INSPIRATION
No matter how clever a man is, or how much he knows about religion, the understanding of God remains veiled. All a man can do is speculate about what is behind the veil because he has not experienced the reality hidden from view: and since he has no experienced, how can he understand? Without revelation the "believer" has but mere philosophy, ideas, and words. Without direct first-hand personal experience, the house is built on the ever uncertain shifting sands of religion: and when the forces push against that house, it fails. Whereas the man of experience can quote John 3:11, saying, "We speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen."
Do not let that Great Deceiver, soul, keep deceiving you; just because you know the knowledge written herein, you are not spiritual or even on the spiritual path. It's but a clever deception of the soul to keep you forever reading and asking questions instead of applying the knowledge to your self and making changes.
The soul lets you know everythig, it will even memorizes it for you, but robs you of the understanding that you must APPLY the knowledge and make the necessary changes and become Righteous.
You can know so much that you can preach to others, yet you have not stepped onto the spiritual path. Spirituality has nothing to do with wonderful and mysterious thoughts. Cleverness is useless, and eagerness is useless also. The transmission of information from one person to another does nothing spiritually: actually the information gives the soul even more power to keep you blinded to the truth; the information strengthening the soul's ability to convice you that you are even more spiritual. Do not be deceived like the millions who believe that the knowing of spiritual things makes them spiritual, it doesn't; just as reading a book about brain surgery doesn't make you a brain surgeon, even if you remember everything in that book.
If you don't apply the teachings of Jesus to your self, you are merely frittering away your time talking the talk. The application of these teachings and the personal experiences which come from revelation bring about the necessary changes to emerge born again, and in no other way. No matter how much spiritual information a person knows, or how many miracles they say they have seen or experienced, or how much devotion to religious service they have rendered, none of this makes anyone spiritual: you cannot live your life through someone else's experiences.
Once again, the process of becoming spiritual takes time. It's not fast and it's not easy or everyone would be spiritual. That's the purpose of the Grand Design: when you are truly a seeker, and you are ready, your eyes will be opened, and not before. Granted that some people genuinely want to follow God's way, but they have only earthly knowledge and thus the earthly thoughts from their soul register in their minds and rule over them: for without "revelation" the mind lacks the awareness of who it is, where it is, and why it's here. Without revelation we walk blindly in unsubstantiated faith that falters with the next attack of soul: the blind leading the blind.
Without the experience of revelation it is impossible for a person to know fully the Bible, to grasp accurately and expertly the doctrines and dogmas of his or her religion; they can be applying their talents to service within their religion, and can sway audiences with wonderful and beautiful words, and yet they remain solely under the control of the soul, without so much as having put one foot on the spiritual path. They remain as dead as ever.
No one has ever entered the Kingdom of God through memory work, encouragement, persuasion, argument, inducement, excitement, attraction or any power of the soul. Entry is only attained by hard work, long hard work, and revelation quickening their mind (becoming born again into the service of God). It's a process and an experience each one of us must go through on our own if we want to return back home to Other Earth. Remember, ("work out your own salvation").
Everyone needs time to learn more of the wiles of the soul, and then even more time to take back control of their mind from that soul. It's up to each one of us, on our own, to take a stand and put to silence the thoughts of the soul, to become ruler of the house, to rule over the soul and use our mind for service to God, instead of soul using our mind to fulfill its earthly desires.
Reading without application is nothing. Listening without application is nothing. You can read the instructions of a DIY desk, but unless you apply that knowledge the desk won't get put together. The same with the person who wants to become born again, unless the knowledge is applied and changes made, the "spiritual man" cannot be built. The spiritual man isn't granted, nor does it miracously manifest. The spiritual man needs awakening and regeneration to the former state he enjoyed before the fall.
Born again means you are starting out anew, as a spiritual baby: thus in the beginning you are fed spiritual milk; later comes the meat. Although as we can read in 1Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul, after many years, could not speak to the followers of Jesus' teachings because they still remained "men of the flesh," men of the soul. As a baby you grow through appling the teachings of Jesus and your own personal experiences with revelation: given and sought. Eventually a new self begins to develop as you begin to identify the difference between your self and the soul. The whole process can be divided into three stages: first is the seeker with "belief," the carnal believer dominated by the fleshy habits and desires of his soul. Next comes the stage of self awareness and realization that "it is not I", but the soul which is controlling me; here the person is intellectual and emotional. The third stage is the final push, the battle of armegedon, learning to dominate the soul, the conversion into the spiritual man and the God-mind connection. From bondage and death, to Freedom and Life.
This world provides many oportunities and experiences, including many firey trials and tribulations such that our soul-desires can be consumed in the fire of pain and suffering. Many unpleasant soul occurrences await us on the path. We must go through terrible feelings from our soul as we are put through the fire of purification (it's all just the emotions and desires of the soul, which we have identified with as being a part of our self). Reading 2Corinthians 10:3-6, "for though we walk after the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." Here we are told of a battle, where the battle is fought, and we are told what is the objective. The struggle is not outwardly in the flesh, but inwardly between the mind and the soul. The mind is being ruled over by the enemy, and as such the mind must break into a disengaging war with the soul. Many rebellious thoughts of the soul are its stronghold, and we need to identify them and take them capture to the obedience of the mind.
However, when the mind is peaceful and composed, that is the time the soul suddenly flashes a lightening quick thought into the mind to seduce its attention away to thinking on what the soul wants us to think about. It arises abruptly and all by itself, or it softly slides in and steals our thinking away. As we indentify with the initial thought, more thoughts rise up from the soul take us off on a tangent. Yes, as we put our attention on soul's initial thought, more thoughts roll in in waves to support it. The mind becomes lulled into a day-dream like seaunce between it and the soul. The experience is not like the mind receiving some thought as in revelation, but rather something has grasped the mind. Instead of the mind thinking about matters, matters are firing the mind for it to think about. If you did not originate the idea, then you should know where it came from, the soul. Reading 1Peter 1:13, "Gird up your mind"; meaning we must regulate all thoughts from the soul and never let them run wild. And reading 2Corinthians 10:5 and Colossians 3:2, "bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Salvation rests in total soul-control.
Strengthened by experiences of revelation, the mind eventually musters up its will against the wiles of the soul. Without revelation, all that is read or written is in vain. All along the spiritual path lurks many snares of soul. There is no shortcut or bypass. There is no time element for progress as each person is unique. This is not a sudden happening, but happens over time as the mind's will waxes stronger. If we desire to be spiritual, we must operate as spiritual beings. We can never be perfect as long as the soul is controlling us.
We are not protected by knowledge, but by the application of knowledge to make the changes and attain the experiences which come from that application. Those who have preceeded us on the pathway can only tell us of the trials and tribulations they passed through; we must pass through our own trials and tribulations to reach them. We must walk the same path and pass through our own trials and tribulations of soul on the way.
We must learn how to control our soul's inclinations; to resist our soul's impulses sent to our mind; to not "look at this", for in doing so we create a desire for what is shown. We must learn how to identify and then deny those developed propensities, no matter what rationalizations the soul attaches to them. We must learn to detach and deny the soul's desires for its expression of lust, anger, greed, attachment, and vanity or ego. Here is the Wisdom of God.
We must learn how to receive and accept the pain and suffering of this lowly place which has been appointed to us by God, with patience. We must nail our soul to the cross. Every carnal desire of the soul must be overcome, and every carnal desire of the soul we overcome is another nail which pins our soul more firmly to the cross. As all propensities for lust, anger, greed, attachment and vanity are overcome, the soul is put to death on the cross.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:29, "take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls"". In other words, put a yoke on your soul and you will find rest from it: learn from Jesus how he has done this. Jesus is peaceful; he is able to receive any treatment from man for he is satisfied with doing the work of God the Father and cares nothing for worldly things nor affairs. He accepts the restrictions and limitations of this world and trusts God to look after such things for him.
Put a yoke on the desires of your soul. Accept the restrictions and limitations of this world. Do the work of God and trust God with the things He knows you have need of before you can ask. There can be no peace of mind if the soul is planning, plotting, scheming and contriving; a restful life eludes such a person because, "if the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not". The soul holds man's mind captive by making it blind to the teachings of Jesus, by making it folow the desires of this world; "because the carnal mind (soul) is enmity against God". Therefore God hath put in a man's mind "a gift", whereby anyone, when they are ready, can undego the regeneration process and return home.
If we neglect this oportunity for salvation, then how shall we escape and return home? - reading Romans 8:6, "To set the mind on the soul is death." The mind that is set on the soul is hostile to God (Romans 8:7). And reading Romans 7:18, "I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my soul." How hard it is to say this genuinely.
Our condition now is as an unregenerated mind, a mind severed from God, fallen and alienated from God's Life, (Ephesians 4:18) "without God", separated from Christ (Ephesians 2:12) and incapable of fellowship with God, the soul ruling over the mind, the body, and its desires and appetites. Our minds are dead to God and in darkness (ignorance), full of soul's activity, governed by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit which now works in the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2-3).
Once again we have been given an opportunity, a way of escape from bondage by the soul, the Way to return home to Other Earth.
BE-ATUDES