Spiritcode

AT HOME WITH GOD

 

AT HOME WITH GOD
 
I’ve had a lot of questions over the years of what I think Heaven would be like. I would like to have the answers, especially in the last little while. And I’m content to wait for God to show us in his time. But what I’m going to talk about today is something that has been on my heart for some time and I’ve felt a deeper understanding of what Jesus was teaching us about his hope and faith and love for our lives here on earth that will continue on in Heaven. 

We know we will get a new supernatural body at the time of the Final Resurrection when Jesus comes back. But there is still a time in between - being with the Lord in Heaven before that Final Resurrection that I’m going to look at here, and it is clear that we will have a recognisable resurrected body just as Jesus had when he walked the earth for forty days after his resurrection. But other than that, we cannot be specific It has not yet been revealed what we shall be (1 John 3:2).

I’m speaking today about being at home with God in our inner being whether we are on earth, or whether we are at home with him in Heaven.
Jesus tried to explain to his disciples about how he was leaving them to go and be at home with his Father and he said he was going to prepare a home for them also. He used the word ‘mansion’ to describe that home (mone – abiding with, making a home. God being at home with us and us being at home with God.
John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you… that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus went on to say If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home (mansion – mone) with him.

So I have two questions.
How do we build that house so that we can be at home with God and he can be at home with him?
And how do we live in that house?

We will look first at how Paul tells us how to start to build the house.
1Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The foundation is the work of Jesus Christ, the foundation stone that gave his life for us that we could become partakers of the Divine nature through the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit in us burns off the dead wood of dead works of wood and hay and stubble, such as ego and ambition and superficial superspiritual success. He transforms us into the likeness of Jesus. The likeness of Jesus is the silver and the gold. The silver represents his redeeming mercy and forgiveness, and the gold represents the nature of God. The fire represents the trials of faith spoken of by Peter.

1Peter 1: 7,9 For a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, or a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with unspeakable joy and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls

We will now look at how to live in the house by looking at some things we have mentioned that Jesus has said. Jesus said in my Father’s house there are many mansions (mone – at home with God). I go to prepare a place for you.(John 14:2). There is a unique individual mone for every person ever born – no two people build the same house for God. 
Jesus said My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home (mansion – mone) with him. (John 14:23).
The unique spiritual home (mone-mansion) that we build with God and for God becomes the dwelling place for The Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit who each have a role to play for us and with us in the building and the purpose and meaning to be expressed in that house that is our home. The Father is the designer and provider of the style, the furniture the decoration, the colour and the variety and character of the house. That lovely House of yours that the Father designed with you will draw people to meet Jesus in your unique and special way.  Just as he designed every little detail of  his creation here on earth. With such intention, beauty, and creativity and with its own personal nature – just look around you.

 Jesus is the word of truth and faith and love grace that creates the life and character of the conversation in the house. That becomes the expression of how we are in the world and in relationship with the people around us. When you work on building your HOUSE with good things, the right paint and furnishings and plan, burning off the deadwood of the ego and getting rid of as much junk as you can and making an inviting HOME with the Father, then Jesus, the WORD will speak through you naturally in His way, and You can trust in that and have Faith for it. 

The Holy Spirit is the one who transforms every person who is welcomed into our house. This transformation starts with us and touches the minds and hearts of all who come in. 
The Holy Spirit is the Translator and interpreter. You won’t have to try to get your point across, the Holy Spirit does that for you. 
You won’t need to strive in your opinions to make people believe what you say, or to “Get it” because they will supernaturally hear and understand by the grace of God it. That is his job and he does it well. We get caught up in thinking its our job.

That was always the way Christianity was meant to be. Jesus said once to his disciples You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. (John 5:39). Jesus challenges the Church to hear those words and do them. Too often the Church seems to have had a better idea about knowing God – Just read about him and argue with one another about what the Bible says about him. 
 
We have 36,000 Christian denominations making too much room for everyone telling his neighbour about God and perhaps not enough room to let God be at home in us and us at home in him. That way we would share about who we know around a family table instead of debate about what we know from behind a pulpit. It is not too late to start and my hunger for spiritual fellowship is to bring Him whom we are getting to know to a living table in a living room in a spiritual home that he is dwelling in and that he is helping us to build. We are offered the opportunity to build that home in which we can be at home with God. 
Paul said I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7) 
But Paul also tells us that even though a course on earth may be finished, there is more to come in Heaven. He even tells us that he experienced being taken to the third Heaven to see Heavenly mysteries that he was not permitted to utter on the earth (2Corinthians 12:2). 
He tells us that when all earthly things pass away faith and hope and love will continue to operate eternally.
1Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Only Jesus finished his eternal course completely on earth, but for everybody else there will be age to age learning of the unfolding of the revelation of the nature of God to us.
We are offered our course to be lived at home with him on the earth and then he brings us to our home in Heaven where a greater dimension of building that home with him continues to unfold. 
The more we dwell with the Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit – at home with God here on earth the more they unveil who they are to us, whether we are here on earth or in Heaven, because faith and hope and love are eternal and will remain from age to age for people to come to know and love God more and more. This becomes our age-to-age eternal destiny.

Paul OSullivan - pauloss@me.com.

 

 

FAITH AND HOPE AND TINEKE

FAITH AND HOPE AND TINEKE

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance (hypostasis – the abiding basic reality) of things (pragma – work and business of God) hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. 

Faith is abiding in the supernatural work of God doing his will for us in the world of the unseen in the things we hope for - and the assurance of his perfect will coming to pass. In that faith we surrender our will for us to his will for us.
Faith is completed in observing the event that comes to pass in God’s sovereign will.
When we observe the event we give thanks, and we receive more understanding of who God is.
But what we pray to happen may not happen in the way we had first hoped it would.
Jesus said ‘If there be any other way, take this cup of suffering from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done’
Hope is the ongoing trust in the eventuality of God’s perfect will being accomplished in his way and in his time for our prayer. It sits in the middle of our desire and God’s will and his timing. Tineke and I lived in that hope. The Holy Spirit bears witness to our spirit when we receive his gift of faith and it bears witness to our spirit for our hope. We had a witness of hope.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. The bible speaks of the people of faith in Hebrews 11 who died with the testimony of faith without receiving the promise.
The completion of faith is the event of a promise. the completion of hope is the eventuality of a promise. The promise is always the perfect will of God for which we give thanks.
We just read that the first experience of faith that God offers to us is about his creation of the world through his word. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God
The word for ‘understand’ in that verse is noe?? which means to observe and comprehend and be assured of that event. Most people observe and are in awe of the order and beauty of the universe and they attribute that wonder to a theory called evolution, but some receive a revelation by faith and observe and are in awe of the order and beauty of the universe that has been uttered into existence by God’s Word. 

I wont be speaking at the funeral of course so I’d like to share some things about Tneke and me now. The way I came to have that faith in God’s creation was a long and winding road. It started when I met Tineke when she was a university student working as an assistant in a pharmacy during the holidays, and the owner of the pharmacy asked me to come and do a locum for him so he could go skiing. It happened that I was also at the same university as her, having gone back to uni to study medicine and so we continued the relationship from that time on, and then I was introduced to her family and I became a semi-permanent fixture at her home. I also decided to forget about doing medicine – another future had walked into my life.
Tineke’s mother Martha was a devoted Christian, and Martha was wary of this catholic university student who believed in evolution, which you had to do to pass the exams, and it was inconsequential to me at that time. But I remember the day years later, after I received a revelation of who Jesus was as my saviour and I read that verse about understanding that the worlds were framed by the word of God and it was a total and complete reality to me and I wondered what I had been thinking all my life. Martha and I got to love one another and lo and behold I ended up becoming her pastor at our church, Northern beaches Christian Centre. I was now living by faith – the faith that said that God was always working his will into our lives for our good in the world of the unseen.

Then I realised that my faith was nothing but the abiding under the supernatural work of God for everything I could ever hope for in my life. That meant that I learned to live with the hope of the glory of God, as the Bible says, ‘we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2).
The hope of the glory of God simply means living in the expectation of God being on display in our lives as we entrust everything to him to bring his will to pass in his way and in his time – that is a living hope, and that is what Tineke lived within over these last six months.

But the next experience of faith that the Bible speaks about after creation is that of the faith of Abel – that is the faith I saw in Tineke’s life and that is what I would like to share with you. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. (verse 4)
The faith of Abel was that he wanted to please God and so he offered a more excellent sacrifice to God than his brother. His willingness to let his life be a sacrificial offering to God was what I saw in the mind and heart of Tineke’s soul as she sacrificially gave her life in lovingly serving God in serving her family and those outside her family that God had placed in her life to care for. And through that humble submission to God’s will, Tineke being dead still speaks - and there are others from amongst us here who have gone to be with the Lord, and I believe their faith still speaks.

At one stage I thought I had faith for her healing because of other Scriptures that spoke about healing and for which I asked for confirmation - and circumstances came about that appeared to suggest confirmation, but what truly remained as a witness in my spirit was hope and not a promise of faith that I could proclaim. Tineke suffered the ravages ofa dreadful disease and it was predicted that the immunotherapy would weaken her to the extent that it would not be tolerable but she struggled with an astounding courage but then a rogue infection hit her which was not discovered in time and her body could not withstand it. We sat with her as she took her last breath listening to a most special spiritual song that she had told lucy she wanted for her funeral. I had not been aware of that.
The word that Tineke and I lived within and had agreement on was the word of hope that we held onto without wavering. Our hope remained in our trust in the goodness of God to be revealed in his way and in his time – and we left that in his hands 

Tineke, being dead still speaks. Tineke’s faith still speaks to me. It was over three years ago that I shared a vision that I had to bring understanding to people of the truth of the salvation of the soul receiving the goal of our faith, the salvation of the soul (1Peter 1:9).
Tineke joined me in putting together of that vision of the healing and salvation of the soul and we shared in the Scriptures together and I attempted to put so many Scriptures together that came cascading upon each other and it became difficult for me to know where to start and how to end and what to put in the middle. Tineke called it a blueprint but she knew it had to be ordered and structured and presented in a way that could be received and understood. 

Then one day Tineke read a verse from Habakkuk to me that The Lord had given her about our vision together for this. Habakkuk 2:2 Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
Tineke helped me make the vision plain and to put the words in order and sequence so that people would understand it. It took about three years and I could not have done it without her and we were at the beginning of running it as a course so that people who heard it could run with it. Scott Kardash with his gift of knowledge of the word and his computer tech skills worked tirelessly with me to present it as a group discussion and I began to share it in Scott and Lisa’s home to her home group. Then Tineke became critically ill – and now she is gone.

It is as if Tineke and I were driving a beautiful car together when all of a sudden the wheels of the car fell off and Tineke was no longer there. And that is where I am now, and I am asking God what to do. But then I remembered the Scriptures that God gave to Tineke… For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
I don’t know how I am going to do that as I feel empty of all energy and motivation but I know the grace of God will become my sufficiency and if it seems slow I will wait for it for it will surely come, it will not delay. Tineke being dead still speaks from that Scripture and I believe she would also like me to put the wheels back on that car and get back on track. And that gives me faith that God will speak, and I will hear him.

Paul Sullivan - pauloss@me.com

 

GODS GRACE IN US

GOD’S GRACE IN US
 
1Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am 
When Paul made that statement, he knew that what he had become through God’s grace was God’s doing, and not his doing. He also said it was not him doing the work of God, but it was the grace of Jesus working with him. That grace was God’s activity upon his soul that empowered him to respond to God in love and the surrender of his will and to know that Jesus was working through him every moment of his life.

Generally Grace can be seen working in someone’s life when they are doing some good thing that they love to do and they make it look easy even if it is very difficult.
In sporting terms if a tennis player saw Roger Federer playing tennis and compared themselves to Federer they would see tennis grace in action and wish they had that grace in their game.
Jesus lived a Divine life full of grace and truth within his limited humanity and people saw God at work in him and through him.

As a Pharisee Paul thought he was a top-class man of God before the grace of God took over his life.  
Philippians 3:4 If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
But then he found grace; And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles (Galatians 1:14) God’s grace for Paul was waiting for him from before he was born.
Before Paul found grace, he was part of the disorder and violence of a treacherous world in a dark time in history. Paul had seen himself as a religious man of great competence and great commitment to the cause of his Jewish tradition. He served God through his own ambition and strategies and he took great pride in his own achievements in persecuting Christians. Paul’s religion had not put God’s love or mercy in his heart or a humble and surrendered will towards the Father, or oneness in the Spirit with Jesus. For that he had to find grace in the eyes of the Lord through Jesus

After he found grace, he became part of God’s answer of love and light that overcame the darkness of that world. Jesus had overcome the darkness through his death and resurrection, and now he was sending forth messengers of his grace. God is doing the same thing today!
 
There are multitudes of people who are committed to the cause of doing things for God that have a similar zeal and passion for success like Paul did but have yet to find the grace of God for whatever good thing God has planned for them.
We might be inclined to think that Paul’s existence was of such significance and importance for what God called him to do, that the activity of God’s grace upon us could not be anything like God’s grace upon Paul. But we would be wrong to think that, as Paul wrote to Titus concerning the grace upon all of us through Jesus. For the grace of God that brings salvation has shone upon all mankind.

And while that grace is there waiting to shine, it is also there waiting to be found. The finding of grace came upon people in the Old Testament who saw the saving power of God and gave themselves to be an expression of that.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God also told Moses that he had found grace in his sight, and that he knew him by name. And in the New Testament we are urged to find his grace in times of need. 
Come boldly to the throne of grace that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
The finding and receiving of grace for us is through our faith, as we realise that we are not sufficient of ourselves to produce grace by ourselves, but we also realise that we have access to his grace in our insufficiency through faith. That grace releases his work upon us and through us.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)

Grace is the loving activity of God upon a human soul, and when we know that we can access this grace through our faith we realize that it is the sufficiency for each one of us to do what God has called us to do – ‘called’ – kleo,  means invited- invited to love and serve and bless those people in our world. That grace upon us allows salvation to shine upon all those people that God places us amongst. Just like Paul we are what we are by the grace of God, and we do what we do by the grace of God – ‘set apart before we were born, and called by his grace, and pleased to reveal his Son in us’. 
That was and still is the Lord’s doing, and I pray we will see many such miracles in these days in which we live.
 
Satan gave humanity a rule of destruction to live by – a deadly commandment  – that you hate one another as I have hated you, and we are living in times where there are many obeying that commandment of fear and hatred. But God’s love which casts out all fear is on the rise today through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who has given us his new Commandment – that you love one another as I have loved you. 
Paul tells us that it was God’s love that compelled his heart to serve him and to serve the people he was sent to. He writes Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own gain but because Christ’s love compels us. (2Corinthians 5:14). 
Paul’s soul was bursting with that powerful love and he could hardly contain himself when he said, May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with the fulness of God himself (Ephesians 3:17-19).

Paul OSullivan  -  pauloss@me.com
 

 

THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL AND THE SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE

THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL AND THE SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE
We’re finishing up Module One of our Salvation of the Soul series with this sixth and final session. We’ve explored how, in response to early experiences of forsakenness, a person can create a protective helper part in their soul. These strategies becomes embedded and trapped as immature attempts to protect us from harm, leading to more unnecessary suffering over a person’s life. We’ve learned that our spirit can discover and gently engage with these outdated parts, not as enemies, but as once-useful protectors doing their best. With spiritual authority and compassion, we can invite them to step aside and make room for our true Helper—the Holy Spirit—who reveals to us our God-designed self, united with Jesus and the Father.

There is a graphic story of a spiritual struggle in Genesis 32 about Jacob who wrestles with God, where God appears to Jacob in the form of an angel. Jacob’s life had been one continuous struggle, creating many unhelpful helper parts in his soul, using his own wits and skills and devious ways to get what he believed was due to him. His twin brother Esau came out of the womb before him, but Jacob grabbed his heel to get there first and it went on from there because it was in Jacob’s spirit to want the blessing of God upon his life - that was his heart, and we discover later that it was not Esau’s heart. But Jacob had lied and cheated and achieved many successes and some failures by constantly putting his unhelpful helper parts to use.
He got to the point in in his life after cheating his brother Esau and pretending to his blind father Isaac that he was his brother, to get the first born blessing and  manipulating his father-in-Law Laban that he knew there had to be change in his life that only God could achieve in him. He was about to meet up with Esau again after many years in a proposed meeting for reconciliation, and he was worried that Esau might even exact revenge upon him. He let his family go on ahead and stayed alone and in the night, he finds himself in a spiritual struggle with God in the form of an angel and wrestles with God.

In Jacob's wrestle with God, he became both a loser and a winner in the same encounter, just as we do with God because we can't beat God, but we stay in the struggle because God’s blessing means more to us than any other blessing. And Jacob refused to let God go until God had blessed him. So in his willingness to have attitudes and behaviours overcome in his soul, he showed God that he was sincere in his spirit. And then God mercifully affirmed him in that by saying, ‘you have prevailed with God’. So, he didn't beat God, but God still declared him a spiritual winner. His spirit yielded to God and his soul surrendered its many unhelpful helpers, and he won God’s blessing. They had thought they knew better than God in their grasping for blessings rather than faithfully receiving them from God. That is what our helper parts do – until they get to know and faithfully trust God for his best for us. But we can say to our souls to hold fast to the confession of your hope without wavering for he who has promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23). And God was faithful to Jacob with his promise despite Jacob’s wayward ways.

God changed not only his nature, but also changed his name from Jacob to Israel, which means prevailing with God. So our spiritual struggle with God is not against God, it's with God, and he says ‘we can walk together’. Israel also means prince. He received a new identity and a new place of authority in the purpose of God for his life. But he also received a permanent limp where his hip bone was damaged when the angel struck him and that finished the struggle, and this left Jacob with a new moment by moment awareness of his vulnerability. Now this is being a real person, and his unhelpful helper parts were no longer hidden, but they were no longer ruling his life if and when they were triggered. He now knew what to choose, and he knew how to choose, and he knew how to live in God's blessing, and that limp kept reminding him - you're vulnerable. He could glory in his spiritual struggles and infirmities, because when he was weak God was strong in him and with him. 
Paul also tells us of his many spiritual struggles, and he encourages us in our spiritual struggles. He said when I am weak the power of Christ can rest upon me. (2Corinthians 12:9).
Our spirit knows all the parts of us, and our struggles are like weighty burdens that our helper parts are carrying, and they often confuse our interpretations of situations, and they allow self-focussed emotional reactions and errors of judgment to occur – the missing of the mark – the sin which we later regret. The Bible speaks of these burdens and struggles in the book of Hebrews. ‘Lay aside the weights and the sin that so easily besets us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:1) 
This is what is meant by our besetting sin – the repetitive missing of the mark, driven by entrenched unhelpful helpers. 

Jesus tells us to lay aside our burdens and come to Him for rest: Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy burdened (phortizo 5412 - to overburden with ceremony or spiritual anxiety – our spiritual struggle). Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28). 
His yoke is easy because he offers us grace to walk closely with him, bonded and supported. Instead of carrying the heavy weight of old soul helper parts struggles and confusion, we now take on a lighter burden – a lighter spiritual struggle - the challenge of trusting Jesus. But even that faith comes from Him; He is the author and finisher of our faith. He’s saying, “I’m doing the heavy lifting—believe in me.” Jesus lifts the pain and failure we carry and gives us rest. We are no longer bonded to unhelpful soul strategies -we are yoked with Him. 

This becomes an intelligent and spiritual process of our human spirit, together with the Holy Spirit, having dialogue with those parts with curiosity, and having those parts indicate to us what they feel, what they think, and what do they think they have to do in order to keep our whole system in balance at the time. And we now become Unbonded from them and bonded to Jesus through the New Helper – the Holy Spirit who brings the truth of what's been going on and what will now go on in our faith walk with Jesus.

God planned in eternity for the saving of our soul and to become transformed into a Life-giving Spirit, after his likeness, not just in his image. Jesus became that life giving spirit by becoming human when he was already a life-giving spirit in heaven. And we become a life-giving Spirit by becoming partakers of his Divine nature. He planned that before Adam even sinned. We could say that Jesus had already saved us before Adam even fell.

The faith process of the transformative work of coming into the likeness of Jesus as a life-giving Spirit is outlined in Ephesians chapter four. Paul knew the experience of having the ‘Old Man’ – the nature of Adam within him while at the same time having the ‘New Man’ – the Spirit of the life of Christ Jesus within him. He explains to us the process of making the inner exchange from living as the old creation to living in the New Creation – from a mindset of separation to a mindset of togetherness.
Put off your old man (the old self in the likeness of Adam), which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt (phtherio -wasteful and ruinous manner) through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the New Man (the New self), created after the likeness of God in true righteousness (which means being aligned with God’s ways) and holiness (set apart for his destined  purpose for your life). (Ephesians 4:22), 

Paul is inviting us into something wonderful. He says we can invite our old self to stand aside, our old helpers forming the soul of our human nature and trying to drive our life with these old attitudes and habits. And welcome home the new creation self that is created after the likeness of God, aligned with his heart and devoted to him. 
God says, you aren't that old image with that deficient soul. You are in Christ, you are a new creation, and I want you to know who you are and I want you to live your new life as I created it to be lived. This is a determination of God and we no longer need to get in the way. Each part of our orphan spirit’s heart that has been wounded can now be healed.
Every lie that we've wrongly believed about ourselves is now able to be corrected and brought into line with God's idea of who we truly are. Whatever other people's negative ideas have done to us to devalue our true worth are erased by faith.

That life changing process becomes the way of life. It becomes the way of discipleship to Jesus who knew how to be still and know his Father’s ways and his guidance and direction. But for that to happen we need to embrace that same practice of being still and knowing God. The next module of the series is all about that. It is called the Practice of Presence Prayer. 

When Christianity became Christendom in the 4th century the church became political and warlike and financially rich and powerful with a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (2Timothy 3:5). However there remained (and still does) a silver river of redemption, a river of life flowing through dedicated Godly men and women who gave themselves to contemplative practices and the Scriptures and pastoral care and teaching that were modelled by the early Church Fathers.
This river has been flowing over all those hundreds of years, and I will be sharing the Scriptural foundations of that transformative way of receiving the salvation and healing of our souls and becoming a life-giving Spirit.

Paul O’Sullivan – pauloss@me.com

THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL AND THE JOURNEY TO FREEDOM

SALVATION OF THE SOUL AND THE JOURNEY TO FREEDOM 

I’m continuing in the six part overview of the course salvation of the Soul and the Life Giving Spirit – this is number five. It is designed to be presented in interactive small groups and that is happening – It is not just a Bible study. However, I am doing the overview as sermon podcasts so that I can make my Scriptural position of the salvation of the Soul clear for the sake of accountability.
We spoke last week about how Adam and Eve had felt forsaken and had misread the nature of God – not thinking or believing that they were loved and not able to trust him for their lives. They created helper parts in their souls – covering up - and the blame game - the woman You gave me – even God was blamed! The human soul was now on its journey of creating countless self-protective and defensive and self-rescue strategies that would become activated in every person to be born in the earth.

Those first unhelpful helper parts were created in the Garden of Eden because of a feeling of perceived forsakenness - but they were not forsaken – God does not forsake us. I will never leave you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6. Hebrews 13:5). 
Even Jesus had to briefly go through the feeling of forsakenness in his soul for our sakes on the cross but in his spirit, he knew he was not forsaken. He never departed from God, even while feeling forsaken but instead, he turned to scripture, quoting Psalm 22, demonstrating a path towards hope and victory through faith amidst pain. And every person ever born goes through feelings of forsakenness, whether real or perceived because it may or may not be intentional. Forsakenness sums up the human emotional pain felt in such experiences as feeling abandoned, deprived, overlooked, rejected, mocked, physically mistreated, unjustly judged or criticised, and many other negative experiences. It brings about a deep sense of separation, vulnerability, and lack of connection. 

In childhood, we don’t have the wisdom or insight to understand why hurtful things happen or are said to us so we come up with the best self-protective strategies we can to avoid that kind of pain in the future, and those things get locked into our souls as helper parts early on. The problem is, they don’t grow or mature with us. We think life will improve as we get older, but those old strategies stay stuck at the age they were formed.

That’s why we’re looking into the healing of the soul because many of us carry this deep sense of spiritual forsakenness from childhood onwards, even if no one meant us harm. Just the perception of it is enough. These coping strategies, though immature, helped us survive. They became part of who we are—how we show up in relationships and how we see ourselves. But often, we don’t realize we’re just replaying old patterns. They feel automatic, like they have a life of their own. So we don’t engage with them as evil, because our spirit created them in a time of naivety, but we need them to stop driving our attitudes and behaviour, and remember, our human spirit knows them. So who can help us see what’s really going on? We’re not all psychologists—but God is and His Spirit knows our spirit, and He understands our wounds. That’s where healing begins.

We also spoke last week about David talking to his soul in the Psalms and talking about his inner bodily and spiritual parts and how they affected one another. He said in Psalm 32:3 that when he kept all his anxieties and guilt inside, his bones grew old, and his body dried up and he felt emotional stress. 

I have seen it to be the case that when a person’s determined helper part gets into reaction to something difficult, they also sense a bodily reaction that can be automatic and subconscious. It can be in the chest or the stomach or the throat or the head – or appear as exaggerated movements or overwhelming fatigue. That illustrates that just as our spirit knows what we have experienced in our soul, our body also holds this unique information as a sensation of some kind. A psychotherapist called Bessel Van Der Kolk has written a good book on this called ‘The Body keeps the Score’. He describes how our brain and neuronal system were created to be wired in this way to be physically ‘triggered’ by an inner distress. Each oe of us have our own individual triggers.
I spoke to a fellow whom we will call Reg two or three years ago regarding his stress and anxiety after suffering a physical and emotional collapse at work where he had a panic attack and thought he was having a heart attack. (This is a blend of two people’s experiences with names and other details changed for anonymity) He was put into rehab for weeks and even though he could walk and exercise under supervision he had difficulty recovering mentally and emotionally - or spiritually, even though he was a strong Christian. I knew Reg and respected him as a very successful management consultant who had worked at instructing in management systems and health and safety and managed teams to reconstruct damaged areas after natural disasters.

He said his nature seemed to have changed. He had become irritable at people and resented having to stay in rehab being told what to do next – when to shower, when to eat, what to eat, how far to walk. I said – That’s not like you at all – not the Reg I know. 
He said – ‘Oh but it is, that difficult person is there’. He told me how he felt blocked spiritually and was fearful of having another panic attack and was often very confused. 
I asked Reg if he felt physical stress anywhere in his body when the mental and emotional distress hit him. I’d suspected it might have been in the chest, but he said no it was in the throat where he would choke up and lose his voice. So I asked him how long he had been experiencing that choked up feeling. He said a long time. He sat in silence for a while and then he said ‘When I was ten years old at school I was told by the gym master ‘You will never be anything like your big brother – you’re disorganised and can’t be trusted with peoples safety. It was because I didn’t set the gym up properly that week. My older brother was a good gymnast and always set the gym up to perfection. The gym master said no more gym for you this term. 
Reg felt humiliated and extremely hurt and misjudged. He said that when he tried to explain that it was because he had had to set up on his own because the other boy who should have been helping him hadn’t turned up. But his throat choked up and he couldn’t talk. He promised himself nothing like that would ever happen to him again and he would prove to the gym master and himself and everybody else that he was as good as his brother. He decided to take command of his future and learned to be prepared for any unforeseen event and be able to fix or manage any problem. 
It was then I realised that Reg had created a controlling helper part in his soul at that point in his life.
Reg found that not being in control of what he could and could not do at the rehab centre had brough all this back. His fear of failure had created a controlling manager helper that drove his life – his very successful life, but it robbed him of the peace of God when under pressure to have to solve every problem and foresee every disaster. 
His spirit and his body had just shown him what his soul was up to, just as David spoke to his soul and asked God what was happening in his soul. David only had the Law to help him reorder his soul (Psalm 19), but Reg had the Holy Spirit, and with prayer I was able to encourage him to speak to his soul. Reg spoke to the little ten year Reggie who in his immaturity had devised the best strategy at the time of coping with the feeling of inadequacy and of being unjustly judged. Reg who had created that helper part at ten years of age then asked that unhelpful helper part to step aside after all that time and to allow the Holy Spirit, the true Helper to show Reg how to let Jesus take his burden of fear and panic of not being in control. Reg gave himself to that and God began to speak to him in many different ways and his life changed. His gift of wisdom and management remained but now it was in God’s hands and not his. That was not just repentance from sin – hamartia, it was repentance to life as in Acts 11:18 where the Apostles realised that God had not only granted the Gentiles repentance from sin but had granted them g ‘repentance to life (metanoia zoe).

I want to give you some examples of Helper Parts: See which ones you recognise!
* Inner critics: constantly reminding of inadequacies and the need to work harder.
* Caretakers: shielding from harm.
* Controlling managers: trying to organise tasks to avoid failure.
* Performance helpers: impressing oneself and others.
* Pushy helpers: driving us to work harder 
* Blame game helpers: getting out of trouble.
* Rescuers/escapers: avoiding the harsh reality of overwhelming burdens. These are more tenacious and addictive than other helper parts.
* These are viewed as common categories, but the specifics of each person’s helper parts are unique because each individual has a unique spirit, with unique talents, gifts and characteristics and circumstances.

The ultimate goal is for individuals to become ‘the real person’ that God created not just in his image, but now being transformed after his likeness, and able to embody that likeness in his world. And this aligns with God's desire for us to live in agreement and relational wholeness.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   God communicates with us and heals us as individuals in highly personalised ways, acknowledging that each human spirit is uniquely and individually created. While there's "one truth" about who we are according to his word, that word will be transmitted to us by the Father and by Jesus and by the Holy Spirit in their own particular way of communicating their word to us. 
God the "Father will demonstrate it outwardly" through circumstances, Jesus will "speak the word of life, the logos" (the designed destiny), and the Holy Spirit will communicate that truth in a language and framework suited to each person’s personality and their God given unique gifts and abilities and particular temperament.
I encourage people to ask God to speak to them about identifying their unhelpful helper.
I do not do a lot of follow up because when a person takes the responsibility to participate in the healing of the soul through the Spirit they are committed to hearing God speak into their spirit to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus as the saviour of their soul, in their personal and unique situation as a child of God. They then receive faith and grace to become yoked to Jesus and allow him to take that burden in the situation.
Then group discussions bring clarity and understanding and encouragement through personal testimonies of faith in a safe and caring environment. (James 5:16 saysacknowledge your faults (helper parts) to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed). To be continued. Paul OSullivan – pauloss@icloud.com

THE HEALING OF THE SOUL AND ITS HELPER PARTS

THE HEALING OF THE SOUL AND ITS HELPER PARTS

Why does the soul need to be healed/saved soterion?

We have discussed the fall of Adam and Eve and how the serpent convinced them that they could eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge and they would not die. He sowed the suspicion in them that God forbade them to eat of the tree because he did not want them to become like himself and come into his own likeness by knowing good and evil. The lie of the serpent was that God was withholding something from them that would make them become like God. In their naivety they believed that lie and disobeyed God perceiving that they had been forsaken by God, and they immediately felt separated from God and felt guilt and fear and shame. 

They had created in their once blameless and innocent souls a mindset of separation and isolation from God. Their souls were filled with fear and guilt and shame for the first time. They acted out from this newfound ‘otherness’ and become defensive and self-protective. They covered the shame of their nakedness, and they felt exposed and vulnerable. Father God called out Adam’s disobedience and covering up - and Adam put the blame on Eve for offering him the fruit of the tree in the first place. When God called out Eve, she blamed the devil for beguiling her. Their separation mindset had ‘orphaned’ their spirit from God. The enormous cosmic consequence of feeling deprived and forsaken by God set in place a mindset of separation from God for all of humanity.

Adam and Eve had just created in the soul of humanity two alien parts in their now damaged souls that had never existed before. The first new part was covering up their sin – and the word for sin used by Paul in Romans 5:10 for sin entering the world through Adam is harmartia and that word for sin appears 173 times in the Bible. It means missing the mark. They were the first of the rest of humanity to miss that mark, except for one man Jesus. They had misread the nature of their God – not thinking or believing that they were loved and not able to trust him for their lives. The second new part of their damaged souls was the blame game – the woman You gave me – even God was blamed! 
The human soul was now on its journey of creating countless self-interested defensive and self-protective strategies that would become activated in every person to be born in the earth. The relationship between the human spirit and the soul became conflicted and disordered concerning what was right and wrong and good and evil - the conscience was damaged. And once the relationship between the human soul and God was damaged the relationships between the souls of people towards one another were also damaged. The once Godly responses of sacrificial love and trust and agreement became a burden and a struggle – it now became ‘what about me?’
Jesus was the only human being who did not create one self-protective or defensive or self-promoting part in his soul. Only he could remedy this disaster, so we have just seen the horrible dilemma for the souls of mankind for the rest of time, and we have just seen the magnificent answer for the salvation and healing of the soul of mankind. Jesus would one day become the saviour of the soul - from age to age for all of humanity.

I will be calling these self-created soul parts like covering up and the blame game, and other dfence mechanisms ‘helper parts’. Today we will just identify some common helper parts and next time we will look at the process of their formation and identify more specific parts of our soul and see how they become ingrained and lead to us missing the mark of finding God’s will in many issues of our lives. We will find that these helper parts turn out to be what I will call ‘unhelpful’ helper parts. We all start forming these helper parts in our soul at an early age as we acquire and cultivate the separation mindset that darkness has engineered and weaponised in the soul of mankind. These unhelpful helper parts cause so much unnecessary suffering in our lives - and regretfully in the lives of those in our world that we care for.

But just one more spoiler alert – some good news – great news - Jesus told his disciples at the last supper that he would not leave us as orphans but that he would send us ‘Another Helper’ - the Holy Spirit, who would lead us into all truth. He said that the holy Spirit would take the things that Jesus would be saying to us and reveal them to us.  (John 14:16-18).

I will be using the terminology of parts in this course to describe how just as we have three major parts in our being, the spirit and the soul and the body, each of those three parts are also made up of parts. We have just discussed the helper parts of our soul, and we saw in the earlier teaching that our spirit is made of two parts, the mind and the heart (Hebrews 4:12) and we also observe that our body is made up of many many parts. The Bible was describing our parts thousands of years ago in the Old Testament, where David in the Psalms speaks of his outer and inner body parts as well as his inner spirit and soul parts. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Psalm 139:13.
David also knew God’s heart towards his spirit and soul. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts You will make me to know wisdom. (Psalm 51:6).

We are actually all familiar with the concept of our differing inner parts that would appear to be in conflict with each other. For instance, our spirit and soul is made up of our mind and our heart and if we were deciding whether or not to purchase something like a car, we could find that our heart could be saying yes - that’s for me! But our mind could oppose that desire and say ‘What about paying the mortgage?’ We live with this subconscious polarity and find ourself saying ‘what part of me made me say (or do) that?

When the mind and the heart of our spirit go through hurtful or harmful experiences at an early age our immature and often innocent spiritual self creates defence mechanisms and self-protective or self-advantage mechanisms to cope with the emotional or mental distress. Our immature self then sends an insufficient version of who our true spiritual self is (our genesis self’ – James 1:23) into our soul as a tangible part of our reality of who we are and how we behave. I would call that a shadow self that gets bonded in our soul and that shapes an untrue version of the spiritual self that God created us to be. Unfortunately, what we see in real life relationship is that peoples’ soul parts are responding and reacting to other peoples’ soul parts.

But the next good news spoiler alert is that the Bible tells us that our spirit knows every distorted or disordered part of us that has been created in our soul, and even in our body through harm or trauma or mishap.
For what man knows the things (ta – the parts that make up the whole -everything) of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? (1Corinthians 2:11). 
The Bible also says in the Old Testament, The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD,
searching all his innermost parts. (Proverbs 20:27).

In this course we are going to find that the mind and heart of our uniquely and individually designed spirit made in the image of God hold the blueprint of the logos designed Word of God that created us for his designated will and purpose (genesis self).
We do not have to lived trapped or stuck in a disordered soul but we can receive an understanding of who we really are and understand why and how we devised our unhelpful helper parts in the first place. The Holy Spirit is yearning to give us the understanding of what Jesus has to say about our orphaned spirit and how we can replace the unhelpful helper with the true Helper of the Holy Spirit. This becomes a journey into freedom. 
At last we can begin to take responsibility for the soul we have formed and see it sanctified and set free. We can actually become participators in the salvation and healing of our souls with Jesus and the Holy Spirit and identify and replace the unhelpful helpers with the Divine Helper and begin to do the Father’s will for our lives. We can begin to live a life of purpose and meaning designed for us before the foundation of the world. To be continued. 

Paul OSullivan – pauloss@me.com

THE SALVATION OF OUR SPIRIT SOUL AND BODY

THE SALVATION OF THE BODY AND SOUL AND SPIRIT 

In these teachings I am attempting to lay down the Scriptural foundation and the way of putting into practice the course that is now available and which I have called ‘The Salvation of the Soul – and the Lifegiving Spirit’. As you will see on the Youtube and read in the course booklet, the course is based on the Scripture in 1 Peter 1:9 Reaching the goal of our faith the salvation/healing (soterion) of the soul, and another foundational Scripture is 1Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit’.
The healing and salvation of the soul involves the interaction of our spirit and soul and body that are designed by God to work in harmony with one another and in alignment with God’s will and purpose for our lives (1Thessalonians 5:23). Ephesians 1:4-5 makes it clear that God’s pathway of our soul being saved takes us on to his predestination purpose for us, which is for our whole being to become the expression of his life-giving Spirit into our world around us.
We have observed the difference between salvation in the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament the choice was for Israel to obey the Law and Commandments and be protected from their enemies and materially blessed. In the New Testament the goal of our faith was salvation for the soul and the blessings were spiritual rather than material blessings (Ephesians 1:4). 
Today I will be discussing the fact that each of these three parts of us, our spirit and our soul and our body goes through a different stage and mode of salvation. My headline summary would go like this; ‘Our spirit has been saved, our soul is being saved, and our body will be saved at the return of the Lord’.

The Bible calls our physical body a mortal body (Romans 8:11). That means it is limited by earthly constraints and has been appointed to die (Hebrews 9:27). The Bible calls our body the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 6) and as God’s vessels of his life we embody the inner workings of truth and faith into our world in the will of God (Romans 12:1). This is why Paul encourages us to keep our body in check - he says ‘I discipline my body and bring it into subjection’ (1Corinthians 9:27)

The reason that the body is so temporary in this earthly life is because unlike our innermost being of soul and spirit it is subjected to all of the forces of this world. Our outer bodies receive information from the outer world through the five bodily senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. This sense information gets expressed in our soul The soul will respond positively or react negatively to our bodily experiences. David in the psalms commented on this interactive process of our body and soul and he gave glory to God that his body was so fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139.14). 

Our physical bodies will be changed in an instant (saved) into a resurrected supernatural body ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal (body) must put on immortality ‘(1Corinthians 15:52). Our earthly body exists for one age – a lifetime, whereas our sprit and our soul have an eternal quality that can progress from age to age and from glory to glory. (The word eternity in the Greek is ai??nios– age to age. In fact the word eternity was only first used in the English Bible by Tyndale in 1526 who translated aenios – age to age  into eternity . And he also translated the Old Testament Hebrew word olam as eternity instead of  ‘horizon to horizon’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

So our body will be a new body one day. it would be interesting to know what we might look like. ‘Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1John 3:2)(1Corinthians 6:13-14). The supernatural resurrected body of Jesus when he walked the earth for forty days after his resurrection was recognizable. It will be similar with us, but we cannot be specific (it has not yet been revealed what we shall be). Will we look like we are about thirty years old? I have no revelation about this, just speculation. Jesus entered his ministry at around thirty years of age (Luke 3:23), The qualifying for Old Testament priestly ministry was thirty (Numbers 8:24). That was the age of maturity in the Bible. How old did Adam and Eve appear to be when first created? (it has not yet been revealed what we shall be).

So the body will be saved but the Bible says that the soul is being saved (IE a work in progress). “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1Corinthians 1:18, 2 Corinthians 2:15).
This describes the work of the salvation of the soul as an ongoing process of faith. It also shows that perishing (appollymi – wasting, being ruined, destroyed.) is also an ongoing process of wasting our time and our ongoing life instead of choosing to work with the Holy Spirit for the saving of our soul. 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life ai??nios – age to age life). 
Receiving eternal life does not mean just going to Heaven. It means receiving and believing in the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus living within us and through us and bringing about the salvation of our soul. By doing this we do not ‘perish’ (appolymi) which means to waste our life in not fulfilling God’s purpose and meaning for our ongoing age to age life. 

Then beyond being saved is becoming a life-giving Spirit – and that ‘becoming’ includes our lives being a witness on the earth of the nature and reality of a living God in Heaven. 
Nowhere does the Bible say that the goal of salvation is ‘going to Heaven’. The goal of salvation in both the Old and New Testament has never been stated as going to Heaven. The goal of our lives is actively being a witness on the earth of the nature of a living God in Heaven. Israel tried to do that by obeying the Law and they failed. When they chose to obey, they received outward blessings and victories over the enemy and were saved. When they disobeyed, they lost the battles and the land, and they ceased being saved. Our soul starts being saved by receiving faith in the Spirit of life of Christ Jesus and by working out that salvation on an ongoing daily basis (Philippians 2.12). Going to Heaven is going to heaven – there is an afterlife where every soul will be held accountable by a just and loving God – and onlyGod knows how that plays out. Let him surprise us. 

So far, we’ve seen that our body will be saved in the future, and our soul is in the process of being saved. But as I said at the beginning our spirit was saved two thousand years ago - for everybody. It happened through Christ’s work on the cross at Calvary – 1Timothy 4:10 because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. The Bible calls this work of Jesus reconciliation (Greek – katalasso). But the Bible also uses the word reconciliation to mean something different in Matthew Ch 18 for the healing of offenses and disagreements between one another and that  Greek word dialasso.
The word katalasso describes the supernatural work of the being of God entering into humanity and the being of humanity entering into Divinity. And Peter also writes about us ‘becoming partakers of the divine nature’ (2Peter 1:4)
The Bible says that this work of reconciliation was sealed for humanity by receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Ephesians 1:5). So the work of the cross brings more than just forgiveness – it gives to every human being the opportunity to experience living as a New Creation in this life by faith through the grace of God in the power of the Spirit. God’s very being has now also become both human and Divine forever - through Jesus Christ.
Why did God reconcile us to Himself? 
Because His deepest desire was to unite us with Himself —to live His life within and through us, so we could live our lives within and for Him. It becomes the completion of his circle of love—the very reason He created us in the first place. God didn’t ask our permission. He went behind our backs and did it and he didn’t warn the devil either. He just went ahead and reconciled us to Himself, uniting His divine nature with our human nature through Christ’s death. This was God’s initiative—pure love in action. 
Let’s look at a powerful passage from Paul, who understood reconciliation perhaps better than anyone. In 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul writes:
“The love of Christ compels us, because we believe this: One died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.”
Christ died for us so we could live for Him by becoming a life-giving Spirit.
Paul continues: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting us with this message.”(2 Corinthians 5:18)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
This is the Good News: Jesus did not come to condemn the world—He’s forgiving it. Our role is to tell people they’re already forgiven and invite them into the process of ongoing salvation of the soul and then onto becoming becoming a life-giving Spirit.
But this truth remains unknown until it’s revealed to our mind and received in our heart by faith. Until then, our minds resist Him, and our hearts remain in unbelief. We must know—and believe—that our spirit is already saved so that we can receive the salvation and sanctification of our soul. As Paul says “If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God (spirit saved), by the death of his Son how much more, now that we’re reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (salvation of the soul)” (Romans 5:10)
So, we’re not just forgiven—we’re called to become something new: life-giving spirits who bring that life into the world around us. In fact our true becoming in this life is as colabourers with God (1Corinthians 3:9). This outworks itself as the most simple of tasks of kindness and mercy and love and goodness – bringing the fragrance and presence of Christ into wherever we are. Amen – to be continued
Paul OSullivan  -  pauloss@icloud.com

 

THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL GOD'S IMAGE AND LIKENESS

THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL GODS IMAGE AND LIKENESS

I am continuing today in the discussion of the salvation and healing of the soul. We have seen that God has created us to function as a spirit and a soul and a body – three parts that are to work in harmony together within each person, and in harmony with the will of God, so that we can fulfill the design and purpose for our lives. We saw that these three different parts of us interact with each another in a predictable and logical way. 
The spirit is the life force of us as a human being, the individual and unique essence of who we are – no two human beings are created spiritually identical – not even identical twins. And each person’s unique spirit reflects a shadow of God’s nature - made in the image of God - So God created man in his own image, in the image(selem) of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27). 
Our human spirit was created with two parts - the mind and the heart. The mind seeks understanding — what’s true or false, right or wrong — and through that process, we form a conscience. The heart, meanwhile, is where our desires, emotions, and beliefs live. What the mind accepts as truth, the heart embraces as faith. But here’s the dilemma - with so many different minds in the world, there are countless versions of what people believe to be true. And with those truths come just as many belief systems that people place their faith in. So, in practice, truth and faith have become relative values, shaped by the culture, religion, or philosophy that a person grows up in. (36,000 Christian denominations). When it comes to our inner spiritual life, the mindset and heart beliefs of our spirit are expressed in our soul, which becomes the expression of who we are and how we are seen in the world. 
I'm just going to stop there because I just said something that I'd like to clarify. I said 36,000 denominations, and which one has the truth and how do we come to the unity of the faith? I'll tell you what it won't be – It won’t be by having exactly the same doctrine on every single verse in the Scripture - it won't be that, but you know what it will be?  It will fulfill Ephesians chapter 4 verse 13 that says ‘until we all come in the unity of the faith’ and there will be the one ‘yes ‘concerning the expression of Jesus as the one who is living through us and we will have a different flavour according to our gifts and our persuasions of certain things - that don’t have to cause arguments! It is more like saying  ‘that's an interesting perspective’ - but what will be unified is the life of Jesus being seen in his people in the unity of the Spirit because the Spirit is expressed through the soul as who we are. And we come into the unity of that expression as being the life of Jesus flowing like a river through us.  So therefore, the soul reflects the conscience and the belief systems and the soul must take responsibility for those choices. 
I know that in the denomination I grew up in I had a conscience about not being allowed to eat meat on Friday, and my friends said I was stupid to have that belief - but I did that as unto the Lord because I thought that's what God wanted. And there are many things like that that people do to honour God, and the Bible says in Romans 14 ‘let each man be fully persuaded in his own mind’.  People do things to honour God and perhaps some only eat vegetables while others will eat meat - and others will see one day as being the only day of the Sabbath while others will see all days alike - let each one be persuaded in their own mind, says Paul (Romans 141-6). And it says, ‘but don't put somebody in jeopardy to their faith by demanding that they believe exactly as you’. You can do a thing but if they don't have faith for that it is nonetheless the Lord who sees where their heart is. 
And Paul said to the people who are able to eat meat offered to idols ‘there's no such thing as an idol’ but he also said but don't flaunt that faith even it's real. So our soul takes responsibility for those choices of faith and love over legalism.
Therefore the soul reflects the conscience and belief systems that we’ve developed ourselves, and so our soul must take responsibility for those choices. Let us go back to the beginning — to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were tempted by darkness in the form of a serpent, and they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were tempted to think and believe that what was ‘good’ meant what was only good for them and not what the absolute good of God was for them. That very choice of Adam and Eve introduced to all of humanity from then on a world of relative values. In other words what is good for me is all that counts. But absolute truth and faith come only from God, who gave us a free will to choose what we believe, and a conscience to guide us toward the good.
The Bible tells the tragic story of how humanity, time and again, chose evil over good - and how that choice damaged the soul and brought harmful consequences to the whole person and to the whole world which was judged at the time of Noah’s flood. So God started over again with humanity but the dilemma remained; How could God remedy this confusion of the meaning of good and evil which causes such great damage to the soul? 
What God did was to choose the nation of Israel out of all the nations in the earth to give them the best remedy available for the disabled conscience of humanity. He called a man named Abraham and told him that through him all families of the earth would be blessed. Abraham’s grandson Jacob took his family of 70 Hebrew people into Egypt because of a famine in all the land. They finally became 2 million slaves to Pharoah over a period of 400 years and became the nation of Israel and God had told Abraham he would take Israel back into the Promised Land of Canaan. God then miraculously delivered Israel from slavery to Pharoah through Moses to whom he gave the Law and the Commandments which reflected his relational nature of love and wisdom and goodness. Obedience to these Laws became the way of Salvation in the Old Testament for Israel and God also instructed them to make blood sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins. These sacrifices prophetically foretold the final fulfillment in the one sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to forgive the sins of the world once and forever. 

If Israel obeyed God’s commandments and offered sacrifices faithfully, He would bless them, provide for them, and give them victory over their enemies who followed false gods and lived in darkness. God had also promised them a land through their ancestor Abraham, and He would lead them into it as their Saviour.
But this salvation was only partial—it depended on human nature flawed since Adam and Eve, trying to perfectly obey through sheer human willpower. And when they disobeyed, the blessings stopped, battles were lost, their land was taken, and their souls were weighed down by guilt, shame, and judgment. They had a strange choice – of being saved or not being saved. (And strangely enough we have the same choice of being saved or not being saved – we will discuss that shortly). 

There is one Old Testament man, an anointed king called David, whose heart understood the beauty of God’s Law and Commandments that reflected God’s love and wisdom and goodness. Through his devotion to the spiritual truth of God’s Word he experienced the reordering of his soul and he ushers all of us into the understanding of the world of the soul.
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:7-11)
But David was still a lesser separate being who depended upon a devoted but insufficient human nature.

However, God had planned a better salvation in the New Testament that would allow humanity to partake of his Divine nature, and let us look at that promise of God – his big idea of sharing his very life with humanity at an appointed time through his Son Jesus. Genesis 1:26. Let us make man in our own image (selem- a shadow of Godness, as I quoted earlier –  all of humanity has this shadow of Godness ). However this verse goes on to say ‘according to our likeness’ (mut – which means an embodied being not just a shadow like selem). In other words, God had already planned from the beginning that there would be a way for humanity to embody the likeness of God. 
And Jesus became the embodied being – in him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). Jesus did this so that we could have his life and likeness dwell within us, and embody his Divinity. And Paul writes about this in 1Corinthians 15:45 the first man Adam became (ginomai – generated) a living soul - the last Adam (Jesus) became (eis – entered into) being a life-giving Spirit. We too enter into becoming a life-giving Spirit.
God had to let humanity in the Old Testament try to save their own souls - just to prove to us that we cannot do it by existing only in the image or shadow of God, we had to come into his likeness and embody his life-giving Spirit. 

Jesus brought his Divinity into humanity so that humanity could come into his Divinity.
He sowed his life as a seed into the soil of the human heart by dying on the cross and rising from the dead and sending his Holy Spirit of Life for all flesh (all of us) at Pentecost. All flesh means the guy next door. It has been done – it is finished. But who is going to believe it and choose it and receive the ‘salvation of the soul’? As I said earlier Israel had a strange choice – of being saved or not being saved. And strangely enough we have the same choice of being saved or not being saved – we will discuss that shortly. To be continued.
Paul OSullivan – pauloss@icloud.com

 

 

 

THE SALVATION AND HEALING OF THE SOUL

 THE SALVATION AND HEALING OF THE SOUL 

Just as God is a Trinity – as Father and Son and Holy Spirit so we as human beings have three parts – a spirit, a soul and a body, and these three parts of us interact together. The Bible says that God desires for our whole spirit and soul and body be presented blameless at the coming of the Lord. (1Thessalonians 5:23).

Through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives these three parts of us were designed to work in harmony with one another to achieve what the Apostle Peter calls the goal of our faith – the salvation/healing (soterion) of the soul (psyche) (1Peter 1:9)

The word soul as it is used in modern day language seems to have vague and different meanings for many people. Scientists say that it has no real existence that can be scientifically measured as an entity, and many people simply see the soul as our inner emotional and feeling life – That’s why we have the term ‘soul music’. Plato the Greek philosopher believed that the soul was motivational and appetitive and expressed different inner desires. 
But thousands of years before Plato the Bible was very clear about the soul as being the expression of our spiritual life. The word soul Is used three hundred and fifty times in the Old Testament including many mentions by David in the Psalms, which help us to understand the spiritual meaning of the soul. And the soul is mentioned over one hundred times in the New Testament.

Our soul is actually the manifestation of who we really are as the expression of our inner self at any one time in our life. So what is Peter saying when he says that the goal of our faith is the salvation of our soul? And to answer that question we have to go back and look at how our soul came into being. The startling reality is that God didn’t create our human soul as a fully working independent part of our being, as he did when he created our human spirit and our human body.
We find that Genesis 2.7 says the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man ‘became’ a living soul (nephesh).

That word ‘became’ a living soul intrigued me. It implied a process of something coming into being rather than a conclusive creative act of God. But I could find nothing in the Hebrew word ‘became’ to suggest what the process was. It was only when I discovered the Scripture of Paul in 1Corinthians15:45 that I understood how we become the living soul that we become. The Scripture says The first man Adam became (ginomai) a living soul and the Last Adam (Jesus) became a Life Giving Spirit. That word ginomai means to generate, to bring into being, to cause to be. And this has even more startling implications. 

That means that we are forming or creating our own self – the self that people see, the self that we think we are and whom others think we are. And that means that we are accountable for who we become - in what we think and what we believe and how we behave. And it is our soul that gets judged on the last day- what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to suffer the loss of his soul’ Mark 8.36. That is why the goal of our faith is the salvation/healing of our soul. That is why the Bible in the New Testament says that we are ‘being saved’ (2Corinthians 2:15) It is a process of transformation and sanctification. Sanctification means more than just a status of personal piety – it means being set apart for a life of purpose and meaning according to the design and will of God.

So how does this process of ‘becoming’ operate? We saw in the opening Scripture that our whole spirit and soul and body are to function in harmony together in the will of God for our lives. God created the first man Adam from the dust (adama) of the earth and then he breathed the spirit of human life into him. These two created parts of humanity receive information that gets expressed in our souls. Our body with its five outer senses and other functional parts send material information to the soul which is then expressed by the soul in some form of response of either pain or pleasure or any other reaction.
The spirit, which is made up of the mind and the heart sends inner spiritual information to the soul through the mind and the heart. The mind of the spirit sends truth or untruth to our soul and the soul responds to that information. The mind and heart of a child may be imprinted with helpful or unhelpful ideas and ideologies or be impacted by helpful or harmful emotional treatment. What the mind receives the heart believes and so the heart sends a belief system to the soul that a person will align themselves to for better or for worse. And so the journey of the soul begins as it receives multitudes of packages of information from both our outer and inner world into our souls to be processed into our becoming who we appear to be.

This is a remarkably complex process but not altogether complicated, because God has designed our unique individual human spirit and body from before the foundation of the world. God had said ‘Let us make man in our own image’ (Genesis 1:26. That word ‘image’ is selem in the Hebrew and it means a shadow – so that everyone from Adam and Eve has been created with this shadow of ‘Godness’ about them with different and unique talents and abilities and personalities. Each person was also created with potential gifts of the Holy Spirit which would come into operation according to their faith in Jesus. Their faith in Jesus and the understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives after the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost empowers a person to release the supernatural power of God’s love and goodness into their world around them.
So how does this soul of ours get saved, and what happened to it for there to be a need for it to be saved in the first place?

To understand that we must go back to the beginning where God created Adam and Eve and see what happened to the soul of man through the assault of satanic darkness upon their human spirit – their innocent but naive hearts and minds.  This sum of all darkness appeared to them in the form of a serpent in the beautiful Paradise of the Garden of Eden. God had created Adam and Eve in His own image and they lived together with him as their Heavenly Father, walking and talking together in their paradise. They had been created with an innocent and blameless spirit and a perfect physical body and had begun to ‘become’ a blameless living soul – and it seemed that nothing could be better than this. Their minds were filled only with God’s truth of who he was and who they were, and their hearts trusted and believed in him for all of their blessing and provision.
There was an obvious point of difference between themselves and God, in that they were created beings – of a lower order than God who was Uncreated being like no other being. God was perfect in all his ways as Father and Son and Holy Spirit and humanity was less than perfect, of a lower order of being. But for a time of blameless innocence they would have felt ‘at one’ with God, just as a baby child feels with its mother and in a place of satisfied agreement that all their needs were being met, and not yet recognizing themselves as separate with a sense of separation. But in each person’s life that point of differentiation occurs as a necessary matter of reality, when one ‘I will crosses another ‘I will’

And this awakening of differentiation for Adam and Eve was brutal as the serpent exploited their innocence and naivety and crushed their innocent spirits. He himself fully understood this point of differentiation and knew himself as a lesser created spiritual being as God - and he hated it. That is the evil sin of covetousness.

Then Satan, this dark spirit being who had realised that point of difference - of being of a lower spiritual order than God, in his deception and pride coveted the status of being as God. He wanted to be in God’s very likeness. How deeply did his covetousness fill him with resentment and hatred for these puny human beings about whom he heard with                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             outrage in his heart the words of God saying about them ‘let us make man in our own image… AND here I would like to complete that verse which adds ‘in our own LIKENESS’ (not just ‘selem’ – image -but ‘mut’ - likeness – a three-dimensional substantial God-like being. To this statement about humanity coming into the likeness of God Satan said ‘No it would not happen, for this is what he coveted with all his heart.
In Isaiah Ch 14 Isaiah speaks about the will of Lucifer as the five ‘I wills’ of Satan.
How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, 
I will be like the Most High.’
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. (Isaiah 14:12)

It would be Jesus as the One who was set for a time yet to come in God’s plan for humanity to fulfill those five ‘I wills’ in the will of the Father. Jesus would come in the three-dimensional substantiated likeness of God as God and man and sow the promises of those five I wills for his beloved humanity.  Jesus would turn those five ‘I wills’ of the selfish Satan into the five humble I wills’ of his five wounds on the cross. The bible says of Jesus For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:9). Jesus would sow his life as a seed into the ground – a seed that would not abide alone but that would bear much fruit – the fruit of his resurrection. He would send the Holy Spirit of the life of God in Christ into a humanity that would bear the fruit of his life within them. This would be their salvation – the salvation of the soul – the healing of the soul that would one day be presented to him blameless. This is what predestination means – destined to be transformed into the likeness of God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

In order to understand what the process is of the goal of our faith as being the saving of our soul we must go back to see the tragedy that happened to the soul of humanity in the Garden of Eden when mankind asserted his ‘I will’ against the Father’s will through the deception of the serpent.  We will then get an understanding of the plan of the healing and the salvation of the soul that is waiting for us to enter into by his loving grace and the gift of his faith through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I will be speaking further about these things – to be continued. Amen.

 

 

THE REVERSAL OF THE WORLD AT PENTECOST

THE REVERSAL OF THE WORLD AT PENTECOST

Acts 1:8 you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Jesus is making a prophecy here about the cosmic reversal of human history, culture, morality and spirituality. He is saying that from this time forth a new era of spiritual activity would begin in the earth whereby every human being who believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus as the risen Christ could live as a New species of being – a new Creation. They would become conscious of the Spirit of the life of Jesus being joined to their natural human spirit – a reversal of natural human existence to Divine spiritual existence. 

He was also reversing the witness of himself as God in the earth. Israel was once that witness. Israel had been the living proof on earth that there was a God in the heavens – God doing miracles of provision for them and giving them the Promised land of Canaan. And for Israel to be that living proof they had to obey his commandments and perform his sacred sacrificial offerings.
But now there was a new witness - a new living proof on the earth that there was a living God in the Heavens. This was to be the lives of sacred power in those who believed in the resurrected Christ that displayed and glorified the nature of a loving forgiving God in the Heavens.
Jesus was also prophesying the reversal of spiritual power in the Heavens that would give believers in Jesus the fulness of spiritual power over the principalities and powers and demonic forces in the nations of the earth and in their own personal lives. 
Pentecost was also a direct reversal of the Tower of Babel. Spiritual corruption had occurred at Babel where the earth was divided into seventy nations (named in Genesis 10), because of their rebellion to God. The language of their one native tongue was divided into various unintelligible languages so that they could not communicate and understand each other. The miraculous ability of the disciples at Pentecost to speak in different tongues (languages) allowed Jews from every nation to hear the gospel in their own tongue, overcoming the chaotic dividing of languages that occurred at Babel. Even the word ‘divided’ in the phrase regarding the "divided tongues of fire" over the heads of the disciples is the same word diamaridzo that describes the division of nations in Deuteronomy 32:8. At Pentecost a new language of the Holy Spirit united humanity unto Christ through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit – We will now read the account of the Day of Pentecost from the Book of Acts. 

Acts 2:2-12 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Crowd’s Response
And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: (Joel 2:28–32) ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; I will pour out My Spirit in those days on My young men and on My young women; And they shall prophesy, and the young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 

That entire section of Joel’s prophecy has come to pass for all of humanity and is now actively being taken hold of by faith in those who believe in the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’. This happens when a believer acknowledges that they are empowered by the Holy Spirit of God to be led into all the truth that Jesus has spoken in his Word and is now speaking today into our lives and we are spiritually empowered to fulfil God’s will and the requirements of the Commandments 

In Jewish tradition Pentecost (Shavuot) is also celebrated as the anniversary of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. This perspective emphasizes the ongoing significance of the law and its continuation in the covenant with God. 
Pentecost is the fulfillment of the promise of a "new covenant" where God would write his law on the hearts of his people. This contrasts with the giving of the law on stone as the Old Covenant. 
In both events God gave His Torah (Law) to His People and in both cases He sealed the covenant that He had made with them. At Sinai He gave the Law written on tablets of stone. At Pentecost, He gave the Law written on tablets of the Heart.

Then comes another part of Joel’s prophecy that has not yet happened historically – but it is seen in the Book of Revelation as part of one of the seven seals which Jesus opens. 
The prophecy finishes by describing the cry in the hearts of people in those last harrowing days - urging them to call upon the name of Jesus and become saved. ‘And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.’ And that will bring an outpouring of God’s grace upon those people who finally realise and yield to the awesome power of the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. (Revelation 6:12)
There is also a further implication to the word ‘divided’ in the phrase the "divided tongues as of fire" on the heads of the disciples in the upper room as the same word diamaridzo in describing the dividing of the nations in Deuteronomy 32. It is that those 70 nations whose tongues were divided at Babel and whose names are listed in Genesis 10, went out to occupy different territories in the earth.  The miracle of speaking in tongues at Pentecost for all the people of the different nations to understand the Gospel message at Pentecost signifies God's intention to reclaim those nations he had previously disinherited due to their rebellion and idolatry at Babel. 
And now the deliberate scattering of these new believers back out to their home nations after Pentecost acted as seeds of the Gospel of the Kingdom being planted among all those nations. Starting in Jerusalem, it extended to Judea, Samaria (representing the apostate northern kingdom of Israel), and even to places with Jewish presence like Ethiopia. The Gospel also reached Philistine cities which were areas outside the original Kingdom of Solomon's control, and Damascus, a location linked to Abraham's early history and Paul’s early history. All this explains the presence of believers wherever Paul later travelled with the New Covenant message. God was reclaiming the territory of the whole earth from the powers of darkness and rebellion into his New Covenant promise for humanity. This became the reversal and reclamation of geographic and spiritual territory of Pentecost. But the reversal and reclamation of territory begins at the personal territory of our own heart – that is the soil of the new territory that God is reclaiming in the earth in these days in which we live.
Taking back the spiritual territory of our own minds and hearts by faith through the indwelling Holy Spirit brings about a maturing of our will into accepting God’s will in all of our circumstances and gives us a new spiritual authority. We rest in a new understanding of the sovereignty of God in our lives as we see both the outward visible reality and the inner unseen reality with clarity and discernment. We realise that no adverse or unexpected circumstances can stop God’s purpose from working in us and through us. We can navigate life’s sufferings of worldly trials and spiritual conflicts with peace and thanksgiving and hope. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18). 
We can say along with Paul – I AM WHAT I AM by the grace of God, as a vessel of his Divine will. This is what Jesus meant when he spoke about us receiving the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to Me – our lives as living proof of a living God in Heaven. This the reversal of our new I AM identity at Pentecost. It is no longer about an I AM in reaction to life’s troubles – but an I AM that is co-labouring with God to bless others as we are we are being blessed, and see them redeemed as we have been redeemed, and witness a world being reordered and restored through the power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
I want to just mention the thought of the reversal of our I Am again. The Holy Spirit convinces our I Am to no longer be content to let us think I am alone and isolated - thinking you’re alone IS not good enough, not for anybody I know including myself.  What is great is that you can be yourself with God - you can be yourself getting to know the ocean of mercy that God allows for you to be yourself as a work in progress - and know his continual forgiveness and encouragement. God is delighted that you're even paying any attention to the fact that you are sharing yourself with him. You might say to him - Is that what you are all about Lord? And if you listen carefully you'll hear God say yes that's what it was all about - I wanted you in my life. And then you might ask ‘Why does that bless you Lord? He will tell you that he couldn’t be more blessed than he is in himself but it is for your sake, and I want you to know and to share how good it is to share life without ever feeling being separated and isolated. I want you to share in Our Father Son and holy Spirit's wonderful relationship. God says I did this for you not out of any pressure or obligation but out of perfect love because perfect love has a certain kind of compulsion of overflowing with a love that has to be shared. I want you to assure yourself and include yourself in that because it's for your sake. As you realise this you too will be compelled to share that love with others in your world.