Chapter 7
Book a new paradigm from which to view our very nature- Parts, Windows, and Rooms
The Divided Human Soul
Throughout the Bible, there are many examples of separate or different aspects to our humanity. We, as humans are not just a singular physical being or creature in that, in the least, our spiritual being is going to live on even after our physical body has died in our earthly existence. There are various other references in the Bible that delineate the various components of our being as in the case of Paul discussing the difference between the “flesh” and “mind” with the flesh serving sin and his mind serving the Lord.
There are also references in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 to our spirit, soul, and body while Jesus’ command that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul(life),and with all your mind(thought, understanding),and with all your strength shows division within our humanity. In (1 Thessalonians 5:23) And the very GOD of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray GOD your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ. Most current Western Christians do not focus on this truth about our divided nature. We “are” a spirit, we “have” a soul; and we “live” in a body.
While all of these various descriptions add understanding to the human condition and nature of man and how it relates to sin, we can look to these various concepts for information to discern a new way to look at the human being and how sin operates within that new understanding.
17 For the sinful nature has its desire which is opposed to the Spirit, and the [desire of the] Spirit opposes the [a]sinful nature; for these [two, the sinful nature and the Spirit] are in direct opposition to each other [continually in conflict], so that you [as believers] do not [always] do whatever [good things] you want to do. Amplified Bible
While the amplified bible uses a broader concept in calling out our sinful nature, most translations rely upon the King James version by calling our sinful nature, our “flesh”. Paul makes this more confusing by referring to his flesh following sin and his mind following God. Jeremiah talks about our heart being the seat of wicked intentions and so crafty that it is hard for anyone to know their real motivations other than God himself. Setting aside new discoveries and research into quantum issues and brain-heart communication occurring at levels never before understood, the heart is counted upon for issues of knowing, the will, and emotional feelings in the Bible.
The key here, I believe is that while the heart appears to be involved in issues of will, understanding, and emotions, the more powerful and direct connection to these issues are seated in the various parts of our brain. For those of you not having given much thought to this issue, it is most important to understand that your mind is not the same thing as your brain.
The Heart as the Mind. The Hebrew term “heart” (leb[bel],ebab[b’bel]), in its figurative usage, is the most important term for the inner person. It views the inner person from a number of angles, of which the concern here is its reference to the thought or will of human beings or to the organ of understanding. Thus, “heart” or “to set the heart” means to make up the mind or decide (2 Chron 12:14;Neh 4:6). “Calling to mind” is meant in Deuteronomy 30:1; Isaiah 46:8; 65:17; Jeremiah 3:16; “recalling” is similar (Deut 30:1;Jer 51:50:;Ezek 38:10). Wisdom and understanding are located in the heart (1 Kings 3:12;Prov 16:23) and perceived with the heart (Prov 18:15;22:17;Eccles 1:18:16). Moreover, it is the heart that plans or purposes to act (Proverbs 16:1Proverbs 16:9). God’s “mind” is sometimes described this way (Jer 19:5;32:35;44:21). Decisions of a moral nature take place in the heart (Gen 20:5;Job 11:13). This being the case, evil will also be manifested in the heart, where decisions to disobey and rebel take place (Jer 17:9). A heart/mind can be perverse and therefore incapable of apprehending truth and wisdom (Prov 10:20;11:20;12:8;Proverbs 17:16Proverbs 17:20).
Mind
The heart is also the place where deception occurs (Isa 44:20). “Heart” thus serves as a reference to the person as a thinking, perceiving, and willing being, bringing together the ideas of knowledge, understanding, and will.
The Spirit as the Mind. The Hebrew term for spirit (ruah[jWr]) depicts the inner person from the perspectives of the mind, understanding, and reason on a number of occasions (with various Greek equivalents). Exodus 28:3 and 1 Chronicles 28:12 view the human mind in relation to skills and planning. Ezekiel 11:5 and 20:32 have spirit as a reference to the conscious thoughts of a man. Daniel 5:20 has the mind-set or determination of the will in view in this description of Nebuchadnezzar: “his heart [spirit] became arrogant and hardened with pride.” In this case, it is a mind set against God in rebellion.
The Soul as the Mind and Reason. Another term for the inner person that can refer to the intellectual or mental dimension of life is “soul” (nepes[v,p,n]). In the well-known command of Deuteronomy 6:5, the soul, along with the heart, contributes to a description of the whole inner person as a thinking, knowing, and willing force, which must decide to serve God (cf.1 Chron 22:19;28:9). “Soul” describes a man from the perspective of the choices he makes in Deuteronomy 18:6, and as a thinking, inquiring being (Eccl 7:28). The thought, counsel, or mind of God is also described with the Hebrew term “soul” in 1 Samuel 2:35. The same term can stand for one’s wish or determination (2 Kings 9:15).
On top of these various pieces of the human being, there is a more generalized concept that every single person employs except for that of Jesus himself and that is the idea of that there are “parts of us”. No matter how all of the mind-heart-soul-brain interaction occurs, there is something so commonplace within the human experience that everyone knows it and has lived it and has said except for Jesus. There is the idea that within our human existence, there is a brokenness that affects all of us. The double-mindedness described in scripture affects each and everyone of us and is expressed in the following manner:
“part of me wanted to hit him right in the mouth”
“part of me wants to go out with her and part of me doesn’t”
“part of me wanted to die”
“part of me doesn’t like it when everything works out”
“part of me wants to go to the wedding and part of me does not”
“part of me wants to work out and another part wants to eat ice cream in front of the tv”
“part of me wanted to give in but the better part of me wouldn’t let me”
In a complex web of thoughts, emotions, experiences, memories, beliefs, learned teachings etc., I have come to learn and believe that the very double-mindedness discussed in the scriptures affects each and everyone of us in some way or another. Inside our humanity, there is a lack of cohesion or integrity which results and always demonstrates itself in our lack of self-discipline or self-mastery. It is why there are such huge industries based on self-help or helping us get over top of ourselves and do the things we say and write down. Whether exercise, diet, finances, home maintenance, spiritual tasks, or whatever, for those who even take the time to write out goals, lists, etc. we spend a lot of energy trying to do what we say we are committed to do. In the same way that Paul describes sinning doing the things he doesn’st want to do and not doing the things he says he wants to do, human kind is stuck in this perpetual and ongoing battle each and everyday. I would bet(and it better be so) that most people caught up in the sins outlined in chapter one are fighting these battles daily. I would imagine that especially in the leadership positions, these persons are engaged in hand to hand combat daily as their jobs, teachings, and church positions are all at odds with what is going on in their lives with the real possibility of being caught and their whole house of cards coming down.
We can go back to the Garden of Eden to show that the fractured aspect of our being started with Eve’s sinful attempt to make the determination of good and evil. It all started with a thought from a stimulus that runs counter to our known God’s rules or our own conscience. There is a stimulus that occurs to our brain-soul-heart-mind. The stimulus can be a direct lie as in the case of the serpent in the garden and Satan in the desert. The stimulus can be the lack of something good or neglect in our lives because of someone’s sin followed then by our sinful reaction or wrong conclusion(lie) to that event. A child is left unattended by the parent for too long of a time and despite all of the screaming, crying, and cajoling for someone to intervene, help does not come in a reasonable time and the child believes that they are all alone and that there is no one to help them in life. The stimulus can be bad things that happen to us in our lives that again we form a wrong or sinful conclusion to and that we store in our human, heart/mind/brain/emotional system. A bully beats on a weaker child and the weaker child believes from the event that they are weak, cannot protect themselves, and are in danger all of the time that someone might beat them down. Or conversely, that bullies are everywhere and they need to fear all of the time and everywhere they go. Do not deceive yourself, this early childhood programming has a very powerful impact on the human mind, soul and spirit. This is not an excuse for our later life failings but a mere description of the true of how it operates in our lives.
Not all different parts of ourselves are due to fears surrounding traumas. In the garden, when Adam and Eve are hiding behind the bush that God created, in the garden that He also created and on the earth he created, it is shame stemming from their sinful behaviors that underlie the delusion that they can hide from God. The key is that when we knowingly sin against God’s command or direction for our life, we enter into a created “safe space” in our mind only where God and his requirements don’t exist. Or, we can also make up lies about God like he doesn’t really care about this sin, or that He is too busy to worry about our little sin. In either case or in other examples, we break or segment off a part of our brain to run on our own delusional thinking based upon the lies underpinning the delusion. The worst of the lies tell us that God isn’t real or what He thinks about things doesn’t matter. In all of these examples, we elevate ourselves to be the decider in rebellion as Satan wants us to do and in his same delusion that this will work out okay in the end.
Under the pressure of trauma or perceived trauma, small pieces of one’s self begin to form where the high intensity emotions and the lying conclusions are housed, waiting to spring into action when the danger scanning portion of the brain thinks it sees similar harmful circumstances. This is the classic example of something most people are familiar with that being post-traumatic stress syndrome.
A person who is a witness to death and carnage from a wartime event or a mass shooting might be easily triggered into denial Webster’s Definition of denial
2a(1):refusal to admit the truth or reality of something (such as a statement or charge)their denial of the divine right of kings
b:refusal to acknowledge a person or a thing: DISAVOWALhis denial of his youngest son
6psychology : a defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality
This is, unfortunately, how we learn in life. We encounter a stimulus or set of circumstances, and in the encounter, we make a judgment or determination of what transpired and then attribute our own meaning to the information, whether wrong or right, in reality or in delusion. It is like learning to add and subtract on our own. The problem is that sometimes we get the 1+1 problem right with the answer as 2 but many times we don’t. When a woman is abused by her father and sees her mother abused by her father and attributes the meaning that because her father was terrible, all men are terrible, the lies is implanted in our minds and will govern various situations in life. As part of this meaning she has stored away, it is possible to make the vow that because men are bad, I will never get married. The disciples demonstrate this thought process in the following passage in John 9:As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We experience information in life and then store it away in our own way that are really judgments about life, God, ourselves, other people. We can absorb information from our own life experiences, watching the life experiences of others and through the verbal and non-verbal communications of others. The apostles in the situation with the blind man weren’t even asking a valid question about him. They, based on their life experiences and prevailing beliefs at the time assumed that someone’s sin had caused the blindness in the man. Jesus demonstrated that their perspective or paradigm was wrong in how they had framed their question. Ultimately, we need the right paradigm or perspective and the willingness to follow God no matter what are vows, beliefs and judgments tell us.
One day when speaking with an older Christian lady who really loved God, she explained how she had several terrible marriages with men who treated her badly. She proudly boasted that she had made a vow that she would never get married again. What she hadn’t thought through in this vow were also conditions from a difficult childhood with an alcoholic father as well as her belief that men were bad and she would stay away from them the rest of her life. Knowing that she loved God greatly, I asked her what would she do if God let her know that He had a good Christian man for her life plans who would take care of her and give her a better life? You could almost see the smoke coming from her ears as her strongly entrenched vow ran into her desire to follow God. She never answered but walked away talking out loud to herself.
For the Christian, true reality is totally and completely governed by God and his view on all subjects. Every time we belief a lie against His truth, whether we come to the conclusion of the lie ourselves, or we are given the lie by others, we set up a window’s operating system window in our mind that is going to pop up in the future when the stimulus is related closely enough to the earlier event or lie. The more we come into agreement with the false reality(fantasy-based) window, the stronger and more often it will rise up and take over our screen. When sinful parts (or windows) are present in a person of faith’s life along with their corresponding lies, the one and usual way way to deal with the problem part(or window) is to keep it hidden from everyone including God. Even though the person could be a church leader heavily involved in church activities with a thriving results, the sinful part of their mind/soul/heart/will/emotions/ humanity is kept below the surface so that no one can see it. The more the person comes into agreement with the lies within the window, the stronger this sin window becomes when it pops up and the longer it remains up until ultimately, it can take over the person’s life. This is explained by God in Romans Romans 1:28
“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. And in Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed”.
Another way to think about how these lies from Satan hurt and complicate our lives by running in the background of all of our lives is to think about how we won’t take on certain topics from our past because we believe it is too painful to remember. When we encounter bad events or circumstances in our lives, they can come from either direct hurtful sins by another such as rape, physical and verbal abuse, or even traumatic events of a neglectful cause, we can choose to bury them in our memories for good.
In law, if someone hits you or steals from you on purpose, it is called a Tort and you can sue people for your damages for these events. In many occasions, there can also be a criminal problem for a person committing a purposeful Tort such as battery or assault with intent to kill someone. There can also be a negligent action by someone that is also a Tort but not purposefully done to hurt you. Make no mistake that you can as easily be killed by a negligent action as a purposeful one by someone else.
In life if family members or trusted adults her us in either of these two ways, we can choose to hide the memory away. If you think about becoming a Christian, something changes in our being. Think about a mansion house where once we invite Christ into our lives, it is like turning on the lights for a large banquet hall type room at the center of all of the the other rooms in the mansion. Also picture around the banquet hall are many other doors leading to smaller rooms.
Once Jesus is our Lord and Savior, it is our job to open up these doors even if we have been storing rotten, rancid garbage from our past in them and turn on the Light of Christ in the room. Even though there might be rats(demons) feasting on the garbage and causing more problems for the room, unlocking the door, opening the door and turning on the light is the first step in cleaning it up through the Truth, the Way, and the Life, that being Jesus.
The clean up might be difficult, painful, disgusting and other bad adjectives but sanctification requires that we all must do this and God the Father requires our sanctification for His purposes. There are many opionions based upon various scriptures that born-again, saved Christians cannot have demons in their lives because the Holy Spirit is resident in us. Others say you can be oppressed by demons but not possesed by them. What we have learned is that if you use a model of the various operating windows or this mansion idea of sanctified rooms and unsanctified rooms, the issue of how demons interact with believers becomes more understandable.
As a side note, one can make the observation that the more used to sinning we become by feeding the sin and not trying to fight it any longer, the less sensitive and self-aware we are. This can lead to becoming sloppier in hiding it or keeping it from affecting other aspects of their lives including family and church life. For example, the pastor who secretly sexually abuses people in the church might get away with it in the beginning over their abundance of caution and high levels of planning and control over the situation so as not to get caught. The longer they participate, their consciences start to become seared as discussed in the Bible and in their self-justified fantasy worlds, they don’t consider their actions as so bad so they move on to other people and not as carefully until they are finally caught.
When they are caught, there is inevitably, always people that say after learning of the activities, that the person described in the sinful acts is not the same person that they know. That is, because the person undertaking the sinful activities only puts forward their “presenting parts” or their “central command” when dealing with others in all other regular activities. In the instance of the Windows operating system of our minds or the mansion of our minds, initially, the longer someone dabbles or participates in sinning, the sloppier than become as above. In the case of the Windows operating system, in the beginning, one would be very careful to get rid of all of the evidence of wrong visited websites on the computer but after awhile, the pastor or church member might become less careful and leave up bad things on the computer for others to find. In the case of the mansion idea, whereas in the past, great care was taken to make sure the doors to the dark rooms were locked while people were over, now a room might be carelessly left unlocked so that others might be able to see into the dark spaces. UnGodly anger that used to be locked down tightly over a perceived insult now might rage openly during the middle of a family gathering.
Now, I have assumed for the sake of these ideas, that there has been some fight in the person against these sinful activities. There are cases, however, where people have given in to their sin wholeheartedly which changes the spiritual dynamic. Since they openly succumb to the behaviors without reservation they are able to “handle” their sin without crashing and burning their lives. Through choice, will and control, they might only practice this activity less frequently and so they are able to live two separate lives, one for God and one for the devil.
In this way, they can keep up their concern for being caught so they are more capable of keeping it hidden for a longer time. External examples of what is going on internally in these types of situations are the examples of the people, usually men, who maintain more than one wife and household in different locations. Some are able to do this for very long periods of time while most others cannot. A main point to all of this is that we either believe lies that we were told or we make up lies that we tell ourselves when we continue on with sin while knowing it’s wrongfulness. Somewhere along the line, we elevate ourselves above God’s word on the topic, make ourselves the judge and jury and render a decision that God doesn’t really know what He is talking about and that we know better. Thankfully for the believer, the Holy Spirit lives within us and is working against this pattern all of the time by convicting our conscience of the wrongness of our actions or thoughts and it is our responsibility to act on that conviction to do something about it.
It is much worse for people outside of God who begin to go down a sinful path. Perhaps, for various potential reasons including DNA issues deposited by earlier generational sins, or by some level of sexual abuse, a person begins to act out with all types of sexual sins. The more they identify with the sin and allow it to define them, the more they seek out people of the same persuasion or opinion. Their break with reality is not only accepted by their new friends but encouraged and congratulated. This also applies to those persons with gender identity issues. For some reason, again, usually sexual abuse, a part of them forms inside of their personality, soul, mind, brain, emotional base that identifies with the the perception that they are more like their opposite sex than the sex with which they were born.
Clearly, in the case of a person like a superstar world-class athlete, while they might have had these feelings since childhood, they did not openly act upon them until way later in life. Because of their public life, you could see in the supermarket tabloids the various steps they was taking to take on this part of his personality and allow it come out. For a period of time, it becomes stronger in our personal brain-mind-heart-emotional-soul-spirit condition as we give in to the lie and so, that what we could see in tabloid headlines, might be coming true.
As they began to more and more look like a version of their opposite sex, and seeing the physical changes, it was hard for most people our former hero outwardly trying to look like a woman. I have witnessed this personally with people in life and was able to watch the transitional process up close and personal. The main point about this is that the more we come into agreement with the lies, the more that particular delusional window(I am opposite sex) becomes our identity when in truth, it is a lie and sin stronghold(complete with demons) to which we have surrendered. The people of MANBLA,(Man Boy national love association) have gone from hiding their sins in the dark to prominently declaring that this is who they are and how they were made and to not share this part of their lives publicly would be to try to deny themselves. In scripture, God will allow you to get to the illogical extreme point in your actions when you fully give in to sin.
Other serious but less dramatic examples for everyone to see in terms of parts or windows pop up programs and how they come into play deal with the idea of people being “hot-headed” or those who are prone to losing their temper easily. We all know people who when receiving certain stimuli or when (their buttons are pushed) became like different people when their angry parts of their self-come out into public. There are even food companies that show people as completely different nasty character actors when they feel hungry. Once they get their chocolate candy bar, they turn back into themselves showing the idea of switching parts or windows on your screen.
Another great, often cited example is that of a situation where an otherwise, loving wife who has been sexually abused in the past and has not come to terms or worked on moving past the mess that is left. When her well-intentioned, loving, husband gets behind her while she is doing dishes and lightly kisses her ear or neck and she responds with a fury and physically turns with a knife she was cleaning held out towards him, ready to strike, a part of her(window) pops up and takes over her screen entirely. Instead of standing in front of a few dirty dishes, she is brought back into a rape scenario window where her entire being is at risk. It has been shown through various and numerous studies that when that rape window from her past is triggered by the external stimulus, not only do the wrong beliefs pop up about the situation—that is, that she is under attack and should fear of her life, that this person behind her wants to do her harm, but also all of the physiological chemicals that have to do with fight or flight are released again in this circumstance at the sink.
This reliving of the crazy chemical cocktail that was released during the original attack is called a “body memory”. Imagine playing a cross word puzzle in an open window of your computer when suddenly a stimulus in the present pushes the button to take you back into a situation where you were literally fighting for your life, you can see the havoc on lives and relationships that stem from this chaos.
For some people, however, the portions of our minds that takeover during dull, repetitive, activities such as cutting the lawn or driving, are better examples to think about. Many people, at some point in their lives, might wind up at a location after driving and not really remember the details of the trip. While a portion (window) of their mind was focused on the act of driving, another portion (window) was mulling over life circumstances such as problems at work, home, or current problems with a child. The important issue to see here is I believe that after the original sin of our first humans, our mind is fractured in a way that allows us to think more than one thing at a time.
When one of the ideas is against God’s truth and reality as explained or expressed by God Himself, the other operating portion of our brain is based on fantasy or non-truth. The truth is that we all are more than double-minded with our fractured mind/emotions/will/souls. Everyone including me and you. We might be double-minded on a particular issue as whether to partake in a sin or even to exercise today, but when you add up all of the double-minded scenarios that we encounter in our decision-making processes, we are very fractured. Whereas we do not have integrity between our highest thoughts and actions, exampled by an “oneness” in our lives, Jesus was not fractured and had integrity of mind and action always.
He did not even have a lying belief about anything so there was no need to create fantasy windows to hangout in when necessary in order to avoid the truth. Prior to the going to the cross, it is clear that He knew what was coming to the degree that you could imagine such a gruesome death and that is why He asked His Father if it could be done in any other way? He also is rightfully praised to not be in denial of what was coming but to be willing to be obedient even to this awful death. Part of His mission prophesied in Isaiah which he read in the temple was that He has come to bind up the brokenhearted.
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, Isaiah 61:1 NIV
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.17And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
18“THE SPIRIT OF THELORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,
AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
19TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
Luke 4: 16-18 New International Version
While all of these prior examples of double-mindedness show a battle between trying to do the right thing versus giving in to the sinful act, there is a lower level of human behavior dealing with sin issues and that is when the idea of addictions come into play. Addictions not only involve the mind, emotions, will, heart, brain,etc, but also involve chemical reactions within the body that work to further ingrain the bad behaviors. Sinful behaviors that turn into addictions are many times in the current culture and sometimes even the church, are alluded to as “sickness” like it is only a medical condition. Usually, the medical diagnosis is supposed to serve the sinner and make them feel a little less bad about their activities. The truth is, however, that while addictions makes it harder to stop the behaviors, it doesn’t excuse the sin in God’s eyes. With God, the heart(will, mind, emotions) are the important things so getting off of heroin to remain on methadone for the rest of the person’s life is never the final victorious remedy. Instead, even though more difficult, with God’s help, a person must war through the wrong beliefs and lies that got them into the trouble to begin with in order to find relief from the addiction and peace without the substance or activity. In this way, The Way or Jesus sets the captives free because He is the Truth and the truth sets you free.
You are either moving toward God, Jesus, truth and light or moving away towards Satan, lies and darkness. There is no middle ground. As all humans have these characteristics spoken about above, the question becomes whether or not you want to be filled with truth and light or whether you want to move towards denial, escape, lies and continued bondage.
The examples above where people’s countenance drastically changes is called “triggering” or to be triggered. The issue of “triggering” or “being triggered” has made it into our mainstream vocabulary a lot in the recent years especially when it comes to our college campuses. Protesters proclaim that mere speech “triggers” them into fear about their personal safety and therefore should not be allowed. Some colleges have even set up “safe spaces” where dissenting or differing views are not allowed. The problem with this idea is that when people believe lies or are delusional in their thinking, the worst thing is for them not to be confronted with the truth. Despite what you might hear in the media or in other sources, you are not responsible for other person’s triggers. Triggers bring forth an operating window, part, or room from the past that contains lots of misconceptions, lies and delusion. A person traumatized from a mass shooting by rifle could theoretically be triggered by a stylish closed umbrella. Their highly emotional feelings of fear, terror and even possible death would or could feel as real as the first time it occurred but in this scenario, the triggered person would want to ban all closed umbrellas from their immediate area. They would need a safe space that disallowed closed umbrellas. The best way according to scripture is for the truth to communicated in love in these situations which can greatly change the dynamic if the triggered person has any desire in them for the truth.
None of this is to downplay the causes of parts and triggers, but merely to show that as in scripture, “the heart(mind or emotions) is the most devious part of the body and impossible to know(even for the person) except for God. Other people cannot be held responsible to know the inner workings and past experiences of all people they are around in society. Other person’s known and unknown thoughts cannot be a basis for stifling free speech especially in the case of promoting Biblical truths that have been the foundation and cause of success of Western Judeo-Christian values for thousands of years. This is surely a plan of Satan to keep God’s truth from even being spoken about and is clearly wrong. Christians need to stand up against these safe spaces when it comes to not allowing dissenting positions. For God and His word are the things that we most need on this earth. To keep them from being presented is Satan’s ultimate goal as that is the only way he can takeover the earth. If truth is illegal or never spoken and only his lies are, that is when Satan will have the control he craves. We as Christians, should push for “Save” spaces in the public domain so that people in darkness can be confronted with the truth of Jesus Christ.
A Simple Pardigm shift is all is takes to change the course of your life for ever
The whole, integrated, sinless, delusion-less Jesus is our model as He takes on Satan in the desert. The keys come down to a few important precepts for following Him in our lives.
1. We need to know what God thinks about everything in life as He is the decider as He is the creator.
2. We have to believe with all of our heart, mind and soul that the Bible is trustworthy as The Word of God.
3. The best way to learn what God wants is to study the Bible as this is the direct revelation from God for our lives.
4. When we are presented with various stimuli(events, occurrences, thoughts, ideas, sights, sounds, etc), our obedient response is to respond with God’s best for us which always is His view of the matter or issue.
5. If we are not sure of what to do, think, say, or choose on a topic because we are unsure as to God’s view on the issue, we must stop, not do anything but commit to know the will of God for this issue in our life through bible research, prayer, learning from Christian authors, fellowship and counsel from other Christians.
In this way, we can commit to know God’s best for us as we navigate a very polluted culture and our own souls polluted by the lies of Satan not only for ourselves but also for those God has entrusted to us. In this way, we can follow Timothy’s advice to us to.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth”. New International Version 2 Timothy 2:15
“All things are possible” with God including putting our broken selves back together as we remove the lies from Satan about God, ourselves and the world around us. As long as we are willing to push in to find the dark places in ourselves, God is more than happy to bring light and truth through Jesus so we can be free and live more abundantly according to His plans and purposes for us.