Volume 1 Issue 4

SOUL POWER

W

e live in a time when the idol Tolerance is worshipped from the least to the greatest. If we as Christians dare make a moral judgment, or indeed any kind of judgment, we are immediately labeled as being intolerant. If we decry the slaughter of babies that is carried out each day in abortion mills we are accused of being intolerant of women and their bodies. Abortion should be a private matter between a woman and her doctor according to those whose consciences have been warped by the propaganda of Planned Parenthood and others like them. If we speak out on the sinfulness of homosexuality we are called intolerant and homophobic. If we speak out about the virtues of motherhood and how children flourish when mom is there for them, we are accused of being sexist and trying to subject women to the control of men. And in our increasingly pluralistic society if we tell others that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone, that all other religions and beliefs are vain and hopelessly incapable of making us acceptable to God, the idol Tolerance grows to mammoth proportions. Tolerance equates Christianity with hatred of the homosexual, suppression of women and minorities, arrogance because of its self-proclaimed superiority to all other religious beliefs. In fact, Christianity loves the homosexual, but hates homosexuality; Christianity has done more to free women and minorities than any other religion or government; Christianity IS superior to all other religions, not because it is a white, male, European religion as the feminists proclaim, but because Jesus Christ IS the Son of God, because He died on the Cross for us, because He rose again on the third day, because through Him ALONE are we saved. “And there is salvation IN NO ONE ELSE; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) To go along with the lie that there are many ways to Heaven and that Jesus is simply one of many is the greatest deception believed by those who worship at the feet of Tolerance.

There is an old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” This is true much of the time because human nature remains the same UNLESS changed by the life-quickening Spirit of Jesus Christ. Thus, we find the idol Tolerance being worshipped in the Church at Thyatira. Jesus, speaking to this Church says, “But I have this against you, THAT YOU TOLERATE THE WOMAN JEZEBEL, who calls, herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to IDOLS.” (Revelation 2:20) This tells us that as Christians we have a DUTY to be INTOLERANT of some things, of sin. We are to tolerate the homosexual; he is a human being in need of salvation just like the rest of us, but we are not to tolerate the homosexual LIFESTYLE as good or normal. It is neither good or normal. It is sin. “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor HOMOSEXUALS, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, shall inherit the kingdom of God. AND SUCH WERE some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) These sinful lifestyles are something we are to be saved FROM not IN. Yet, the world would have us ACCEPT homosexuality in the name of tolerance because they profess the homosexual was born that way. Should we also accept adultery as a legitimate lifestyle and blame sexual promiscuity on our genes? How about accepting theft as normal and good if it could be proven that the thief only steals from the rich to give to the poor? This is, of course, ridiculous. It is not the SINNER we hate, “for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), but the SIN. “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I HATE THE WORK of those who fall away; it shall NOT FASTEN ITS GRIP on me.” (Psalms 101:3) The homosexual and adulterer need forgiveness and to be set on the path of sexual purity, not encouraged to continue to sin. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because they tolerated homosexuality. Do we think we will escape God’s judgment because we are more enlightened now and suppose we can convince God He was wrong? “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, THAT HE SHOULD CHANGE HIS MIND. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19 NIV) God does not change; He does not make mistakes; sin is sin no matter how badly some may wish to believe otherwise.

To understand the corruption in the Church at Thyatira we must understand who Jezebel is. She was the queen of King Ahab who ruled over the northern tribes of Israel. He was an evil king who turned away from the Lord. Ahab sinned in marrying Jezebel because she was the daughter of a Phoenician king who further turned Ahab, and thus, Israel away from the Lord. “And it came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshipped him.” (1 Kings 16:31) Jezebel was very strong willed and what she wanted she got. Ahab was no match for her. She put Baal worship on an equal footing with worship of the true Lord. She had altars for Baal set up and established a priesthood to serve him. Along with Baal, “Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” (1 Kings 16:33) The Asherah was a female fertility goddess worshipped by the Phoenicians along with Baal. She was worshipped in perverted, sexual ways that entrapped the Israelites. Jezebel was responsible for seducing Israel into idol worship to a degree never before experienced by them. Yet, Ahab was also to blame. First for marrying a heathen, idol-worshipping woman and second for being too weak to stop her from polluting the Israelites with her false worship and teaching TOLERANCE. Ahab, because he was the man, the husband, had the POWER and the RIGHT and the DUTY to forbid Jezebel from corrupting his kingdom with false worship and allowing her to dethrone the Lord’s place of preeminence among His people.

Jezebel acted as if she were not married; as if she alone were in control. This type of action was contrary to Israelite custom. A husband could annul a vow his wife had made to the Lord. “Every vow and every binding oath to humble herself, her husband may confirm it or her husband may annul it.” (Numbers 30:13) The wife was under the authority of her husband. That Jezebel acted this way should not be surprising when we learn her name means, “UNHUSBANDED”. She was simply living up to her name.

This becomes very interesting when we apply it to the Church of Thyatira. The “Jezebel” spoken of there is prophetic. Keep in mind also that in the Bible, spirit corresponds to masculine, and the soul to feminine. What has happened at Thyatira is the soul has taken control, usurping the rightly place of the spirit. This Church is acting out what happened in the Garden of Eden when mankind fell into sin. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for IN THE DAY that you eat from it you shall surely die.’” (Genesis 2:16-17) The Lord told Adam he would die THE DAY he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was this truth about dying that Satan used to deceive Eve in order to get her to eat the forbidden fruit. “And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die! For God knows that IN THE DAY you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Genesis 3:4-5) Of course, both Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and remained very much alive. So, did God lie and Satan tell the truth? We know God does not lie and that whenever Satan “speaks a lie, he speaks from his own {nature;} for he is a liar, and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

The truth is found in the fact that humans are a triune creature, just as God is a Trinity. The spirit was created to take that which comes from God and pass it to the soul to be lived out by the body. The Apostle Paul said, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you ENTIRELY; and may your SPIRIT AND SOUL AND BODY be preserved complete.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23) The spirit is that part of man that makes us God-conscience; it is our intuition, conscience, and our link to communication and worship of the Father. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship IN SPIRIT and truth.” (John 4:24) The soul makes us SELF-conscience; it consists of our will, intellect, and emotions. The body makes us materially or worldly conscience through our five senses. Thus, the sensual person is one who has given himself over to gratifying the senses through lust. As long as the spirit was in communion with the Lord and the soul was in subjection to the spirit, the body experienced perfect health and fulfilled the will of God.

It is obvious that in the day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit their bodies did not die. What did die THAT DAY was their spirits. They broke their link to the Lord. The soul became predominate in mankind, making him a soulish creature controlled by the arrogance of his own intellect, thinking that he is able to save himself; controlled by his emotions seeking only to satisfy his own needs even at the expense of the well being of others; defying God by replacing the spirit’s obedience exemplified by Jesus’ anguished cry in the garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; YET NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE BE DONE” (Luke 22:42) to Satan’s defiant, “I WILL ascend to heaven; I WILL raise my throne above the stars of God, and I WILL sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I WILL ascend above the heights of the clouds; I WILL make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14) Thus, the body which was created to honor and glorify God has become a pawn held captive to the dictates of a soul no longer under subjection to a spirit in communion with the Lord. The soul has become “unhusbanded”. The divine order of spirit, soul, and body has been compromised. It is for this reason that Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5) Salvation is resurrecting the human spirit from being “dead in your trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) Each person born into the human race is born with a lifeless spirit because Eve exerted her will, her SOUL, and ate of the forbidden fruit and in turn gave it to Adam to eat. Ever since then man’s will, his SOUL, has bitterly resisted any attempt to force a relinquishment of its place of power.

The radical Feminist Movement is a physical picture of this spiritual truth. The feminists hate men and the thought of submission to a husband is NOT TOLERATED. While some of what the feminists have fought for is good, equality is not their agenda; rather, DOMINANCE is. They will not admit that, but it is the truth. Just as the SOUL - our will, emotions, and intellect - will not freely submit to the born again spirit, the feminists find the headship of the male totally unacceptable. The result has been a disintegration of the family with fatherless homes the norm.

This helps us better understand what the Church at Thyatira was tolerating by allowing Jezebel a place of leadership and authority. It pictures a church or individual that has a lot of works and activity going on, but has NO LIFE. It is spiritually dead. It is a church or individual that has WILLFULLY given up the headship of Jesus Christ.

Jezebel caused the Israelites to MIX the worship of the true God with the worship of idols. Though most Christians would argue that they do not worship idols it is only because they limit their definition of idols to a graven image made of gold, silver, stone, wood, etc. In truth an idol is ANYTHING that takes first place in our hearts. Thus, an idol could be sports, a job, a child, a spouse, a hobby, a home, greed, food, entertainment, pleasure; literally hundreds of things. Paul said to the Corinthians, “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I BETROTHED YOU TO ONE HUSBAND, that to Christ I might present you {as} a pure virgin. But I am afraid, LEST AS THE SERPENT DECEIVED EVE by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the SIMPLICITY and purity {of devotion} to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2-3) The word “simplicity” used here is a Greek word that means SINGLENESS. That is, there is NO MIXING, no duplicity, no serving the Lord and serving ourselves. Indeed, we are told by Jesus, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23)

The church at Thyatira was a SELF-INDULGENT church. Its philosophy was, “If it feels good, do it”. This is the SOULISH church or person. This is why the idol Tolerance is worshipped fanatically. The soulish church or person will not judge another because to do so exposes them to judgment. Feminism flaunts the rights of women to do with their bodies as they please, stringently resisting any restraints to limit abortion, calling them an infringement unlawfully put upon them. Thus, they cannot judge the homosexual or lesbian for doing with their bodies as they please. Sin is rationalized away. Everything becomes acceptable otherwise we step on the rights of others. With homosexual marriages becoming acceptable what is to keep polygamy from also becoming acceptable, or bestiality, or pedaphila? The idol Tolerance is a bottomless pit that has the attraction of a Black Hole. If we are afraid to judge we are doomed to experience the very depths of hell. If we accept the “unhusbanded” church, the church that no longer takes direction and guidance from the Bible as its truths are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, we have thrown away the very foundation upon which we as Christians stand. The Pharisees, scribes, and religious leaders in Jesus’ day had divorced themselves from God and His commandments and had established a righteousness of their own, creating a system of legalism that choked the life out of the Jewish people. Jesus came and restored the rightful relationship between God and man and was killed by the Jews, particularly the religious Jews, because He dared to question them. Today it is not the unbelievers who are causing the most damage to our society, but those who call themselves Christian, but are not.

Jezebel is described in Revelation as a prophetess, one who speaks for God. In the New Testament only two women have this title: Jezebel who took it for herself and Anna who was called a prophetess. “And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, HAVING LIVED WITH A HUSBAND seven years after her marriage.” (Luke 2:36) Being religious is the only similarity between these two women. Jezebel wrongfully controlled a church by assuming the headship unlawfully and Anna, who was a widow, spent her time in the Temple in Jerusalem looking for the promised Messiah, HER HEAD. Her physical head, her husband had died, but she still recognized her spiritual head. Would it surprise you to learn that the name Anna means “grace”? Anna recognized the infant Jesus when Mary and Joseph brought Him into the Temple to be dedicated, something most others did not because they were looking for the Messiah to save them by political power, by human strength (works). Anna realized that, “By GRACE you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God; NOT AS A RESULT OF WORKS, that no one should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Anna FREELY submitted herself to the headship, the Spirit, the Lordship of Jesus: Jezebel arrogantly usurped the rightful place of the spirit and assumed control.

Submission is a word that grates fallen man. Pride is deeply entrenched within the soul and will do anything to maintain its place of preeminence. Just as the wife is told to submit to the headship of the husband, the church (Greek word is FEMININE) is to submit to the headship of Jesus (masculine). It must be kept in mind that submission is a GIFT given by the wife to the husband; not something the husband DEMANDS from the wife; otherwise, it becomes slavery. Jesus Christ will never FORCE our souls - our will, intellect and emotions - to relinquish the place of power it has assumed in our lives and submit to His will, that would be spiritual slavery. Instead He waits for us to FREELY give Him our life as a GIFT for Him to use in anyway He wishes.

I have been told that for a woman to submit to her husband makes her a doormat. Possibly, but what is the function of a doormat? To clean the feet of those who enter her home. Is this not what Jesus did when He washed the feet of the Disciples just before He was crucified? (This included Judas Iscariot) Jesus laid aside His outer garments - symbolic of His Divinity - and performed the task of the lowest slave. He SUBMITTED Himself to the will of His Father in order to cleanse those whom He loved. Should we not be willing to submit our soul and its place of power to Himself who died for us?

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