Looking closer at the soul and its role in walking in spirit with God, we realised that the soul is determined by what we partake of. We either do nothing and continue on in the fleshly nature, or we transform our soul by walking or partaking of the Spirit of God which He gave us. Doing nothing means to just do enough, like going to church and saying a prayer every now and then and maybe reading a paragraph here and there. That is practicing religion and it is NOT being spiritual like Father wants us to be! Walking in spirit means actually praying always and at every opportunity. Making God your priority and everything else secondary. It means studying the word and doing it. Not just reading it, but doing it and transforming.
James 1
21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
It is at this point of understanding that we find a very dangerous doctrine. It is so often used and quoted by pastors that they even include it in their prayers as a given and they proudly proclaim it. It goes something like this “The Lord is in me and I am in the Lord”. This comes from a total misunderstanding of scripture and in specific a passage in the book of John.
John 6
41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”
42 And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.
47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”
53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
58 This is the bread which came down from heaven — not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
What Jesus is saying is twofold. He speaks of drinking His blood, but also of eating His flesh, two things, not one!! Furthermore He makes a distinction between drinking and eating in the following way. Drinking is believing and eating is doing or partaking of, in verse 56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him”. Further on in John we read on the same topic that Jesus makes it clear that to eat of Him or to partake of Him is to obey Him and His commandments.
John 14
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever —
17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “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 with him.
24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
In the above passage Jesus repeats it three times that we are to obey and keep His word and commandments. It is clear. Only once we keep His commandment or eat of His flesh are we in Him. When we believe He comes and stays in us but when we obey and listen to Him we abide in Him.
There is also another way to look at this doctrine. The Lord in us has to do with spirit. In fact it is His Spirit that comes and stays in us. Because we believe. Us in the Lord has to do with soul, because our soul needs to obey the Spirit of the Lord in us, for the purpose of transformation. This is how Jesus puts it:
John 15
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Without abiding or obeying Christ we cannot bear fruit and we will be chopped off and thrown in the fire. This is how John states it later in his life in:
2 John
9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.
Friends it is very important to see the truth in this. If we only believe it means that Jesus abides in us. But Jesus exhorts us over and over again that we are to abide in Him or else we will be thrown in the fire. Don’t be fooled by a doctrine of convenience that says you already abide in Christ. No you have to obey and be a doer of the word to abide in Christ. You have to transform or bear fruit or else you will be thrown in the fire!
Till next time,
God bless.
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