Posted: 10/09/2014 at 7:27pm | IP Logged

The Beauty of Oneness/Moving From Soul to Spirit

By Amanda Leonard

There is a place of complete oneness in Him. That is to truly walk in the Spirit, to walk in Him, in oneness. He is teaching me the reality of what Christ accomplished on the cross. The cross is so powerful, so full of love. He actually became sin. He became everything we were, to restore us to what we are supposed to be in Him. Even before the breath of God was breathed into our lungs, He saw us as His. As He hung upon that tree, He saw us as new creations with Him living inside of us. How incredible is that? I believe it's beyond earthly words or human wisdom. He bore the cross so that we could once again be one with our Father, just as He was one with Him. He reconciled us to our first love, even when we didn't know Him as our first love. He reconciled us to Himself. (2 Corinthians 5:11-21)

God is Spirit. Of course, we know this and it is a simple statement yet many of us may still try to relate to God through our souls (what we think about Him and who He is, maybe from past hurts and experiences). The enemy can use our soul against us. Through bad experiences in this life, he can try and paint a wrongful picture to us of who our Father is. Instead of believing the truth about who He is and that every good and perfect thing comes from Him, we will believe a lie because of how we feel when we experience painful situations on this earth. For this reason, I believe it's important for us to realize the difference between our soul (mind, will, and emotions) verses our spirit (which connects to Spirit God/Holy Spirit). In scripture it states, He is seeking such to worship Him in spirit. He is longing for us to go past the soul realm into the Spirit.

I have a friend who gave a good example of operating from the soulish realm. In a service, a song would start and it was a soulish song and the congregation would "go wild". It reminded him of how people do in a “honkey tonk,” the sound of the music and the words moves their souls but it never gets to the point of worshiping Him in spirit. If we ever want the reality of oneness with Him in Spirit, then we have to move past our soulish ways of thinking and reacting and walk in the Spirit.

I myself, even recently have prayed for someone out of my soulish desire to see them healed and not out of a place of rest in Him. I also have prayed for people out of a place of complete rest in His ability and our oneness and have seen incredible miracles. Our souls want to try and figure everything out and feed off the way we "feel" and search for answers "Why, didn't it work when I prayed? Shouldn't I know the answer to that? The way I feel surely isn't how I believe, what's wrong with me?" This can affect our faith and our walk in the Spirit, if we aren't able to discern the difference and move past these soulish ways. I believe that we can have healthy emotions from the Spirit and unhealthy ones that are from our soul. We have to realize that what He said is already Truth and it's not based on how we feel in our souls, it's based upon what He has said. In Him is every answer, that's the answer....period. That reality only comes by Spirit. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. We hear spirit to Spirit. It's only by His faith working in us by His Spirit that we will manifest heaven on earth and then faith becomes substance. The Father is wanting us to move from soul to Spirit, that is where we relate to Him and commune with Him.

I want to share a story that I believe is a great example of what I'm trying to explain. Sometimes it's hard to explain in natural words until you have an experience of this very thing and great revelation comes. One morning as I was getting ready, this thought flashed through my mind. The thought was that my daughter was going to die. I remember saying in my mind, "Lord this thought does not make me afraid, she is Yours." I told the Lord that if this thought was Him or if He was trying to show me something that I was open to what He wanted to show me (taking every thought captive). I finished getting ready and went to awake my little girl. I held her in my arms and then began to cry. I remember thinking, why am I crying? I was a little puzzled because I was not afraid and knew that I wasn't crying because I thought the Lord was going to take my little girl.

So, as I was driving to work I was praying in tongues. Just a few minutes later, Holy Spirit said to me and I said out loud, "Something is going to happen with a little girl today?" That very day there was a car wreck. I won't give all the details for privacy purposes but a little girl was involved and she was spared in the crash, while others died. I realized later that that was the little girl that I was praying for that morning. What I learned from that experience was that if I had been operating out of my soul, my first thought could have made me all worried, afraid and upset. I could have internalized the whole thing, thought the whole thing was about me and my little girl, instead of being one with Him and letting Him have my every thought. He used the sensitivity that I had for my daughter to show me through healthy emotions from the Spirit and not from my soul. I was in a place of rest in Him and He used healthy emotions and a thought to have me intercede in the Spirit for His precious daughter.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16)

Splitting Soul and Spirit

We know from scripture that we have a body, soul and spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:23) Many times we can confuse our soulish emotions with what we believe the Lord is speaking to us from the Spirit. Our soul, when tied to something or someone that we really care about, it can speak just as loud as Spirit. We can come under the authority of the soul and let it take over and never really walk in the Spirit, all the while we believe that we are. We can have soul ties even with our children that are unhealthy, our children are His and if we can see that in the Spirit and let Him severe an unhealthy soul tie, lots of heartache and pain can be spared. It can also be something that we hold in our hearts but yet it can be more like an idol because we have put that above our heavenly Father. Anything or anyone that is more important to us than our Lord is unhealthy because it has taken a seat on the throne in our lives where Jesus is supposed to sit. When we have these soul ties with things or people, it can speak just as loud or even louder than Holy Spirit in our lives. We may begin to hear what we want or desire to hear from the Lord when really it's our soulish desires that were speaking all along. These desires aren't necessarily a "bad' thing, it can ministry, a talent, praying for people, people in general, but if these things are taking His place in anyway then it needs to go from your soul. Even ministering to people can become an idol in our soul, and then we are doing it for all the wrong reasons, all the while believing that we are "doing" something for Jesus, when He is wanting us to rest in Him. If He can search the motives of our hearts and make our hearts like His then the "ministry" will just come out of being one with Him. That is the place of true ministry from His heart, from His Spirit, from oneness and rest in Him. Jesus is shining a light within our souls to reveal those things that need to be split by His word, to reveal the innermost thoughts, desires and intentions of our hearts. For where your treasure lies, there your heart will be also. He should be our only treasure.

The Lord has been revealing to me a theme over a year about the depths of truth behind the scripture in Hebrews 4:12 about splitting the soul from spirit.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

Right before this scripture it speaks of entering His rest. Rest is not something we do but something we enter into. The splitting of the soul and spirit by the word of God will expose everything that has not allowed you to enter into His rest, that place of oneness. This is not a formula, it may work differently for someone else but as I began to by faith declare with the word of God was like an ax separating my soul from my spirit over and over again, my soul then began to not feed off my spirit. I was able to connect spirit to Spirit and enter the rest that God has provided. It was my soul that was keeping me from the reality of my place in the Spirit. When I began to do this, it was the first experience I had with my spirit coming outside of my body and experiencing the reality of truly being seated with Him in heavenly places. So any thoughts and desires that were not His are dissolving in the process.

Seeing From a Heavenly Perspective

So many things on this earth are bidding for our attention. There are circumstances and situations that arise that are bleak but as we focus our eyes more on the unseen and our oneness with Him, then the bleakness fades away in His glorious presence. He is our hope. In every circumstance, in every situation, He truly is our only answer! He is not the means to an end, or our last resort but our ONLY answer, the only Truth and way, our only hope.

Isaiah 40:31 (Amp) 31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.

As we begin to separate our soul and spirit by His word, we will begin to see more and more from a heavenly perspective. We will lift our wings and we will mount up as eagles and fly with our eyes on Him and our hope in Him alone. In that place, we will not get tired or weary because it's by His Spirit. It's not by might or by power but by His Spirit. We cannot do this in our own strength, no striving or trying can make it happen. We shall change, be transfigured and renewed as we see things from an aerial view. Things will look so much different from this place compared to our soulish narrow and limited vision. We will see the vastness of our Great God!! We will begin to fully comprehend our inheritance as sons. His Kingdom will come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, as we see it's already available to us as His children.

The Beauty of Oneness

All the steps we take on this journey with Him are leading to this reality, oneness. We are truly seated with Him in heavenly places, while living in an earthly body upon the earth. This is the reality of the Kingdom within us.

I thought about the writings of Paul and John and the revelations that they had of the Father because they were one with Him in Spirit. The encounters that John wrote about were from a place of oneness with the Father. We can have this same oneness now with our Father. What a glorious, happy gospel. He wants to be one with you.

John 17:20-24, 20“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

He wants us to be where He is now and behold His glory now. Lord, I just thank You for the oneness that we have with You. I thank You for that place of rest, where striving disappears as the reality of being a son hits us and molds us into what You created us to be. I thank You for being ONE with You! Wow! Lord, I just ask that You continue to reveal to us any soul ties that we have made knowingly or unknowingly. We will take Your word like a sword and by faith separate our soul from our spirit so that we can truly walk with You in oneness of Spirit. We declare that no longer will our souls feed and take life from our spirit man. Thank You Lord for teaching us about Your thoughts, Your emotions, Your Spirit that is within us. Lord, we no longer want to minister or worship You just from our soul but we want to move on into Spirit. We ask that You shine Your flashlight of truth deep within our souls to reveal any unhealthy soul ties that keep us from entering the rest of God. We thank You Lord for revealing this truth so that we can be set free and that the intentions of our heart can become pure and holy as You are holy. We rest in You and the finished work of the cross of Christ. Thank You Lord for our oneness and continuing to open our eyes to the depths of this truth. Hallelujah!!!

In Oneness,

Amanda Leonard
http://timeinhispresence.wordpress.com/