God never develops one part of our being at the expense of the other; spirit, soul, and body are kept in harmony.
~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
~ from Hebrews 4
Oh beloved, it is true. We are complex beings. There are parts of us so deep that the depth goes far beyond any conceptualization. For within the heart of a man is eternity. Each of us know, really know, that we are to live forever. And though our bodies and brains rail against this, there is something within that knows the truth.
It seems from earliest parts of life in Him, there begins this process wherein His Spirit does start to break us down into the shallower and deeper parts. And this is needed, because the brain was obeying the flesh. The flesh was corrupting the mind. And the soulish mind of our being was corrupting our spirit.
The influence was not just corrupting, there was violence amongst our members. The flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Nothing good dwells in that part of us. It is not that the actual material vessel is bad. It is that the vessel has been so stained by the law of sin and death, that it is impossible to renew. And all along the way, the mind is caught in the crossfire, bringing about a deep sense of confusion and angst.
Somehow in the process, we begin to think that we are coming apart. We can begin to sense the different tones of the voice within us. The impatient whine of the flesh becomes easily discerned. Eventually though, there comes a deeper and quieter difference. We begin to tell the difference between the mere intellectual mind of who we are, and our spirit which has been made alive in Christ.
It is not that the mind is always wrong, and it is not always that our spirit is always right. But, when the two are inseparably attached, it is a source of discord within us. For the wisdom that the spirit receives by revelation utterly outclasses the academic or intellectual prowess of the soul. And the soul, being closer to the flesh, is influenced by the immature whine of the old man we are learning to reckon dead in our spirit.
So He, through His Word, goes to work breaking us apart. The process is delicate and deep and painful. As the blade approaches some of the connections, the agony is horrendous. Each of the aspects of who we are have created dysfunctional ways of dealing with each other. And it is this dysfunction which must be cleared away, that we begin to function as the fully human beings we have been made into.
The works of the flesh are put to death, and now our physical body can be presented as an instrument (even a weapon) of righteousness.
The mind becomes an incredibly powerful processor of wisdom received from Him. And this replaces the unreliable process of the mind coming up with its own ideas on how to live.
The spirit becomes the infinite-bandwidth interface we have with Him. It can be wholly holy unto Him. And in becoming one with Him, our spirit begins to have pervasive and positive influence on the rest of who we are. We begin to live in profound agreement and peace (is there any difference?) with Him.
Can we see it? He does not break us apart to make us weak, but He does divide and conquer. However, the beauty of this conquest is not that we are left useless and fragmented. It is, rather, that all the astonishingly wonderful aspects of the new creation we are, can now work in concert with His Spirit at work within us.
We become free to feel without our emotions overwhelming us.
We become free to desire without succumbing to lust.
We become free to hurt without the fear we will lose faith.
We become free to think without the concern that our minds will run away on us.
We become free to see things as they really are.
We become free to hear His voice clearly.
We become free to Love without needing it back from others (for now we will never run out anyway).
We become real. We become what we had always wanted to be, but had no idea on how to do it. For it took Him cutting us apart in ways that we never thought were even possible.
Are you feeling conflict and angst and doubt and fear beloved? Good. Tonight is your night to lay back and let Him cut. It is just a little pain. Like giving birth. But soon the memories of this laborious process will be forgotten in the profound joy of the freedom He gains for you.
Let Him cut beloved.
