Posted: 05/23/2013 at 10:00am | IP Logged

Discerning the Heart of Man - Spirit and Soul

By Ron McGatlin

God uses simple natural parabolic terms to describe and explain many of the deeper mysteries of spiritual things. Heart is used to describe the inner spirit and soul of man.

We are living spirit-beings. We have a soul (mind, will and emotions) – and we abide in a body that houses and hosts our spirit-being. Our spirit relates to God and spiritual things. Our soul relates to the natural world. Within redeemed human beings, Spirit God and natural world come together. We have the unique position of being an interface between God in the spiritual realm and creation in the natural realm.

As spirit-beings we have the ability to relate to God who is Spirit and through our soul (mind, will and emotions) working through our bodies, we relate to the natural world.

God’s Kingdom Plan

God’s design is for our spirits to relate closely to His Spirit in a pure love intimate relationship. Through Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit, Spirit God can become one with our spirit. We become crucified with Christ, and His life lives in our being where we once lived. His greater Spirit becomes dominant in our spirits.  We become one with Him. We become “as He is in this world.” As we abide in Him and He abides in us, we become as one with Him spirit to Spirit.

God’s order is that our spirits feed His life into our souls. His Spirit in our spirit invests us with the life of God. His Spirit in our spirits is always to be dominant over our souls.

The soul then in turn feeds the will and works of God to the body and subsequently into the natural world to manage the natural world according to the purpose and plan of God.

Thus, heaven and earth meet in the heart of man. Man is the interface or connection between Spirit God and the natural world.

The creator (God) abides in the created (man) to manage the creation (earth).

This is a fundamental principle of the kingdom of God on earth. Man was not created just to spend 80+ years on earth waiting to go to heaven when he dies. We are designed and equipped to receive the will of God in our spirits and implement it into the world by the direction and power of the Spirit of God in each of us. Man was and is given the job of presenting the rule and reign of God from heaven on earth.

Loss of intimacy with God

Lost intimacy with God damaged the ability of man to properly function with God in ruling on earth God’s way.

When mankind was separated from the close intimate relationship with God in the Garden of Eden, the function of intimate Spirit to spirit connection was broken. Adam and subsequently all mankind made a devastating choice.  Man chose to turn from God’s leadership within his spirit. Instead man turned to his own soul to determine what was good to do and what was not good. The tree of good and evil relates to the soul becoming the source of direction and supply replacing the Spirit of God as the guide for all ways and works of life.

The soul alone without God is prone to connect with another spirit or spirits to fill the empty void created by the loss of being led and empowered by Spirit God. Thus the soul becomes connected to the powers of darkness and works the plan and ways of the spirit of the evil one and not God.

Much of what has been preached and taught in recent church history has been from the souls of men in the form of human intellectual discernment of the Bible as opposed to pure revelation of the written and spoken word by the Holy Spirit through intimacy with God in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Much of what the church systems and systematic theology has become is derived from the soul of man and often influenced by other spirits. In this day Christ in His people by the Holy Spirit is opening our spiritual eyes and awakening us to the pure and holy revelation of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven – the gospel of the kingdom as Jesus and His disciples brought it forth in the first century.

The redemption of man returns the rule (kingdom) of God to earth in Christ Jesus.

The return to intimacy between man and God restores the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. The full potential for the kingdom of heaven on earth is in Christ Jesus the King. In the Holy Spirit of God, Christ Jesus now abides in His people producing the pure and holy life of God in us to rule and reign in the power of His love and with the strength of His holiness guided by the wisdom of God almighty in us by the Holy Spirit.

The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

For a comprehensive presentation of the revelation of the kingdom of God with scripture reference for all that is said here and more, devour the book “Kingdom Growth Guides” available online for free download.

The 52 Kingdom Growth Guides are based on and updated from the books “Overcoming Life On A Small Planet” and “The Seventh Millennium,” They are focused on the current transition from religion to relationship and are useful for individual and group transformation. (294 pages)

Free Download Open and copy the book file to your computer.
Kingdom Growth Guides are also available in Word format click here.

Note: If you have problems downloading books, try right clicking on the Free Download link and then click on "Save target as..." This should save the book file to your computer.

Pursue love, it never fails
and His kingdom never ends.

Ron McGatlin

archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Posted: 05/23/2013 at 7:40pm | IP Logged

I usually have to really slow down when I read your words, like meat that you have to chew on before you just swallow it.  You inadvertently answered a question that I was wondering about. In the little visions that I wrote about in "Imprinting", I saw a man with a beautiful tree almost like a tattoo that covered his entire body and I believe God told me it represented the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but that still did not give me understanding of what the man with the tree represented. But you kind of answered the question with your statement..."The tree of good and evil relates to the soul becoming the source of direction and supply replacing the Spirit of God as the guide for all ways and works of life."

 So thank you for this word, it was informative.

And this part is so beautiful, "God’s design is for our spirits to relate closely to His Spirit in a pure love intimate relationship."  

  I remember when I was young (not filled with the Spirit at that time) I was reading Isaiah one day in my bedroom and my mom walked in and asked about what I was reading. I told her I was reading Isaiah and that I did not understand it, but I told her that I somehow felt in my heart that it was a love letter. Even then the Spirit of God was impressing on my heart through the beauty of His Words the beautiful relationship that He desired for me and for everyone who comes to know Him and it came through strongly to my heart even reading Isaiah!

Posted: 05/24/2013 at 6:30pm | IP Logged

Amen Kimberly. Everything in the kingdom of God works by love relationship. As we relate to God Almighty we hear Him and love to obey and please Him. All that we need to know in life comes by the other tree, the tree of life. The tree of life has to do with hearing God and His desire instead of figuring it out for ourselves which is the tree of knowledge.

Ron