SATAN’S ANGELS of the Christian Bible
All Satan’s angels are made subject to Christ, (1st Peter 3:22). They are sinful and rebellious (Job 4:4:18; 2nd Peter 2:4; Jude 6-7; Revelation 12:7-9);evil (Psalms 78:49); to be punished (Matt. 24:41; Isaiah 24:21-23; 25:7; Jude 6-7); to be cast out of Heaven (Rev. 7-9); will fight against Christ at Armageddon (Rev. 12:7-9; 19:11-21; 20:1-3; Isaiah 24:21-23; 25:7); are organized into principalities and powers (Ephesians 1:21; 3:10; 6:10-17; Colossians 2:10). They deceive men (2nd Cor. 11:14); oppose saints (Romans 8:38); Ephesians 6:10-18). They fell originally with Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:11-17; Matt. 24:41; Rev. 12:7-12) and hell is prepared for them! (Matt. 24:41).There are those who are presently bound (Rev. 9-11,14; 11:7; 17:8; 2nd Peter 2:4; Jude 6-7). They are in another compartment of the underworld called “Tartarus”, locked up there for committing lustful procreation with the daughters of men, having left their own habitation (Genesis 6:1-8). The Book of Enoch talks about this scene” “And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful daughters and the angels, the children of Heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said, ‘Come, let us choose wives from among the children of men and beget us children. And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives and began to go in unto them and defile themselves with them. And they became pregnant, and they bore giants turned against them and devoured mankind.” (The Book of Enoch, R.H. Charles Translation; P.34-35; SPCK) The result of this procreation was a race of Giants, or mighty men! They will remain there until the “Great White Throne” judgment, at which time, they will be thrown into “Gehenna”, which is the “lake of fire”, or the final hell where they will be tormented with Satan and all his demons, along with all the reprobates, (Rev. 19:20; 20:10,14,15; Matt.25:41). There are also those fallen angels who are still loose with Satan and will be cast down to the earth in the middle of Daniel’s 70th week in the future “Great Tribulation”, (Rev. 12:7-12; Ephesians 6:10-17).
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Satan
SATAN, PRINCE OF ALL EVIL SPIRITS, according to the Christian Bible
Names of Satan: He was called Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-14), and was the original ruler of the planet earth, and is still in dominion of it until Christ defeats him completely in the future battle of Armageddon. He is called the Devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9) serpent (2nd Cor. 11:3; Rev. 12:9); that wicked one (1st John 5:18); the wicked one (Matt. 13:19; 38); tempter (Matt. 4:3); enemy (Matt.13:39); accuser of our brethren (Rev. 12:10), prince god of this world (2nd Cor. 4:4) dragon (Rev. 12:3-12; 13:1-4; 20:I-3); beliel (2nd Cor. 6:15), Beelzebub (Matt.10:25; 12:24); the father of lies (John 8:44). He was created by Christ along with other beings and powers in Heaven and earth, (Job 38:4-7; Ezk. 28:11-17; Col.1:15-18); price power of the air (Ephesians 2:1-3).
ORIGIN of SATAN:
Satan, known as Lucifer, had a kingdom on earth long before the six days of Genesis 1:3 and 2:25, and the creation of Adam, (Isaiah 14:12-14; Jeremiah 4:23-26; Ezekiel 28:11-17; Luke 10:18; 2nd Peter 3:4-8). These passages reveal that he fell, led an invasion into Heaven and was defeated. At that time, the earth was cursed, and all life was destroyed by the first flood, as in Genesis 1:2. Satan regained rulership over the earth in Adam’s day, surpassing man’s dominion by causing his fall. His relationship to man through the ages has been that of a “usurper”; and as long as man tolerates his dictatorship, that long will he remain subject to Satan. Satan’s present position as ruler of this world’s system and the prince of this world will be ended forever when Christ comes (Revelation 19:20); and man will again inherit the earth and live on it forever.
WORK of SATAN:
His prime objective is to oppose God, and defeat Christ and all men and holy angels! He attempts to do this by unending various methods: He makes war on the saints (Ephesians 6); causes delay and compromise (Acts 24:25; 26:28); causes divisions and strife (1st Cor. 3:1-3; 1st Peter 5:8); causes deadness and weakness (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14); causes darkness and oppression (2nd Cor. 4:4; 2nd Peter 1:4-9); causes double mindedness (James 1:21); also doubt and unbelief (Genesis 3:4-5; Romans 14:23); causes divisions and blinds men to the gospel )2nd Cor. 4:4); sets snares for men to fall into sin (1st Tim. 3:7; 2nd Tim. 2:26); hinders answers to prayer (Daniel 18); contends with messengers of God, (Daniel 10:12-21; Jude 9); works miracles (2nd Thess 2:9); steals the Word of God from men lest they should believe it (Matt. 13:19; Luke 8:12; hinders the gospel (Acts 13:1-10); enters into union with others against God (Luke 22:3; John 13:2); sends messengers to defeat saints (2nd Cor. 12:7); resists others (Zechariah 3:1-3); transforms himself into and ******ANGEL OF LIGHT*********(2nd Cor. 11:14); provokes sin (1st Cor. 21:1); tempts men (Mark 1:13; 1st Cor. 7:5); he is the deceiver of all men (2nd Cor. 11:14; Rev. 12:9; 20:1-10); he exercised power of death until Christ conquered death, hell and the grave (Hebrews 2:14; Rev. 1:18); he is the leader of all sinners and backsliders of the human race (1st John 3:8-10; 1st Tim. 5:15); he causes all sickness, disease, physical, and mental in the human race, (Luke 13:16; Acts 10:38).
METHODS of SATAN:
He urges churches to create a business of religion, making it a profitable venture by appealing to the rich and influential by lowering standards and offering an easy gospel and cheap universal salvation to all. He tries to get people to believe there is no joy in becoming a Christian and serving God, because of all the things they will have to give up. He suggests to the successful business people that they can serve God in their retirement years when they “have nothing better” to do and have made all the money they need. He stirs lustful passions in men and women causing them to fall into sin and sinful pleasure as innocent enjoyment. He causes every conceivable means to hold men in subjection to himself and keep them from turning to God, and if he does not succeed in this, he tries to destroy the believer’s testimony and ruin his influence for God. Anytime a believer falls, Satan tries to make him stay fallen, or commit suicide, and tries to cause them to end their loves by insisting it is the best way out, but he hides the true fact that this will just open the door to real torment in hell! He tries to get others in a lukewarm condition, and if he succeeds, he urges them to stay in that condition so that God will cut them off in the end. He makes people think they are missing all the fun things of life if they do not go into all kinds of sin, which will damn their souls. He dares men to do many things which they would not do under normal circumstances.
WAYS GOD USES SATAN:
God uses Satan to purge man of all possibility of falling in the eternal future (Revelation 21); to provide conflict for saints that they may be rewarded through overcoming (1 John 2:13; 4:1-6; Rev. 2:7; 11,17, 26-28; 3:5,12, 2:10; to develop character and faith in the believer (James 1:12; 1st Peter 1:7-13; 5:8-9; 2nd Peter 1:4-9; Jude 20-24); to demonstrate the power of God over the power of Satan (Mark 16:17-20; 1st Cor. 4:9; Ephesians 2:7); to keep the believer humble (2nd Cor. 12:7); to use him in afflicting people to bring them to repentance (1st Cor. 5:1-6; 2nd Cor. 2:5-11; Job 33:14-30).
SATAN LOOSES!!
God predicted Satan’s defeat in Genesis 3:15 and accomplished it at the Cross of Calvary! (John 19:30; Colossians 2:14-17). However, the completion of the defeat will take place when Christ comes again (Rev. 20:1-3) at the battle of Gog and Magog (Rev. 20:7-10). The purpose of the thousand year reign of Christ after the second advent will be to suppress all rebellion (1st Cor. 15:24-28); and the final defeat of Satan and his hosts at the end of that period must be accomplished before the earth is entirely rid of rebels. They must be confined to the lake of fire, before rebellion is finally, and eternally overcome. The earth will be purified by fire and made perfect the third time, and the Kingdom of God will be universal over all free moral agents, as it was before rebellion was started by Satan and Adam in their respective kingdoms.
Names of Satan: He was called Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-14), and was the original ruler of the planet earth, and is still in dominion of it until Christ defeats him completely in the future battle of Armageddon. He is called the Devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9) serpent (2nd Cor. 11:3; Rev. 12:9); that wicked one (1st John 5:18); the wicked one (Matt. 13:19; 38); tempter (Matt. 4:3); enemy (Matt.13:39); accuser of our brethren (Rev. 12:10), prince god of this world (2nd Cor. 4:4) dragon (Rev. 12:3-12; 13:1-4; 20:I-3); beliel (2nd Cor. 6:15), Beelzebub (Matt.10:25; 12:24); the father of lies (John 8:44). He was created by Christ along with other beings and powers in Heaven and earth, (Job 38:4-7; Ezk. 28:11-17; Col.1:15-18); price power of the air (Ephesians 2:1-3).
ORIGIN of SATAN:
Satan, known as Lucifer, had a kingdom on earth long before the six days of Genesis 1:3 and 2:25, and the creation of Adam, (Isaiah 14:12-14; Jeremiah 4:23-26; Ezekiel 28:11-17; Luke 10:18; 2nd Peter 3:4-8). These passages reveal that he fell, led an invasion into Heaven and was defeated. At that time, the earth was cursed, and all life was destroyed by the first flood, as in Genesis 1:2. Satan regained rulership over the earth in Adam’s day, surpassing man’s dominion by causing his fall. His relationship to man through the ages has been that of a “usurper”; and as long as man tolerates his dictatorship, that long will he remain subject to Satan. Satan’s present position as ruler of this world’s system and the prince of this world will be ended forever when Christ comes (Revelation 19:20); and man will again inherit the earth and live on it forever.
WORK of SATAN:
His prime objective is to oppose God, and defeat Christ and all men and holy angels! He attempts to do this by unending various methods: He makes war on the saints (Ephesians 6); causes delay and compromise (Acts 24:25; 26:28); causes divisions and strife (1st Cor. 3:1-3; 1st Peter 5:8); causes deadness and weakness (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14); causes darkness and oppression (2nd Cor. 4:4; 2nd Peter 1:4-9); causes double mindedness (James 1:21); also doubt and unbelief (Genesis 3:4-5; Romans 14:23); causes divisions and blinds men to the gospel )2nd Cor. 4:4); sets snares for men to fall into sin (1st Tim. 3:7; 2nd Tim. 2:26); hinders answers to prayer (Daniel 18); contends with messengers of God, (Daniel 10:12-21; Jude 9); works miracles (2nd Thess 2:9); steals the Word of God from men lest they should believe it (Matt. 13:19; Luke 8:12; hinders the gospel (Acts 13:1-10); enters into union with others against God (Luke 22:3; John 13:2); sends messengers to defeat saints (2nd Cor. 12:7); resists others (Zechariah 3:1-3); transforms himself into and ******ANGEL OF LIGHT*********(2nd Cor. 11:14); provokes sin (1st Cor. 21:1); tempts men (Mark 1:13; 1st Cor. 7:5); he is the deceiver of all men (2nd Cor. 11:14; Rev. 12:9; 20:1-10); he exercised power of death until Christ conquered death, hell and the grave (Hebrews 2:14; Rev. 1:18); he is the leader of all sinners and backsliders of the human race (1st John 3:8-10; 1st Tim. 5:15); he causes all sickness, disease, physical, and mental in the human race, (Luke 13:16; Acts 10:38).
METHODS of SATAN:
He urges churches to create a business of religion, making it a profitable venture by appealing to the rich and influential by lowering standards and offering an easy gospel and cheap universal salvation to all. He tries to get people to believe there is no joy in becoming a Christian and serving God, because of all the things they will have to give up. He suggests to the successful business people that they can serve God in their retirement years when they “have nothing better” to do and have made all the money they need. He stirs lustful passions in men and women causing them to fall into sin and sinful pleasure as innocent enjoyment. He causes every conceivable means to hold men in subjection to himself and keep them from turning to God, and if he does not succeed in this, he tries to destroy the believer’s testimony and ruin his influence for God. Anytime a believer falls, Satan tries to make him stay fallen, or commit suicide, and tries to cause them to end their loves by insisting it is the best way out, but he hides the true fact that this will just open the door to real torment in hell! He tries to get others in a lukewarm condition, and if he succeeds, he urges them to stay in that condition so that God will cut them off in the end. He makes people think they are missing all the fun things of life if they do not go into all kinds of sin, which will damn their souls. He dares men to do many things which they would not do under normal circumstances.
WAYS GOD USES SATAN:
God uses Satan to purge man of all possibility of falling in the eternal future (Revelation 21); to provide conflict for saints that they may be rewarded through overcoming (1 John 2:13; 4:1-6; Rev. 2:7; 11,17, 26-28; 3:5,12, 2:10; to develop character and faith in the believer (James 1:12; 1st Peter 1:7-13; 5:8-9; 2nd Peter 1:4-9; Jude 20-24); to demonstrate the power of God over the power of Satan (Mark 16:17-20; 1st Cor. 4:9; Ephesians 2:7); to keep the believer humble (2nd Cor. 12:7); to use him in afflicting people to bring them to repentance (1st Cor. 5:1-6; 2nd Cor. 2:5-11; Job 33:14-30).
SATAN LOOSES!!
God predicted Satan’s defeat in Genesis 3:15 and accomplished it at the Cross of Calvary! (John 19:30; Colossians 2:14-17). However, the completion of the defeat will take place when Christ comes again (Rev. 20:1-3) at the battle of Gog and Magog (Rev. 20:7-10). The purpose of the thousand year reign of Christ after the second advent will be to suppress all rebellion (1st Cor. 15:24-28); and the final defeat of Satan and his hosts at the end of that period must be accomplished before the earth is entirely rid of rebels. They must be confined to the lake of fire, before rebellion is finally, and eternally overcome. The earth will be purified by fire and made perfect the third time, and the Kingdom of God will be universal over all free moral agents, as it was before rebellion was started by Satan and Adam in their respective kingdoms.
Meditation lesson from Sawam Singh
Sawan Singh's Meditation Lesson
1)-As you are not accustomed to sit in this posture, you may, at present, take support of a wall or better place a cushion of suitable thickness under the hips to take the weight of the body off the feet. When you have adapted yourself to this posture, you will find it ideal for hearing the Sound Current.
2)-As the vital current is withdrawn from the body, the arms and legs should go to sleep, and finally the whole body. In the beginning one feels pain, and this is natural when the vital current leaves any portion of the body. This pain and benumbness of the limbs and the body are signs of the withdrawal of the vital current. But one should not mind this pain and should bear it. Attempt should be to pay no attention to it. If the attention is held in the eye focus, the pain is not felt. With the increase in practice the pain will disappear and you will enjoy this sensation of benumbness. One should not be afraid of the pain or the withdrawal of the vital current. No person has died so far when sitting in Bhajan. In time, light will appear in the eye center and the soul will find its way in and you will feel that this body is not yours; you are separate from it and the body is the dead body of some one else.
3)- When your concentration is almost complete then, in place of darkness in the eye center, sparks and fleeting flashes of light will begin to appear, and then light will be steady and the soul automatically will leave the body and enter the Tisra Til. You should continue looking at the light and repeating the Names so that the mind does not wander. As said above, you should simply look at the light and continue Repetition, and should not put any pressure or strain on the eyes of the body. Please make no attempt to take the soul up by force. The soul will find its own way.
4)-You may not think of the optic nerves and the pineal gland, and there is no need to rest in an imaginary position. When the soul is coming in concentration, it will find its own way. If the mind s engaged in imaginary tracing of nerves and locating the pineal gland, or in other ways, the Repetition will be interfered with. The mind's movements are to be restricted and it should not be allowed to go loose. The mind wishes to run away, and if you give it the latitude to do this or that, then it has won. The point is to keep it engaged in Repetition with a view to eliminate other thoughts.
5) -The Real Form of the Master will be met when the attention has entered the eye center and penetrated the starry sky, the sun and the moon in succession. This form will always remain with the disciple and answer all his enquiries. Before this point is reached, the form of the Master contemplated from a photograph, or His physical form, is the reflection of one's own mind; just as when one fixes his gaze at any electric bulb for half a minute or so, and then closes his eyes, he sees the bulb inside. But it disppears when the mind wavers. The same applies to the imagined form of the Master.
6)-Keeping your attention in between the two eyebrows - the center of thinking - continue repeating the Names, and when the vital current from the part of the body below the eyes has reached this point, the soul will find its way inwards of its own accord. You simply hold your attention there and continue repetition or hearing the sound - one at a time - and the soul will be lifted up automatically. And the sound will leave both the sides - the right and the left of the head - and will come from the middle of the head.
7)-The body is alive on account of the presence of the soul current in it. The soul is a drop and the Shabd is the Ocean. The soul is sustained in the body by Shabd, and the body in its turn by the soul. But, so long as the soul is not lifted up to the higher stages, it remains associated with the mind in the lower stages. In the process of concentration both, the mind and the soul-they are closely associated-are lifted. At the second stage of the spiritual journey, the individual mind will have become purified to such an extent that it will no longer be individual, but will have acquired the characteristics of the Universal Mind. It has no place in the third stage. From there the soul alone goes up. The soul is the Positive Power and the mind the Negative.The 'a' at the end of 'Shabda' is silent. It is pronounced as 'Shabd'.
8) - In man, in his ordinary state, the soul is hopelessly and helplessly entangled in a most complicated snare. There are chains of lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride; there are the three states of tranquility, activity and sloth of the mind; there are the twenty-five conditions like weeping, smiling and so forth to which he is subject; there are the three bodies : the physical, the astral and the causal, which serve as cages; and there are the three minds, or the three aspects of one mind, working one in each body or cage.The object of Bhajan is to free the soul from this snare.
The current of the Holy Shabd alone, which not part of this snare but which has an independent instance - though penetrating the snare-and is yet separate from it - and keeps the soul fertile and green-the one and only one power which cuts the chains and frees the soul from this snare. When one is connected with this Shabd Current by a Master, and he hears this Shabd in the manner explained to him, and brings his attention nearer and nearer to the Shabd Current, he is cutting the bonds, the soul is -coming free, and finally merges in the Shabd Ocean which it is a drop. There are two currents of the soul a-Surat, which knows and hears and, b-Nirat, which sees.
The Nirat goes ahead of the Surat in the spiritual jurney, just as a person on a journey first looks at the path ahead and then follows it. Pandit Ji has complicated this subject in his attempt to clarify it. You may ignore it. When you will go within, the whole thing will be clear to you. This spiritual uplift consists of three stepsi-By Repetition, bringing into concentration in the Third Eye the scattered attention and the vital current from the part of the body below the eyes; and ii-Holding the attention in the Third Eye by making contact with the Astral Form of the Master and, iii-Lifting the soul up by attaching it to the Bell Sound. This work is just the opposite of what we have been doing before. The soul was disconnected from the Shabd.
It had forgotten it altogether and had associated itself with the mind, and was running wild in the downward and outward direction. Now this course is to be reversed. We are to do the 'about turn'. Old habits are given up slowly, and new habits are not formed quickly either.
Consequently the spiritual uplift is a slow affair, and "slow and steady wins the race" applies here most appropriately. So, with firm faith and steady work, approach it with a calm and cool mind and avoid hurry.Please take good care of your health.
9) - It is good to repeat the five Names ( Mantra given by Sant Mat Masters at Initiation)together in preference to one at a time. Please understand the object of the Repetition. Everybody is engaged in doing repetition - contemplation of his work. A lecturer thinks of his lecture course; a farmer, of his fields and cattle; and a business man, of his business and so on; and on whatever one is contemplating, its picture is before the mind's eye. At the time of death the same scenes appear before us which we have been fixing in our mind during our lifetime. These very scenes or thoughts, as they are connected with this world, bring us back to this world after death and are the cause of our rebirth. Saints say people have been doing this sort of repetition, as stated above, from birth after birth and have remained confined to this world. If they take to repeating Names of the Lords of the stages on the spiritual journey which lies within them, then their attention will be withdrawn from this world; the power of the mind and the senses will decrease, the soul will become powerful, light will appear and there will be a new kind of sweetness which the mind has never tasted before. Finally the soul will discard this world in sensation, catch the Shabd, and will be lifted up.
Therefore, there is no simpler way for concentrating the scattered attention than the Repetition of the Names. Of course the Yogis tried Pranayam and other methods, but without success.
They do not take us very far on the spiritual journey and cannot be practised by family people. Repetition of Names is for concentration only. At the time of Repetition, the Shabd is not to be heard. One thing at a time. The course of Repetition 's a long one. The starry sky, the sun and the moon regions are to be crossed by Repetition only, and contact with the Astral Form of the Master is to be made by this very process. And this is the end of it. repetition would not take us any further. During this course give three-fourths of the time, but not less than two hours, to Repetition, and only one quarter to hearing the Shabd.During this Repetition course, Shabd is heard just to keep contact with It.
The Shabd at this stage does not pull up or lift the soul because the Shabd Current is feeble and the soul is firmly held by the senses and the objects thereof. The feeble current has not much pull in it. When the soul will have contacted the Astral Form of the Master, it has loosened the bonds and has come nearer to the Shabd, where the current is now powerful and has the power to lift up the soul. The spiritual journey will start from there. Shabd is the Road, Satguru is the Guide, and soul is the traveler. There is no danger of any kind. The soul will travel stage by stage and, from the description of the lights and the sounds of the spiritual stages, will know the progress made. Important hints have been given here. More when some progress has been made. So, in the preliminary stage, Repetition should receive full attention.
People are apt to ignore it and pay more attention to hearing the Shabd. In the preliminary stage, Repetition comes first and Shabd next. When repeating Names, no imagination is to be used in associating sounds and lights with each Name. If the mind goes after making lights and sounds, it has gone loose. Keep the mind engaged in repeating the Names in the eye center. No option is to be given to the mind.
10) - When we come out into this world from the mother's womb, we bring our fate with us. This fate, whether we are to be rich or poor, tall or short, healthy or diseased, black, yellow or white, high or low and so on, is the result or fruit of our past-life actions. We reap as we had sown. We get what we have earned. Therefore, we should work and play our full part with diligence and effort in the struggle of life and, without worrying, be contented with our lot and bear it cheerfully. And if there is any power that cuts the bad karma, it is the Shabd. When, therefore, one gets a taste of Shabd and enjoys Shabd, innumerable bad karmas are destroyed. The object of devotion to and love for the Master and Shabd is to cut the very root of karma, so that the soul disengages itself from the bonds of karma and becomes free to merge in Shabd.
11, 12, 13)-These questions will be solved automatically when you have gone within and made contact with the Astral Form of the Master and have thereby cast off the physical frame and acquired the astral form. Or, these questions may be asked again when contact with the Astral Form of the Master has been made.There is no fixed time as to how long it takes the average departing soul to leave the body completely.
14)-There are five elements : earth, water, fire, air, akash, of which the material world is made up and, according to elements, there are five classes of creation. In man all the five elements are active; in animals four are active and one is dormant; in birds three are active and two are dormant; in insects two are active and three are dormant; and in vegetables one is active and four are dormant. It is difficult to understand it intellectually, but it will be comprehended after going within. The rise from which animal to man, or fall from man to which animal depends on karma. Good karma lifts up and bad is the cause of fall.
15) -So long as the soul is entangled in forms physical, astral or causal -it has sex. But in higher spheres, when it is free from bonds of mind and maya, there is no distinction of sex. The sex changes according to karma. Sex is not a fixed thing-that male shall always be male, and female always female. The outlook on marriage, on male and female, on unions, love, likes and dislikes, and 'mine and thine', changes rapidly with the entry into the Third Eye, by contacting the Astral Form of the Master, and hearing the Bell Sound. What man had called his own, and had longed to be with, here and hereafter, now look like strangers. As many births, so many fathers and mothers did we have, and so many wives, and many more children. We had such relations when we were insects, birds and other animals, and it is no achievement to be proud of, if we have them when we are in human form. If the human form is the top of creation, it is for the single reason that man has the capacity to catch the Shabd and rise on it to reach his Origin. If this has not been done, man has missed the golden opportunity and has remained a two-legged animal, a slave of the senses and the objects of senses, like other forms of creation. He will be Man when he has risen above the senses; when he is no longer a slave of lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride; when he has made his mind motionless; when he has entered the Third Eye and heard the Bell. With every step taken on the spiritual journey, he is coming into his own by casting off the heavy load of matter-physical, astral or causal-which really is not a part of him but which the soul takes up as tools to function in the causal, astral and physical worlds. When contact with the Astral Form of the Master has been made, the outlook, which is now based on the experience gained in the world and the worldly relations, is that the Master and the Shabd are the two Real Friends and Companions who are here with us, and go with us after death. All others have their limitations. It does not mean that he has an aversion for others. He does his duty by them but knows their true worth. He is in the world but not worldly; outwardly attached but inwardly detached; like a duck in water and yet not wet.In the experience of Saints, one Shabd is the Creator of all that has been created. All creation, to Them, is Shabd. They see Shabd in action every where. All forms of creation in the highest and the lowest stages are different aspects of Shabd.
16)-Just as on the physical plane there are continents and countries with their different types of population, the same is the case on the astral plane. One such place is the Heaven inhabited by houris. Mohammedans call it 'Bahisht' and Hindus call it 'Swarg'-difference in name but place is the same. The place is subject to Karmic Law and transmigration. It is not a permanent abode and not worth living in, but a place to be shunned, a design of the Negative Power to prevent the soul from going up. The whole astral plane is subject to the five passions the same as the physical plane.
17)- Sant Mat does not advocate asceticism, nor is it helpful. A settled means of income with settled home life give comforts which are conducive to Bhajan. They are denied to ascetics. As said elsewhere in this letter, old habits go slowly and new habits are not formed quickly either. The training of the mind, like the training of a horse or like the training of a child in making them useful is a slow affair. It is a lifelong work. Slow and steady wins the race. When Shabd practice becomes tasteful, all other tastes become flat.
18)-There is antagonism between Nam and kam. Nam is another name for Shabd, and kam means sex lust. Nam or Shabd lifts the soul inward and upward, and kam pulls it downward from the eye center. The sexual relation of husband and wife has been very much misunderstood and abused. In this respect a biologist even treats man as an animal, and calls this relation a mere biological function and no better. He is yet ignorant of the higher potentialities of man.
Those who are familiar with this great aspect of man Have treated this sexual relation as something sacred, and laid down rules for preserving its sanctity. Man dissipates himself and his energies in sexual intercourse. He would be healthier if he were to conserve this energy and would be God-like if he were to use it in spiritual uplift. With the longing to go within and the hearing of the Sound Current becoming tasteful, the indulgence or play in sex decreases and ultimately becomes hateful, and is automatically given up, like other bad habits, such as anger, greed and so forth.
I want you to do Bhajan and make progress in it. This will please me most. This is the present which the Master will always accept. Jesus Christ initiated people by connecting them with the Holy Ghost - the Word - the Shabd. Therein lies His greatness. And naturally, only those who have some experience of this Shabd can appreciate what service He did for people. His Sermon on the Mount is good. It is a moral teaching which can be lived in practice on the strength of Shabd only. If Shabd is missing, no one can live up to this moral teaching.
I wish you could make the eye center your home, make contact with the Shabd and become a true Christian.The Simran or the Repetition of the Names will cleanse your abode in the eye, center, eliminating other thoughts. The stars, the sun, the moon and the Master will decorate it.
There are ten different sounds going on ceaselessly in the eye center. You have experienced some of them. Out of the ten, only two - the Bell and the Conch - are to be sought out; the other eight are to be rejected. The Bell and the Conch will take us to the regions above; others are local. But so long as the Bell has not been grasped, any other sound that is audible is good enough and one should stick to it. When the concentration will increase, this audible sound will give place to some other finer than this, and that in its turn to something finer and sweeter still. Ultimately, the real Bell will be audible. The success depends upon the concentration.
The nearer your attention to the eye center, the louder and clearer will the sounds become, and that which is hidden and indistinct from a distance will be clear when you are near it. Light will also increase with the increase in concentration. All the instruments used in an orchestra are audible when we are close to it, but only the drum when we are far off. The same is the case here.
When our attention is held in the body, we are far off from the eye center, the place of the inner music, and when the attention has vacated the body and is concentrated in the eye center, we are close to it. Every time we are in the eye center we can sort out and catch the Bell Sound, but when away from this center, we miss it and others as well. The sounds are there all the time, only we are out. Regarding perspiring profusely (during meditation), particularly around the head, when the room is not hot, you attempt to go within by forcing your attention inward. Any strain or pressure or force, physical or mental, should be avoided in attempting to concentrate. Sit in the eye center with an easy mind and repeat the Names. Concentration will follow as a matter of course. Cycling is easy but look at the man who is learning to ride a cycle. He is perspiring because he applies his force wrongly.
1)-As you are not accustomed to sit in this posture, you may, at present, take support of a wall or better place a cushion of suitable thickness under the hips to take the weight of the body off the feet. When you have adapted yourself to this posture, you will find it ideal for hearing the Sound Current.
2)-As the vital current is withdrawn from the body, the arms and legs should go to sleep, and finally the whole body. In the beginning one feels pain, and this is natural when the vital current leaves any portion of the body. This pain and benumbness of the limbs and the body are signs of the withdrawal of the vital current. But one should not mind this pain and should bear it. Attempt should be to pay no attention to it. If the attention is held in the eye focus, the pain is not felt. With the increase in practice the pain will disappear and you will enjoy this sensation of benumbness. One should not be afraid of the pain or the withdrawal of the vital current. No person has died so far when sitting in Bhajan. In time, light will appear in the eye center and the soul will find its way in and you will feel that this body is not yours; you are separate from it and the body is the dead body of some one else.
3)- When your concentration is almost complete then, in place of darkness in the eye center, sparks and fleeting flashes of light will begin to appear, and then light will be steady and the soul automatically will leave the body and enter the Tisra Til. You should continue looking at the light and repeating the Names so that the mind does not wander. As said above, you should simply look at the light and continue Repetition, and should not put any pressure or strain on the eyes of the body. Please make no attempt to take the soul up by force. The soul will find its own way.
4)-You may not think of the optic nerves and the pineal gland, and there is no need to rest in an imaginary position. When the soul is coming in concentration, it will find its own way. If the mind s engaged in imaginary tracing of nerves and locating the pineal gland, or in other ways, the Repetition will be interfered with. The mind's movements are to be restricted and it should not be allowed to go loose. The mind wishes to run away, and if you give it the latitude to do this or that, then it has won. The point is to keep it engaged in Repetition with a view to eliminate other thoughts.
5) -The Real Form of the Master will be met when the attention has entered the eye center and penetrated the starry sky, the sun and the moon in succession. This form will always remain with the disciple and answer all his enquiries. Before this point is reached, the form of the Master contemplated from a photograph, or His physical form, is the reflection of one's own mind; just as when one fixes his gaze at any electric bulb for half a minute or so, and then closes his eyes, he sees the bulb inside. But it disppears when the mind wavers. The same applies to the imagined form of the Master.
6)-Keeping your attention in between the two eyebrows - the center of thinking - continue repeating the Names, and when the vital current from the part of the body below the eyes has reached this point, the soul will find its way inwards of its own accord. You simply hold your attention there and continue repetition or hearing the sound - one at a time - and the soul will be lifted up automatically. And the sound will leave both the sides - the right and the left of the head - and will come from the middle of the head.
7)-The body is alive on account of the presence of the soul current in it. The soul is a drop and the Shabd is the Ocean. The soul is sustained in the body by Shabd, and the body in its turn by the soul. But, so long as the soul is not lifted up to the higher stages, it remains associated with the mind in the lower stages. In the process of concentration both, the mind and the soul-they are closely associated-are lifted. At the second stage of the spiritual journey, the individual mind will have become purified to such an extent that it will no longer be individual, but will have acquired the characteristics of the Universal Mind. It has no place in the third stage. From there the soul alone goes up. The soul is the Positive Power and the mind the Negative.The 'a' at the end of 'Shabda' is silent. It is pronounced as 'Shabd'.
8) - In man, in his ordinary state, the soul is hopelessly and helplessly entangled in a most complicated snare. There are chains of lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride; there are the three states of tranquility, activity and sloth of the mind; there are the twenty-five conditions like weeping, smiling and so forth to which he is subject; there are the three bodies : the physical, the astral and the causal, which serve as cages; and there are the three minds, or the three aspects of one mind, working one in each body or cage.The object of Bhajan is to free the soul from this snare.
The current of the Holy Shabd alone, which not part of this snare but which has an independent instance - though penetrating the snare-and is yet separate from it - and keeps the soul fertile and green-the one and only one power which cuts the chains and frees the soul from this snare. When one is connected with this Shabd Current by a Master, and he hears this Shabd in the manner explained to him, and brings his attention nearer and nearer to the Shabd Current, he is cutting the bonds, the soul is -coming free, and finally merges in the Shabd Ocean which it is a drop. There are two currents of the soul a-Surat, which knows and hears and, b-Nirat, which sees.
The Nirat goes ahead of the Surat in the spiritual jurney, just as a person on a journey first looks at the path ahead and then follows it. Pandit Ji has complicated this subject in his attempt to clarify it. You may ignore it. When you will go within, the whole thing will be clear to you. This spiritual uplift consists of three stepsi-By Repetition, bringing into concentration in the Third Eye the scattered attention and the vital current from the part of the body below the eyes; and ii-Holding the attention in the Third Eye by making contact with the Astral Form of the Master and, iii-Lifting the soul up by attaching it to the Bell Sound. This work is just the opposite of what we have been doing before. The soul was disconnected from the Shabd.
It had forgotten it altogether and had associated itself with the mind, and was running wild in the downward and outward direction. Now this course is to be reversed. We are to do the 'about turn'. Old habits are given up slowly, and new habits are not formed quickly either.
Consequently the spiritual uplift is a slow affair, and "slow and steady wins the race" applies here most appropriately. So, with firm faith and steady work, approach it with a calm and cool mind and avoid hurry.Please take good care of your health.
9) - It is good to repeat the five Names ( Mantra given by Sant Mat Masters at Initiation)together in preference to one at a time. Please understand the object of the Repetition. Everybody is engaged in doing repetition - contemplation of his work. A lecturer thinks of his lecture course; a farmer, of his fields and cattle; and a business man, of his business and so on; and on whatever one is contemplating, its picture is before the mind's eye. At the time of death the same scenes appear before us which we have been fixing in our mind during our lifetime. These very scenes or thoughts, as they are connected with this world, bring us back to this world after death and are the cause of our rebirth. Saints say people have been doing this sort of repetition, as stated above, from birth after birth and have remained confined to this world. If they take to repeating Names of the Lords of the stages on the spiritual journey which lies within them, then their attention will be withdrawn from this world; the power of the mind and the senses will decrease, the soul will become powerful, light will appear and there will be a new kind of sweetness which the mind has never tasted before. Finally the soul will discard this world in sensation, catch the Shabd, and will be lifted up.
Therefore, there is no simpler way for concentrating the scattered attention than the Repetition of the Names. Of course the Yogis tried Pranayam and other methods, but without success.
They do not take us very far on the spiritual journey and cannot be practised by family people. Repetition of Names is for concentration only. At the time of Repetition, the Shabd is not to be heard. One thing at a time. The course of Repetition 's a long one. The starry sky, the sun and the moon regions are to be crossed by Repetition only, and contact with the Astral Form of the Master is to be made by this very process. And this is the end of it. repetition would not take us any further. During this course give three-fourths of the time, but not less than two hours, to Repetition, and only one quarter to hearing the Shabd.During this Repetition course, Shabd is heard just to keep contact with It.
The Shabd at this stage does not pull up or lift the soul because the Shabd Current is feeble and the soul is firmly held by the senses and the objects thereof. The feeble current has not much pull in it. When the soul will have contacted the Astral Form of the Master, it has loosened the bonds and has come nearer to the Shabd, where the current is now powerful and has the power to lift up the soul. The spiritual journey will start from there. Shabd is the Road, Satguru is the Guide, and soul is the traveler. There is no danger of any kind. The soul will travel stage by stage and, from the description of the lights and the sounds of the spiritual stages, will know the progress made. Important hints have been given here. More when some progress has been made. So, in the preliminary stage, Repetition should receive full attention.
People are apt to ignore it and pay more attention to hearing the Shabd. In the preliminary stage, Repetition comes first and Shabd next. When repeating Names, no imagination is to be used in associating sounds and lights with each Name. If the mind goes after making lights and sounds, it has gone loose. Keep the mind engaged in repeating the Names in the eye center. No option is to be given to the mind.
10) - When we come out into this world from the mother's womb, we bring our fate with us. This fate, whether we are to be rich or poor, tall or short, healthy or diseased, black, yellow or white, high or low and so on, is the result or fruit of our past-life actions. We reap as we had sown. We get what we have earned. Therefore, we should work and play our full part with diligence and effort in the struggle of life and, without worrying, be contented with our lot and bear it cheerfully. And if there is any power that cuts the bad karma, it is the Shabd. When, therefore, one gets a taste of Shabd and enjoys Shabd, innumerable bad karmas are destroyed. The object of devotion to and love for the Master and Shabd is to cut the very root of karma, so that the soul disengages itself from the bonds of karma and becomes free to merge in Shabd.
11, 12, 13)-These questions will be solved automatically when you have gone within and made contact with the Astral Form of the Master and have thereby cast off the physical frame and acquired the astral form. Or, these questions may be asked again when contact with the Astral Form of the Master has been made.There is no fixed time as to how long it takes the average departing soul to leave the body completely.
14)-There are five elements : earth, water, fire, air, akash, of which the material world is made up and, according to elements, there are five classes of creation. In man all the five elements are active; in animals four are active and one is dormant; in birds three are active and two are dormant; in insects two are active and three are dormant; and in vegetables one is active and four are dormant. It is difficult to understand it intellectually, but it will be comprehended after going within. The rise from which animal to man, or fall from man to which animal depends on karma. Good karma lifts up and bad is the cause of fall.
15) -So long as the soul is entangled in forms physical, astral or causal -it has sex. But in higher spheres, when it is free from bonds of mind and maya, there is no distinction of sex. The sex changes according to karma. Sex is not a fixed thing-that male shall always be male, and female always female. The outlook on marriage, on male and female, on unions, love, likes and dislikes, and 'mine and thine', changes rapidly with the entry into the Third Eye, by contacting the Astral Form of the Master, and hearing the Bell Sound. What man had called his own, and had longed to be with, here and hereafter, now look like strangers. As many births, so many fathers and mothers did we have, and so many wives, and many more children. We had such relations when we were insects, birds and other animals, and it is no achievement to be proud of, if we have them when we are in human form. If the human form is the top of creation, it is for the single reason that man has the capacity to catch the Shabd and rise on it to reach his Origin. If this has not been done, man has missed the golden opportunity and has remained a two-legged animal, a slave of the senses and the objects of senses, like other forms of creation. He will be Man when he has risen above the senses; when he is no longer a slave of lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride; when he has made his mind motionless; when he has entered the Third Eye and heard the Bell. With every step taken on the spiritual journey, he is coming into his own by casting off the heavy load of matter-physical, astral or causal-which really is not a part of him but which the soul takes up as tools to function in the causal, astral and physical worlds. When contact with the Astral Form of the Master has been made, the outlook, which is now based on the experience gained in the world and the worldly relations, is that the Master and the Shabd are the two Real Friends and Companions who are here with us, and go with us after death. All others have their limitations. It does not mean that he has an aversion for others. He does his duty by them but knows their true worth. He is in the world but not worldly; outwardly attached but inwardly detached; like a duck in water and yet not wet.In the experience of Saints, one Shabd is the Creator of all that has been created. All creation, to Them, is Shabd. They see Shabd in action every where. All forms of creation in the highest and the lowest stages are different aspects of Shabd.
16)-Just as on the physical plane there are continents and countries with their different types of population, the same is the case on the astral plane. One such place is the Heaven inhabited by houris. Mohammedans call it 'Bahisht' and Hindus call it 'Swarg'-difference in name but place is the same. The place is subject to Karmic Law and transmigration. It is not a permanent abode and not worth living in, but a place to be shunned, a design of the Negative Power to prevent the soul from going up. The whole astral plane is subject to the five passions the same as the physical plane.
17)- Sant Mat does not advocate asceticism, nor is it helpful. A settled means of income with settled home life give comforts which are conducive to Bhajan. They are denied to ascetics. As said elsewhere in this letter, old habits go slowly and new habits are not formed quickly either. The training of the mind, like the training of a horse or like the training of a child in making them useful is a slow affair. It is a lifelong work. Slow and steady wins the race. When Shabd practice becomes tasteful, all other tastes become flat.
18)-There is antagonism between Nam and kam. Nam is another name for Shabd, and kam means sex lust. Nam or Shabd lifts the soul inward and upward, and kam pulls it downward from the eye center. The sexual relation of husband and wife has been very much misunderstood and abused. In this respect a biologist even treats man as an animal, and calls this relation a mere biological function and no better. He is yet ignorant of the higher potentialities of man.
Those who are familiar with this great aspect of man Have treated this sexual relation as something sacred, and laid down rules for preserving its sanctity. Man dissipates himself and his energies in sexual intercourse. He would be healthier if he were to conserve this energy and would be God-like if he were to use it in spiritual uplift. With the longing to go within and the hearing of the Sound Current becoming tasteful, the indulgence or play in sex decreases and ultimately becomes hateful, and is automatically given up, like other bad habits, such as anger, greed and so forth.
I want you to do Bhajan and make progress in it. This will please me most. This is the present which the Master will always accept. Jesus Christ initiated people by connecting them with the Holy Ghost - the Word - the Shabd. Therein lies His greatness. And naturally, only those who have some experience of this Shabd can appreciate what service He did for people. His Sermon on the Mount is good. It is a moral teaching which can be lived in practice on the strength of Shabd only. If Shabd is missing, no one can live up to this moral teaching.
I wish you could make the eye center your home, make contact with the Shabd and become a true Christian.The Simran or the Repetition of the Names will cleanse your abode in the eye, center, eliminating other thoughts. The stars, the sun, the moon and the Master will decorate it.
There are ten different sounds going on ceaselessly in the eye center. You have experienced some of them. Out of the ten, only two - the Bell and the Conch - are to be sought out; the other eight are to be rejected. The Bell and the Conch will take us to the regions above; others are local. But so long as the Bell has not been grasped, any other sound that is audible is good enough and one should stick to it. When the concentration will increase, this audible sound will give place to some other finer than this, and that in its turn to something finer and sweeter still. Ultimately, the real Bell will be audible. The success depends upon the concentration.
The nearer your attention to the eye center, the louder and clearer will the sounds become, and that which is hidden and indistinct from a distance will be clear when you are near it. Light will also increase with the increase in concentration. All the instruments used in an orchestra are audible when we are close to it, but only the drum when we are far off. The same is the case here.
When our attention is held in the body, we are far off from the eye center, the place of the inner music, and when the attention has vacated the body and is concentrated in the eye center, we are close to it. Every time we are in the eye center we can sort out and catch the Bell Sound, but when away from this center, we miss it and others as well. The sounds are there all the time, only we are out. Regarding perspiring profusely (during meditation), particularly around the head, when the room is not hot, you attempt to go within by forcing your attention inward. Any strain or pressure or force, physical or mental, should be avoided in attempting to concentrate. Sit in the eye center with an easy mind and repeat the Names. Concentration will follow as a matter of course. Cycling is easy but look at the man who is learning to ride a cycle. He is perspiring because he applies his force wrongly.
The Master within: As per a Rosicrucian
The Nature of the Master Within
A frater from England writes: "What is this Inner Self/Master Within I keep reading and hearing about? The Master Within seems to be a greater being in all respects than I am. This does not appeal to the reason, because why would a greater being be locked away inside by a lesser being?"
This frater's questions are very important, and show he has given the concept of the Master Within a great deal of contemplation. In order to answer his questions, let us first define Master Within. The Rosicrucian Manual states that the Master Within is the Inner Self, and the conscience is the Master's voice. The soul force brings into our being a Divine Intelligence, and the aggregate of this intelligence is our psychic body. In defining the Inner Self, the manual goes on to tell us that the Inner Self is the spiritual consciousness within the physical body. It has its own immaterial faculties and functions, and constitutes a separate form from the physical body in which it temporarily resides.
This consciousness constitutes our real being and is part of the Soul or the divine element of our existence. The spiritual consciousness is different in essence from the material body. The two are related, for they are both part of the same cosmic whole. However, matter and divine consciousness in humankind constitute two different realities working in harmonious parallel. The outer self with its material, physical consciousness is limited in the nature and quality of contact it can make. The inner self, the spiritual consciousness, is unlimited and in no way restricted by time or space, or by the nature and quality of material things.
The frater's second question concerns why a greater being is locked away inside by a lesser being. It must be stressed that the Master Within is not a "being" separate from us. In reality, it is one half of the expression of human form. It cannot be greater than we are, as it is what we are.
We are dual in nature. We are the physical body which is associated with conscious mind ... the outer self, which is limited. The second aspect of this duality is the psychic body, which is associated with Divine Mind, the Master Within. The psychic body is the Inner Self, and is unlimited. In the Seventh Degree we are told that . . . "the Master Within is there like a personal representative of God, as a part entity of the Cosmic Mind resident within man to direct him and man is then free to choose between what the Director says and what he himself wishes to do. We find, however, that as man has been falsely educated in material ways, he has been closing up the channels that bring him the direction from the Master Within and that he has been listening to the voices from without. So, when he comes to choose he bases his choice in nearly all things upon what he has learned from without."
In the Eighth Degree we learn that a baby is born with the ability to use the psychic and physical faculties equally well. Early on it stops using this ability and "loses" it. As a child is taught to overuse the material faculties and ignore the psychic ones, an unbalanced development results. After that, we move steadily away from conscious communication with the Master Within. Fortunately, the Master Within continues to run our body, and communicate with us, occasionally, by what we term our "conscience." Since it is unlimited and not restricted by time and space, we can assume the Master Within continues "communicating" with that which is higher than itself.
It only seems that we keep the Master Within "locked away inside ourselves like a prisoner," as the frater puts it. Quite the contrary, the Master Within is free and unlimited. If anything is locked away it is our conscious selves, as we have separated ourselves from our Source. The first monograph of the Seventh Degree tells us that, "Material limitations can only confine matter; they cannot limit the cosmic manifestations and cannot hold the divine and infinite within their narrow boundaries."
When we separated ourselves from our Source we moved from pure, spiritual being to mundane being. Though it seems a contradiction, the purpose of the soul personality incarnating in a physical body is to return to the source from which it separated itself. To understand this, perhaps it would help to think of the human being as a continuum, going from pure, spiritual being (the immaterial) to mundane being (the material body), and then on again to pure, spiritual being. The material world is a phase through which the soul personality must move in its evolution. As we move away from pure being, we add layer upon layer of material manifestation, becoming more and more dense until a physical body is made manifest. The conscious mind is associated with that most dense, outer layer-the physical body.
In order for conscious mind to be aware of Universal Mind, it must first become aware of the Master Within, which is the closest thing to pure being we can realize on our way to awareness of the Soul Essence. We do this by plowing through layer after layer of our own creation. By its very nature, density obscures. It is not easy for the conscious mind to see through these layers of density, so along the way we develop a false belief that it may be impossible to do.
We mentioned earlier that as children we were well aware of the Master Within. But, when we spoke of it, our parents called it imagination, and told us what we were experiencing did not really exist. We began adding layers of obscurity until, after awhile, we believed what we were told, and, indeed, the Master Within no longer existed in our reality. Now, as adults, we have to persevere through the shadows created by layer after layer of reality, to find that link with Soul ... that Master Within that we used to know so well. But, eventually, we do just that: we remove the veils of material manifestation, until we again experience the psychic self.
The Master Within assists us in removing the veils. It constantly presents us with opportunities to develop those positive aspects of itself that will draw us closer and closer to our perfection. As we move through physical self, to psychic self, to Soul, we get progressively closer to our Source. The physical and psychic bodies may not be perfect, but the Soul is the perfect essence in humankind. Therefore, in its evolution, the soul personality seeks to conform absolutely to the nature of the Soul. Each time the soul personality incarnates it conforms more with the Soul. More layers are removed, until that time a perfect balance is achieved within the psychic body and between the psychic and physical bodies, and we no longer need to incarnate in a material body. This is the goal of the soul personality. Once we are fully aware of our divinity, we will truly know the nature of the Master Within.
A frater from England writes: "What is this Inner Self/Master Within I keep reading and hearing about? The Master Within seems to be a greater being in all respects than I am. This does not appeal to the reason, because why would a greater being be locked away inside by a lesser being?"
This frater's questions are very important, and show he has given the concept of the Master Within a great deal of contemplation. In order to answer his questions, let us first define Master Within. The Rosicrucian Manual states that the Master Within is the Inner Self, and the conscience is the Master's voice. The soul force brings into our being a Divine Intelligence, and the aggregate of this intelligence is our psychic body. In defining the Inner Self, the manual goes on to tell us that the Inner Self is the spiritual consciousness within the physical body. It has its own immaterial faculties and functions, and constitutes a separate form from the physical body in which it temporarily resides.
This consciousness constitutes our real being and is part of the Soul or the divine element of our existence. The spiritual consciousness is different in essence from the material body. The two are related, for they are both part of the same cosmic whole. However, matter and divine consciousness in humankind constitute two different realities working in harmonious parallel. The outer self with its material, physical consciousness is limited in the nature and quality of contact it can make. The inner self, the spiritual consciousness, is unlimited and in no way restricted by time or space, or by the nature and quality of material things.
The frater's second question concerns why a greater being is locked away inside by a lesser being. It must be stressed that the Master Within is not a "being" separate from us. In reality, it is one half of the expression of human form. It cannot be greater than we are, as it is what we are.
We are dual in nature. We are the physical body which is associated with conscious mind ... the outer self, which is limited. The second aspect of this duality is the psychic body, which is associated with Divine Mind, the Master Within. The psychic body is the Inner Self, and is unlimited. In the Seventh Degree we are told that . . . "the Master Within is there like a personal representative of God, as a part entity of the Cosmic Mind resident within man to direct him and man is then free to choose between what the Director says and what he himself wishes to do. We find, however, that as man has been falsely educated in material ways, he has been closing up the channels that bring him the direction from the Master Within and that he has been listening to the voices from without. So, when he comes to choose he bases his choice in nearly all things upon what he has learned from without."
In the Eighth Degree we learn that a baby is born with the ability to use the psychic and physical faculties equally well. Early on it stops using this ability and "loses" it. As a child is taught to overuse the material faculties and ignore the psychic ones, an unbalanced development results. After that, we move steadily away from conscious communication with the Master Within. Fortunately, the Master Within continues to run our body, and communicate with us, occasionally, by what we term our "conscience." Since it is unlimited and not restricted by time and space, we can assume the Master Within continues "communicating" with that which is higher than itself.
It only seems that we keep the Master Within "locked away inside ourselves like a prisoner," as the frater puts it. Quite the contrary, the Master Within is free and unlimited. If anything is locked away it is our conscious selves, as we have separated ourselves from our Source. The first monograph of the Seventh Degree tells us that, "Material limitations can only confine matter; they cannot limit the cosmic manifestations and cannot hold the divine and infinite within their narrow boundaries."
When we separated ourselves from our Source we moved from pure, spiritual being to mundane being. Though it seems a contradiction, the purpose of the soul personality incarnating in a physical body is to return to the source from which it separated itself. To understand this, perhaps it would help to think of the human being as a continuum, going from pure, spiritual being (the immaterial) to mundane being (the material body), and then on again to pure, spiritual being. The material world is a phase through which the soul personality must move in its evolution. As we move away from pure being, we add layer upon layer of material manifestation, becoming more and more dense until a physical body is made manifest. The conscious mind is associated with that most dense, outer layer-the physical body.
In order for conscious mind to be aware of Universal Mind, it must first become aware of the Master Within, which is the closest thing to pure being we can realize on our way to awareness of the Soul Essence. We do this by plowing through layer after layer of our own creation. By its very nature, density obscures. It is not easy for the conscious mind to see through these layers of density, so along the way we develop a false belief that it may be impossible to do.
We mentioned earlier that as children we were well aware of the Master Within. But, when we spoke of it, our parents called it imagination, and told us what we were experiencing did not really exist. We began adding layers of obscurity until, after awhile, we believed what we were told, and, indeed, the Master Within no longer existed in our reality. Now, as adults, we have to persevere through the shadows created by layer after layer of reality, to find that link with Soul ... that Master Within that we used to know so well. But, eventually, we do just that: we remove the veils of material manifestation, until we again experience the psychic self.
The Master Within assists us in removing the veils. It constantly presents us with opportunities to develop those positive aspects of itself that will draw us closer and closer to our perfection. As we move through physical self, to psychic self, to Soul, we get progressively closer to our Source. The physical and psychic bodies may not be perfect, but the Soul is the perfect essence in humankind. Therefore, in its evolution, the soul personality seeks to conform absolutely to the nature of the Soul. Each time the soul personality incarnates it conforms more with the Soul. More layers are removed, until that time a perfect balance is achieved within the psychic body and between the psychic and physical bodies, and we no longer need to incarnate in a material body. This is the goal of the soul personality. Once we are fully aware of our divinity, we will truly know the nature of the Master Within.
The Opposition Time of Jesus
“The Opposition Time of Jesus’ Ministry”
He is rejected at Nazareth again! ( Mat. 13:54-58; Mark 6:1-6) He sends the twelve disciples out to minister and baptize (Mat. 9:35-11) and starts His third tour of Galilee, ( Mark 6:6), John the Baptist is beheaded by the executioners of Herod while in prison, (Mat. 14:1-2). The twelve disciples return from ministry boasting about their being able to cast out demons, but Jesus tells them not to rejoice about those small things, but to rejoice because their names were recorded in the Book of Life in Heaven!
The miracle of the 5,000 being fed by a few loaves of bread and a couple of fishes near Bethsaida is recorded in Matthew 14: 22-23. Many other miracles are performed (Mark 6: 53-56) and Jesus gives His discourses explaining that He was the “true Eternal Bread of Life” which came down from Heaven, and whoever ate that Bread would never hunger~ (John 6:25-59). After hearing this, some of the disciples defected and left Him, (John 6:60-71). Since disciples are only learners, the defecting disciples obviously had not learned the true meaning of Jesus being God the Son, and had not been drawn to Jesus by the Father! (John 6:44). Jesus rebukes the Pharisees further, (Mark 7:1-13) and the tour of Phoenicia in Matthew 15: 1-9, Jesus heals the daughter of the Syrophenician woman (Mat. 15: 22-28), and then journeys to Decapolis, (Mark 7:31). While there, a deaf and dumb man is healed, (Mark 7:32-37), and more miracles are performed, (Mat. 15:29-31), the 4,000 are miraculously fed again, (Mat. 15:29-31), and the sign seekers are rebukes, (Mat. 16-1-4). Jesus then heals a blind man at Bethsaida, (Mark 8:22-26).
Peter confesses Christ as Savior and Lord (Mat. 16:13-19), proving his having been born of the Spirit, because Jesus told him that “flesh and blood” had not revealed that great truth to him!
The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ is recorded in: (Mat. 17:1-9; Mark 9: 2-10; Luke 9:28-36). Peter and John went up on the mountain with Jesus, and for one instant of Glory, Moses and Elijah appeared, while Jesus fleshly body was transfigured into the glorified state as He was after the resurrection. This was the perfect example of the future “rapture” of the church. Jesus in His Glorified state coming for His church which consisted of Elijah as the example of being translated without physical death as he was, and as the church is promised; and Moses, as the example of having died physically, but being resurrected from the grave to meet Jesus with the Church who had not died physically. Paul explains to the Corinthians that at the rapture of the church, the corrupt will put on incorruption, ( Moses, who died and had corrupted), and the mortal would put on immortality~ ( Elijah as an example of the church that is promised to be raptured without seeing physical death), ( I Corinthians 15:53).
Jesus heals an epileptic (Mat. 17:14-21) and then tries to warn of His death and resurrection which will take place (Mat. 17: 22-23). He pays His tribute money to the tax collector (Mat. 17:24-27) and gives the disciples a lesson in humility, loyalty, and patience, “ Mark 9:33-50). He gives a parable about the unmerciful servant ( Mat. 18:23-35) and sends seventy disciples out to minister, (Luke 10:1-16). He is again rejected by the Samaritans, (Luke 9:51-56) and then heals ten lepers with only one returning to give thanks for the healing. (Luke 17:11-19). Jesus deals with a woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8: 1-11). He tells the Pharisees who want to stone her, to go ahead and stone her, but let the one without sin be the first to cast the first stone! He then talked about fatherhood, (John 8:15-58) and gave a parable on the “Good Samaritan,” (Luke 10:25-37), and of the “Friend at Midnight”, (Luke 10:17-24). The seventy returned from their missionary tour (Luke 10:17-24), and Jesus heals another blind man! (John 9:1-41). He gives the parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-17), and proceed to the Feast of Dedication. (John 10:22-40)
Blessings!
Marked Elect
He is rejected at Nazareth again! ( Mat. 13:54-58; Mark 6:1-6) He sends the twelve disciples out to minister and baptize (Mat. 9:35-11) and starts His third tour of Galilee, ( Mark 6:6), John the Baptist is beheaded by the executioners of Herod while in prison, (Mat. 14:1-2). The twelve disciples return from ministry boasting about their being able to cast out demons, but Jesus tells them not to rejoice about those small things, but to rejoice because their names were recorded in the Book of Life in Heaven!
The miracle of the 5,000 being fed by a few loaves of bread and a couple of fishes near Bethsaida is recorded in Matthew 14: 22-23. Many other miracles are performed (Mark 6: 53-56) and Jesus gives His discourses explaining that He was the “true Eternal Bread of Life” which came down from Heaven, and whoever ate that Bread would never hunger~ (John 6:25-59). After hearing this, some of the disciples defected and left Him, (John 6:60-71). Since disciples are only learners, the defecting disciples obviously had not learned the true meaning of Jesus being God the Son, and had not been drawn to Jesus by the Father! (John 6:44). Jesus rebukes the Pharisees further, (Mark 7:1-13) and the tour of Phoenicia in Matthew 15: 1-9, Jesus heals the daughter of the Syrophenician woman (Mat. 15: 22-28), and then journeys to Decapolis, (Mark 7:31). While there, a deaf and dumb man is healed, (Mark 7:32-37), and more miracles are performed, (Mat. 15:29-31), the 4,000 are miraculously fed again, (Mat. 15:29-31), and the sign seekers are rebukes, (Mat. 16-1-4). Jesus then heals a blind man at Bethsaida, (Mark 8:22-26).
Peter confesses Christ as Savior and Lord (Mat. 16:13-19), proving his having been born of the Spirit, because Jesus told him that “flesh and blood” had not revealed that great truth to him!
The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ is recorded in: (Mat. 17:1-9; Mark 9: 2-10; Luke 9:28-36). Peter and John went up on the mountain with Jesus, and for one instant of Glory, Moses and Elijah appeared, while Jesus fleshly body was transfigured into the glorified state as He was after the resurrection. This was the perfect example of the future “rapture” of the church. Jesus in His Glorified state coming for His church which consisted of Elijah as the example of being translated without physical death as he was, and as the church is promised; and Moses, as the example of having died physically, but being resurrected from the grave to meet Jesus with the Church who had not died physically. Paul explains to the Corinthians that at the rapture of the church, the corrupt will put on incorruption, ( Moses, who died and had corrupted), and the mortal would put on immortality~ ( Elijah as an example of the church that is promised to be raptured without seeing physical death), ( I Corinthians 15:53).
Jesus heals an epileptic (Mat. 17:14-21) and then tries to warn of His death and resurrection which will take place (Mat. 17: 22-23). He pays His tribute money to the tax collector (Mat. 17:24-27) and gives the disciples a lesson in humility, loyalty, and patience, “ Mark 9:33-50). He gives a parable about the unmerciful servant ( Mat. 18:23-35) and sends seventy disciples out to minister, (Luke 10:1-16). He is again rejected by the Samaritans, (Luke 9:51-56) and then heals ten lepers with only one returning to give thanks for the healing. (Luke 17:11-19). Jesus deals with a woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8: 1-11). He tells the Pharisees who want to stone her, to go ahead and stone her, but let the one without sin be the first to cast the first stone! He then talked about fatherhood, (John 8:15-58) and gave a parable on the “Good Samaritan,” (Luke 10:25-37), and of the “Friend at Midnight”, (Luke 10:17-24). The seventy returned from their missionary tour (Luke 10:17-24), and Jesus heals another blind man! (John 9:1-41). He gives the parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-17), and proceed to the Feast of Dedication. (John 10:22-40)
Blessings!
Marked Elect
The Popularity of Jesus
“The Popularity of Jesus’ Ministry”
His teachings at His hometown in Nazareth are recorded in Luke 4:16-27, stating His rejection. Because of their unbelief, He was able to do no miracles except heal a few sick persons He touched. He stated a great example, even up to our day that a prophet is not without honor anywhere except in his own town and among his own family and friends!
Jesus then went again to Capernaum. He healed a demoniac, but He did it on the Sabbath day (Mark 1:21-28) which caused commotion among the Jews. He also healed Peter’s mother-in-law and others, (Mat.8:14-17; Mark 1:35-39; Lm. 4$42-44). He healed a leper (Mat. 8:2-4) and then also healed a paralytic! (Luke 5:18-26) Matthew, the tax collector is then called by Jesus, and a reception is held in Capernaum, (Mat.9:9; Luke5:27-28). Jesus then celebrated the second Passover during His ministry. (John 5:1)
He healed the lame man at the pool (John 5:1) starting the events in the beginning of 28A.D. He proclaims His divinity in John %;17-47. He then preaches on the Sabbath (Mat. 12:1-8) and heals a man with a withered hand, (Mat. 12: 9-13). The Pharisees openly oppose Him for healing on the Sabbath. (Luke 6:11)
Jesus heals many near Galilee, (Mat.12:15; Mark 3:7-12) and then ordains the twelve Apostles, including Judas who He knew would betray Him, (Mat. 10:1-4). He preaches the greatest sermon ever preached, called “The Sermon On The Mount.” (Luke 6:20-49). He than heals the centurion! (Luke 7:2-10.) He then raises a widow’s son to life who had just died! (Luke 7:12-16)
John the Baptist sends some of his disciples to see Jesus so that they could believe on Him, (Mat. 11:2-6) and they were to bring back a report to john who was still in prison as to whether the man doing the miracles was Jesus, the Messiah, or an imposter. Jesus expelled John’s doubts, (John 7:11-17).
Jesus then rebuked the cities, with his famous “Woe be unto you” addressing the privileged present. (Mat. 11:2-19)
A sinful woman then anoints Jesus at Simon’s house (Luke 7:36-50) just before He took another tour of Galilee. In this tour, He heals a dumb demoniac (Mat. 12:22) and is accused of blasphemy by the Jews, (Mark 3:19-30). The Jews ask for a sign to prove He is from God! (Mat. 12:38-45). His mother and brothers tried to get his attention while He was preaching, (Luke 8:19-21), but He said His real mother and brothers were they who believed in Him!
The famous discourse on “The Unpardonable Sin” is recorded in Mat. 12:25-37 stating that any sin can be forgiven except blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. The Pharisees had already done this by stating that the healing power of Jesus used came from the devil! As long as they rejected Jesus by their unbelief, they blasphemed the Holy Ghost, and would never be forgiven either in this life or later!
The famous parables of the Sower, Seed, Tares, Mustard Seed, Leaven, Treasure, Pearl, Net, Householder, were all told by Jesus by the Sea of Galilee still in 28 A.D.and are recorded in: (Mat. 13:1-52; Mark 4:1-34; Luke 8:4-180. He talked about planting the Word of God (seed) in various types of soil (Elect or Reprobates) in the garden (all hearing the preaching) and how the Words produced salvation results in the good ground (the Elect), while either withering or being stolen by Satan from the other ground (the Reprobates. However, the false disciples called tares were not separated from the genuine called wheat until the very last day which is called judgment time. The “mustard seed” faith spoken of is actually recorded as a “grain” of mustard seed, stating believers could move mountains if their faith was the genuine given by God, and not the counterfeit “works faith.”( It has said by many commentators that a mustard seed has at least a dozen grains in it!)
Jesus then heals the Gadarene demoniac, (Mat. *:28-34) and the Levi feast is recorded in Luke 5:29-34). To complete the time of His popularity, Jesus heals the afflicted woman with a blood disease who just touched His garment and by faith was made whole! (Mat. 9:20-22); Mark 5: 25-34; Luke 8: 43-480. He then raises the daughter of Jairus from the dead, (Mat. 9: 27-340.)
Blessings!
Marked Elect
His teachings at His hometown in Nazareth are recorded in Luke 4:16-27, stating His rejection. Because of their unbelief, He was able to do no miracles except heal a few sick persons He touched. He stated a great example, even up to our day that a prophet is not without honor anywhere except in his own town and among his own family and friends!
Jesus then went again to Capernaum. He healed a demoniac, but He did it on the Sabbath day (Mark 1:21-28) which caused commotion among the Jews. He also healed Peter’s mother-in-law and others, (Mat.8:14-17; Mark 1:35-39; Lm. 4$42-44). He healed a leper (Mat. 8:2-4) and then also healed a paralytic! (Luke 5:18-26) Matthew, the tax collector is then called by Jesus, and a reception is held in Capernaum, (Mat.9:9; Luke5:27-28). Jesus then celebrated the second Passover during His ministry. (John 5:1)
He healed the lame man at the pool (John 5:1) starting the events in the beginning of 28A.D. He proclaims His divinity in John %;17-47. He then preaches on the Sabbath (Mat. 12:1-8) and heals a man with a withered hand, (Mat. 12: 9-13). The Pharisees openly oppose Him for healing on the Sabbath. (Luke 6:11)
Jesus heals many near Galilee, (Mat.12:15; Mark 3:7-12) and then ordains the twelve Apostles, including Judas who He knew would betray Him, (Mat. 10:1-4). He preaches the greatest sermon ever preached, called “The Sermon On The Mount.” (Luke 6:20-49). He than heals the centurion! (Luke 7:2-10.) He then raises a widow’s son to life who had just died! (Luke 7:12-16)
John the Baptist sends some of his disciples to see Jesus so that they could believe on Him, (Mat. 11:2-6) and they were to bring back a report to john who was still in prison as to whether the man doing the miracles was Jesus, the Messiah, or an imposter. Jesus expelled John’s doubts, (John 7:11-17).
Jesus then rebuked the cities, with his famous “Woe be unto you” addressing the privileged present. (Mat. 11:2-19)
A sinful woman then anoints Jesus at Simon’s house (Luke 7:36-50) just before He took another tour of Galilee. In this tour, He heals a dumb demoniac (Mat. 12:22) and is accused of blasphemy by the Jews, (Mark 3:19-30). The Jews ask for a sign to prove He is from God! (Mat. 12:38-45). His mother and brothers tried to get his attention while He was preaching, (Luke 8:19-21), but He said His real mother and brothers were they who believed in Him!
The famous discourse on “The Unpardonable Sin” is recorded in Mat. 12:25-37 stating that any sin can be forgiven except blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. The Pharisees had already done this by stating that the healing power of Jesus used came from the devil! As long as they rejected Jesus by their unbelief, they blasphemed the Holy Ghost, and would never be forgiven either in this life or later!
The famous parables of the Sower, Seed, Tares, Mustard Seed, Leaven, Treasure, Pearl, Net, Householder, were all told by Jesus by the Sea of Galilee still in 28 A.D.and are recorded in: (Mat. 13:1-52; Mark 4:1-34; Luke 8:4-180. He talked about planting the Word of God (seed) in various types of soil (Elect or Reprobates) in the garden (all hearing the preaching) and how the Words produced salvation results in the good ground (the Elect), while either withering or being stolen by Satan from the other ground (the Reprobates. However, the false disciples called tares were not separated from the genuine called wheat until the very last day which is called judgment time. The “mustard seed” faith spoken of is actually recorded as a “grain” of mustard seed, stating believers could move mountains if their faith was the genuine given by God, and not the counterfeit “works faith.”( It has said by many commentators that a mustard seed has at least a dozen grains in it!)
Jesus then heals the Gadarene demoniac, (Mat. *:28-34) and the Levi feast is recorded in Luke 5:29-34). To complete the time of His popularity, Jesus heals the afflicted woman with a blood disease who just touched His garment and by faith was made whole! (Mat. 9:20-22); Mark 5: 25-34; Luke 8: 43-480. He then raises the daughter of Jairus from the dead, (Mat. 9: 27-340.)
Blessings!
Marked Elect
The Spirit of Man, according to the Bible
THE SPIRIT OF MAN
The Greek word for the human “spirit” used in the Bible is “pneuma.” Spirit, or the Greek word “pneuma” primarily denotes the wind, to breath, blow, also breath; then especially, the spirit, which like the wind, is invisible and immaterial. Pneuma, or spirit, is the center of man’s being, the portion or area where God deals with humans.
Before humans are regenerated, or “born again”, this space does not contain the Awakened Spirit of God, but and is either dormant, or, at other times, can even be a visitation place for demon spirits.
However, the moment a person receives Christ as Savior, by faith, and is genuinely born again, God sends His Holy Spirit to take up residence in this area (1st Cor. 12:13), and from that time on, starts to communicate to the spirit of man by shaping, molding, and forming him into a new creation!
Man’s spirit has a wall around it, dividing it from the soul. The only door into the spirit area, or opening, is guarded by the human “will.” The moment this will succumbs to the Will of God, the Holy Spirit enters this area where the new education of the sense faculties begin.
As God has His way, this is the area where Faith, Hope, Prayer, Reverence, and Worship takes place. Therefore, we might refer to the human spirit, after regenerated by the Holy Spirit, as the location in man where all of his spiritual insight takes place!
The “Soul” of man is the part of man which is referred to by the Apostle Paul as “Natural.”, (1st Cor.2:14). The Greek word used for soul is “psuche.”According to Vine’s Dictionary, “Psuche”, the Greek word for “Soul”, “ denotes the breath, the breath of life, then the soul in various meanings such as natural life of the body, the seat of personality, the inward man, the seat of the new life, the life constituted in an individual.”
“Natural men” mean the men that live animal lives, such as to satisfy the body’s need of food and sleep, gratify his passions, etc. The soul area of man has an outer dividing wall around it dividing it from the physical body, and the inner wall of the spirit. This outer wall has five openings in it which take in information fed to it by the physical body.
The soul is the area where information of each individual intellect is stored to form a unique personality, different from any other. These five openings are in the outer wall to the soul, which are identified as: imagination, conscience, memory, reason, and affections.
As the Holy Spirit works in the spirit area of man, there will be times of filling where the Holy Spirit will overflow from the filled spirit compartment into the compartment of the soul, transforming this area, also. Paul recognized this work of the Holy Spirit in genuine believers when he exhorted them in Romans 12:2 saying, “and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind (soul compartment), that ye may prove what is good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
The Holy Spirit penetrates the “memory” openings of the wall housing the soul area, in order to go through the “will” opening of the spirit wall, into the spirit area.
The body is the physical container of man referred to by Paul as the “Carnal” (1st Cor. 3:1-3) part of man, which houses the soul and the spirit until physical death. The Greek word for body is “Soma”, and this physical house has five openings or gates, which take in information to the soul and spirit compartments, and are in contact with the physical realm.
These five openings are: The eye gate takes in all the physical sights into the imagination opening of the soul. The nose gate takes in all the physical odors and smells, and corresponds to the “conscience” opening to the soul, by which the soul detects the presence of good and evil. The ear gate takes in sounds, or hears, corresponding to the memory opening to the soul which recalls what it heard. The mouth gate tastes physical foods, or body fuel, corresponding to the opening of “reason” to the soul permitting the soul to compare facts as the taste compares foods. The feel gate, or touch sense, is the hand by which the affection opening to the soul feels the person of the one it loves, and is warned of danger such as heat, cold, or pain, etc.
The Holy Spirit penetrates the body through the “ear gate”, in order to get through the “memory” gate to the soul, and the “will” gate to the spirit, because the Bible informs us in Romans 10:9 that “faith comes by HEARING, and hearing, by the Word of God.”
Faith is a gift from God (1st Cor. 12:9) as well as a spiritual fruit of a regenerated spirit (Galatians 5:22), and is an absolute necessity in order to receive salvation, because we are told in Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved by Grace, through Faith, which is a Gift from God.
Going back, for a moment, to the way this gift of God (faith) comes that brings salvation, is when faith comes through the “ear gate” by hearing the WORD of God, the Greek word for “Word” here, is “Rhema”, which actually means the spoken word, directly from God, or the direct communication from God. Another Greek word used for “word” in the New Testament, is “Logos”, meaning the written word of God, or the Son of God, Jesus Christ (John 1:1), who was always with the Father. Faith does not come by “logos”, but by “Rhema.”
Before the diversion from man’s spirit becomes too confusing, the reason I am expounding saving faith is that so many times, it is hard to understand why a person will spend a life time reading the Bible and other Holy Writings, and takes this information in through the “eye gate” and never comes to a saving knowledge of Christ!
Now, does this mean that the only way a person can get saved is by hearing the Bible preached, receiving it through the “ear gate?” The answer to that question is NO! A person can read the Bible, taking this knowledge through the “eye gate”, and when it pleases God to reveal the saving knowledge of this information to the spirit, He will do so by transforming the “Logos” fed to the “eye gate” into “Rhema”, revealing it directly to the spirit, at which time, it becomes “Revelation Knowledge,” or quite simply, “Saving Faith” which is His Gift to His Elect, or “Marked.” This truth was revealed to Paul by Christ, because he passed it on to us in 1st Thess. 2:13; “For this cause also thank our God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you HEARD of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word (Rhema) of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
To complete this spiritual nature of man, when he is totally filled with the holy Spirit, the Spirit will fill both the spirit and soul compartments, overflowing into the body compartment. The physical manifestations of this occurrence in a believer filled with the spirit, can be utterances in foreign languages, healings, miracles, as listed in 1st Cor. 12. To be filled with the spirit is the greatest enemy to Satan, because sin will be replaced by the Spirit!
In order to complete the subject of the spirit of man, we must examine what happens to the spirit at the physical death of the body when the human spirit looses its home in the physical realm.
In Luke’s gospel, the story of the “rich man and Lazarus” is told, revealing a glimpse of the “underworld.” It describes two compartments; Hell and Paradise, separated by an impassable gulf. At the bottom of this gulf is “the bottomless pit” or “abyss.” Evil spirits, or demons are confined temporarily in this pit, which has a king called “Apollon”, and is kept locked by God who commissions an angel to open it any time he wants to (Revelations 9:1-11; 17:8; 20:1-3).
Before Christ was resurrected, the spirit and soul of the Elect who died physically went to the “Paradise” compartment of this underworld. This was the place where Christ met the penitent thief after His death on the Cross. When Christ (Note that in Luke 23:43, )Jesus said to the penitent thief “Verily I say to you, Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Now if Paradise at that time was in Heaven, where did He go at death, and where did He spend the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection?
After He was resurrected first appeared to Mary Magdalene, and she recognized Him calling Him “master” (John 20:16), Jesus said to her, “touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17).
So, obviously, Jesus met the penitent thief the day of their physical deaths in Paradise which was in the depths of the earth at that time! When Christ was resurrected, His soul and spirit returned from the underworld, of which He brought back all the occupants of Paradise and locked it up. He now has the “Keys of Death and Hades”, (Revelation 1:18).
Death refers to the grave, and Hades to the underworld. Some of those who came back from Paradise with Christ received their bodies rising and ascending with Him as the “First Fruits” of the resurrection from among the dead. (Matt.27:52,53.) The rest were moved to the “Third Heaven”, where Paul was caught up, )2nd Cor. 12:1-4). Paul referred to it as Paradise.
Therefore, since the resurrection of Christ, Paradise moved from the underworld to the third Heaven, and now contains the spirits and souls of all the righteous dead, from Adam to the present. They, and all the future believers who die “in Christ”, and go there, will remain until the time when Christ comes back to meet His church in the air (1st Thess. 4:14), bringing them from Paradise to re-unite with their bodies from the grave, and they (these with their new glorified bodies like the body of Jesus), shall ever be with Him. (This subject needs to be discussed more in detain in another thesis under “Eschatology.”)
As for the wicked dead in the Hell compartment of the underworld, as far as we know, they are still there and will remain there until the second resurrection, when they will return to the earth and get their bodies, and proceed to the “Great White Throne” judgment. After judgment, they will be sentenced to the “Second Death” meaning that they will die again, loosing their bodies, and as “disembodied spirits”, they will be cast into the “lake of fire”, (Gr. Gehenna, the “Final Hell”). The last verse of Isaiah describes a place in the earth where they will be as an example for others to look at! “And they shall go forth and look upon the carcass of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. This will be the final eternal prison of all the reprobate, and evil spirits of all ages after the earth is “renovated by fire” and cleansed of all evil and rebellious spirits.
Blessings!
Marked Elect
The Greek word for the human “spirit” used in the Bible is “pneuma.” Spirit, or the Greek word “pneuma” primarily denotes the wind, to breath, blow, also breath; then especially, the spirit, which like the wind, is invisible and immaterial. Pneuma, or spirit, is the center of man’s being, the portion or area where God deals with humans.
Before humans are regenerated, or “born again”, this space does not contain the Awakened Spirit of God, but and is either dormant, or, at other times, can even be a visitation place for demon spirits.
However, the moment a person receives Christ as Savior, by faith, and is genuinely born again, God sends His Holy Spirit to take up residence in this area (1st Cor. 12:13), and from that time on, starts to communicate to the spirit of man by shaping, molding, and forming him into a new creation!
Man’s spirit has a wall around it, dividing it from the soul. The only door into the spirit area, or opening, is guarded by the human “will.” The moment this will succumbs to the Will of God, the Holy Spirit enters this area where the new education of the sense faculties begin.
As God has His way, this is the area where Faith, Hope, Prayer, Reverence, and Worship takes place. Therefore, we might refer to the human spirit, after regenerated by the Holy Spirit, as the location in man where all of his spiritual insight takes place!
The “Soul” of man is the part of man which is referred to by the Apostle Paul as “Natural.”, (1st Cor.2:14). The Greek word used for soul is “psuche.”According to Vine’s Dictionary, “Psuche”, the Greek word for “Soul”, “ denotes the breath, the breath of life, then the soul in various meanings such as natural life of the body, the seat of personality, the inward man, the seat of the new life, the life constituted in an individual.”
“Natural men” mean the men that live animal lives, such as to satisfy the body’s need of food and sleep, gratify his passions, etc. The soul area of man has an outer dividing wall around it dividing it from the physical body, and the inner wall of the spirit. This outer wall has five openings in it which take in information fed to it by the physical body.
The soul is the area where information of each individual intellect is stored to form a unique personality, different from any other. These five openings are in the outer wall to the soul, which are identified as: imagination, conscience, memory, reason, and affections.
As the Holy Spirit works in the spirit area of man, there will be times of filling where the Holy Spirit will overflow from the filled spirit compartment into the compartment of the soul, transforming this area, also. Paul recognized this work of the Holy Spirit in genuine believers when he exhorted them in Romans 12:2 saying, “and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind (soul compartment), that ye may prove what is good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
The Holy Spirit penetrates the “memory” openings of the wall housing the soul area, in order to go through the “will” opening of the spirit wall, into the spirit area.
The body is the physical container of man referred to by Paul as the “Carnal” (1st Cor. 3:1-3) part of man, which houses the soul and the spirit until physical death. The Greek word for body is “Soma”, and this physical house has five openings or gates, which take in information to the soul and spirit compartments, and are in contact with the physical realm.
These five openings are: The eye gate takes in all the physical sights into the imagination opening of the soul. The nose gate takes in all the physical odors and smells, and corresponds to the “conscience” opening to the soul, by which the soul detects the presence of good and evil. The ear gate takes in sounds, or hears, corresponding to the memory opening to the soul which recalls what it heard. The mouth gate tastes physical foods, or body fuel, corresponding to the opening of “reason” to the soul permitting the soul to compare facts as the taste compares foods. The feel gate, or touch sense, is the hand by which the affection opening to the soul feels the person of the one it loves, and is warned of danger such as heat, cold, or pain, etc.
The Holy Spirit penetrates the body through the “ear gate”, in order to get through the “memory” gate to the soul, and the “will” gate to the spirit, because the Bible informs us in Romans 10:9 that “faith comes by HEARING, and hearing, by the Word of God.”
Faith is a gift from God (1st Cor. 12:9) as well as a spiritual fruit of a regenerated spirit (Galatians 5:22), and is an absolute necessity in order to receive salvation, because we are told in Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved by Grace, through Faith, which is a Gift from God.
Going back, for a moment, to the way this gift of God (faith) comes that brings salvation, is when faith comes through the “ear gate” by hearing the WORD of God, the Greek word for “Word” here, is “Rhema”, which actually means the spoken word, directly from God, or the direct communication from God. Another Greek word used for “word” in the New Testament, is “Logos”, meaning the written word of God, or the Son of God, Jesus Christ (John 1:1), who was always with the Father. Faith does not come by “logos”, but by “Rhema.”
Before the diversion from man’s spirit becomes too confusing, the reason I am expounding saving faith is that so many times, it is hard to understand why a person will spend a life time reading the Bible and other Holy Writings, and takes this information in through the “eye gate” and never comes to a saving knowledge of Christ!
Now, does this mean that the only way a person can get saved is by hearing the Bible preached, receiving it through the “ear gate?” The answer to that question is NO! A person can read the Bible, taking this knowledge through the “eye gate”, and when it pleases God to reveal the saving knowledge of this information to the spirit, He will do so by transforming the “Logos” fed to the “eye gate” into “Rhema”, revealing it directly to the spirit, at which time, it becomes “Revelation Knowledge,” or quite simply, “Saving Faith” which is His Gift to His Elect, or “Marked.” This truth was revealed to Paul by Christ, because he passed it on to us in 1st Thess. 2:13; “For this cause also thank our God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you HEARD of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word (Rhema) of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
To complete this spiritual nature of man, when he is totally filled with the holy Spirit, the Spirit will fill both the spirit and soul compartments, overflowing into the body compartment. The physical manifestations of this occurrence in a believer filled with the spirit, can be utterances in foreign languages, healings, miracles, as listed in 1st Cor. 12. To be filled with the spirit is the greatest enemy to Satan, because sin will be replaced by the Spirit!
In order to complete the subject of the spirit of man, we must examine what happens to the spirit at the physical death of the body when the human spirit looses its home in the physical realm.
In Luke’s gospel, the story of the “rich man and Lazarus” is told, revealing a glimpse of the “underworld.” It describes two compartments; Hell and Paradise, separated by an impassable gulf. At the bottom of this gulf is “the bottomless pit” or “abyss.” Evil spirits, or demons are confined temporarily in this pit, which has a king called “Apollon”, and is kept locked by God who commissions an angel to open it any time he wants to (Revelations 9:1-11; 17:8; 20:1-3).
Before Christ was resurrected, the spirit and soul of the Elect who died physically went to the “Paradise” compartment of this underworld. This was the place where Christ met the penitent thief after His death on the Cross. When Christ (Note that in Luke 23:43, )Jesus said to the penitent thief “Verily I say to you, Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Now if Paradise at that time was in Heaven, where did He go at death, and where did He spend the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection?
After He was resurrected first appeared to Mary Magdalene, and she recognized Him calling Him “master” (John 20:16), Jesus said to her, “touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17).
So, obviously, Jesus met the penitent thief the day of their physical deaths in Paradise which was in the depths of the earth at that time! When Christ was resurrected, His soul and spirit returned from the underworld, of which He brought back all the occupants of Paradise and locked it up. He now has the “Keys of Death and Hades”, (Revelation 1:18).
Death refers to the grave, and Hades to the underworld. Some of those who came back from Paradise with Christ received their bodies rising and ascending with Him as the “First Fruits” of the resurrection from among the dead. (Matt.27:52,53.) The rest were moved to the “Third Heaven”, where Paul was caught up, )2nd Cor. 12:1-4). Paul referred to it as Paradise.
Therefore, since the resurrection of Christ, Paradise moved from the underworld to the third Heaven, and now contains the spirits and souls of all the righteous dead, from Adam to the present. They, and all the future believers who die “in Christ”, and go there, will remain until the time when Christ comes back to meet His church in the air (1st Thess. 4:14), bringing them from Paradise to re-unite with their bodies from the grave, and they (these with their new glorified bodies like the body of Jesus), shall ever be with Him. (This subject needs to be discussed more in detain in another thesis under “Eschatology.”)
As for the wicked dead in the Hell compartment of the underworld, as far as we know, they are still there and will remain there until the second resurrection, when they will return to the earth and get their bodies, and proceed to the “Great White Throne” judgment. After judgment, they will be sentenced to the “Second Death” meaning that they will die again, loosing their bodies, and as “disembodied spirits”, they will be cast into the “lake of fire”, (Gr. Gehenna, the “Final Hell”). The last verse of Isaiah describes a place in the earth where they will be as an example for others to look at! “And they shall go forth and look upon the carcass of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. This will be the final eternal prison of all the reprobate, and evil spirits of all ages after the earth is “renovated by fire” and cleansed of all evil and rebellious spirits.
Blessings!
Marked Elect
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