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"The Word of God is
living and active and sharper than any two edged sword";
The Orthodox Jewish Rabbis' hold to the belief that the seat of life is in the blood, where it is thought that the 'soul essence' of a person resides. We are in agreement with the Rabbis, for the Holy Word of God Almighty declares: For the life (nephesh) of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it (the life blood) to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls (nephesh): For it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul (nephesh). (Leviticus 17 verse 11). In medical science, it is understood that the life of the physical body is dependent upon a beating heart that circulates throughout the body, the life giving strength of the blood with its multitude of physical properties. In this context, it would be understood that the life of the body is synonymous with the flowing blood. However, in view of the above Levitical scripture, we would like to extend our thoughts beyond the natural association of blood with life, and incorporate the Jewish Rabbis' understanding of God's Word of life that is to be one with the soul. Within the noted Scripture in Leviticus 17, we see in the green links that both of the English words 'life' and 'soul' are transliterated from the solitary Hebrew word 'nephesh'. Hence, the words 'life' and 'soul' are synchronous to each other, as translated from the one Hebrew word 'nephesh'. For contrast, the English word for 'blood' in Hebrew is 'dam', as distinct from the Hebrew word 'nephesh'. If we put the translated words in Leviticus 17 verse 11 into expanded English thought, then for clarity we might appreciate this amplification: For the life, (which is the very soul) of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given the (life which is in the) blood to you upon the altar to make an atonement (a cover) for your soul, (which is your very life). In our endeavor, we are seeking to bring a clarification to the natural life force of a creature, that is associated within blood, and link its life force to the soul within all of God's creatures. God made it clear in Leviticus chapter 11 that in His covenant with Israel that the soul, the very life in the blood of the sacrificial animal would be a cover for the sins of the soul of the individuals of Israel. Therefore, from researching the Word of God, we believe that the unseen soul is the very essence of life, of not only man kind, but all creatures will naturally have the soul's distinguishing life essence existing within the blood that flows from a beating heart. The soul holds the full essence of natural life for both humans, as well as for the natural life within all of the individual species that God created. For the record, we see in the book of Job that the scriptures associate a soul for the beast of the earth. (See Job 12 verse 7 thru 10.) Now, if the reader goes to Revelation 16 verse 3, then Scriptures will also reveal that all of the unnamed creatures of the sea are collectively called souls. Let's continue with the necessary ground work to support our further understanding. We need to return to Genesis and further gather our thoughts around the un-clarified but forensic evidence in the written Word of God. Upon reading the Scriptures, we see that during both the fifth and sixth days of God's creation, Elohim respectively created all life forms either from the sea or from the land. Now, for our practical focus on the soul and too arrive at the same place of understanding, we will set aside the 5th day of God's creation of sea creature, and utilize only the scriptures of the sixth day, when all land creatures were created including Elohim's special creation of Man/Adam. And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, quadrupeds and reptiles and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and it was so. For God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and cattle according to their kind, and all the reptiles of the earth according to their kind, and God saw that they were good. And God said; Let Us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He Man: Male and female created He them. (Genesis 1 verse 26 thru 27.) For the Lord God formed Man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the Breath of Life: and Man became a Living soul. (Genesis 2 verse 7) We note from the beginning of scripture that the completely formed body of Adam, with all of its wondrous detail, including the yet non circulating blood, did not make Adam a "living" soul, until the Lord God Elohim divinely breathed His Breath of Life into Adam's nostrils. (See Genesis 2 verse 7.) Adam was a special creation of God, made by the Breath of God to be a 'living' soul, and not just a natural soul like the animals. It was with the Breath of Elohim that the soul in the blood of Adam was infused with God's Life, for then Adam's soul became uniquely one in spirit with Elohim's Spirit of Life. At that very moment of Elohim's Breath, then Adam's heart began to beat and the blood began to flow throughout Adam's body that God formed from the earth. Adam was made to be a unique living soul, after the Likeness of His Creator, for Adam's natural soul was transfused with God's Divine Essence by God's Spirit of Life. Many pastors of the pulpit have parroted the thoughts of their seminary teachers. The Pastors having paid for their indoctrination, now maintain in their own settled minds, a quasi distinction between what they have been taught is God's creation of the soulless beast of the earth, and that of the soul of Man, who was created in the image and originally in the Likeness of Elohim, the Creator God. This confusion, infused in man's biased learning, continues to be orchestrated from the pulpit in the hearing of the people of the pews. The pastors and teachers unequivocally instruct their sitting subjects of the pews, that the book of Genesis makes no mention of God's other creatures as having a soul. Therefore, these proud pulpit pastors have assumed that with the lack of the mention of a soul's association with the beast, then it means that these creatures have no soul. Leviticus 17 verse 11 and other Scripture verses dispels this false notion. But what is a soul, and what makes for the difference in one soul from another? DNA Yes, but note this distinction: There is a vast difference between a natural soul possessing life, and that of the Holy Breath of God's Spirit that makes a distinct living soul that is the first Man/Adam, who was made not only in the image of Almighty God, but indwelt with the very Spirit of the Lord God Almighty! The Likeness of the Holy Spirit of the God of the Living vacated the soul of Man, when Adam chose death over the Life of God. God's Holy Spirit of Life was no longer indwelling the soul of Man/Adam. Is there an intrinsic value you would dare to place on the Infinite God's Breath of Life? (See H5397 ) So let's ask an obvious question: What is it within the beast that makes the animals possess life? The wisdom of the elder Job gives us the answer: Who does not know in all these that the Hand (Power) of the Lord brought this forth; in Whose Hand is the soul of every living thing, and (possessing) the breath of all of mankind. (Consider again Job 12 verse 7 thru 10.) Job knows for a certainty that the Infinite Creator of all things holds the natural life of all souls, of both the animals and of natural man kind in His Hand of creative Power. We can surmise with Job's statement, that the nephesh or the soul, is the enabling unseen force that makes for the physical life of all creatures. We witness with God's Spirit that the animal's soul (nephesh) would be the driving energy, within the fluid of the blood, that cause's the creature to pursue its own self-preservation and the drive to propagate its own genetic kind (species): Apart from the superior intellect of man kind, the soul of fallen man kind is just like the inclusive soul of the self that resides within all the other living entities of God's creations. The soul is the life, and the life is the soul of all naturally living creatures in God's creation. Again, when we look to the earthen form of the Man/Adam, we see that God breathed His Breath of Life into the first Man/Adam, and it is then that Adam became a 'living' soul, and a son of God. The distinction from that of an animal's life and that of Adam, is that the first Adam is made a 'living' soul by the Breath of the Spirit of the Eternal God, while the animals are souls that live in the natural world. Hypothetically, if God had not breathed into the nostrils of the form of Adam, could the Man/Adam made of the natural earth still be a soul? Absolutely Yes; for that is what fallen man has become, a natural soul with the baser animal instincts. The natural man is out of God's order, and is a lost soul awaiting death. having an existence apart from the Breath of the Spirit of Life from the Almighty God. All of God's creatures have life within them because of the soul that exists within the 'full' dynamics of the natural blood. The true distinction of the first Man, and that of the sea creatures and the breast of the field, is that the Breath of God's Holy Spirit of Life was originally instilled into the soul of Adam, thereby making Adam to be a son of God. Therefore, the spirit of Adam's intellect became initially One in Spirit with His Creator, the God of the Living. By the Breath of Elohim God, the soul of Adam, the Man, was given Life in the Likeness of the God of the Living. Therefore the Spirit of God was within the soul of Adam, male and female, to direct them in the Way of Life as the Creator God had intended for His creation of Man. For the LORD God commanded Adam: "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die." (Genesis 2 verse 16 thru 17.) (NKJV.) As you know the devil, in the disguise of a serpent, deceived Adam and his wife, and in their illicit desire for the power, they ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This rebellion to their Creator's Verbal Direction caused the Holy Spirit of God, to leave Adam and Ishshah in their choice of death. Because of the treason of the first Adam, the soul of Man with his wife Ishshah, later to be called Eve, became dead to the Life of God, for the Life of the Spirit of God (Breath H5397 Nishmah) left the souls of Adam and his wife Ishshah to their own selves. Without the Life giving Spirit of God, the conscience of their minds were already twisted in their choices of good and evil, and death would possess them. The very souls of Adam and Ishshah/Eve would naturally be like the souls of the beast of the fields, and in death, the natural man would return to the dust of the earth. For Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and (in his one hundred and thirtieth year) begot a son in his own likeness and after his own image and called his name Seth. And all the days of Adam were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. (Please See Genesis 5 verse 3 thru 5.) Because of Adam's insurrection, instigated by the deception of Satan and his lust for God Almighty's Power, the Likeness of God in His Spirit had departed from the soul of Adam, and now all of the Man's prodigy would be born into the world having a natural soul with an independent spirit conceived in the mind set of Adam's own likeness of spirit. As proof of our naturally self serving disposition, all of humanity, when left to our own selves, are rebellious to our Maker, and will continually breed the nature of sin and death that opposes the Creator of Life. The Almighty God of Creation, understanding sin's pursuing violence within time, vacated Adam's soul. Now with the absence of the Holy Spirit of the only Creator God of the Living, then Adam's soul, would have an unseen empty hole in his life. So it is with all of Adam's prodigy, for every person that is born into this world, enters life, being born a natural soul of the earth that will stumble around trying to establish its own self worth. In man's pursuit for purpose, the empty soul that is man, will seek the ways of the world to fill the desires of its flesh. Not knowing what we are doing, we seek our own individual satisfactions through experiences that are not that much different from the natural instincts of the beast of the field. Yes, the natural wisdom of sin, leading to death, is now ingrained within the soul of man kind, filling the void left by the Holy Spirit of the only God of the Living. The soul of man is enslaved to the will of sin that breeds death, and that same soul needs to be purchased back by Holy God's Spirit of Life that gives freedom to the soul that was dead. From the beginning of His creation of time, the Holy God Almighty would justly intervene in the flow of time, and then at specific time, He would send forth His Eternal Word to be incarnately conceived in the womb of a Hebrew virgin. The Word of God would be genetically born as the Son of Adam/Man, and God's Last Man, Jesus/Yeshua would absolutely trust in the Will of His Holy Father God Almighty for the Salvation of mankind. God's first Adam grossly sinned against his Maker and brought death to all of mankind, but God's Last Adam, Jesus/Yeshua in His Love and Obedience to His Father God, suffered and died for sins, and in His resurrection from death, brought forth God's Promise of His Spirit of Life everlasting. Without the resurrection of God's Holy Son of the Living, then all of man kind would waste away to be nothing, but dust and ashes. (See Genesis 3 verse 19.) Yet though He was His Son; It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when Thou shall make His Soul an offering for sin. While our souls are reasoning together, then let us continue to shed more light on the heart of the matter and consider the logic of it all. If you understand our ground work in addressing the soul and the life, then let me ask the reader: What is it within God's first Covenant, that makes the life blood of an innocent animal worthy to make a temporary atonement for the soul of a man? You may now know the answer: It was the life (nephesh) of the soul (nephesh) of the innocent trusting lamb, or a domesticated trusting bullock, or a human, trusting dove that would initially make a temporary atonement for the dead soul (nephesh) of the Hebrew Man or Jewish man (ish) of God's old Covenant. Almighty God gave instructions to the Israelites in what is called the Torah, but God's first Covenant, for the sons of Israel, was in the sacrificial blood of His prescribed innocent animals seen in the above paragraph. The Torah, with its commandments and instructions was given to the Hebrew Race by the Creator so as to protect His Holy Word concerning God's Promised Messiah. Of absolute necessity, God's Word, given in the Garden of Eden, would inter into conception with the seed of Woman, to be born in the genetics of the first Man/Adam. (See the seed of Ishshah/Woman.) Elohim's Word would not fail, in one jot or title, even in sin's corruption of time. The Lord God gave the Ten Commandments with quarantining instructions for the Race, and with the Jews failures to comply to the over instructions, the Lord imposed the works of animal sacrifice to protect the Hebrew Race from themselves, so that the genetics of the first Man of God's creation would continue in their lineage. The sacrificial blood of the appointed souls of animals, would cover the sins of the repentant souls of the sons and daughters of Israel/Jacob. The soul of man was born naturally into this world, only to die like the beast of the field. Holy, Holy, Holy Yahweh's Justice required life for life, and so the life of the first born souls of the beast was given on the altar to make an atonement for the soul/life of man. For the life (nephesh) of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it (the life blood) to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls (nephesh): For it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul (nephesh). (Leviticus 17 verse 11). This Covenant sacrifice of the life/soul of the animal would continue until God's Promised Messiah would come in the flesh of the original Adam/Man, and He would die, once and for all time, for the souls of man that are bound in sin and death. The souls of animals die, so the sacrifices of animals was only a temporary adjunct in the first Covenant of blood. Now that Messiah Yeshua/Jesus had come in the genetic flesh of the first Adam, and died for sin once, and with His bodily resurrection in the Power of the Eternal Life of His Father, Jesus/Yeshua the Man would never die again. The old sacrifices of the souls of sacrificial animals for the souls of man, were never permanent, and are completely unacceptable to the Almighty God, Who saves the soul of man, by man's faith in the Grace of His Spirit of Holiness in His Son Jesus Christ. Before a person's inevitable death takes place, the natural soul must be born again of God's Spirit of Life. Absolutely, Absolutely, I say unto you: Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. For God so Loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting Life. (See John 3 verse 3 thru 17.) The first Adam lost faith in His Creator and brought death to the souls of his prodigy, but Christ Jesus the very Last of Adam's genetic Race, absolutely believed in the Word of His Father, and came to restore Life to the souls of man kind that believe in Him. This Faith of Christ Jesus brings about a new birth of the soul that was completely void of God's Spirit of Life, so that the Spirit of Life in God may occupy the vacancy where God's Spirit of Life was missing, and where the darkness of sin had taken occupancy. To see Life, man's soul absolutely must be born again, and made to be a Living soul, through a trusting faith in the sacrificial Life/Soul in the Blood of God's only Begotten Son, the Man Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. (See John 1 verse 28 thru 30, and chapter 3 verse 16 thru 18.) What is the condition of your faith in the Word of God; dead, stagnant or Alive? Submitted Lives in God's Keeping For if anyone be a hearer of the WORD and not a doer, they are like a person beholding their natural face in a glass (mirror), and seeing themselves go their way, and immediately forget what manner of person they were. (See James 1 verse 22 thru 24.) (See follow-up James 4 verse 1 thru 10.) We are all forgetful of the manner of person we were before Christ Jesus entered our lives to save our souls by justifying faith. By faith in Christ, we have been forgiven of the sins of the past, but the consequences of our past and present sins have a continuing affect in the persons that were violated by our actions or inactions. And so the sowing of our shameful actions of our flesh continues its breeding of death in the world. When the nature of our old flesh is manifested within us, we blame the devil for reminding us of who we were, and not realizing that it is God's Holy Spirit of Grace reproving the decaying flesh of our redeemed souls. We forget that our self centered unredeemed flesh is a continuing destructive problem in this dark world of violence and needs to be accountable to God and His WORD of Salvation. Holy God Almighty has not forgotten the problem that exist in the flesh of His people, but by His Spirit of Grace, He provides His Only Remedy for the truly repentant soul that is born again through faith in the Word of God. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, (See John 16 verse 7 thru 8.) we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat (of the Lord's Provisions), tarry one for another. (1st Corinthians 11 verse 31 thru 33.) Now just suppose if we, who are saved by God's Covenant of Grace in the Blood of Christ Jesus, could miraculously view our souls in a spiritual mirror, what would we see? Would it still be a soul hidden in the shadows of self indulgence or would it be a liberated soul of great faith in Jesus Christ, which is continually being clarified by the Love and Light of God, through the Fountain of the Spirit of the Water of the WORD of GOD? It would be wonderful if our souls looked like the latter image, however the revelation would undoubtedly spoil us, for we, who are forgetful of what manner of man we are in our flesh, would still have the same everyday need of our Savior, just as He is needed for the former mirrored image of the soul still struggling with its fleshly self. (See 2nd Corinthians 3 verse 17 thru 18). We can do nothing to justify our selves, apart from the Sanctifying and saving Grace that is in the Sacrificial Life Blood of Jesus Christ. Our souls and spirits have the infinite need of the Life (Nephesh) in the Covenant Blood of our Savior, clarifying within ourselves, just Whom we really do belong to. When God looks upon the soul of an individual, who has faith in Christ's Covenant Blood, God sees and knows the imprinted soul of that person is of His own Seed, because He sees the very same Life Blood of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, not only covering, but infused into the soul of the person who is born of His Perfect Love. The Communion Blood and the Water of God's Word, imprints over the confessed gross infidelities of our old nature with its flaws, and leaves the imprint of God's WORD and Son Jesus, upon the soul of the new creation. Because of the Blood of His Only Begotten Son Jesus, God does not see the flawed imprints of sin on the soul of the old man of sin, but He sees the new man being regenerated through and by God's Gift of Faith, maintained within the New Covenant, in the Perfect Life Blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, Who was and is, and is to come as the Son of God Almighty. On an individual basis, we each need to heed our Chief Physician's instructions to daily deny our own selfish desires that are initiated within our fleshly minds, and thereby learning from the afflictions of the cross while we follow the Lord. ( See Matthew 16 verse 24 thru 25.) Even with our failures to comply to His instructions, when we, in thanksgiving have submitted our lives to God's keeping, He will jealously protect what is His, for the Blood Covenant of Jesus Christ shall not permit sin to have dominion over those who are joined in His Spirit's unity to each other within the risen Body of Jesus Christ. When our minds become encumbered with the burdens of idolatrous sins of the flesh, and if we have not hardened our heart to the Spirit's prompting, then when we come together in His Body, we should humbly call upon the Lord our Physician, and give to Him our sincere confession of our hearts infidelities, confusions and weaknesses. We know that our God is Faithful, and through the Life (Nephesh) sustaining infusion of His Living Covenant Blood, He will forgive and permit the Thanksgiving New Covenant Blood to cleanse the gross impurities that are foreign to His good will, and errors of the flesh which don't conform to the new creation born of the Word of God. Because there is Eternal Life in the Covenant Blood of Jesus Christ, then the refreshment of that Life, through His Holy Spirit of Grace, is given to His members as assurance to our minds, of God's faithfulness to His Covenant Word, and To Be the only source of nourishment for the soul and spirit of all believers within His Body. However, there are warnings to be heeded in God's amnesty program: If sin is not sincerely repented of by a member of the Blood Covenant and the person continues to practice the sin so that the member becomes corrupted or hardened by the sin, then the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ through the Word of His testimony, will isolate the member for severe correction. If there is no compliance, then God may destroy that cellular member as alien from the Life of the Body and for the sake of the Body of Jesus Christ. Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. (1st Corinthians 3 verse 16 thru 17.) Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting. (Galatians 6 verse 7 thru 9.) If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the Truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the Blood of the Covenant that Sanctifies him, and who has insulted the Spirit of Grace? For we know Him Who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge His people." It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10 verse 26 thru 31.)
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Robert Glenn Pratten |
