by Scott H. Northrup
When God created us He made us in His likeness. Thus we are spirits as God is a spirit. But we are not only spirits, restlessly roaming the earth without a body. God breathed His spirit life into bodies of flesh - our "earth suits," perfectly fitted to live in this beautiful biosphere we call Earth. According to Genesis, when He did this, we became living SOULS. In other words, humans have three parts - spirit, soul, and body. The soul of man is the psychological part of his being, his mind, his emotional makeup, and his decision-making part. The Greek word translated soul is the word "psuche,"or "psyche."
The soul of man is the control center that processes all of the signals coming from our bodily senses, sorts them out, interprets them, and makes decisions of action. It is that transient part of you that is sometimes happy, sometimes sad, often anxious, easily excited, and occasionally angry. The soul also can have an awareness of signals coming from the deeper part of our nature, the spirit within. Paul wrote to Christians in Romans 8 that "the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." On the other hand, "to be fleshly minded is death." Unfortunately we often take our marching orders from the appetite, the carnal outward man.
Because of the sin of humanity, sin entered the world and our spiritual part died. Spiritual death spread to all humanity because of the spread of sin like an infectious disease for which there was no immunity. No, our spirits did not cease to exist, but they became disconnected from the Vine, God Himself. With the death of our inner nature, we became trapped in the futility of our minds. Our mental life became the dominant part of our nature, and the spirit took a back seat. (Incidentally, whether you believe in a literal Adam or a figurative one, the truth remains the same.)
With the death of the inner spiritual nature of humanity, we quickly degenerated. For we were not meant to be governed by our intellects apart from spiritual wisdom and insight. More than that we were not meant to exist alienated from His fellowship. Life without God may work okay for a season, in the bloom of youth, in the pride of success, but it ultimately goes down the tube. If you wonder at the awful state of the world, it all traces back to the fallen state of humanity.
Thank God that He sent a Savior. His name is Jesus, and He didn't just come to teach people how to behave. He unleashed the supernatural spiritual forces of God onto the Earth when He died on the cross. The mind of man cannot fully grasp what happened at the cross without spiritual help. Basically Jesus prayed to receive the entire sin of humanity onto His perfect person. All sin, all sickness and disease, all mental oppression and depression, all hurts and abuse, all poverty, all fear, all demonic power, all the elements of the fallen human condition, past, present and future, for all time, He prayed by faith to receive onto His body on Calvary. He perfectly believed using His own faith that your sin and my sin and all its consequences would be transferred to Him by this one act. The death on the cross launched forth the faith of Jesus of Nazareth. "He who knew no sin became sin for us." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
"OK, so why didn't it work," you say. "All the sick elements of the human condition are still with us." Ah, but there's the rub. Listen! He said that where TWO AGREE on earth as touching anything, they shall have what they ask for. In other words, for you personally to gain the benefit of what Jesus did, YOU HAVE TO AGREE WITH JESUS' PRAYER FOR YOU. You have to believe the same thing He believed about what He was doing on the cross, and receive what He did for you by faith!!
I want to ask you tonight, right where you are, "Do you believe in and agree with the prayer that Jesus prayed for you the night before He died?" When He said to Father "Thy will be done," He prayed to take your sin and sickness away at the moment He died. If you will hook up with His prayer, it will take effect in your life. Your spirit will be reborn, brought back to life, reconnected with Father God, and the healing of all the sick elements of your life will BEGIN, starting from the inside and progressing outwardly until you are perfect and whole and complete. Get started today. You'll never be the same again.
@ copyright 2001 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.