Your soul is independent and stands between your spirit and your physical body.

We as humans are made in the image and likeness of God —— and God is three in one.

Likewise, we are three in one in the sense that we are made up of three primary elements. We have a body which is physical, a soul which is more difficult to fully describe but can be explained as mind, emotions and will; and we are spirit.

When God made Adam, He said that His creation was “very good”.

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Genesis 1:31

Many Christians have the notion that the mind or emotions are not good, and in order to walk with God they have to be denied.

Well, God said that the creation of your mind, emotions and will was “very good”. In one sense, your soul is independent and stands between your spirit and your physical body, ready to be used by more than one spirit influenced either by good or evil.

The question is, who is controlling your mind, emotions and will?

This year on April 30, while praying, I suddenly found myself walking along a road with The LORD. The road was made of finely pressed gold dust and felt extremely comfortable underfoot.

The vegetation on either side was a vivid emerald green studded with flowers that seemed to be alive and welcoming.

We walked for some time without either The LORD or I speaking until we came to the foot of a mountain.

On the top of the mountain was a castle. This castle stood out with clean lines and perfect symmetry.

The LORD turned and said, “This is the stronghold of Zion.”

Scriptures floated through my mind, one of which is found in 2 Samuel 5:

“Nevertheless, David took the strong hold of Zion, that is, the City of David.” 2 Samuel 5:7.

I then noticed that this fortress, or castle, touched earth and reached into heaven and was composed of three levels. The top level reached into heaven, the bottom level touched the earth, and the middle level seemed to be a meeting ground for both heaven and earth.

The LORD was watching me as I was taking all of this in. I turned to Him and He touched me. As He did so, a stream of understanding flowed into me.

I immediately understood that this fortress was a picture of our three-part nature of body, soul and spirit.

The upper level was our spirit, with the middle ground between the upper and lower levels representing our soul, and the bottom level was our physical body.

The LORD turned to me and said, “The middle ground is where the soul is enlightened from heaven, which is where your spirit dwells; your spirit is joined to me and dwells in the heavenly realm while still on earth within you.

Does not John 3:13 say, ‘No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven’?

A part of you —— your spirit dwells with me.

In 1 Corinthians 6:17 it says, ‘But he who is joined to The LORD is one spirit with me.’

When heaven touches your soul, either through revelation or through visions and dreams, or by angels, your soul is enlightened.

Your soul must be touched by heaven, which illuminates your mind and touches your emotions.

You are the stronghold of Zion. David’s tabernacle is within you. That part of you, your spirit, which dwells in the heavenlies and is seated with Me, must become the foremost driving force in your life.

Your soul must be surrendered to your spirit, and your mind must be in subjection to My Word and your spirit.

Your will must choose who it will serve: either Me or you. If you choose Me, then your body can step in to carry out My Will for you at all times.

The problem that arises with the unrenewed mind is that it cannot receive that which your spirit knows.

Many times, I have had to speak to you in dreams and visions, which bypass any opposition from the natural mind.”

My mind began to recall familiar scriptures from the book of Hebrews:

“But you have come to Mount Sion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Hebrews 12:22-23.

There is a place within us that is activated when we learn to live from our spirit. It is The Secret Place of the Most High.

Our soul must be touched by heaven. This renews our mind, strengthens our will and focuses our emotions. Our spirit dwells in a realm beyond time and space.

When the apostle John was in the spirit on The LORD’s Day, he accessed the heavenly realm. We can walk with The LORD when we are conscious of, and submitted to, our spirit within us.

Learning to walk in our spirit with The LORD means that we develop an awareness of our spirit and its position in the spiritual realm.

We know that our spirit is seated with The LORD in heavenly places and has a higher ranking than principalities and powers. Remarkably, it is our spirit that has this dominion, as the following verses illustrate:

“And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6.

“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church.” Ephesians 1:18-22.

Manifesting Jesus

“And he said unto them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”“ Mark 16:15-18.

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Luke 10:19.

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Romans 8:37.

These scriptures speak of the authority of the believer and are often used to teach and verify who we are in Christ, that is, we are more than conquerors, and so on.

However, the phrase “who we are in Christ” can give a wrong emphasis to the reality of this important truth.

The emphasis should be on WHO CHRIST IS IN US. The very DNA of Jesus was implanted in our spirit at the new birth, and we are complete in Him (Colossians 2:9-10).

The Apostle Peter tells us that we have the seed of God in us:

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:23.

Jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil

“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” 1 John 3:8-9.

Here, John is saying that there is a part of us that cannot sin. That part of us is the seed of God that cannot sin because it is holy and pure.

John goes on to say that Jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil.

The question is, who are you manifesting?

The answer to this for most of us is that sometimes it is Jesus and sometimes it is our fallen nature, as James points out:

“Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” James 3:10-11.

If we are to destroy the works of the Devil, we must manifest Jesus.

We need to think carefully about this statement. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote,

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

The Words that Jesus spoke were spirit and life!

The whole of the universe obeys the words of Jesus, and when He speaks through us, what He says will be fulfilled.

That is why the apostle James could write the following:

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7.

It cannot be us that resist the Devil; it has to be Jesus in us. We must first submit to God in us and let Him speak through us.

We are not clever enough to know and understand what is really going on in any given situation.

Sons of God are led by the spirit of God:

“And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to say anything? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.” Numbers 22:38.

We have to submit to the Spirit of God within our spirit, and in faith speak His words.

As we learn to listen to and move with our spirit (in which Jesus dwells), we learn to live and walk in the Spirit.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:16,25.

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus The LORD, so walk ye in him.” Colossians 2:6.

Now, if we don’t know where The LORD is, how can we walk in Him?

We must learn to live and walk from our spirit, which is one spirit with The LORD.

When we walk from our spirit, our soul is not controlling our life, and we will not fulfill or walk in the lusts of our flesh.

We cannot live the way God wants us to live

Only Jesus in us can live that way, and we must learn to submit to His will and direction. God is looking for the expression of Jesus’s life in us.

As we learn to surrender our lives to Christ’s life, nature and power within us, only then can those attributes be manifested through us. It is not what we want but what He wants, and as we become sensitive to our spirit, in which He dwells, submitting to His desires, we will begin to manifest Jesus who is revealed in us to destroy the works of the Devil.

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Galatians 5:17.

We come back to the question: who are we manifesting?

Are we manifesting the works of the flesh or the fruit of the spirit?

The power of man or the power of God?

We become more than conquerors when we manifest Jesus. Whoever we submit to, we become slaves to:

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Romans 6:16.

Faith and Grace

“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Ephesians 3:19.

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:8-10.

God has made it easy for us!

We Christians have a bad habit of making simple things very complicated.

The scriptures make it clear that even a child can understand it and do what is required.

So, what is the problem?

For a number of years, I worked for a marketing company that used the acronym K.I.S.S., which means “Keep It Simple, Stupid”. We Christians need to take heed of that admonition.

“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” Isaiah 35:8.

Becoming as a little child

“And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:2-3.

This is quite a profound statement. The problem is that we don’t believe it.

We believe that unless we are very spiritual —— or very educated in the things of God —— we cannot walk in the realities of the kingdom now.

The Galatian Church had the same problem that we have today:

“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” Galatians 5:6-7.

The Galatian Church had started well but began to fall from grace into works.

They started to believe that circumcision (works) was needed in order to please God —— much like The Church of today.

The Scriptures are clear in as much as they tell us that works cannot please God or cause us to walk with Him.

God requires that we walk in faith and love. That is not complicated. Only faith and love, which are gifts from The LORD, can enable us to please God:

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligent- ly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6.

Two great pillars of The Church: Grace and Faith

We already have everything that we need in order to successfully fulfill our purpose on earth.

Not only does The LORD give us assignments, He also supplies us with the ability and gifts to accomplish those assignments.

Right now, we are complete in Him. Your spirit man has all that it needs to finish its course on this planet.

If you can grasp this and believe it, you are on the way to a walk with The LORD that you never dreamed was possible.

Faith believes God’s word —— what God says —— without doubting, and faith comes by hearing God speak, either through the word or directly to us.

We cannot please God without faith. He that comes to God must believe that He is or that He exists and hears us (Hebrews 11:6;1 John 5:14).

This seems simple and it is, but many Christians do not believe what God says, either in His word or directly to them.

Many —— even teachers of the word —— will explain away God’s word by spiritualizing it or suggesting why it doesn’t literally mean what God says.

He who comes to God must believe!

Believing is seeing —— or is seeing believing?

We often hear the phrase, “seeing is believing”, but that is not true. To really see, you must first believe.

This is where the secular mind falls down every time. The secular mind must have a rational explanation before it can believe.

You cannot understand the things of God unless you first believe them:

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:3.

By believing we understand!

Childlike Faith or Trust!

The qualities of childhood are innocence and trust; add to this a sense of wonder, joy and living in the present moment.

These magical qualities of childhood are what The LORD wants us to possess.

It requires an absolute surrender to The LORD and a will that is committed to following and obeying Him in all things.

It means living from and being aware of our spirit, and above all, trusting God implicitly with our lives, knowing that all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called into His purposes.

We forget that we are more than human beings on a spiritual journey. In reality, we are spiritual beings on a human journey.

This world is not our final home: we are here to learn how to love and obey The LORD implicitly.

Earth is a schoolhouse in which we learn to cooperate with The LORD as sons, training to become an extension of His purposes and plans in the age to come.

To walk in the Spirit with The LORD requires that we learn to walk from our own spirit, which is joined to His. Remember:

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16.

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25.

This article is taken from Nevile’s book: “Secrets of the Kingdom Vol 5”
Available from web store: TheAcademy.au

 

~ Neville Johnson ^©

---

The Late Neville Johnson – The Academy of Light. Neville was in full time ministry for over 40 years. During this time he has founded two Bible schools training ministers and missionaries who are now serving The LORD in fifteen nations. He was Director of Living Word Academy of Light in Australia and preached the Gospel and taught the Word of God in over thirty nations and has ministered in countless ministers seminars around the world, with a burden for the lost and an apostolic calling to The Nations.
Neville returned to be with The LORD on September 1, 2019.

Back to Top