of all agreements, oaths, contracts, and such like, known and unknown. Tell the Lord you receive His forgiveness; and cancel out all family curses. Stamp the spiritual contract that was demonically made with the Blood of Jesus because you are redeemed from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13-14 ) by His Blood and the Law of the Spirit of Life (Romans 8:2 ) is in you, on you, and has permeated your life. He took the curse so you don’t have to. You are free, in Jesus Name. And cut all cords to the curse or whatever it is, in the Name of Jesus (Proverbs 5:21-23) and burn them up with the Fire of God (Hebrews 12:29 and 1 Kings 18: 38-39 [23-39] .) *** REVIEW: John 6:63 - It is the Spirit that quickens (or that gives life); the flesh profits nothing; the Words that I speak unto you are Spirit and they are life. Very clear distinction between spirit and body in this scripture. We can see the outcome of being focused on one or the other. Our spirit is new, born again, and one with Jesus. There is light and life with what He speaks and within us. This is where God talks to us and what He says always agrees with His word. His word is life to us! The more you read it the more you have life and light on the situation. It makes you “feel” energized…I know, it’s a feeling and the word affects our feelings in the right way. Did you know God has feelings? But He’s not ruled by them. Our Body, called “flesh” or “carnal” is 2 parts: physical body with the 5 senses - see, hear, smell, taste, and touch; and our sin nature - also called “human nature”, or “beast like nature” - Daniel 5:21; 2 Pet. 2:12; Jude 1:10; Ps. 49:12, 20; James 1:23-26; Romans 8 . Don't waste even a moment's thought on your former identity to awaken its selfish desires. Instead fully immerse yourselves into the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. - Romans 13:14 (TPT). Paul says 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (TPT) - “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” There is a distinction between keeping your body under, the sin nature, and knowing when to listen to the body, the part that is God-made. Intelligent design. It is innately intelligent once the body has been retrained from the sinful nature, meaning your not dealing with cravings any longer. You can actually trust if your body desires a certain food, like meat, or certain vegetables, or teas, even salt. Ask the Lord when your new to this. You may find that most of the time the “want” is good for you. It’s a part of His leading. *** CHAPTER FOUR: FURTHER DETAILS ON THE SOUL We discussed much of how to do this already. How we retrain our flesh/body is the same as retraining our soul. There are only a few things to add here. Soul: mind, will, emotions, and personality. I’m going to do this out of order above. Let’s go to the “WILL ”. Will power is your “chooser” - the will can only work properly when you have enough word in you. You know the phrase: “I have no will power…I have to eat the entire cake.” They don’t have enough Word to resist that temptation. This is the only way our “will” can properly work: with the Word. 2. Our soul - mind (thoughts), FEELINGS, personality are not always right, although we believe they are. Every thought we have is not accurate. Every feeling we have is definitely not accurate and can get you in trouble. Feelings can kill and being ruled by “feelings” will make one’s life absolute hell. They are up one minute and down the next. A roller coaster that always leads to confusion, and God is not the author of confusion but of peace. (1 Corinthians 14:33 .) Feelings (Emotions)- is huge. At times they can seem overwhelming. This is where we stumble the most. We think we “are” our emotions. But no. We have feelings…they are not who we are. Feelings can kill you! Talk with anyone who has attempted suicide and dealing with depression. They will tell you how they “felt.” ‘Hopeless. No way out. People are better off without them.’ The person has their identity in their feelings. And nothing could be further from the truth. Another example: when someone is ill - friends and family because of “feelings”, can be detrimental to the person who is sick, because they “feel sorry” for them. “Feeling sorry” is only an emotion. It has no “action” to help the person. It’s pity. Then the person who “feels sorry” for them speaks words of illness and death over them. Not words of life. Words create. The power of life and death is in the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. - Proverbs 18:21 . Instead of emotion, Jesus moved with COMPASSION. Not pity. Notice the verb. “Moved”. Compassion “does” something about the situation. So when you hear of someone who is not well, pray for them! Pray how the Lord leads. Each situation is different. Speak words of life to them…which means speak scripture to them. Put it in layman's terms, don’t “christian-ize” the words straight out of King James Version…that can turn many people off. For people who are in the hospital, sleeping, in and out of consciousness, or coma - that’s when to play the word or praise music in their room, it changes things!! 3. The MIND: 1 Corinthians 8:1 - Knowledge (head knowledge) puffs up but Love builds up. This word in 1 Corinthians gives us a key! Are we puffed up by what we are thinking? Or does it benefit someone else. Results are the key! Fruit. By the result we know what was the motivator and if actions are needed to be taken like casting down thoughts and replacing with the word, even correcting what you said to someone directly and apologizing for it. This is why our focus needs to be on the love of God and what He wants. Not what we want. When we are paying attention to the Holy Spirit - that “knowing” or “unction” we will “know” if we aren’t doing things right. It won’t “settle” down in us, no peace. And we can always tell by the end result. God is very specific about the thoughts of our soul (mind) and what it leads to, like the scripture above, and the ones below, and there are many others: 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 NIV - Do not deceive yourselves, if any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”. And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” (Job 5:13, Psalm 94:11 .) Romans 12:2 NIV - Be not conformed to the world’s way of working: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind - THAT we we may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. And I like to use this scripture with this, Philippians 4:8 NASB- Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. One translation says “if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things.” These are the things to think about on purpose. Not on our automatic thinking from our minds when it is contrary to the word. We renew our minds by reading the word and confessing the word (speak it out loud), and guard what we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and speak with our mouth. It’s a simple equation but it takes work. And by doing this we prove what is the perfect will of God in our lives. Fruit. We will bear good fruit. (Matthew 12:33; John 15:2 .) We can tell what is happening in our lives by the fruit we are bearing. In other words, look at what you got. If you don’t like what you see, then things need to change within you. And this is how you do it. Refocus. Put your sights on the Lord - intimacy with Him IS key. Take time every day to be with Him in prayer and the word. Even if it’s only for 15 minutes in the morning. Ask Him to help you, to show you where to go in the word. Then get quiet for a few minutes and see where you are led to go in the Bible. You may hear His still, small voice coming up from deep inside of you; or you will get a “knowing” of where to go; sometimes from deep within you will come a picture of the title of the book, for example like John or Isaiah and a chapter number; or sometimes a thought will come up from within you of the place to go. Whichever way He chooses to tell you, do it. Continue to nurture your “hearing” of Him. You already do, whether you know it or not. You are His sheep and you hear His voice (John 10:27 ), it’s simply strengthening the muscle of “learning” how to hear. Thank Him each time He shares with you. He will share more as you recognize Him in the doing of it. Continue to follow His promptings and leadings. If you follow one that wasn’t right because of discerning incorrectly, then you know it wasn’t Him. It was either your soul or your flesh, or the devil. Just because you found it wasn’t the Lord isn’t a bad thing. It is part of the learning process, teaching you what is what. When the devil chimes in with regard to the word he will misdirect. The scripture just “falls flat” when you read it. Or he typically brings thoughts to your mind that “you are worthless - God won’t listen to you, who do you think you are; you can never do anything right - what makes you think you can do this right; people think your an idiot - God thinks your an idiot; you don’t have what it takes” etc. Never fails, he will always talk bad to you, about you, and make you think it is “yourself” that is talking this way. Cancel and delete! The more you keep spending time with the Lord, the devil shows up eventually and will be his ugly self and tell you he’s going to kill you. Laugh at him. He can’t touch you. Psalm 91:16 with long life will God satisfy you and show you His salvation. The difference is satan will condemn you; while the Holy Spirit will convict you which is Him showing you the way out, in order to help you to grow in the Lord. (Acts 2:38.) As said before, there are some soul-ish ways of thinking, patterns or ways we were raised, what we heard from our parents or family, friends, teachers or coaches that is negative - these are “strong holds.” We took on these thoughts as our “identity.” But it’s not who we are. All of these thoughts can be changed just the way God told us in 1 Corinthians 10:3-6 and Proverbs 4:20-23 . Casting down those thoughts in Jesus Name and replacing them with what the word says about us; and guarding our hearts by careful watch of what goes into our eyes, ears, and out of our mouth. Be sure to cut the cords to that way of thinking - Proverbs 5:21-23 . Strong holds always have cords. It’s what creates bondage - Isaiah 5:18; Psalm 107:13-14; Psalm 140:5; Psalm 129:4 . Plus with all of this, the Lord also gave us His mind. We have that in our inner man, the Spirit, that is one with Jesus. (1 Corinthians 2:16 .) This is the part of us that knows deep down what is right and what is wrong. Our moral compass. We call it our “conscience”. Keep on track with the conscience. Don’t violate it by not doing what you are led to do. Following our conscience will keep you on the right track. 1 Timothy 1:19 NIV - Holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Paul is talking about believers here in 1 Timothy. As we do all of this we know as Philippians 4:7 says, The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Always follow your “peace”. If you don’t have peace about something, don’t do it! Don’t allow yourself to be pushed to make a decision. Colossians 3:15 Classic Amplified says, “Let the peace of God [the umpire of peace, the inner calm of one who walks daily with Him] be the controlling factor in your hearts [deciding and settling with all finality all questions that arise in your mind]. To this peace you were called to live as members of Christ’s one body. And be thankful [to God always].” And if you still don’t have peace about a situation, ask the Lord about it. There’s something He is trying to tell you. Don’t make any decisions about a situation until you have peace about that situation. Stay in the word and prayer until you get the answer from Him and you know how to proceed. THOUGHTS & EMOTIONS ARE CONNECTED . One causes the other. We don’t ever think of them as separate, because they are not. None of the things I’ve spoken about in this article are separate - Hebrews 4:12. Thoughts cause emotions; and emotions cause further thoughts. We are separating them here as a matter of study. If we continue ruminating on a thought it creates a pattern, a “habit”, in our mind to continue thinking on those things which stirs up powerful feelings. Scientifically it has been proven (https://qz.com/1569158/neuroscientists-read-unconscious-brain-activity-to-predict-decisions ) - that if you take a thought for 10-11 seconds, a pattern is created in the brain and a decision is made, thus an action and words occur next. This is why it is so crucial to be aware of our thoughts BEFORE a pattern is created in the brain. A habit. A proverbial “groove” if you will, like a groove in a record. When we stop the thought that is contrary to the word of God before 11 seconds, we stop the pattern from ever forming. Don’t panic if you waited too long. God’s word works and will erase that groove. It’s much easier to deal with thoughts quickly. It takes more time to uproot and change patterns in the brain. No matter which way we have to go, we got the victory through Christ Jesus. And it is the same simple way of casting down the thought in Jesus Name and replacing that thought with the word of God that pertains to the situation. As we take authority over our emotions and thoughts when they are out of line with the Word, our mind gets more and more renewed, so do the emotions. We won’t be an emotional rollercoaster but on a steady, even keel that is hard to get flustered or flare out in situations. For example: in an emergency, a crisis situation - people either become paralyzed, or cry, or scream and yell profanity. This is the common reaction and is evidence that those people do not have any word in them. It is the Spirit man that is supposed to take over. But they have nothing in their spirit, no word. Their mind shuts down and they don’t know what to do and their emotions get flustered and flare. The word is our Spiritual food for our inner man, our spirit. If we don’t feed our spirit the word, then we are starving it. We have no Spiritual energy and we cannot sustain in a crisis. (Matthew 4:4 & 1 Peter 2:2, Jeremiah 15:16 .) Another aspect for renewing our minds and emotions is for healing emotional scars. This is where being “hurt” comes from. Our “hearts hurt” because of an emotional scar because we “see” ourselves as our emotions. But we are not. That’s what the phrase means: “Don’t take it so personally.” Taking the emotional hurt personally - as if it is us. It is simply an emotion we have. This is why we have to renew our minds, how we think of ourselves and “see” ourselves. The way we think about that situation will create a bigger groove of hurt in our emotions and causes us to not forgive. We are new creatures. Old things have passed away and ALL has become new! And we forgive because Jesus told us to. He can’t forgive us if we do not forgive. It keeps us in contact with the Lord. If we harbor unforgiveness we separate ourselves from the love of God. He can’t get to us because there is a “barrier” in between us and Him and we were the ones that put it there…and we can “take it down” too, simply by forgiving…on purpose - Mark 11:25-26 . Don’t listen to your feelings. We have to retrain our thoughts by be disciplined in forgiving that person instead of harboring resentment. Instead pray for them, bless them in Jesus Name. This will take a few days just like any retraining of our thinking. It is the same process. If we will change our tendency to see ourselves as our emotions we won’t be so flighty; instead more stable, consistent. Plus we are commanded to forgive: Ephesians 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. When we don’t control our emotions we will 100% of the time get “off”. It’s the realm the enemy uses a lot. It’s one of the major fields he attacks. Attacks our minds, attacks our emotions, attacks our personalities, attacks the will power. *** Here’s one more part to look at regarding dealing with the soul, and specifically our feelings and thoughts, AND how it relates to the will: Jesus at Gethsemane - He was struggling with His own soul! Matt. 26: 36-46 - Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed . TPT - An intense feeling of great sorrow plunged his sou l into deep sorrow and agony . And he said to them, My heart is overwhelmed and crushed with grief. It feels as though I’m dying . Stay here and keep watch with me. “ 39. Then he walked a short distance away, and overcome with grief, he threw himself facedown on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if there is any way you can deliver me from this suffering, please take it from me. YET WHAT I WANT IS NOT IMPORTANT, for I only desire to fulfill Your plan. Luke 22:39-44 - 42 - Father, if you’re are willing, take this cup of agony away from me. But no matter what your will must be mine. 44. He prayed even more passionately, like one being sacrificed, until he was in such intense agony of spirit that His sweat became drops of blood, dripping onto the ground. Agony : (Merriam-Websters) - 1. A. intense pain of mind or body; anguish, torture. B. The struggle that precedes death. 2. A violent struggle or contest. 3. A strong sudden display, outburst. In this instance we see Jesus struggle with His own soul - thoughts and emotions - until it shattered His Spirit. He surrendered His will to His Father. Not Jesus’ will but God’s will. Will power is the “chooser”. This is crucial in times of crisis. If it wasn’t for the fact that Jesus had so much word in Him (He is the word made flesh - John 1:1-4,14 ), He wouldn’t have been able to make HIs will submit to God the Father. That is the only way we can do this ourselves. We have to have the word in us, abiding in us - John 15:7 . Sometimes the Lord may show you something terrible that you have to face, but that you need to go through it. Just like He did with Paul and Peter. They knew what was going to happen for their death, like Jesus. They were ready for it because God had prepared them. Just like the Lord prepared me before the cancer. The Father always has a very good reason. We may not understand it yet but He will reveal it to us. And He gives you the faith to get through it! For example, there was a man who knew he was going to prison. He had done nothing wrong and had been set up. But the Lord told him that He wanted him to go, there was something for him to do there. The man was sent to prison. And once the man was in jail the Lord told him to minister to other inmates. Eventually he began a prison ministry with the inmates in his jail and many came to know the Lord!!! At the beginning of the situation it looked like that the entire thing was wrong. This man had been set up. It wasn’t right. Same as Jesus. Jesus was set up. It wasn’t right. But there was a purpose!!!! And the man who was sent to jail was the means of the Lord being sent to those in prison and “setting them free”. One statement I heard was from one of the inmates who came to the Lord though this man’s ministry, the guy was in for a life sentence, he said how much he thanked Jesus for loving him enough to come in to where he was, and no matter what it looks likes, he was freer than he could ever be even when he was on the outside. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…whom the Son sets free is free indeed!!” (John 8:32, 36 .) This man is set free! Even though to the outside world it looks like he is not. No matter the massive battle Jesus had with His soul, His emotions and thoughts, and submitting His will to God’s will, Jesus’s death and resurrection was for saving all of mankind! That’s why He said on the cross before He gave up His Spirit: “It is finished.” *** 4. PERSONALITY We don’t have to be chained or imprisoned by our personality either! We are delivered from our personality. Glory to God!! That’s why we have to renew our minds with who Jesus Christ says we are. We are not our personalities or what others have said about “who we are”. And we do not have to be a prisoner of either one in our behavior. Jesus came to set the captives free! All parts of our soul are something we have. It is not who we are. We are to take control of our soul’s through the word by “who” God says we are. (With the “in Him” etc. scriptures in the Epistles.) Personality is the most difficult area to change because it is a foundation of how we identify ourselves. When you “see” yourself at “that” thing, you don’t think it can change. But it can!! Once you grasp that so much of our personality is learned behavior, it then makes it easier. Those parts to the personality are not “you” and they can change. Praise God we have been delivered from our personality as well as sin, sickness, destruction, poverty and such things. (Galatians 3:13-14; Romans 8:1-2; Deuteronomy 28 .) No matter what has gone on in a believer’s mind and becomes their personality and the decisions they have made for themselves is not necessarily true. When you choose the word of God to change ungodly thinking, those previous “identities” make no difference….but you have to know this. You have to change your automatic thinking on purpose WITH the Word. Cast down those thoughts in the Name of Jesus and replace it with what the word says about that situation. That’s the only thing that can change it! When your personality is telling you will never be good enough, or you can’t excel because your not smart enough, or whatever you have “made” your identity; then the devil jumps in and bombards your thoughts with even more bad news of telling you how bad you are, WITH fear - when he shows up there is ALWAYS fear - tell your thoughts, the fear, and the devil, OUT LOUD, “No! I refuse that thought! That is not who I am!! God so loved me that He gave Jesus to die for me!! He gave me His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21 ), if you don’t like it take it up with Him! I’m a new creature! OLD THINGS have GONE AWAY!!! ALL has become NEW and all things are of Father God Who is in me!! THE mighty God is in me and He continuously gives me life and that more abundantly! (John 10:10 .). And I do NOT have the spirit of fear BUT of power, love, and a sound mind!” (2 Timothy 1:7 .) That’s how you talk to yourself! There is one more element when we are dealing with re-training the personality. Those deep ingrained belief systems have spiritual “cords” as well. Those cords keep you bound to the personality. Since the thoughts are not “truth” - truth is the word of God (John 17:17 ), truth makes you free - and the word gives faith according to Romans 10:17 - and whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23 ), that means those programmed identities are “sin”. Sin has cords. Take a look at a few scriptures: Psalm 129:1-4 - They have greatly oppressed me from my youth”…they have greatly oppressed me from my youth, but they have not gained the victory over me. Plowmen have plowed my back and made their furrows long. But the Lord is righteous; He has cut me free from the cords of the wicked. “They” are the “wicked” which always refers to the devil and his hordes. Remember they exist in the soul and physical realm. They don’t have the victory over you unless you allow it. And they attack from our youth. It’s imperative as a parent to watch your kids and what they say!!!!! You can tell if they are being attacked! Even at 4 or 5 years old. Pay attention to what they say and let the Lord lead you. And the last sentence of that scripture is amazing: The Lord is righteous and He has cut me free from the cords of the wicked. Because when we are attacked by the devil, if he is “allowed” because we play with the thoughts he gives us because we think they are our own, then he ties us up spiritually with cords. It is called “bondage” in the word. Look at Isaiah 5:18 - Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes. When we don’t realize that we are in bondage with cords of sinful thoughts our life becomes more and more miserable. We have the same terrible cycles occurring in our lives and become more and more desperate. That’s because we are believing a lie and the lie attaches to us with cords. Psalm 107:13-14 - They cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke away their chains (cords). When we identify a part to our personality that needs to change, we first find all the scriptures about that subject matter and write them down. This is “who” you really are. (The “In Him” scriptures.) This will take more than an hour. Give yourself a few days or so to do this. Then when you’re ready, with your Bible and the scriptures you’ve written out, you are going to pray. You are going to “repent” which means “change your thinking” about the former way of thinking and cut all cords to those thoughts to you and everything that belongs to you. Doesn’t have to be these exact words but something like this: “Father God, in the mighty Name of Jesus, I am so sorry for having ungodly thoughts that I made my identity. I repent of that in Jesus Name. I cut all cords to those thoughts and to all they are attached to and I thank You Jesus for shattering the chains of bondage to those thoughts. I am free!! If demons attached themselves to me because of it, go! In the Name of Jesus. Now I see in Your word that I am: (read off the scriptures you found, like ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.’ 2 Corinthians 5:21, etc.). I am what You say I am because You made me this way!!! You have blessed me to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2) and I thank You for it. Holy Spirit I ask that you let me know if I do that again and help me make it right. And I thank You for it.” ** Our “Conscience” effects the soul. We are instructed not to violate our conscious or anyone else’s. As we grow up in spiritual things, our hearing God gets easier and our conscience grows as well. What may have been against our conscious at first may not be later on: 1 Corinthians 8:10-13 TPT - "For if a believer with a weak conscience sees you, who have a greater understanding, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t this be a temptation to him to violate his own conscience and eat food offered to idols? So, in effect, by exercising your understanding of freedom, you have ruined this for a believer, a brother for whom Christ has died! And when you offend weaker believers by wounding their consciences in this way, you also sin against Christ. So I conclude that if my eating certain food deeply offends my brother and hinders his advance in Christ, I will never eat it again. I don’t want to be guilty of causing my brother or sister to be wounded and defeated." It’s important to abide by what our conscious is telling us. Otherwise if we violate it, it is the same as sin against the Lord. And we don’t want to cause our fellow brothers and sisters to stumble, nor violate our own conscience. We have a responsibility to the Lord for this, as He has said, for each other. The Lord showed me during the writing of this - 3 John 2 - “Beloved, I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.” He said that when our minds are not renewed (soul) we cannot prosper nor can we be in health. If we see ourselves struggle with money and health, we know what the problem is. The soul, our mind needs to be renewed! (You may be wondering “why” then have I gone through so much health wise. Some of us have to walk through these things. The Lord has shown me much about standing during the “storm”. I wouldn’t have understood the depth of it until I had the experiences. Yes, I have done all that I have described in this article. But just like Paul, sometimes you have to go through gnarly stuff to show people how to do it for themselves so they won’t have to go through such intense stuff. They can learn by our examples. This is how we learn from Paul’s examples.) The word will show us when our soul is getting out of line and differentiating between soul and the spirit. The Holy Spirit teaches you these things. Ask Him questions, tell Him all the questions that arise in your mind. He will let you know what is what. He will show you what is coming from the spirit and what is soul-ish. Forget about the “thinking” that He already knows it all. Yes, He does. And when we talk with Him about the things we are questioning it clears us up. The Holy Spirit shows you what is going on. It’s so cool when He does this!!! 1 Peter 1:22 - Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. *** CHAPTER FIVE: MORE ON THE SPIRIT Proverbs 20:27 The spirit is the lamp of the Lord that sheds light on one’s innermost being. When we give God our priority, prioritize Him in our spirit, He sheds light on our inmost being and every situation we give to Him. This is how we have “light” on the situation - Him. He is light, the light of this world. (1 John 1:5 & John 8:12 .). God is a gentleman and won’t say anything unless you ask Him. As we press into Him we allow Him to lead us - Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path. So we make a choice to trust Him…with all of heart…to not lean to our understanding - our thinking - and always acknowledge Him. It makes everything easier. Relying on Him for His direction for every situation rather than our own thoughts and feelings is freeing…absolutely liberating. Yes, it is hard to first start this because of our habits but habits can be changed and once we do it gets easier each time, and we eventually realize how limited we were before relying on the Lord, when we actually just guessed at everything in life. We don’t have to do it alone and we aren’t in this alone. We were never intended to be. God always wants to help, He is the lover of our spirit, soul, and body - our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Temple. This why we undergo specific judgements for things done to our bodies if we do not repent - 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (The Holy of Holies is within us, where the Holy Spirit dwells.) The Holy of Holies was the inner sanctuary where God’s presence dwelled. That’s IN us!! God’s presence is IN us. Have people ever told you “you just light up a room.” That’s God in you! In the temple the high priest could only go into the Holy of Holies once a year. And the holiness of God could only be accessed by the high priest once per year with a veil between him and God, a barrier (representing sin). God’s eyes are too pure to look on evil (sin)- Habakkuk 1:13 . The priest with the veil and the elaborate customs (ordination) put in place by God were a reminder that man could not carelessly or irreverently enter God’s awesome presence. Before the priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, he had to wash himself, put on special clothing, bring burning incense to let the smoke cover his eyes form a direct view of God and bring sacrificial blood with him to make atonement for sins - Exodus 28 and Hebrews 9:7 . He has saved us from all of the torment of this world. God is not the tormentor. He IS love and kindness, is just/righteousness, peacemaker, life, light and so much more. Jeremiah 31:3 - “…I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you.” His absolute holiness is within us. It is the Lord who speaks with us out of our innermost being, deep in your belly. At times the words seem to come up from our belly, the upper part where the rib cage opens, and the words will move from there to deep within our head, not from the outside in. Sometimes we will hear His still, small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12 ) from within us. When He speaks, He always speaks according the word. He may use modern terminology but there are always scriptures that go with what He is telling you. If you don’t know the scripture off hand when He speaks, ask Him for one. He always gives at least one. John 4:24 - God is a Spirit: and those that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth. We know His Word is truth (John 17:17 ). So we worship Him in the Spirit and in the word, and as we do this the Holy Spirit reveals things through His Word about what is going on with us- are we wrapped up in our soul in a mental game of gymnastics, or are we operating in the spirit, or are we trapped in our flesh (body). This is the only way to find out. Stay in the spirit worshiping God being led in the word. Not led by the soul or flesh. You can always tell by the fruit your life is producing. As we worship Him, we shut off our physical senses (bodies) - that’s why it’s important to close your eyes so you don’t respond to the sense realm; and we tell our souls (mind and emotions) to “keep quiet.” Stay focused on His majesty. His beauty. There’s nothing like it! THIS is who we are! We are our God-given-recreated Spirit. Our Spirit-Man. Made in the image of God in connection with Him. We are who God says we are: we are more than conquerors though Him who loved us; and there’s no condemnation to us who walk after the Spirit - we follow Him; (If we have condemnation then we are walking after the flesh) therefore we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us; it’s Christ in us, He does the work and greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world; the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death; if God be for us who can be against us!! (Romans 8:1-2, 31, 37; Colossians 1:27; Zechariah 4:6; Philippians 4:13; 1 John 4:4 ) That’s good confessions of identity! Galatians 5:15 - Walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. John 6:63 - It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak unto you are Spirit and they are life. Always keep “feeding” on the word. It gives life. We don’t want to put our Spirit man on a diet or starve him. We want to keep him well-fed, and we do it with the word: Matthew 4:4 - But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” *** CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION The crucial part is to put the examples to work in your life so that you allow God IN your Spirit to have dominion over your body and soul. We have to “choose“ this on purpose. Otherwise He may stay quiet. Particularly if you keep ignoring His “warning”. But if you are heeding His voice, then when something goes awry the Holy Spirit will let you know by “no peace” in your heart, then immediately make the change. Ask for forgiveness, cast down the thought, and replace the thought with the word. We ARE a Spirit; we HAVE a Soul; and we LIVE in Body to contact this world. Being made in the image of God, it makes sense. He is in three parts: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And what I love about that scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5 (on first page) is that God, who is the God of peace is the One who preserves us!!!! He preserves us blameless! Unto the Rapture/Resurrection when we are given new bodies! That’s shouting ground right there. And the following scriptures sum it up nicely: James 1:22-23 - But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own hearts (souls). Matt. 7:24-27 - Therefore whoever has these saying of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock (from doing what was heard in the Word). But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell: and great was the fall of it. James 2:22-24, 26 - (AMP) You see that his (Abraham) faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. [Faith not joined with action leaves room for doubt to fill that void. Which makes us double minded.] And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Phil 4:6-8 TPT - Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be SATURATED IN PRAYER THROUGHOUT EACH DAY, OFFERING YOUR FAITH-FILLED REQUESTS BEFORE GOD WITH OVERFLOWING GRATITUDE. Tell Him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious word of God, praising Him always. ***** SCRIPTURE REFERENCES Alphabetical by Subject Beast-like Nature : Daniel 5:21; 2 Peter 2:12; Jude 1:10; Psalm 49:12, 20; James 1:23-26; Romans 8 flesh vs. Spirit. Choices : Deuteronomy 30:19-20; Proverbs 18:21; follow the flesh or the Spirit, outcomes: Deuteronomy 28 and Romans 8; Genesis 2:17. God : Luke 24:39; Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 1:21; 1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 1 John 2:20,27; John 10:27-28; Hebrews 1:3; Proverbs 3:5-6; John 1:1-4, 14; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Hebrews 12:29; 1 Kings 18:38-39; John 4:23-24; 1 Corinthians 14:33; Job 5:13; Psalm 94:11; John 8:32, 36; Habakuk 1:13; Exodus 33:18-23; Exodus 28; Hebrews 9:27; Jeremiah 31:3; 1 Kings 18:19-20; Colossians 1:27; Zechariah 4:6; 1 John 4:4; Mark 11:25-26; see also James 13-15; 1 John 1:5; John 8:12. Scripture/The Word : John 1; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 17:17; Hebrews 4:12; Hebrews 1:3; Psalm 1:2; Romans 10:17 and Romans 14:23; John 6:63; Matthew 4:4; James 1:22-23; Matthew 7:24-27; James 2:22-24, 26; John 15:7. Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) : 1 Corinthians 2:-9-14; Romans 8; Galatians 5; 1 Corinthians 12-14; John 14:18, 26-27; John 16:7-15, 33; Psalm 141:3; Psalm 139:23-24; 1 Corinthians 3:16; John 6:63; Proverbs 20:27; Ephesians 1:17-18; 1 John 1:5; John 8:12; see also John 7:37-39. Spirit, Soul, Body, Heart : James 1:12-16 ; 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12; Psalm 64:6; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 2:29; Matthew 26:41; Ephesians 2:3; Romans 6:6,16; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Philippians 4:13; Philippians 4:6-8; 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, 21; Matthew 12:34; Proverbs 4:20-27; 1 Corinthians: 15:51-53; Galatians 3:13-14; Romans 13:14; Proverbs 18:21; 1 Corinthians 8:1, 10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:18-20; Romans 12:2; Job 5:13; Psalm 94:11; Matthew 12:33; John 15:2; 1 Timothy 1:19; Colossians 3:15 Amplified; Ephesians 4:32; Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-44; 3 John 1:2; Proverbs 3:5-6; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; Galatians 5:15; John 6:63; Romans 14:23; James 2:22-24, 26; Romans 13:14; 1 Peter 1:22. Warfare, devil : Genesis 2:17; 3:15; 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; Luke 10:17-19; Proverbs 5:21-23; Isaiah 5:18; Psalm 107:13-14; Psalm 140:5; Psalm 129:1-4; John 10:10; 2 Timothy 1:7 (“fear” is a spirit); James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:6-10; Matthew 18:18; Ephesians 6:12; Job 1:6-7; Job 2:1-2; see also Isaiah 14:9-17; Ezekiel 28:11-17; Revelation 12:7-12; Genesis 3; Genesis 6; Psalm 110:1 with Romans 16:20; Psalm 91; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Timothy 4:18; Isaiah 54:17; Psalm 2:1-4; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:4.

About Kamp Jesus: My name is Rina van de Kamp. We here at Kamp Jesus believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and He came and gave His life for you, for all that you've done wrong, so that you don't have to be pay the price. He came for all to have the knowledge of Him. But you have to ask Him into your heart. Receive Him. All you have to do is call upon the Name of the Lord and you shall be saved. Then ask Him to reveal Himself to you, to help you. He is always there for you even when you don't know it. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and with God all things are possible. He is coming back soon! Hallelujah! We at Kamp Jesus made this website for you! It is a teaching site for the things of God. Scroll though the different subjects to find what you're looking for. There are PDF's links available for you to download. And if there is subject matter that you are looking for but don't see it, send us an email and we will get it to you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you! He loves you more than you can imagine...so let your imagination expand with our beautiful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Being a parent, How to be a Godly parent, God, Jesus, Bible, How do I do this, Rules of being a parent, Being a Parent PDF Article is below. For downloadable PDF link click button. Being a Parent “The family should be a closely-knit group. The home should be a self-contained shelter of security; a kind of school where life’s basic lessons are taught; and a kind of church where God is honored; a place where wholesome recreation and simple pleasures are enjoyed.” ~ Billy Graham “You want to mess up the minds of your children? Here’s how – guaranteed! Rear them in a legalistic, tight context of external religion, where performance is more important than reality. Fake your faith. Sneak around and pretend your spirituality. Train your children to do the same. Embrace a long list of do’s and don’ts publicly but hypocritically practice them privately… yet never own up to the fact that it’s hypocrisy. Act one way but live another. And you can count on it – emotional and spiritual damage will occur.” ~ Charles (Chuck) Swindoll The biblical role of a parent is to be a steward of God’s children. God is God, no need for you to step into His place in our children’s life. Only God knows what each child was created to be and do. Stewardship Just as a manager or steward doesn’t own what they are put in charge of, we don’t own our children. Our children belong to God and we are entrusted with their care for a period of time. And we will be held accountable for the care we give them. When they are first born dedicate them to God and formally place yourself in the position of their steward before God. Commit to raising them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. If you were not born again at their birth, make this the first thing you do after being saved yourself, no matter how old they are. When you pray for them as a parent you have authority in the spirit realm over them that no on else has. If your children are older when you received the Lord do this anyways, no matter what it looks like. This even applies to step children. Another aspect of parenting is relying on the Holy Spirit to guide you in your prayers over your children. Listen carefully to His leading. He knows the things your children are facing or will face in the future. You are standing in the gap for them. I cannot stress how important this is to the welfare of your children. There were so many times I was praying for my child and the Lord was bringing certain scriptures to my attention to pray over her only to find out later that she faced an attack and was able to overcome it by the scriptures I stood on for her safety and welfare. More than once they saved her life. Wisdom and guidance is the key. Pray for wisdom and guidance as you raise your children. Rely on the Holy Spirit. Ask God to help you to lead them in His ways and in the manner that He wants you to lead them. You are a steward of them, and it's not a responsibility to take lightly and has great accountability on our part. Children learn by example. Children will copy what you do, not what you say. You need to walk it like you talk it. The very first time that I heard the Lord’s voice audibly, Jesus said “Teach her to pray.” I was born again and just got Holy Spirit filled. I was in my bedroom on my knees praying to the Lord. I sensed someone in front of me so I opened my eyes and there was my five year old daughter. I immediately obeyed the Lord and started to teach her to pray. She has always been a blessing to me as well as to others each and every day. If you want your children to know God you must show them by example. The parent-child relationship is the pattern that God uses to demonstrate our relationship with Him. Let your children see that you ask Father God for direction in all matters of life. Let them observe and hear you pray for them. Let them get used to you thanking the Lord and praising Him, especially for answered prayer. Let them be active in your prayer life. Teach them to pray and talk to the Lord. Teach your children to pray so if their little hearts feel heavy they can go to God and not to the world. Proverbs 22:6 KJV “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Always, always, always, tell your children how much you love and treasure them. This lays the foundation for them to accept that God loves them and treasures them. Let them know that they are a blessing from God. Psalm 127:3 NLT “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him.” Not only should you demonstrate this principle, but you should frequently talk about how much God loves them. When you hug them, tell your child this truth that “God knows them and loves them — in fact, He knows them and loves them even more than you do!” Reminding your child that God loves them is the first step to help your child know Jesus and understand the most important principle of the gospel. God is Love! Ephesians 6:4 “but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” Buy age appropriate books about Jesus and read with your children. Fellowship with them in Bible stories. As they get older share scriptures with them that the Lord gave you revelation on. Make it a habit to fellowship with them in things regarding the Lord. Make this a way of life. This is especially true if the children are older. Always share what the Lord is doing for you and saying to you. It doesn’t matter if they want to hear it or not. You are making Jesus a reality by your life. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “These Words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, 7 and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.” Proverbs 29:15-17 “To discipline a child produces wisdom, but a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child. When the wicked are in authority, sin flourishes, but the Godly will live to see their downfall. Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad.” The way to demonstrate the gospel as a parent is by having consequences for bad behavior. Each time you patiently remind your child, “that was wrong, and these are the consequences,” you’re demonstrating that there’s a standard by which all behavior can be judged as right or wrong — the standard of God’s Word and His character. Loving Biblical discipline paves the way for the truths that “all have sinned” and “the wages of sin is death”, while true Christian parenting patiently encourages the desire for righteousness within a child. Without the awareness of personal sin and its consequences, a child will never see their need for a Savior. Use the rod sparingly for life lessons to be seared into their brains. Ex: running into traffic, blatant disobedience, etc. It’s fine for them to want to negotiate a decision. However once you have listened to their case and your decision is the same, then negotiation is over and obedience must follow. As they get older, the world will start to call to them. They will be pulled into the world by their peers etc. Remember sin always starts out as a good time. But the wages of sin still pays the same. Death! We may get by with it for a while but judgement will come. You cannot stop it. Sin and its judgement are attached. True repentance is the only way. To change your mind on the sin completely, ask God to forgive you. Receive your forgiveness then move forward with God and a renewed mind. Your attitude towards your child should confirm that fact that no matter if they are being good or being bad you love them unconditionally, just like Father God does. This demonstrates the truth of God’s selfless and unconditional love. Romans 5:8 “ While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” You will make mistakes as a parent, and it’s important to tell your children that. When you mess up, discipline in anger, or are too harsh or not consistent, apologize to your child and tell them that you want to do better, because that’s not how God our Father is with us. Point out that even though you love your child so much and will always try to be the best parent you can for them, God’s love is greater, and His wisdom and discipline is perfect. Remind them that He will always show them unconditional love, no matter what they do. As parents, we can demonstrate how a relationship with God works by talking about how sin affects our relationships. Whenever your child disobeys you or lies to you, and you talk to them about it, explain how it affects your relationship with them. Open up about how, because of the sin, it makes it harder to trust that they are going to do the right thing or tell the truth next time. And while God’s love is unconditional, sin can put a strain on our relationship with Him too. When trust is broken, it’s hard to have a good relationship. In fact, unconfessed sin hardens the sinner’s heart and makes it more likely we will continue in the same, damaging behavior. Hurting us too, not just the relationships we care about. Confessing that the sin was wrong and asking for forgiveness helps your relationship to be better and grow stronger. Confessing sin and asking for forgiveness helps create good relationships with God and other people, demonstrating this principle yourself is even better. When you make a mistake and must ask your child for forgiveness, talk about how your offensive behavior hurt your relationship with them, how asking for forgiveness offers a chance to make it better, and how the confession also makes it less likely you’ll do the same thing again. From there, it becomes very easy to explain that when we sin against God, He doesn’t throw us out of the family, but the sin does hurt our relationship with Him. Confessing our sin and asking for forgiveness activates the truth in: 1John 1:9 “If we confess our sin, God not only forgives us, but He cleanses us from unrighteousness,” Causing the relationship to be restored and for us to sin less. None of us can be perfect, but we’re thankful for the gospel, which shows us how to deal with our sin in a way that’s healthy. Healthy for us, healthy for others, and healthy for our relationship with God. Let your household be one where forgiveness is celebrated! Teaching the gospel in your home, both verbally and, more importantly, with demonstration as a parent is the best way to help your child know Jesus at an early age and understand how a relationship with their Heavenly Father works. When you learn how to raise your children in a Godly way and how to demonstrate the gospel as a parent, you’re teaching your child how to walk in good relationship with God before they ever leave your home. Equipping them in the very best way possible for life ahead. Discipline: This is the part of parenting many don’t like, many disagree on, and many ignore. But we cannot ignore the fact that children need discipline. It may be different for each child, but the fact remains that they need discipline. For example, one child’s form of discipline may be taking privileges away. It doesn’t take much for the child to understand disobedience has consequences and will rarely commit the same offense. Then another child will require more than words to help them understand the consequences of disobedience. A rebellious nature takes a bit more molding and love from parents. You can’t be the push around parent. God didn’t make us to be bossed around by a child who has no idea what God’s Word says about raising them. We must rely on God, His Holy Spirit, and the Word to guide us to discipline our children. God loves us so much that even He disciplines those He loves. We as parents should do the same. Hebrews 12:11 “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Proverbs 12:1 “The one who loves discipline loves knowledge, but the one who hates reproof is stupid.” Everything we do sets an example for our children. The way we confront a situation, the way we speak of others, the way we dress, the way we carry ourselves, how we treat others ( are we respectful, polite, and kind). Do we treat our children in this same manner. Our children are watching every move. They are the ones that see us for who we truly are. Do you want to know one of the fastest ways for a child to reject Christianity? A hypocrite Christian parent. We cannot say we love God and live a life that is unpleasant to Him, our children get to witness our walk with Jesus. Contrary to popular belief; it’s not about what makes us happy, but what makes us holy that truly changes our life. It’s not easy, but it’s a blessing to be refined on our walk with Jesus and have our children witness repentance, sacrifice, forgiveness, and love. Just like Jesus. He set an example for us, He’s our Father and walks the talk. Setting an example is crucial for our children and we cannot fail to lean on Jesus! P.S. Just because you’re Christian, doesn’t mean your children are. Even more so, our example is needed. The last thing I want to touch on is provision. When I say this, of course I mean financially but I also mean providing love, patience, a warm home, and all the above we just read together. Providing is not buying everything a child wants. Providing isn’t choosing work over them to make money, (In some situations, it’s the only choice we have to provide the basics but for the average parent, this isn’t the case.) It’s not making sure they have all the things you didn’t get as a child. Provide: To equip or supply someone with (something useful or necessary). That’s one of the definitions I found of the word provide and that’s what we ought to do. Equip our children with what’s necessary. The way God provides for us. He’s always the One we want to look to as an example of how we should provide or what we should provide for our children. Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 2 Corinthians 12:14 “Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.” (Paul was father like to Corinth) Psalm 103:13 “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. Galatians 6:10 “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (This includes our children)