God wants to save us – Spirit, Soul and Body. So far, our salvation experience is mostly one of the Spirit.
We are still being redeemed on the level of the soul and this is underscored by the struggles we experience daily trying to conform to the demands of the Word as we behold Christ. Our Will, Emotion and Intellect are meant to continually being subjected to God’s rule and ordinance.
Until this process is complete, we cannot say that our soul has been redeemed. One whose soul has been redeemed is close to touching immortal life. At this point, the salvation accomplished in the soul begins to release the potency of the Spirit power over the physical body to nullify the sentence of death which came as a consequence of the sin nature transmitted through Adam.
Immortality is our destination and we must see it, reach out to grab it and then experience the dimension of the resurrection power exhibited by Jesus Christ when He rose from the dead. That is the point; Christ rose from the ‘dead’ to display immortality. We must also ‘rise’ from the ‘dead’ to display the immortal life.
Mark 12: 18-27 Roman’s 8: 18-, John 4:34.
The power displayed at this point is not an expression of gifting but is attracted by an inner life principle. Psalms 45:7. The life here is no longer subject to the principles of the flesh. It is the Kingdom life working in human vessel, manifesting the power of the endless life. That is the Christ dimension we must long for.
Christ rose from the dead to display immortal life. Therefore we also must ‘rise’ from the ‘dead’ to display immortal life. We are not to die physically to attain this.
How do I know this? Because the Lord says there are some that will not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom (Mat 16.28). There is a generation that will not taste death but will be transformed into immortal life while standing/living on this earth. I want to experience this, I don’t know about you. Is this possible? Yes. Simeon prayed not to see death until he beheld the promised Son, Jesus. And it was so.
God is waiting for that critical mass (not everyone) in the Church that will ‘see’ this, believe God for it and then press into it. Those are the sons of God that Paul says will manifest to redeem creation from corruption (Rom. 8.19).
The reason why many in the Church can’t see this is because of the soul life that has not allowed the spiritual seed God sowed into our spirit to sprout and flourish. The soul is the sit of the sin nature and it must be killed, crushed and flushed away for the spirit life to be released. The soul life of man is a hindrance to the release of the Spirit. The soul must be yielded to the Lord. That was what Christ did on the cross; He yielded His soul to the Father in death.
Are you ready to yield your soul life to the Lord in death? It’s not cheap but is a possibility.
What really does death in the soul mean? When Jesus said; ‘nevertheless, not as I will but as thou wilt’ Matt 26:39, what was actually going on here?
A battle was raging between God’s will (which was for Jesus to go to the Cross) and man’s will (the unwillingness/reluctance of the Lord as man to face the Cross). But glory to God, Jesus yielded to the will of the Father and secured salvation for us all.
But you know what, we are all faced with this same battle, not to the shedding of blood anymore (Jesus finished that for us) but to the freedom of our soul from dominion of the flesh, the sin nature or self will.
Here is how it works. As I pointed out earlier, man is composed of the Spirit, Soul and Body. Most humans are only conscious of the Body and ignorant of the Spirit and Soul; those are walking dead men. When we came to the Lord, our Spirit was renewed/made alive to God. While the salvation of our spirit was instant, the salvation of our soul (which is composed of our Will, Emotion and Intellect) is gradual. The redemption of the soul is only possible through the ‘washing of water by the Word of God.’
This is the crux of the matter. It is in battle of the soul that the men are separated from the boys. Many Christians die physically without winning the battle here. The generation that will win the battle of the soul is the one that God will use to do the work that will close this Age and usher in the King.