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Mission Statement
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SOUL POWER Distinguishing Between The World, The Flesh, And The Devil "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. Do not speak against one another." James 4:7-11a Spiritual warfare is much more than the sometimes exciting and theatrical times of, "Out in the Name of Jesus!" "I rebuke you Satan!," "I take authority over you in the Name of Jesus!" or any other such declarations of the mouth. Those are all very valid and necessary components in this war we face with the enemy of our souls. However, true spiritual warfare is a lifestyle, not something we can pick up one minute and put down the next. The key to living this lifestyle is found in James 4:7-11. Vs. 7- Submit to God. This is the beginning and it's very tough. But if we dare try to get the order of this verse reversed, the devil will simply laugh at us and say, "Who do you think you are?" However, the next verse gives us a wonderful promise and our starting instructions. Draw near to God and He will draw near to us! He will be there to help us and guide us. And we will need this because His next instructions have to do with our actions (hands), our hearts, and our minds. We need to be cleansed, purified, and "in our right minds." Heart, spirit, soul, body, and mind. How do we distinguish which is which? Soul stands for our personality - that which makes us unique persons. In the beginning, "God formed man of dust from the ground (body), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (spirit); and man became a living being (soul). Gen.2:7 To quote Andrew Murray, "The spirit quickening the body made man a living soul, a living person with the consciousness of himself. The soul was the meeting-place, the point of union between the body and spirit. Through the body, man, the living soul, stood related to the external world of sense; could influence it, or be influenced by it. Through the spirit he stood related to the spiritual world and the Spirit of God, whence he had his origin; could be the recipient and the minister of its life and power. Standing thus midway between two worlds, belonging to both, the soul had the power of determining itself, of choosing or refusing the objects by which it was surrounded, and to which it stood related.” In short, our spirit is what links us consciously to God, it will live forever; our body is what links us to this world, it serves a limited purpose here on this earth; our soul is the connector between the two and what gives us our consciousness of ourselves. When we realize this connection and the interplay between and among these three elements of who we are, we not only see how easily we get confused but how involved it is to truly obey James 4:7 and submit to God. Made in God's image as we are, we have been given tremendous ability and power with our bodies and our souls. Testimonies of the power of the body can be seen not only in the physical abilities of the well trained and sculpted athlete, but in how incredibly well weak, sick, abused bodies are able to continue to function. We Americans don't have any problem with body power. But soul power is something else. We tend to either deny that soul power exists, attribute it to Satan, or attribute it to God. True, God gave us our soul-power as one of the parts of "made in the image of God." Adam had tremendous soul-power (or what we would call supernatural ability) before the fall. But after the fall, we lost much of it and what was left was dammed. Before the fall, Adam's body was a tremendous help to his soul. After the fall, his body imprisoned his soul, thus not only immobilizing his soul power but creating a physical hindrance to relationship with God. God created man a living being in Genesis 2:7. But after the fall, man degenerated so much that God called him flesh. Genesis 6:3,12. By the time we get to the New Testament we read: "By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight." Romans 3:20 Read Romans 8 for a good dissertation on the contrast between the Spirit and the flesh. God wants us to "live and move and have our being in Him." Acts 17:28 Since the fall, man has been on a constant search for how to subjugate the flesh and get that soul-power back. In this search, all kinds of strange and "wonderful" things have been done, teachings espoused, and religions begun and followed. For this reason, we have the whole gambit of religious thought and practice. From Hinduism and Buddhism, to many types of meditation, Scientology, much of our modern psychology, and the "Christian" "name-it, claim- it, gab-it, grab-it." All for power. Reaching back and pulling out this soul-power is a reason for many of the "miraculous phenomena" that is in the world today. The star of the TV show, "Touched By An Angel" hosted a show that reported on some recent manifestations of soul-power as well as demonic power that included a religious statue in Asia that drank milk and of tears coming from the eyes of a statue of Jesus. Many of the "miraculous phenomena" that we see, hear, or read about today are purely Satanic to be sure. However, as we go into spiritual warfare, we need to be aware that many of these are simply Satan's use of man's own soul-power. Satan's plan is to get us to 1. use our own soul-power so then he can move in and 2. control our power - thus adding to his own. It is important for us to always remember that God is the creator. Satan can only rob, steal, destroy, and copy. As we study the history of God's dealings with mankind since the fall, we see very clearly that God NEVER uses man's soul-power. In fact, we are commanded to yield to the Holy Spirit, give up our own thoughts and actions, and receive the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16), be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2), walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:25), obey God's commands (I John 2:3). Paul once asked the question, "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" Galatians 3:3 We are even to go so far as to loose our own soul-life, deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus! Matthew 16:24 That command is given in the context of Jesus saying, "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul-life?" Matthew 16:26 Jesus said he wanted to give our souls rest (Matthew 11:29) not call them into active duty again. James tells us to submit totally to God. That includes all our soul-power. We cannot be double-minded and want to draw from our own wells because it's easier to do so than it is to lay our own thoughts and abilities aside and receive from the Lord, wait on Him (He's rarely on our timetable), and learn to hear His voice. After calling us double-minded, it's no wonder James goes on to tell us to go ahead and "be miserable and mourn and weep and let our laughter be turned into mourning and our joy to gloom." This is tough work. It's a lot of dying to self. The only way we can do this is to follow verse 10: "Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord." Watchman Nee once wrote," The children of God can be protected only by knowing the difference between spirit and soul. If the deeper work of the cross is not applied to our Adamic life and by the Holy Spirit a real life union is effected with the Resurrected Lord, we may unwittingly develop our soul power." I have developed a series of teachings on prayer that I've been privileged to teach in various places and to different groups of people. The first lesson is on how to hear the voice of the Lord. In this teaching, whenever possible, I like to take time to talk about counterfeit voices. However, that subject can be an entire teaching in itself. So, just to get people started thinking along these lines, I wrote a Prayer of Renunciation that I give people as a good place to start in this process of "purifying our hearts" according to James 4:8. The prayer is one of renouncing areas and avenues of occult, satanic and soul-power involvement. I continue to be amazed at some people's reactions to this list and the reasoning they give for why they should be allowed to continue practicing these things. I always respond with, "Well, do you find it in the scriptures?" and "How badly do you want to hear the voice of the Lord?" For example, one woman just did not want to give up mind reading because of how helpful it was in counseling others. But we don't find it in the scriptures. Instead, we read about receiving the mind of Christ (big difference between using my mind and using the mind of Christ!) We read about the gift of discernment - a gift of the Holy Spirit. You see, all these soul-power abilities are mere copies and counterfeits of the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit. God wants us to submit ALL of ourselves to Him and let HIM flow through us because, with Him in us, "Greater is He who is in you that he who is in the world." I John 4:4 This scripture is given in the context of testing the spirits and abiding in God and letting His love perfect us. I heard a lovely Christian woman teaching on prayer one time. But she made the statement that meditation was easier to achieve if you put yourself in the Yoga position. I have to ask, is it in the Bible? Yes, meditation is definitely in the Bible. But what does scripture say about prayer positions? All I've been able to find is that we are to pray when we sit, walk, stand, lie down, bow and kneel. Nothing about the pretzel position. Well, but what difference does it make? Maybe none. Maybe a lot. Is it worth the risk? I, personally, want to hear God and Him only so badly that I'm willing to give up something that may seem "neat" or beneficial in order to not go beyond what I read in the scriptures. What is the big deal about giving up a copy in order to get the original? Years ago, I was asked to help a woman who was coming out of years of intensive counseling. She was supposedly "healed" or "cured" or "counseled all she needed" but just needed to be able to acclimate to the "real" world. But when I met her, she was so out-of-touch with reality and involved in her own psychoanalysis that her husband had to hire someone to clean her house, do the shopping, cook the meals, and do the laundry. She did not work at a job. She had no children and she did not even pump her own gas. She didn't seem very "healed" to me. Maybe the counselors just didn't know what to do with her so they handed her off to me. I don't know. After one meeting with her, the Lord made it very clear that she was living a life of spiritual confusion regarding the world, the flesh, and the devil. So, before the next meeting I pulled together a simple overview teaching on the heirarchy of and function of angels and demons. Who did what and why. I went to her house with my charts and a copy of my Prayer of Renunciation. When I finished the teaching, I could see understanding in her eyes. So I gave her the Prayer of Renunciation" to read. When she was finished reading, she gasped, "RaJean, I've been involved in every one of these things!" I asked her, "Do you want to stay involved and keep the baggage they've brought into your life or do you want to clear the slate and follow Christ?" "I want to follow Christ," she said. So she prayed the simple yet powerful Prayer of Renunciation. And let me tell you, her life was dramatically changed. So changed, that she began calling me to give the same teaching and opportunity for freedom to friends she'd done horoscopes, séances, automatic writing, etc. etc. with. There were no bells and whistles, no screaming meemies, no gnashing of teeth. Why not? I don't know. Maybe it was because she had not reached the point of possession. She'd simply reached out for power within herself and without God. Psychic power. Soul power. Mrs. Penn-Lewis once wrote: "`Soul-force' versus `Spirit-force' is the battleground today. The Body of Christ is by the energy of the Holy Spirit within her, advancing heavenward. The atmosphere of the world is thickening with psychic currents behind which are massed the aerial foes. The only safety for the child of God is an experiential knowledge of the life in union with Christ wherein he dwells with Christ in God, above the poisonous air in which the prince of the power of the air carries on his work. The Blood of Christ for cleansing. The Cross of Christ for identification in death. The Power of the Risen Ascended Lord by the Holy Ghost, continually declared, laid hold of and wielded, will alone bring the members of the Body through in victory to join the Ascended Head." So, how do we know at any given point in time, what is done with soul-power, what is Holy Ghost power, and what is out-and-out Satanic? Ask God. Study the Scriptures. Look at the fruit. Does it lift up Christ? Does it produce good or bad fruit? Submit to God. Don't hold anything back. Some situations may not be either soul-power or demonic-power. They may be both/and, a mixture. For example, nearly 20 years ago, I was involved in a situation and with a person who had decidedly slipped from being led by the Spirit of God to being led by their own soul and intellect. The result was 1. Elevation of self importance. 2. Scripture was twisted to fit doctrine and psychological methods. 3. Being "right” became an issue. 4. Power became an issue. 5. Mind reading replaced discernment. 6. Automatic writing was used in counseling others. 7. Conversations with demons. You see the spiral downward? Because they had a tremendous sphere of influence, those of us who recognized that God's will was not being followed became involved in front-line spiritual warfare for the people who were under his influence. The problem was that none of us had adequate teaching or experience, no mentors, and we were isolated from one another, unable to communicate. So we were all badly wounded. But we learned "trial by fire." Here are the main points that we learned: 1. Not every situation will resolve itself with an, "Out in the name of Jesus." If satanic possession is the problem, the person in whom the demon is living must be willing to either do it himself, or give you permission to tell the demon to leave. After all, he is the one who invited the demon in in the first place. If the problem has to do with soul-power, again, the person must recognize what he is doing wrong and have a desire to submit to God. Spirits and soul-power are able to operate in a person's life because there were some doors and windows through which they entered. If we start to shut the doors and windows, eventually the spirits will leave on their own accord because they are being starved to death. This same method will cause soul-power to diminish because it is not being fed. 2. Hold the power and ability of the devil in great respect. We don't have to fear him but we'd better not be egotistical or naive either! Jesus said, "False Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect." Matthew 24:24 A year after I was released from the daily spiritual warfare surrounding the situation I had been in, the Lord spoke to me very clearly the following words. "You know, RaJean, the people you know and the situation you were in, affected many people. But compared to the whole world, it is such a tiny spot on the globe...If you can't learn to recognize the anti-Christ spirit in your little world, what makes you think you will recognize the Anti-Christ, capital A?" As I began to study under people like George Otis, Jr., C. Peter Wagner, and Cindy Jacobs, I heard story after story of people who entered into deep spiritual warfare with naive, egotistical, and self-righteous attitudes who were really beaten up badly by the evil forces they came against. People who would have made great warriors in the kingdom of God if they hadn't tried to face the enemy alone and without all the equipment God provides. This point takes us into the next rule: 3. Do not isolate yourself or let yourself become isolated. There was a reason Jesus sent His disciples out two-by-two. "Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. Ecclesiastes 4:9,10,12 4. Get under and stay under authority. I called a halt to meeting with the friends of the woman who'd had the dramatic life-style change because my pastor chose to no longer support that ministry. She began to bring me people who were even more involved in using their own soul-power as well as involved in the occult and satanic rituals. I was not about to minister without my covering. Plus, some deep rooted conflicts between Gary and me were surfacing and Gary could not cover the ministry either. This leads to the next point. 5. Keep your attitude toward others godly. If you are married, you must be in good relationship with your spouse. Women need the covering of their husbands and God has promised men that if their spirit is not right toward their wives, He does not accept their offerings, prayers, or tears. Malachi 2:13-16 Ever wonder why your prayers aren't getting answered? Check out your attitude and your love toward those around you, especially your family. 6. Stay in the scriptures. Jesus said, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." John 6:63 Live the Word; breathe the Word; bathe in the Word; drink the Word; eat the Word. Anyone either coming out of sin, soulishness, the occult, or satanic oppression or possession, is not in a position to discern between what is of God and what is not. So don't give them a book to read other than the Bible. If you are the one ministering to someone steeped in any of these things, you can't afford to be deceived in any single point. Search the scriptures not the library. Teachers incur a stricter judgment. James 3:1 You want to give only what comes from God. Holy Spirit-power can give life; soul power will work for yourself but it won't give life to others. Jesus also said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe." John 6:63,64 It's amazing to me how much easier it is for all of us, myself included, to read a book or listen to a tape by someone teaching the Word of God than it is for us to just spend hours in the Word ourselves. What happens if we don't follow these six rules very closely? Well, for one thing, we play into the hands of the devil who wants us to release our soul-power so he can use it for several purposes: 1. Get us to become independent. God wants us dependent - on Him. 2. Give him power through the operation of our soul-power. 3. Counterfeit the gifts of the Holy Spirit 4. Cause confusion. 6. Make use of us and our abilities to wage war against God's plan for world evangelism. 7. Encourage us to trust more in our feelings than in God and what He says. Along this line, I'd like to quote Watchman Nee one more time. He said, "There is no need for people to feel the power which comes from the Holy Spirit. Man's duty is to obey God. For the power of the Holy Spirit is not given for man to feel. (Note that sensing in the spirit is another matter.) My duty is to ask God to bind my soul force, that is, my own power. I am to obey God absolutely, the rest I leave to Him to do." When I was in the middle of the front-line spiritual warfare, I was disobedient (because I didn't know any better) to four of those six rules. And I got clobbered by the enemy through both psychological and satanic means. The summer that the battle was the worst, the battle was so intense and I was so alone, isolated, I felt like I was hanging onto God by my fingernails. I took a lot of naps and I prayed and studied the Bible a lot. Did I gain strength? No and yes. No because I lost hope, felt like I was in a constant fog, and realized that even my fingernails were slipping. Yes because, just as my last fingernail was about to slip off the ledge, I knew in my knower that God had a hold of me and that even if I let go completely, He had me securely. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself." II Timothy 2:13 Yes because, as I began to feel less "spiritual," I probably became more spiritual. I had to pray just to be able to walk across the room much less take care of my family or minister to anyone. Looking back, I can see that that summer, which was so hard, was probably when I grew spiritually the deepest. I'd been able to do a lot in my own strength, through my own soul-power before. Then, I became so totally in-capacitated in my body and soul, I had to learn to walk in the Spirit or not walk at all. I got to watch God fulfill I Thessalonians 5:24 in my life. "Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass." He'd put me in a position of spiritual authority in our church and, in spite of what was going on inside of me, He fulfilled through me what He wanted to do that summer. I was teaching five classes at the time (two in my neighborhood) and responsible for individually discipling some women. God maintained that ministry in incredible ways. Here I was, feeling like I was barely keeping my head above water, yet He used me in the lives of others. One time, in order to do this, He gave me a dream about the family of one of the ladies I was discipling. In the dream, her daughter had a problem with her eyes. So I relayed the dream to the woman and told her I felt like she should take her daughter to a doctor and check out her eyes. The woman told her husband and together they decided that RaJean was just being weird - again. And they didn't do anything. In the fall, after school started, that daughter came home from school one day with a note from the school nurse that she needed to have her eyes checked as she could not pass the vision screening and was falling behind in her studies. Sure enough, glasses were needed. I eventually forget most of the things God gives me for others but I've never forgotten this story because I know how "out of it" I was at the time. Remembering that story boosts my faith whenever I get discouraged about how far I need to grow. It points me back to Jesus "the author and finisher of our faith." This leads right into my final point. The use of soul-power is often dependent or influenced by factors outside of ourselves. Getting into the "right" physical position; the temperature in the room; odors. The Spirit is able to use us only as we become dependent on Him. When we are focused on Him, and only Him, it doesn't matter about anything else. It doesn't matter how late it is or how cold, or how loud the music is, or the preacher's sermon. We bind up our own thoughts, feelings, inclinations, doctrines, and preconceived notions, prejudices, and judgements, and just let God...When we operate in the Spirit, it doesn't matter how someone is dressed or even how they smell. We just love them and want them to know God. From time to time I hear about the "good old days" of the Charismatic renewal when services would last for hours and we'd stay up till all hours of the night praising and worshipping God. We attribute our ability to do that to the signs and wonders that often took place or to how much younger we were. But sometimes I wonder if the reality isn't that we were truly worshiping God "in Spirit." I wonder if we get tired and feel the hardness of the pew now because much of our worship is in the flesh. Back in the "good old days" we did a lot more witnessing than we do now too - and that is a sure sign of the Spirit's activity! The Spirit is life and the Spirit gives life. If we want any part of His work in the world about us, His person and His power is the only thing He will use. I'll close with another quote from Watchman Nee: "Power ought to be obtained on resurrection ground. Resurrection is living beyond death. What we need is not greater power but deeper death." Submit to God.
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