Good morning all :jesus:
As I prayed and meditated on my previous soul threads, God reminded me that my past understanding of the soul came from the OT tabernacle/temple "ensample," as Paul said. I hope I may show it to you so that it edifies your spiritual lives.
"Know ye not that your body is the temple of God?"
The OT temple is the image of our bodies. The "outer court" is the flesh or body. The holy place, our spirit. The Holy of holies is our soul.
Under the old covenant, God's Holy Spirit led from outside to in. That is, the OT saints looked for "signs" like the "cloud by day, fire by night." Their knowledge of God was given by the law and the practices thereof. In fact, the high priest only "visited" the Holy of holies once a year and that with the proper sacrifice.
Interestingly, he wore bells on his robe and had a rope tied around his ankle so that if he died offering the wrong sacrifice, his body could be removed from God, the Spirit's, presence. We'll see this in our temples as well. But it is important to note that if a sacrifice did not conform to the sign of the law, it was not to be taken in.
The holy place was the "spirit" of the operation -- the mind/lampstand, emotions/shewbread, and will/censer (as I recall). Other than the incident of David feeding his men, I can't recall much except that the bread was as the meditations of our heart in the dim light of God's revelation.
But the Gentiles, according to Paul, this is what they seek after -- reason.
"But it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 1Cor 1:21 What do you think the gospel (either covenant, BTW) preached to? The soul. The soul is the conscience. In psychiatry, it is called the "superego" and besides conscience, it is defined by them a you "internalized standards." That's a little Luke 16:8 moment, isn't it?
In our temple, the word of God "preaches" to our "standards" and our "throne" and for the "lost," the convicting truth couldn't be any more compelling! Our need to get off our own thrones and submit to God's standards/truth is what justifies and reconciles us to God -- the One Whom we were separated from by sin when first we brought an unlawful "sacrifice" into His presence!!
We call that act conversion or being born again. It is actually when each of us die "in Christ." Remember what happened when Christ died? The veil was torn from top to bottom which allowed the Spirit of God to speak directly to us in our minds and, beyond, to change our behavior in our bodies. That is called "regeneration" and "indwelling of the Holy Spirit." It comes AFTER the sacrifice has been presented and accepted in our Holy of holies or soul.
But one thing to be warned -- even under the old covenant (cause we know the Pharisees must have done this), it was possible to "sew the veil back up" -- to continue in the practice of not being "Berean," not consulting the Spirit, with the things we learn from outside the temple. Paul treats of this in Heb 6:4-6. The earthly "herb" that "beareth thorns and briers is rejected..."
I hope to make other applications on other threads but on this one, I hope everyone fully understands that the Spirit convicts our "dead" soul through our living, operating spirit by the literal hearing of the gospel and that it is the soul that must be converted.
skypair
As I prayed and meditated on my previous soul threads, God reminded me that my past understanding of the soul came from the OT tabernacle/temple "ensample," as Paul said. I hope I may show it to you so that it edifies your spiritual lives.
"Know ye not that your body is the temple of God?"
The OT temple is the image of our bodies. The "outer court" is the flesh or body. The holy place, our spirit. The Holy of holies is our soul.
Under the old covenant, God's Holy Spirit led from outside to in. That is, the OT saints looked for "signs" like the "cloud by day, fire by night." Their knowledge of God was given by the law and the practices thereof. In fact, the high priest only "visited" the Holy of holies once a year and that with the proper sacrifice.
Interestingly, he wore bells on his robe and had a rope tied around his ankle so that if he died offering the wrong sacrifice, his body could be removed from God, the Spirit's, presence. We'll see this in our temples as well. But it is important to note that if a sacrifice did not conform to the sign of the law, it was not to be taken in.
The holy place was the "spirit" of the operation -- the mind/lampstand, emotions/shewbread, and will/censer (as I recall). Other than the incident of David feeding his men, I can't recall much except that the bread was as the meditations of our heart in the dim light of God's revelation.
But the Gentiles, according to Paul, this is what they seek after -- reason.
"But it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 1Cor 1:21 What do you think the gospel (either covenant, BTW) preached to? The soul. The soul is the conscience. In psychiatry, it is called the "superego" and besides conscience, it is defined by them a you "internalized standards." That's a little Luke 16:8 moment, isn't it?
In our temple, the word of God "preaches" to our "standards" and our "throne" and for the "lost," the convicting truth couldn't be any more compelling! Our need to get off our own thrones and submit to God's standards/truth is what justifies and reconciles us to God -- the One Whom we were separated from by sin when first we brought an unlawful "sacrifice" into His presence!!
We call that act conversion or being born again. It is actually when each of us die "in Christ." Remember what happened when Christ died? The veil was torn from top to bottom which allowed the Spirit of God to speak directly to us in our minds and, beyond, to change our behavior in our bodies. That is called "regeneration" and "indwelling of the Holy Spirit." It comes AFTER the sacrifice has been presented and accepted in our Holy of holies or soul.
But one thing to be warned -- even under the old covenant (cause we know the Pharisees must have done this), it was possible to "sew the veil back up" -- to continue in the practice of not being "Berean," not consulting the Spirit, with the things we learn from outside the temple. Paul treats of this in Heb 6:4-6. The earthly "herb" that "beareth thorns and briers is rejected..."
I hope to make other applications on other threads but on this one, I hope everyone fully understands that the Spirit convicts our "dead" soul through our living, operating spirit by the literal hearing of the gospel and that it is the soul that must be converted.
skypair
Anyone having difficulty understanding what "internaized standards" are? Those would be the things we consider to be "wisdom" and "truth." The truths that have a "forever effect" on our thinking and our:null: lives, no?