(God leads us through our spirit. The devil leads us through our mind)

“How is that, Augustina?” You may ask.

The spirit of the man is the lamp of God. God is Spirit, and all those who worship Him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth. Meanwhile, when it comes to our minds, we are to renew it. Look at what is said in Romans 12:2; “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

As born again Christians or as people who have given their lives to God, you are a new creation. Your spirit is anew. However, like a new wine in old wineskins, your body and mind is the same (old wineskins). You have to renew these old wineskins so that they can contain the new wine (your anew spirit) which has been poured into them, else, it’s just a matter of time and these old wineskins, your body and mind, will ‘break’ [Mark 2:22].

As a Christian, your spirit is God’s job, but your soul and your body is your responsibility. God can get you saved, but it depends on you to let your body and soul to conform/measure up to your new creation, spirit: “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. [2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV]” This scripture is similar to the scripture in Romans 12:2. You have to work on your soul.

The way you do this is by reading the Bible, get to know what the Word of God says, and bring your thoughts, emotions, feelings and will into conformity with what the Bible says. For example, if someone makes you angry, and the Bible says ‘do not sin in your anger’, as much as you wish to retaliate, as much as you want to push your point across through your reaction, you DON’T! Why? Because the Word of God says you are not to sin in your anger. This way, not acting in your anger helps brings your body or thoughts in subjection to God’s word. Thus, you have made God’s Word paramount and sovereign; you have obeyed God’s Word over your feelings and emotions.

Doing this consistently will help your body and soul to measure up to your recreated spirit. In the end, you will be seen as a “righteous whole”, not a lukewarm personwith a recreated spirit, yet a sinful soul.

You need NOT lose your soul. Your soul is your responsibility. You are a steward of it. And just like how the rich owner who gave his servants talents asked them to account for what they used those talents for, God will also ask you to account for where your soul is at. Have you lost it to the devil in exchange for wealth, or have you kept it in subjection to He, God’s Word?

Know this, Satan leads through the mind. He also bows or obeys the Word of God as sovereign. So if you subject your mind to the Word of God, and decide to obey nothing but the Word of God, it brings Satan under your control (the Word in you). Since your mind is under the control of God’s word, and Satan bows to God’s Word, it implies that, should you obey God’s Word regularly, Satan can’t defeat you. He will always remain under your feet [Luke 10:19].

Look at it this way: The Bible says we are to resist the devil and he will flee from us. How do we resist the devil? Is it by our strength? Is it by our talks? Is it by our intelligence? Remember, the devil was able to trip the first humans on earth. Humans who had face to face relationship with God were tricked by Satan and they fell. How did they fall? By moving away from God’s Word, and trusting in their intellect and senses; “When the woman saw (eyes) that the fruit of the tree was good (intellect) for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable (desire) for gaining wisdom, she took (action/reaction)some and ate it (action). She also gave some to her husband (transfer of evil), who was with her, and he ate it. [Genesis 3:6]”

“But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you? (Where is your mind? Where is your soul? I know my Spirit is in, but where is your mind and soul now?)’ He answered, ‘I heard you (ears) in the garden, and I was afraid (emotions) because I was naked (not clothed in righteousness); so I hid.’ And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked (unrighteous)? Have you eaten (sinned) from the tree that I commanded you (protected you with my Word) not to eat from?’” [Genesis 3:9-11]NIV

“The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ the woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me (mind), and I ate (body). So the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.’ [Genesis 3:12-14 NIV]”

The man and the woman were in the very presence of God, but what defeated them against the devil was that they didn’t bring the trick of the enemy, or their thoughts in obedience to God’s Word. Had Eve said, “God said we shouldn’t eat of the fruit of this tree, SO I am not going to eat it, no matter how desirable and pleasing it is to my eyes” the world wouldn’t have become this wicked, and the devil would have failed. Let’s look at Jesus when the devil tempted him 3 times after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights and was hungry. When he was being tempted of the devil, he brought everything the devil said in obedience to God’s Word; He kept saying“It is written…” and that was how he gained victory over the enemy.

Most of us try to reason with ourselves, or make excuses for our actions; “‘Oh this isn’t that bad.’ ‘It’s nothing.’ ‘It is not harmful.’ ‘You are not hurting anyone.’ ‘Just this one time.’ ‘It for pleasure’… etc”. We say these and many more to justify our actions or calm our raging conscience. I tell you what, the devil existed before man existed. He knows more than we can know on a normal level. The only thing which defeats him, or which he bows to is the Word of God. If you obey the Word of God, Satan will obey you. But if you don’t, and you try to reason it out with your mind, you would have put yourself in the active domain of the devil, and you WILL NOT WIN.

TAKE NOTE: Your mind and your soul is your responsibility.

            Don’t wait on God to save that one too. Just like the fruit of that tree was a command to Adam, the salvation of your soul and body is a command to you. Don’t look at anything, or desire anything which is contrary to the Word of God: “The mind governed by the flesh (SELF) is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh (SELF) CANNOT please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if INDEED the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness… For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to DEATH the misdeeds of the BODY, YOU WILL LIVE.” [Romans 8:6-10, 13].

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever, wants to be my disciple must DENY THEMSELVES AND TAKE UP THEIR CROSS and FOLLOW ME. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life (‘fun’, ‘enjoyments’, ‘life’) for me WILL FIND IT.”[Matthew 16:24-25 NIV].

You know, I don’t want to say much. But what I will leave with you is this: Your mind and soul is YOUR responsibility. Where they are, what their state is, is dependent on YOU; what you have done. If your spirit is saved, but your body and soul isn’t, then you are lukewarm. And as a lukewarm, you are as good as an unsaved soul_ YOU WILL BE SPAT OUT OF GOD’S MOUTH.

“So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” [Revelation 3:16 NIV].

The Grace of the LORD be with you.

Amen.

Stay Blessed.