SOW LOVE

How to win souls?

Sow LOVE whether you feel like doing it or not. Sow whether the recipient is worthy of it or not. Sow whether it is convenient to you or not. Sow even when it means losing something. Sow even when Lucifer comes to block your way. Sow irrespective of whether you will succeed or fail. Sow in season and out of season.

Teach everyone to conform to the kingdom way and be kingdom-fit.

Desire LOVE, think LOVE, embrace LOVE, eat LOVE, speak LOVE, breathe LOVE, exude LOVE...

God said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as the Messiah loved us…” says Ephesians 5:1-2.

Focusing on saving the rich or raising funds, or proselytizing, or reformatting the personality of your target souls is not soul-winning.

The task is to be fruitful in love (Isaiah 27:6). Sow LOVE so that your target souls may receive it in full measure from you, be affected by it, and be moved to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit.

If they ask why you are doing it, say: that you may magnify your God and Savior, who created you to love and be loved. And say: “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. For we who are alive are always given over to death for Y’shua’s sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:15, 11-12)

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through the Messiah and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in the Messiah, not counting men’s sins against them. 2 CORINTHIANS 5

⁶ He has enabled us to be ministers of His New Covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the New Covenant, the Spirit gives life. 2 CORINTHIANS 3 nlt

The task does not include criticizing, accusing or condemning anyone for his infirmity, weakness, fault or wrongdoing. So do not put down anyone or call him names, or worse, tear him down. Do not nag or scold or embarrass him, moreso subject him to fists of steel. None of it will solve his problem. Strictly speaking you are not after his person or soul but after his spirit. Open his spirit for indwelling, for it to be born again, because only through Spirit-empowerment can his infirmities, weaknesses, faults and wrongdoings be licked.

Our Christian responsibility is to edify (build up in LOVE) everyone within our sphere of influence.

We sow LOVE as much as we can, in as many fields as possible. We sow it hand in hand with the truth. We spare our neighbors from spiritual disinformation and conflict.

¹⁴ Cultivate your neighbors as far as you can. ECCLESIASTICUS 10

We focus on the harvest, not on the cost.

⁶ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 2 CORINTHIANS 9

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ROMANS 8

We don’t have to perform spectacular feats. In most situations, little acts of love will do. A gentle pat, a sincere handshake, a warm greeting or embrace here and there, a short pause for fellowship, an attentive, sympathetic ear... an intercessory prayer, a Word of God aptly said… might be all that is necessary.

⁸ Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 PETER 4 

²² Love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 PETER 1

⁸ Do not owe anyone anything, except [the continuing debt] to love one another. ROMANS 13 cjb

In doing rescue work, people and churches might praise us and idolize us. We should not bask in it or allow it. The honor and glory that belongs to God must never be misappropriated.

⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Y’shua the Messiah as Lord… ⁷ We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 CORINTHIANS 4

²⁴ Remember that… the Master you are serving is the Messiah. COLOSSIANS 3 nlt

¹⁷ Whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Y’shua. COLOSSIANS 3 tlb

The Faithful Bondslave

⁴⁵ Are you a wise and faithful servant? Have I given you the task of managing My household, to feed My children day by day? ⁴⁶ Blessings on you if I return and find you faithfully doing your work. ⁴⁷ I will put such faithful ones in charge of everything I own!  ⁴⁸ But if you are evil and say to yourself, “My Lord won’t be coming for a while,” ⁴⁹ and begin oppressing your fellow servants, partying and getting drunk, ⁵⁰ your Lord will arrive unannounced and unexpected, ⁵¹ and severely whip you and send you off to the Judgment of the hypocrites; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. MATTHEW 24 tlb 

THE SABBATH CALLED UNLEAVENED BREAD

Its Old Covenant Significance

The Feast is called “Unleavened Bread” because, after the Israelites were granted freedom by the Pharaoh, in their rush to flee Egypt, they were unable to bring leavened bread with them.

³³ The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before the yeast was added and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs [bowls] wrapped in clothing… ³⁹ With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked [“matzah”] cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. EXODUS 12

About one million Israelites fled Egypt that day. They were told by God to commemorate the occasion. Instructions were given how. 

³ Do not eat [the Passover lamb] with bread made with yeast, but for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. ⁴ Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. DEUTERONOMY 16

¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do. ¹⁷ Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. ¹⁸ In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Isra’el, [it is immaterial] whether he is an alien or native-born. ²⁰ Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread. EXODUS 12

Its New Covenant Significance

The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds us that we are on earth to be holy and pure. We are exiles and our original home is the Garden of Eden.

Purity is component to the restoration of our original blessed state. Exodus 12:19 which says "...for seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses"  commands us  to keep our tents, persons and  spirits clean. “Seven days” is representative of the “seven years” of the Great Tribulation, the era we are in now. The “yeast” of wickedness and lawlessness must be removed from us. 

                 ²² Keep yourselves pure. 1 TIMOTHY 5

²⁷ Nothing impure will enter [the kingdom of God] ever. REVELATION 21 

⁴⁸ Be perfect therefore as your Father in heaven is perfect. MATTHEW 5

HOW DO WE ATTAIN PURITY?   

To be pure we have to be holy.

² Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. LEVITICUS 19

⁷ Consecrate yourselves… ⁸ Keep My decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy. LEVITICUS 20

¹ Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. 2 CORINTHIANS 7

Holiness is obeying all the instructions of God. How many sins did it take for Adam and Eve to be banished from the kingdom of God? Just one. Likewise, it  takes one sin to keep us out of the kingdom of God.

⁴ Obey Me and do everything I command you. JEREMIAH 11

¹⁰ Whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. JAMES 2 

¹⁵ If you love Me, you will obey what I command… ²³ If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. JOHN 14

Obey God’s instructions 100%, is that possible? It is but no man can do it on his own. 

²⁷ Y’shua looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.” MARK 10

²⁷ What is impossible with men is possible with God. LUKE 18     

Our first parents acted like Esau (Genesis 25:29-34). They pledged their persons and dominion to Lucifer in exchange of one meal of sin. Since then, the humankind has been lorded over by the demonic forces and has stayed under their spell.

¹⁴ I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin… ¹⁸ I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For what I do is not the good that I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. ²¹ So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s Law; ²³ but I see another law at work in members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members… ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ROMANS 7

The demonic forces are opposed to obedience. They have stolen us away from God. They do not want us to be with God. What they want no man can undo on his own. Human power has become inferior to satanic power. Besides, the demons are spirits; there is no way  flesh and blood can grab, punch or kick them. 

⁸ As no man is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. ECCLESIASTES 8 

Given this situation, what can we do to be able to obey God’s instructions? The answer is, submit to water baptism. We align ourselves with God.

Water baptism (which is also called “baptism of the soul”) WILL bring five life-changing blessings.

The remission of sin. At the baptism, the grace of God will forgive all our sins (Colossians 2:13). Its record in the Book of Accounts will be erased (1 Corinthians 13:5). We will be cleansed (2 Peter 1:9); the impure will become pure (Isaiah 1:18). Our heavy load will be lifted off us and we will feel light and bubbly. We will start on life anew, on a clean slate.

The indwelling. As we become pure, we can now contain the Spirit of God and live. The Spirit will once again reside in our spirits. Bible scholars call the process Indwelling. This is what will happen: Before the baptism, the Spirit is with us. John 14:17 says, “He lives with you and will be in you.” At the baptism, the Spirit will be in us. The Spirit will commune with our spirits. There will be marriage. The two (the Spirit  and our spirits) will become one (1 Corinthians 6:17).  

³⁸ Be baptized in the name of Y’shua the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins; then you also shall receive this gift, the Holy Spirit. ACTS 2 tlb

²² [God will] set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts. 2 CORINTHIANS 1 

¹³ We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 1 JOHN 4

As  the  Spirit draws near to dwell in our spirits, the demonic spirits will flee—that is, hurriedly in the same manner darkness flees in the presence of light. God is a consuming fire to the impure (Deuteronomy 4:24). His sh’khinah (super bright presence) radiates energy equivalent to 20 suns (Occult Grand Master Now in Christ, p. 189). If the demonic spirits do not flee, they will burn the way a piece of paper burns when caught in a conflagration. 

Getting rid of the demonic spirits in us is component to our  purity. Our spirits are no different to a bus in the sense that its driver determines its course. The demonic spirits have been driving our spirits since our first parents committed the first disobedience. It has resulted in our hearts turning “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9 kjv) and producing evil thoughts, lewdness, sexual immorality, adultery, greed, envy, theft, murder, malice, deceit, slander, arrogance and folly (Mark 7:21-22).

⁶ Don’t you know the saying It takes only a little hametz to leaven a whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old hametz, so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. 1 CORINTHIANS 5 cjb

The good news is, the indwelling will cause the old hametz (the yeast of wickedness and lawlessness) in us to flee us. And for as long as the sh’khinah dwells in us, the demonic spirits will keep a safe distance from us. 
  

⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. JAMES 4

¹⁷ Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 CORINTHIANS 3

The empowerment. Through water baptism we will align ourselves with Y’shua. Slugging it out with the demonic spirits will be totally unnecessary. Y’shua has overcome all of the evil empire. Its forces (who became demons because they had vowed to disobey God) now obey His commands. They did their best to keep Y’shua in Sheol after the crucifixion; however, three days and three nights later, He disarmed them and stripped them of power and brought them to submission. 

¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities [of the evil empire], He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. COLOSSIANS 2

Our spirits becoming one with the Spirit (with the Spirit of Y'shua to be more precise) will bring empowerment to us. The empowerment will enable us to access and tap into God’s omnipotence and omniscience (John 14:12, Philippians 4:13). It will restore our God-given dominion to act for and on behalf of God. We can rightfully invoke the Most Holy Name and use it to overcome the demonic powers (Luke 10:19), bind the demonic spirits (Matthew 16:19), neutralize and undo wicked works (Matthew 10:8, Mark 16:12-13). We can command the demonic spirits in Y’shua’s name and they will obey us.

¹² But as many as receive Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on His name. JOHN 1 kjv

¹⁷ And [power] will accompany those who believe in My name… MARK 16

⁷ God [has given] us a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 TIMOTHY 1

The empowerment will turn us into righteous strongmen and allow us to be what we can be. It will break the demonic spell and rein that are prompting us to disobey God and miss the mark. It will give us the capability to turn our backs on sin, to obey God’s instructions 100% and to preserve our purity. It will enable us to win our battles and come out of the kingdom war triumphant and restored.

¹¹ [Come] to the Messiah [and] He [will] set you free from your evil desires, not by a bodily operation of circumcision but by a spiritual operation, the baptism of your souls. COLOSSIANS 2 tlb

²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone [stubbornness] and give you a heart of flesh [obedience]. EZEKIEL 36

²⁷ And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to follow My laws. ²⁹ I will save you from all uncleanness. EZEKIEL 36

¹⁶ Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of your sinful nature. GALATIANS 5

²⁴ Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us. 1 JOHN 3

³⁶ If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. JOHN 8

The anointing. Human eyes do not see it but we will get the same anointing the Son of Man had.

He had no need for water baptism. He committed no sin and therefore had no need for forgiveness of sin. From the moment of His conception the Spirit of God was in Him, so He also had no need for indwelling. Yet He went through water baptism. Why? To give us a clear picture of what to expect of it.

First, the forgiveness of our sins and the reconciliation of the sinner in us with God.

Next, the indwelling and our empowerment.
   

¹⁰ As Y’shua was coming out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased.” MARK 1

And then our anointing. 

God will be very pleased with the reconciliation and  the indwelling. He will anoint us as His children and heirs; also, as His coworkers and as New Covenanters (members of His Church).
  

²⁰ You have an anointing from the Holy One. 1 JOHN 2

⁷ You are My son; today I have become your Father. PSALM 2 

¹⁵ …You received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ … Then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with the Messiah… ROMANS 8

Human ears do not hear it but the angels of God will start referring to us as their “beloved” princes and princesses.

⁶ Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. GALATIANS 4

²⁶ You are all sons of God through faith in the Messiah Y’shua, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for you are all one in the Messiah Y’shua. ²⁹ If you belong to the Messiah, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. GALATIANS 3

The writing of our names in the Book of Life. Receiving the four blessings above will make us a new creation. 
  

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in the Messiah, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. 2 CORINTHIANS 5

There will be rebirth and, with it, the writing of our names in the Book of Life.
  

²⁰ Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. LUKE 10

¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 JOHN 5

⁵ He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured on us generously… TITUS 3

Exhortation

Technically speaking, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a reminder for us to submit to water baptism. It’s the first step (and a very critical step) to being holy and pure.

So let us find a man of God to baptize us.

THREE MANIFESTATIONS BUT ONLY ONE AND THE SAME GOD

The apostle Thomas was theologically correct in exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).  Y’SHUA IS YHVH—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is really what 1 Corinthians 12:3, Romans 10:9 and Philippians 2:11 imply in saying “Y’shua is Lord.”  Lord originates from Adonai, a veiled Jewish reference to YHVH.

Y'shua is Jesus Christ to the world. YHVH is God Yahweh in the Catholic versions of the Bible.

Why do you think Y’shua fulfilled a promise made by YHVH in the Old Testament? YHVH said, “I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak” (Ezekiel 34:15-16). Y'shua fulfilled the promise and then identified Himself as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). And as if to emphasize in our minds what the “Good” means, He said, “No one is good—except God alone” (Mark 10:17).  

Y’shua fulfilled another promise of YHVH (“All your sons will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children’s peace”—Isaiah 54:13).

³⁴ He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things. MARK 6  

²² The people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught as one with authority, not as the teachers of the Law. MARK 1 

Is there a contradiction when Isaiah 8:14 says YHVH is “the stone that causes men to stumble” and 1 Peter 2:8 says Y’shua is “the stone that causes men to stumble”? Is there contradiction when Isaiah 8:12, 13 says, “Do not fear what they fear… The Lord Almighty is the one you are to fear,” while 1 Peter 3:14, 15 says, “Do not fear what they fear… In your hearts set apart (Y’shua) the Messiah as (the) Lord (you are to fear)”? There is no contradiction because YHVH and Y’shua were one and the same (John 10:30).

They share one throne (Revelation 7:17, 22:1, 3) and one name (Matthew 28:19, John 17:11).

John 14:16 ("YHVH would send the Holy Spirit to His children") is not opposed to John 16:7 ("Y’shua would send the Holy Spirit to His children"). YHVH saying in Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega  (the beginning and the end), who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” is not opposed to Y'shua saying in Revelation 1:17-18 “I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!”.

Y’SHUA IS THE HOLY SPIRIT (2 Corinthians 3:17). Listen to His prayer the night before His death:  

²⁶ I have made You [Father] known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them, and that I Myself may be in them. JOHN 17

And to what He said to His disciples:  

⁷ It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you. JOHN 16

¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. JOHN 14

Forty days after His resurrection Y’shua ascended unto heaven then returned to earth in Spirit-form to indwell those who shall submit to water baptism. The NIV Study Bible noted that the Scripture talked of the “indwelling” by interchangeably naming Y’shua as the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6), the Spirit of God (Romans 8:9), the Spirit (Romans 8:9), the Spirit of Y’shua (Acts 16:7), the Spirit of the Messiah (Romans 8:9), the Spirit of truth (John 14:16) and the Counselor (John 16:7). 

¹⁷ Now the Lord [Y’shua] is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed [restored] into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 CORINTHIANS 3

⁹ You are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, he does not belong to the Messiah. ¹⁰ But if the Messiah is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ROMANS 8

¹³ When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own… ¹⁴ He will bring glory to Me [Y’shua] by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is Mine. JOHN 16

⁸ I am the [Spirit of] truth. JOHN 14

²⁷ And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to follow My laws. ²⁹ I will save you from all uncleanness. EZEKIEL 36

⁶ Because you are sons [of God], God sent the Spirit of His Son to our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father. GALATIANS 4

⁴⁵ The first Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 1 CORINTHIANS 15

THROUGHOUT THE SCRIPTURE, THE NAMES AND FORMS OF GOD VARIED BUT ONLY ONE GOD SPOKE.

Y’shua was the Ancient of Days who told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of life. Y’shua was the Lord of history, the God who made a covenant with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. Y’shua was the Burning Bush who spoke with Moses and gave the Ten Commandments. Y’shua was the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:3). 

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. JOHN 1

Nowadays Y’shua is the Spirit who whispers to our hearts about LOVE and obedience.  

                ⁸ Messiah Y’shua is the same yesterday and today and forever. HEBREWS 13

¹ In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed Heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. ³ The Son is [the sh’khinah] the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things [the entire creation] by His powerful Word. HEBREWS 1

WE MUST UNDERSTAND WHY Y’SHUA NEVER EXPLICITLY SAID “I AM GOD!”

Y’shua is a respecter of the human freewill. He would not preempt anyone’s freedom to choose which God to love and worship. It is left to every man to discern for himself who He really was and what was meant by His statements “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me” (Luke 4:18) and “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12) and “I have come down from heaven” (John 6:38).

His God-being was so camouflaged that even Lucifer failed to see early on. The devil went to tempt Him in the wilderness, but to Y’shua’s credit, He rebuked him simply, saying, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Luke 4:12).

IT IS NEVER TOO SOON TO ACCEPT THAT Y'SHUA IS GOD.

⁵ The Messiah… is God overall. ROMANS 9

²⁰ We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true—even in His Son Y’shua the Messiah. He is the true God and eternal life. 1 JOHN 5

Do your best to study, evaluate and identify the God we must love. Commandment No. 1 requires it. It is wise to know who really is the kingdom Owner, who is the source of life, and to whom we must be reconciled.  

Unfortunately much as we want to discuss the matter extensively, we have limited space; it cannot accommodate all the proofs that make evident why Y’shua is it. Besides, we better not discuss the matter extensively here because spoon-feeding you all the way might not be good for your spiritual growth.

Take the initiative of knowing God on your own. Read the Scripture and meditate on it. You are welcome to come and seek our help on passages you cannot understand. Better still, pray that God may flash inspirations and understanding to you as you read and meditate, because He would if you do.

Knowing the God we must love will shield us from being carried away by any false claim. Understanding why Y’shua is God will help us stand firm in our faith and explain its basis to our neighbors.

²⁴ Unless you believe that I am who I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins. JOHN 8 nlt

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THE FALL OF MAN

In the beginning the relationship between God and man was perfect, harmonious and joyful, that is, until man disobeyed God. God gave him freewill (the freedom to choose, to be what he can be) and he chose to disobey God.

¹⁴ (God) left (man) free to make his own decisions. ¹⁵ If you wish, you can keep the commandments, ¹⁶ to behave faithfully is within your power. ¹⁷ He has set fire and water before you; put out your hand to whichever you prefer. Man has life and death before him; ¹⁸ whichever a man likes better will be given him. ECCLESIASTICUS 15 

The disobedience led to serious and dire consequences:

Man’s purity was stained with sin. His nature transformed from godly (radiant, beautiful and pure) to ugly (dark, sinful and impure).

God hid from him, and he from Him, because God was a consuming fire to the impure (Deuteronomy 4:24). He might not look at God’s face and live (Exodus 33:20).

The Spirit of God who was residing in the spirit of man had to vacate it because it could not contain the Spirit and live. The vacancy left a vacuum which the demonic spirits filled. They indwelt the spirit of man and clung to it like to a pestering leech. The indwelling enabled them to nudge man to disobey God some more (Ephesians 2:2). And it resulted in the heart of man turning “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9 kjv). It produced evil thoughts, lewdness, sexual immorality, adultery, greed, envy, theft, murder, malice, deceit, slander, arrogance and folly (Mark 7:21-22).

The spirit of man is the virtual head of the soul of man. Proverbs 20:27 and Ephesians 3:16 describe it as man’s inmost being. Luke 6:45 and Ephesians 3:17 refer to it as the heart of man.

Man (whom Genesis 2:7 kjv describes as a living soul) was clothed with garment of flesh (Genesis 3:21). It offered him an alternative lifestyle like drunkenness (loss of God-awareness), dissension (rebellion against godly order), sensuality (limited sense of reality), carousing (excessive pursuit of fleshly desires), selfish ambition (self-centered life direction), envy and jealousy (covetousness), immorality (unfaithfulness), outbursts of anger (intemperance), idolatry and sorcery (ungodly practices in search of power), partisanships (factionalism), and social conflicts (enmity, heresies).

Galatians 5:19 identifies the alternative lifestyle as “acts of the sinful nature.”

Man was banished from the realm of the living and made to walk the realm of the dead. Psalm 115:16 says, “The earth the Lord has given to man.”

In lieu of superabundance, he found poverty and want. The earth was cursed (Genesis 3:17). He had to labor by the sweat of his brow so he could eat and drink.

God took away man’s breath of immortality. Sickness, aging and death visited him—a reminder to us that anyone who does not deal with the corruption that is in him, to dust he will return (Genesis 3:19).

Man was estranged from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18). He lost his connection and access to omniscience and omnipotence. His creativity turned into mediocrity and, often, into failure.

Lucifer usurped man’s dominion. Man (who was left without authority and power to act for and on behalf of God) began to feel weak, insecure and fearful, even of those he used to lord.

In short what happened is that man lost his blessings. Joy, serenity and contentment stopped overflowing in him. They were replaced with conflict, restlessness, emptiness and suffering.

The serious and dire consequences were passed on to everyone in the whole world (Romans 5:12).

Second Death. Man entered the first level of the realm of the dead (call it the First Death). Consequently, all of us were “born physically alive but spiritually dead” (Ephesians 2:1).

      ¹² Sin entered the world through one man… and in this way death came to all men. ROMANS 5

      ³ “God did say, ‘You must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” ⁴ “You will not surely die,” the serpent [Lucifer] said to the woman. GENESIS 3

      ⁴ The soul that sinneth, it shall die. EZEKIEL 18 kjv

On the Day of Judgment the situation could be worse. All the impure-who-stay-impure will be degraded further and estranged farther from God. They will be thrown into the Second Death, where their poverty and suffering will intensify. Revelation 19:20 describes it as the lake of fire and sulfur.

Second Death will mean constant torment. The human flesh will be burned to the bone. New flesh will grow but the fire will burn it again. The process will be terribly and repetitiously painful.   

¹⁷ The Light of Isra’el will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume His thorns and His briers. ISAIAH 10

¹⁹ The people will be fuel for the fire. ISAIAH 9

³¹ The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire. ISAIAH 1

¹ “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them… ³ “Then you [who revere My name] will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things.” MALACHI 4

The condemned will long to die but death will elude them.

¹⁸ Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. ¹⁹ As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning and morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through. ISAIAH 28

A friend remarked, “I may be ignorant of the Word of God but if in good faith I remain faithful to the teachings of my church, then perhaps God would spare me. Maybe I could escape the Second Death.”

Brother, ignorance of the Word is no excuse; it’s death. God said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.” God said it so you won’t miss the mark. Miss the mark is the literal translation of the word “sin.”

¹⁷ If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible. LEVITICUS 5

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