Thanks.I will give you my opinion on the difference between spirit, and soul. When God formed Adam,s body, and breathed into him the breath of life, a third component was created a "soul". Man was now spirit, soul, and body. Adam was very conscience of his physical surroundings because of his physical body, yet at the same time Adam was very conscience of his spiritual surroundings because of his spirit. The soul of man is were man is conscience of both worlds at the same time. When Adam sinned he lost the ability to be aware of his spiritual surroundings because his spirit died. Now he was forced to lean solely on his flesh to make choices. When we become born again our spirit is now exchanged with Christ who is now our new life. Man is now restored back to his ability to be conscience of both spiritual ad physical worlds.
The soul is where man,s will, conscience, and emotions reside. The soul receives input from the body, and the spirit of man, and then the soul of man makes his choices as what to do. The soul does not make any independent inquiries on it,s own, it simply uses input from the body and spirit to make it,s choice. Man now has a spiritual mind that dwells in his spirit (heart) not his physical brain. He also has a physical mind (brain) that allows him to operate in the physical world. The mind of Christ does not reside in the physical brain, it only resides in the heart of man. To be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The word "repent" means to "change your mind". It does not mean to change what you thinking about, but to change from the carnal mind to the mind of Christ.
Demons - What Do We Believe?
- Thread starter Where is the Messiah
- Start date
Thanks.
Hello and what a great question. This is one of those subjects I believe needs some balance at times as we can under-estimate their presence and sometimes we go the other way and see demons in everything. However, the Word is pretty clear that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but power and principalities, those fallen angels now exist in various forms battling against God. I think every Christian needs at least a basic understanding of the demonic/unclean spirits for themselves so they can be fully aware of situations and circumstance.
When we look at the Word, we see that Jesus cast out unclean spirits at the beginning of an individuals salvation removing a deep rooted issue in the person's life. back then they were very aware of spirits and we should be too, there are individuals who come to Christ who will need those spirits removed however in the name of Jesus, that's easy!!!
From my own experiences, I can safely say yes there are unclean spirits present with some individuals and in the right place at the right time, these spirits are easily dispatched and the person set free by the power of God....hope this adds to the conversation...
Hilarious, you beat me to it.
No. The thorn in the flesh was a person, or people who were influenced by Satan to persecute him, to disrupt any acclaim that he would receive due to his great God-given revelation.
I always thought it was a disease related to his eyes. There are two verses that seem to indicate that Paul couldn't see very well (Galatians 4:15 and Galatians 6:11).
Can we equate demons as being the same thing as sin?
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Paul was fully capable of appropriating his own healing. He didn't need God to remove a disease or condition, so he wasn't asking God to remove that. He wasn't suffering any illness. The messenger of Satan was a person or people.
Hello and great thread. I would go with no, it couldn't be possible for a Christian to become possessed or receive an unclean spirit unless of course they were backsliding into the world and getting into some strange stuff. The enemy can create for himself a foothold though and as Paul put it, we're not ignorant of his devices (mind games) so a Christian can find themselves in the position of the enemy having a real foothold in their lives to which the truth need to shine....
Another well honest and open testimony, blessings...
I would have to say yes to a degree, sometimes it is just an illness (which can be healed by Christ) but the minsistry of Jesus showed us many situations where he and his diciples dispatched various forms of unclean spirits so yes, I have to say we may overlook this subject more often than we think....
Paul never healed anyone. God healed people using Paul as a messenger. So, if God didn't want to heal Paul, Paul would have remained sick.
I agree it was God through Paul, but does the Bible say it was not Paul?
That's like saying the gun didn't shoot the person it was the man that pulled the trigger. I mean technically yes, but yes it was still the gun also. Maybe technically we are getting too technical? Lol just kidding around.
In my opinion, God won't be happy if a Christian says "I healed John" or "I brought down this revelation" or "I multiplied the bread".
True. It is God through us. All the glory always goes to God!
Okay so the demon responded to him and told him that he had authority over the woman because of specific unforgiveness in her heart. He asked the woman about the specific unforgiveness and she was surprised that he knew because she hasn't told him about it. He said she needed to repent from that or the demon would have power to continue tormenting her.
Thoughts? Can we give power to the dark side by having hate, bitterness, or unforgiveness in our hearts even though we are Christians?
Oh and the end of his story was she ended up not forgiving for about another month. Then she finally forgave and was healed.
I'm usually skeptical when I hear demon stories, but this is a guy that is pretty consistent with his walk with Christ, and I don't normally hear these kinds of stories from him. His name is John Militaru. He's been delivering the gospel for longer then I've been alive. Feel free to look him up. And if you want me to ask him any questions about the story I wouldn't mind.
Yes we can I'm afraid, Paul said we were required to forgive 'lest Satan have an advantage over us'. Difficult one but Paul said he forgave in the person of Christ meaning although he might not have felt true compassion or forgiveness at that point, he obeyed the Lord for the heart.....hope this helps...
PS - This is the only way a true Christian can ever give Satan an advantage over them as it wouldn;t be consistant with Christ's command to love....