Christianity's purpose is to make clean the soul

Something I would like to mention today is the subject of spiritual purity or sanctity.  For many Christians the emphasis in their lives is the church; an institution comprised of buildings used to gather up believers every Sunday.  The meeting together of believers is good for sharing stories of faith, teaching, personal breakthrough, praise and worship, collection of funds for charitable purposes and also for the establishment of faith and the networking of believers among themselves.

The central problem of church attendance is that it does not allow a person to understand the condition of their soul.  You and I are souls and we have little idea of what condition our soul is in when we become Christians.  Is it true to say that God alone knows the condition of each man's soul, or is it possible for each man to know the spiritual state of his own heart?  Every person in this world is a sinner, that is something we all have been told.  However, there are levels of sin which makes one man's heart cleaner than another.  Some of us are deep in the mire while others of us are less deep in the mire.  The point is we are all in the mire, but the levels vary from one soul to another.  One man guards his heart while another lets it go to a life of hedonistic indulgence.

The thing we have to remember about Christianity is that it is a way to follow, which is designed to bring the soul's of men out of sins.  It is a path which involves us undertaking a journey from darkness into light, from despair and sorrows into hope and joy.  When you strip away the praise and worship, the bricks and mortar church, the sermon and the feel-good feeling of mixing with other believers, there is a fundamental question which remains to be answered.  Are our hearts (spirits) right with God?  The point is NONE of our hearts are in truth right with God. Why do I say that?  Because we are all sinners.  What is the condition of the heart which is right with God and which God will accept?  Only that soul who has a clean and pure heart.  That is, the soul which has undergone purification.  We are justified by faith so that by walking each day in the faith, we might achieve the outcome of our faith, which is a holy soul.

The souls which God takes unto himself and to be his own, are those who fit his definition of righteousness, not the worlds definition.  The soul can be in many states, but the only state which is of interest to God are the HOLY souls. A holy soul is a soul which is PURE.  A PURE soul is a soul which is INCORRUPT and UNDEFILED by the contamination of SIN.  The PERFECTION which is mentioned in the bible, has to do with a soul which is in the condition which God accepts into heaven.  God is supposed to transform the sinner into the saint, by the removal of dross from the soul.  It means that the soul retains it's essential character without the defilement of sins to influence it in a negative way.

The purpose of faith is to keep the faith through a time of purification of the soul.  How do we know our soul is being purified during this time?  Because as sin is succoured from the soul or removed from it by the Holy Spirit, the person is supposed to undergo emotional changes and increases in will-power which make him feel better.  The inner feelings of heaviness, sorrow, misery, anxiety and despair of the sin-laden soul are supposed to be transient phases giving way to feelings of peace, happiness, light-heartedness, relaxation, satisfaction, joy and eventually bliss at the point of salvation.  There are many believers who begin life as church-goers but due to not understanding the fundamental promises of the faith, fall away through poor understanding because their attempts to obtain what the faith promises are never realised.  The simple fact remains: these souls do not achieve what the bible promises because they believe a series of faulty reasonings and false teachings which dominates church preaching.

If we understand that the salvation of the soul is a spiritual state of sinlessness, then it follows that salvation is the condition or state achieved by a soul through their faith in God through a period of earthly suffering, where they will carry a cross.

While it is true that faith is supposed to bring a reward and prosperity into the life of the disciple of Jesus, the simple fact remains that Jesus said that we would have to take up our cross and follow him.  He did not say that he had carried our cross for us.  There is a cross for all Christians to bear before the state of spiritual purity is reached.  The bible says that we are to accept Jesus Christ and WE WILL BE be saved.  It does not say that when we accept Jesus Christ WE ARE saved.  If we are saved the minute we accept Jesus into our hearts by faith, then why does the scripture not say "you are saved".  Instead the scripture says "you will be saved". "Will be" implies a given time in the future for those who enter the faith.  It does not mean immediately.  If there was an immediate reward, then the scripture would say, "you are saved".

Some souls enter the faith because they are suffering inside and yet when they accept Jesus into their hearts by faith, little changes in their lives.  According to church teaching, a person is guaranteed to have a heart or soul which is instantly transformed from internal suffering to bliss and full enlightenment the minute they enter the faith.  This DOES NOT HAPPEN in reality.  Why not?  Because we are told we will suffer for our sins.  The church teaches the prosperity of Christ but it does not teach how we will have to suffer for that prosperity.  It does not teach about how God will first punish those he accepts as Sons.

The modern church candy coats the truth to make it more appealing to believers.  Why?  Precisely because it is an institution which depends upon the monetary contributions of those believers.  A prosperous church by worldly definitions, is one whose congregation is growing, whose coffers are swelling and whose influence and reach is extending.  Does God want those things? Not if it means that those men are going to church to appease their own consciences and if they continue to believe the lie that they are without sins.  By all means go to church, only realise that church-going is dominated by believers who are going there to learn about how to become rich in this life.  They are normally not going to church in order to be transformed into Christs. 

 A church which preaches on the hardships which must be suffered by believers first is not going to be filled with people on Sundays!  People want QUICK FIX religion and they are getting a corrupted version of truth because their financial contributions appease their consciences and make the entire charade seem OK and tolerable. It isn't. In fact it is rotten to the core!  Jesus exposed this two thousand years ago.

In the early church, people met in the homes of others. The church was a gathering of human temples - hearts cleaned  and prepared for anointing.  Each person was filled with power after receiving the anointing.  The manifestation of God's power in the life of a believer is supposed to be witnessed by others.  The sound of rushing wind filling the room and the decent of flames of fire on each person's head is how the apostles received the anointing in the early church, yet I doubt if there is any Christian who has witnessed that sign of apostleship in the life of another in the modern church.

The point I am trying to make, is that it is only through the sufferings of Christ that we are able to fully identify with Christ.  There is no rapture without tribulation, meaning GREAT AFFLICTION or OPPRESSION. The bible says, the servant's sufferings will turn to joy.

When we realise that the wreckage of our lives is because of the sins we have committed, that is not an end to our suffering.  In truth that is only the beginning of a long road of suffering on the way to the peace, the joy and the bliss promised by Jesus.  What the church is teaching, is a message of pure prosperity which bypasses the need for suffering.  Humans do not learn from good times.  True learning, maturity and wisdom only begin when a man has been thoroughly humbled by God and has suffered.  If God were to instantly save and redeem your soul from sin the moment you accepted Jesus, what would you have learned from your mistakes?  I should think precious little.  The truth is that no person is going to receive anything from God until they have suffered for their sins.  Why is there a cross for us to carry, if Jesus has shouldered the burden?

In Matthew's gospel it says "blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God".  It also says "blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled". What is being said in the first line is that those who have a heart which is undefiled by sin, will actually see God. How is this possible? Well firstly one must understand that it does not refer to the physical eyes of the flesh, but to the eyes of the spirit-man. The eyes of the heart were designed by God to see into the spiritual realm.  There is a gospel song which goes, "open the eyes of my heart Lord, I want to see you."  The eyes of the heart are opened when sin is removed from the heart.  It means that in the condition of righteousness and holiness and spiritual purity, a man will be able to look upon his creator and bear witness to the risen Lord as he exists in heaven.  It means that men have the God-given spiritual faculties to see amazing things in heaven, such as angelic powers and future events to come.

Is a man able to see the Devil in the spirit?  Of course it is possible. Jesus said "to him who keeps my word, he shall not see death".  Now we know that the prince of death is Satan himself.  He is the emissary of death, also known as the destroyer.  He is the one who comes to steal, to kill and destroy and also to take men to the grave when they pass from this life.  The ones who keep Jesus word will not have to face the grave and look into the eyes of the devil when they pass from this life, because they will have emerged from sins before they pass from this life.

In the early church, the principle message of the cross was taught as the resurrection from death.  This teaching concerns the ascendancy of the soul or spirit.  The message of the ascention was that the soul was baptised into death because it would have to go down first into the spiritual underworld before shedding its sins and being raised into glory.  Today's church says that you are saved at the inception of your faith.  They miss the entire purpose of faith.  What the institution of church is saying, is that the believer is raised into glory the minute he accepts Christ and bypasses the need to suffer as Christ suffered.  If the "salvation of our souls is the outcome or goal of our faith", as declared in 1 Peter 1:9, then how is it possible to claim that we have achieved this outcome, the minute we enter into the faith? What the church is teaching then, is fundamentally impossible because it bypasses the punishment of God, which falls upon the sinner. If we enter the faith and are immediately saved, what need is there for training in righteousness, for perseverance, endurance, for patience, for long-suffering, for the learning of obedience?

All these spiritual qualities cultivated in the suffering soul become irrelevant, because according to the church you get to be instantly transformed into a pure soul.  They are saying that when you ask for forgiveness of sins, you suddenly have all sins removed from you.  Well if that were true, then every man who becomes a Christian would immediately be imbued with the power and authority attained by the apostles of the ancient church. The anointing with its visible manifestations is not being received by believers because they have not achieved spiritual purity. They are not delivered from sin as they believe themselves to be.  This is one of the major end-time deceptions warned against in scripture.

Jesus came to help those who could admit that sins might be the cause of their unsolvable problems

Jesus did not come to save the world, but to save sinners (out of the world).  What are the implications of that for us today?  Firstly, only those who are in the world and are aware that sins are the reason for their suffering can be saved.  We are all in the world, and we are not born into a heavenly system, but a world system.  Our souls assume the fallen nature when the first sin is committed.   

Souls cannot be saved who are not able to ascribe their mental and emotional suffering to the likelihood of sins.  Sin hardening causes the soul to stop feeling and this usually precipitates the onset of an emotional breakdown.  No matter how much we try and convince a person that they need Jesus in their lives, they can only come to know the goodness and good things of Jesus when they are willing to accept that sin in their lives has resulted in their failures or a lack of blessing.

If a person has a health condition that does not improve with treatment, a marriage which has failed, or a career or business which is in a downward spiral,  it may be sins which have built up in that person's soul and also may be to do with sinful living.  The word of God is the instrument by which men can be convicted that sins are at the heart of their life's problems.  A long time ago I mentioned that one of the reasons for broken lives and failure, is because sins stacked up in the soul, curse the person's life. My life was a classic example of this.

If a person is stuck in quicksand and they are sinking, they cannot be hauled out unless they are aware of their predicament and are willing to assist the person who is trying to help them.  If you are in the mire and eventually come to realize and admit your situation, you can receive help.  If you are only ankle-deep, you might be in denial and that will prevent you from receiving help when someone throws you a lifeline.  The sinking person will struggle against help and is not ready for help unless they can admit they are in grave danger.  The rescuer is likely to become worn out and walk away.  Luckily the holy spirit promises us in Heb 13:5, "...never will I leave you or forsake you".  We might frustrate the work of the holy spirit at times but when we are committed to our faith, we enable grace to rescue us from pitfalls which others without faith would be trapped in.

Jesus came to earth to convict the world of sin.  He came to convict us, precisely because the world is not aware of its own sins without the light shining on it.  If you stay in a room with the lights switched off, you may never discover that you are ugly, unkempt and what poor shape your body is in.  When the lights are turned on, you able to see yourself as you really are.  The bible says that the heart is deceitful above all else.  The dark heart does not understand itself without the company of light.  This could be why unbelievers have such extreme reactions and aversions to the Lord.  Jesus magnifies our errors and faults and which person can say they enjoy such scrutiny?  Jesus was not loved by all people.  He was hated by many and that is because those people had their thoughts and motives exposed by Jesus when they were in his presence.  Those who followed Jesus and listened to his teaching, were in fact listening to the Word of God in human form. They became better people by putting his truths into practice.  Each time Jesus spoke from God, he enabled a seed to be planted in those who listened to him.

Those who had the seed of the word planted in them began to grow and flourish in faith and they began to understand the good things held out by the father and the nature of righteousness as a standard expected by the father.  By becoming disciples of Jesus, they were able to fully grasp the corrupted state of their souls and grow in conviction that they needed what Jesus had to offer.  They become gradually obedient to his teachings.  He also revealed to them that the devil would hinder them in receiving what God had to offer.

He made them aware that they were sinners because they had made repetitive errors  in their lives.  He made them aware that their wrongdoings had led them to becoming imprisoned within themselves.  He made them aware that their lifestyles had actually been deathstyles.  He also made them aware that his spiritual nature was very different to theirs.  His lack of spiritual defilement made the spiritual corruption of his naysayers and antagonists more apparent.  His perfection made their imperfections stand out more.  By revealing truth which people least wanted to hear and by telling them things which reaffirmed the fathers love for them, they were reminded of their deficiencies.  They either moved away from him or by their humility grew more attentive to what he was teaching.

Eventually they learned that their souls were in Satan's kingdom and not with his God as they thought they were.  Jesus told them that they honoured the father with their lips, but at heart or in spirit, they were far from him (in fact with the devil).  Jesus provided them with a solution for their spiritual condition.  He offered them a free gift of healing which was by the purification, salvation or redemption of thier souls.  By offering the gifts of God freely, he was able to give them what he himself had received from the father - eternal life.  Through the eternal life offered by God, the mortal soul is transformed into an immortal one.  This enables the disciple of Jesus to attain to the expanded consciousness of Christ.

On this note, it is important to understand that the attainment of the holy priesthood as a vocation is potentially more important than any other wordly profession for a human soul, because of what it can potentially offer to man spiritually.  The devil does not try and prevent the advance of science or technology nearly as much as he seeks to thwart the advance of spiritual knowledge which can lead to men receiving heavenly power.  We know plenty about computers, space and medicine, yet we know precious little about the soul - our very selves.  Satan does not want men to know because his kingdom has a vested interest in human ignorance and he allows technology to grow and become diversions for us who would otherwise have nothing to do except have more time on their hands to seek truth.

Especially, he is opposed to souls who resist or fight him so that they emerge into the heavenly realms and attain to the resurrection.  The holy priesthood had the God given capacity to restore men to the image and nature of Jesus Christ, which is why it was snuffed out as a movement in Roman times.  You and I are not in the image nor glory of Christ.  We believe, we have faith, we read the bible, but we are not transformed into the image of Jesus.  We are not glorified beings.  Why do some of us claim that we are? If we are truly of Christ, where is the power and authority displayed by Jesus.

The kingdom of God is not of the kingdom of this world.  The two are very different kingdoms.  Jesus, by choosing to come into this world because of his love for fallen souls, reveals his abounding graciousness and humility.  The future concern that we will be facing as fallen selves is this:  When true humility is revealed to us, we will take it as self-righteousness and persecute it until we have eliminated it.  When we feel condemned by someone, instead of taking their teaching seriously, we will discredit that person and try to get rid of them.  The Word makes us feel condemned, not because we are condemned, but because sin living in us has already been condemned by the Word Jesus spoke.

Anyone speaking the word to us makes us feel like a sinner because the word is designed to convict sinners of their sins.  The reason why we react this way to authoritative teaching, is because if the world is spoken powerfully, it is likely that people on the receiving end will feel condemned.  They will say that you make them feel condemned, but it is in fact the Word of God that you are repeating to them which makes them feel that way.  They take the feeling of condemnation to be from their own souls, but in truth it is coming from sins lodged inside their souls . The feeling of condemnation passes from evil spirits resident in the soul to the host soul itself, making the person FEEL BAD. Important to note that the feel bad feeling is not coming from you, but from sin living in you. Evil spirits living in you feel condemned because they have been condemned and they then pass their feelings into your soul making you feel condemned.  When you feel condemned it is because the word is judging the sins in your soul and it allows you to know that you are a sinner, have sin living in your soul and are able to begin ridding your soul of unrighteousness and putting away sin in your life.

The devil who has established his kingdom inside the souls of men because of their sins, sees to it that any move made by that person to learn about what could set them free is counteracted or defended against by various methods, such an an inner voice saying, "who does he think he is" or "I am already saved" or "I have no sins", or "the devil is not the root cause of my problems."  Now when a person is trying to teach that to others, sin in those others will also try to discredit that man by putting it into the minds of others that he is mad or insane.  When Jesus told his tormentors that he was a king, he was mocked and they spat on him.  This is why he said "father forgive them for they do not know what they do."  Jesus knew that it was only because those men were darkened by sins that they crucified him. If they had been enlightened men they would have embraced Jesus as a brother and would have had no reason to harm him.

It is important for men to understand that Jesus was not trying to save the world. This would have been impossible because the world does not yet even acknowledge its sins. Only those who are poor in spirit and are humble enough to acknowledge their poverty are ready to seek the kingdom and the things which the father offers.  Those who are in the world and are fully aware of their inner corruption are ready for what Jesus has to offer.

Satan does his best work in men's minds to convince them that the root cause of their sufferings is not sin and that the things which God offers are not what they need.  The war against the souls of men begins with the mind which cannot fathom or accept the supernatural realm within.  That is because darkness sits like a cap on the mind and the light of truth cannot penetrate.  Men will either deny the truth, be unable to grasp the truth or will not make an effort to understand it.  Fools of this world see God's wisdom as foolishness, but the wise will understand that what the masses deem to be foolishness is actually wisdom from God.

Discerning the nature and purpose of the holy spirit

Interesting to hear church people speaking about the nature and function of the holy spirit in the Christian life.  Unfortunately they are not able to adequately explain what they mean by the holy spirit.  You see, in heaven all spirits are holy; so what exactly are we referring to when we say “it was revealed to me by the holy spirit”.  It might be of more useful to us if we have a clearer understanding of the purpose of the holy spirit and it's relationship with us.

This information comes from Psalm 34:7, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them.”  In earlier posts I presented reasonings from the scripture in Heb 1:14 which says “are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.”

The first reference reveals that deliverance is a function of angels.  From the second reference we learn from the author's question, “are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”  From discussions on deliverance in previous postings, we know that salvation is the result of deliverance from sin, so that now we know that angels are ministering spirits which also happen to be holy.  Conversely, demons are unholy spirits, who are involved in the ministry of evil, which includes lies, deception, sickness, disease and death.

God does not perform the work of saving and restoring the spirit of men directly, but rather through agents, or divine messengers.  We also know that the human spirit is regenerated, or healed through forgiveness of sins or deliverance from sins.  This is confirmed in Tit 3:5 “he saved us through the washing of re-birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

John 14:26 also tells us that “the councellor, the holy spirit, who the father will send in my name, will teach you all things...” Now we also know that each man is to be led into all truth by the Holy Spirit which is our spiritual instructor into the higher truths and mysteries of the faith.  This is affirmed by 1 Thes 4:8, “Therefore he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God who gives you his Holy Spirit.”

There are plenty of other facets of truth revealed in the bible about the nature and purpose of the holy spirit, and scripture made clear that there are angels of higher and lower rank in the heavens.  Upwards in the hierarchy, angelic intelligences are given greater powers and so are closer to the God-head, which is Jesus.  All angels report to the king of kings.

We know from Moses' encounter with the angel of the Lord in the burning bush that angels can also manifest as fire.  The bush wasn't burning, but there was a fire in the middle of the bush.  Indeed angels manifested as flames of fire on the heads of the apostles at Pentecost, filling them with POWER for ministry.

What I am trying to present here, is that angels are messengers of God and of course they are spirits which happen to be holy. Each of us has an angel which serves us and is supposed to lead us out of sin unto salvation. Demons lead us into sin and towards spiritual corruption and death, and angels lead us out of sin and towards incorruption and the goal of faith, which is to live or enter life. The place of life is the kingdom, which we are barred from entering because of our fallen natures.

Our angels protect us from the assaults of the enemy, camps around us when we pray to God to “forgive us our trespasses” or forgiveness of sins and are there as teachers when we pray to be led into all truth. The epistles also tell us that we don't always know what to pray for, but that the holy spirit interceeds for the saints in groans that can't be understood.

Next time you hear your local minister speaking so abstractly about the holy spirit, you may understand them better, with this post in mind.  The ministry of angels to fallen men, implies that angels are working amongst demons and the souls of men, in the depths of darkness, only they cannot be looked upon by the unholy.  This means their ministry in the world is unseen by fallen creatures and it confirms that God's eyes and ears are always monitoring worldly plans - he is omni-present.  In future, when someone tells you that they saw an angel in their dreams, don't believe it.  Until men are made holy, angels cannot be seen in the spirit.

Please help me translate a Christian book into Spanish, Hindi, or Chinese

I am interested in translating an English book on spiritual warfare, into Spanish and also into an Asian language like Chinese or Hindi.

This author's work has helped me to overcome depression and turned my life around.  Consequently, I feel a duty and a sense of urgency that it be shared it with other Christians from the major non-English language groups.

I am convinced that this book will be a major blow to the kingdom of darkness in the near future.  I also feel very strongly that the time for it to be shared in other languages is now.

If you are interested, or involved in deliverance ministry and you have some free time on your hands, then I would be very grateful if you would help me out.  If you can't translate, then maybe you have a friend or a relative who would be willing to assist me.

I'm unable to offer you money, but I would be happy to send you a new copy of the book which you can keep.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Going to hang in there for a while longer with blogger

I was planning a move away from the blogger platform, but I think deleting my old posts and starting again has made me feel as though I've made a fresh start - sort of!  I think for me its more of the devil you know!  I was considering hosting a wordpress.org site but the packages are not cheap and so I will wait a while longer and try and make some tweaks here and there.  When I am a rich man, then I might do the whole migration properly.

Apologies for removing many of my early posts.  I think I will pick some of the better ones and paste them up again so that there is a legacy of material for newer readers.  I choose not to reveal my name for the moment for privacy reasons, but I will disclose the details eventually.  I have learned that it is harder to trust the writing of anonymous authors, which I can understand.  My only wish is that you consider my reasonings and ideas and examine the scriptures yourself.  Don't let other people tell you what to think, pray for truth into scripture and the holy spirit will illuminate you.

Blog to be re-opened using new platform

I would like to thank all my readers for their loyal support since this blog's inception.  I am finding the blogger platform cumbersome and frustrating to use as the number of posts increases.  For this reason, I plan to launch a new blog using the same name, but with a new URL, which I will be listing in "sites of interest" in due course.  You should be able to click on the link to take you there in future.  Apologies for the inconvenience.

This might take me a few months, so please be patient.  I have to figure out what platform to implement and what type of hosting to use.  I would also like to add copyright protection for my material and, together with some improved features.  All a bit daunting I must say!

If anyone can help out with advice from personal experience of blog migrations, I would be very grateful, Being a newbie at this, any help would be appreciated.  You can send me an email from my profile link or post me a comment.  I'm sure some of your have done this sort of thing before and would be able to recommend appropriate reading material or relevant sites.

Thanks again!