“Welcome to Torah Today Ministries, our continuing series, Body, Soul and Spirit. And this is the fourth and final teaching in this series. The first teaching was an introduction to how we are souls, but we have a body, but we also have a spirit.
And then the second teaching, we discussed the body-soul connection. The third teaching, the soul-spirit connection. But this is the teaching, the fourth one, on the spiritual believer that I’ve really been looking forward to.
Because everything leads up to this. And unless you and I become spiritual believers, then so much of the effort God has put into our lives, so much of the pain we’ve gone through and all the experiences we’ve had over the years, it’s all kind of wasted. God wants us to become spiritual people.
He wants to restore his image in us as it was in Adam and Eve before the fall. Now, that’s a tall order. And please don’t hear me sitting here teaching you as if I’m the spiritual authority.
I am the one who has arrived a spiritual maturity. I’m a spiritual believer. Let me show you how it’s done.
That’s not it at all.”
“What I just want to share with you is that the scriptures do reveal to us the principles that are built in place for each of us to become a spiritual man or a spiritual woman. I just want to share these principles with you.
I still have a long way to go. And though I may not have arrived at the destination, I can least share with you the map. So without further ado, let’s get right into this.
Now, we’re going to be looking at passages from 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians chapters 2 and 3, Paul talks about the spiritual believer, the soulless believer, and the fleshly or the physically oriented believer. But instead of taking these in the same order Paul does, beginning with the spiritual, then the soulless and the fleshly.
Because we’ve been doing everything from body, soul, to spirit, we’re going to start with the fleshly believer, then talk about the soulless believer, and then finish up really focusing on what is a spiritual man, what is a spiritual woman. So, let’s get right into it. Our first passage comes from 1 Corinthians chapter three, verses one through three.”
“And he says, But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh. As infants in Messiah. Now, he’s not saying these people aren’t believers.
He’s just simply saying, their main motivations are fleshly and physical. And that has to change. They’re babies in Messiah.
They need to grow and mature. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you are not ready for it. And even now, you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
That’s the key right there at the end. Though we are human beings, we are not to behave in only a human way.
We are to behave in a spiritual way. We are to behave as Messiah behaved. And Messiah walked in the spirit.
He walked in the things that the Father spoke to him. He walked in truth and in wisdom. Now, what does Paul mean by solid food?”
“Well, solid food are the spiritual things in the scriptures. Whereas most soulish people would say that solid food is the black and white in the scriptures. If you read the Bible, and all you see is the ink and the paper, and you don’t see the light that’s coming through the word, then you’re a soulish believer or worse, a fleshly one.
Because everything in the Bible is speaking of something unseen. You know, there’s a saying, I think it’s from the Talmud. I forget the source, forgive me.
But it says something to the fact that if you’re studying the word and you read the word ox, and you think ox, then you are an ox. An ox. In other words, everything the Bible talks about is an illustration of something spiritual.
And if you can’t see the spiritual dynamics, the spiritual principles that are being expressed through the parables, through the stories, through the imagery of the scriptures, then you’re not eating solid food. So the soulless person, those spiritual things are not the solid things, but to Paul, those spiritual things are the solid food. Those are the things you must chew on, and you have to spend time over until God reveals to you what is really being expressed through these images and these stories.
This is why the Word of God is so rich. This is why we never get to the bottom of it. We never get done studying it and seeing what God is speaking to us through it.”
“With that said, some people can read the scriptures and see things that simply are not there because their imaginations run crazy. These are infants and Messiah trying to imitate spiritual people. Like a little child trying on mommy’s shoes, putting on daddy’s hat.
It just doesn’t fit very well. And it’s pretty obvious when this is happening. But we do want to grow up to where we can fill out the spiritual garment that God has given us to wear, to where we can acquit ourselves as adults.
There’s also a passage here in Hebrews that talks about the milk of the word. Hebrews 5, verses 13 and 14: For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child.
Now, notice he doesn’t say he’s unskilled in the scriptures. He’s talking about something deeper. He’s talking about the spiritual essence that the scriptures are trying to express.
He’s unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
You notice what is true of the spiritual person who can eat solid food? Their powers of discernment have been trained by constant practice. Their powers of discernment have been trained by constant practice.”
“Are you practicing constantly and chewing on the word of God? Or you just memorize a verse here or there? Do you just read a little devotional in the morning that has a little paragraph, a little snippet of a verse? Or are you feeding upon the entire word of God?
This is one of the reasons I rarely do topical teachings. And during my tenure as the leader and teacher at Beth Tikkun, I voided topical teachings most of the time. I wanted to take a book of the Bible, start at the beginning and teach it through to the end.
Because who am I to say this is the topic and that’s the topic that I want to talk about? What does God want to talk about? He wants to express everything.
Every jot and tittle, he wants to express everything in that book of scripture. So we need to chew and feed upon the entire word of God. And some of it’s tough.
You need to grow teeth. You need to keep working at it, keep practicing it, and praying to the author, God, what do you want to teach me through this?”
“And then we come to the soulish believer. And this is in 1 Corinthians 2 verses 14 to 16.
The soulish person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. Stop there for a second.
The soulish person, the soulish believer, does not accept spiritual things. They don’t make sense to him. They just don’t make sense.
Look what Paul says next. For they are stupid to him. He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually examined.
When you meet someone and they keep telling you how they feel about something or what they think about something, you may very well be in the presence of a fleshly or soulish believer. But when they say, this is what I think, but you know, all I want to know is what God wants. I want to do what he wants.”
“Because I’ll tell you something right now. The things God does, the things he has people do in the world, make no sense at the time he tells them to do them. That’s why faith is required.
You know, if following God only required human logic and common sense, we wouldn’t need the Bible. We wouldn’t need a spirit. We wouldn’t need to listen to his voice, because we would figure it out anyway.
Of course, the things God tells us to do don’t make sense at the time. Look at all the miracles in the Bible.
Each one was initiated by doing something that did not make sense. Telling Moses, just stretch your rod out over the Red Sea. How is that going to deliver us from Egypt that’s bearing down on us in their chariots?
Telling people, the servants, to fill six large water jugs with water because we’re out of wine. That makes no sense. Taking a few loaves and fish and then making a brocca, blessing over it and begin to break it.
How is that going to feed 5,000 people?”
“You can go through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The things God tells us to do make no sense at the time.
But they’re proven to be godly things and to be wise and true things only afterward. But the soulish man, he cannot walk in obedience. He just simply can’t follow God very well because spiritual things are stupid to him.
But everything is spiritual. But Paul continues and says, The spiritual person discerns all things, but is himself discerned by no one. And the no one there he’s referring to means the soulish people.
The spiritual person understands the soulish person. The soulish person cannot understand the spiritual person because the things the spiritual person does are stupid to him.
For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? That’s a quote from Isaiah 40:13. But we have the mind of Messiah.
Do you have the mind of Messiah? Yeshua said, My sheep hear my voice. And I found that Yeshua’s voice is easy to ignore because it’s telling me things that might make me look foolish.
I’m afraid to follow because they may not be understood because they don’t seem logical.”
“But if I’ve known him, if I truly know him, if I am his servant, I’m not to question his orders. Now sometimes to make sure I am understanding him and that it’s his voice and not just my own imagination, I go to the word, I go to the scriptures, and because of practice, I can discern the word of truth and know what’s right and what’s wrong.
And we need to do this all the time. If you think God’s telling you something you’re not sure, then go to someone older and wiser than you. And bounce it off of them, ask them for counsel.
This is a wise thing to do. Because you may be hearing but not hearing accurately. This is a process of growing from spiritual infancy into spiritual maturity.
It takes practice, it takes diligence, and it does take the help of others. And above all, it takes God’s word. We need to measure everything according to the word of God.”
“And as we go on, James 3:13–18 is one of my favorite passages. And it asks this question: Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works and the meekness of wisdom.
The soulish person, you can recognize because of their arrogance. They know more scripture than you do. They’ve been to the Holy Land more times than you have.
They’ve studied more books, and they’ve studied Hebrew and Greek more than you have. But wisdom is always meek. And the wise person, the one who is wise and understanding, through his good conduct, his works will be seen in the meekness of wisdom.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, now those are the terms that Paul used earlier about the fleshly believer. That you have this selfish ambition and this infighting going on, you’re fleshly, you’re not mature.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, soulish. There’s the same word we find over in 1 Corinthians. It’s earthly, it’s soulish and demonic.”
“How can wisdom be demonic? Because its wisdom comes out of our own human reasoning. It’s not the wisdom that comes from the spiritual realm, it comes from God.
Remember the story in the Gospels where Yeshua asks his disciples, there in Matthew, says, Who do men say that I am? And they give different responses. He says, Well, who do you say I am?
And then Peter says, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And Yeshua says, Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah. For flesh and blood, common sense, human reasoning, did not reveal this to you but my Father in heaven.
In other words, Peter, you’ve discerned something that came straight from God. And then a little bit later, Yeshua begins to tell them that he has to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die. And Peter pipes up and he says, Master, be this far from you. This will never happen.
And then what did Yeshua say? Get behind me, Satan.
And to paraphrase the next, he says basically, you’re perceiving things like a human being, just like a man, not the things of God. You’re looking at things through your own common sense. You’re looking at things through your own soulishness.
You’re not hearing things as they come from God.”
“So just like James, the brother of Yeshua, talks about this kind of wisdom is earthly, soulish, demonic. The advice that Peter gave Yeshua, This will never happen to you. That was demonic wisdom, and Yeshua refers to him as Satan. That’s strong talk.
But we need to be very careful that the common sense we have in our brains isn’t spouted out and is something that Satan is actually using to draw people away from God and to steer them down the wrong path. We need to be very careful of this.
So let’s pick it up here in verse 16. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, you’ll always find this in the soulish crowd. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”
“But the wisdom from above is first, number one, it’s pure.
Second, it’s peaceable.
Third, it’s gentle.
Fourth, it’s open to reason. Now, that’s down to number four, not number one. But it’s open to reason. It’s willing to listen.
Five, it’s full of mercy.
Six, good fruits.
Seven, it’s impartial.
And eight, it’s sincere.
These are the earmarks of godly wisdom, of spiritual wisdom. It doesn’t push for its own way. But it will hear others. But it will not bend. It will listen to reason. It will listen to other people.
But when it knows it’s right, when it knows it’s true, it will continue to implore and be gentle and to try to cajole people to listen to God. But it will not compromise.”
“Then verse 18. The result of this kind of wisdom and the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
You cannot have a harvest of righteousness, a righteous harvest, unless the seed is sown in peace. Can you imagine a farmer who goes out and sows his seed and nothing grows, but the farmer next to him, all of his seed, same seed grows, and he says, what’s the difference? And the farmer says, you were in a bad mood when you sowed your seed. I was in a good mood and my seed grew.
You’d think it doesn’t make any difference if the seed is the seed. But it says, a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace. You have to sow the seed in shalom. And you have to be a person who makes peace. Otherwise, the harvest that comes up will not be a righteous harvest.”
“Okay, we need to move on. In Jude 1:19, listen to what he says. It is these who cause divisions. Soulish people, devoid of the spirit. Soulish people, devoid of the spirit.
Now that begs a question. Are spiritual people devoid of the soul? Absolutely not.
But it’s this: The spiritual person is not a slave to his own human reasoning. And as we talked about last week or the episode before, the two greatest enemies of obedience are human reasoning and addiction to comfort. We have to conquer these if we want to go into a land of fruitfulness and the land of victory.
So the person who is spiritual is not devoid of the soul. But his soul, his intellect, his experiences, his human reasoning come to his aid. They become his servants.”
“So God will speak and give a direction. And he’ll tell us what to do and how to do it. Then we will use all of our resources. We will bring them all together. We will harness them to bring about the thing that God has told us to do.
But the soulish person, devoid of the spirit, because they cause divisions.
Now number three, the spiritual believer. This is the one we have been wanting to get to.”
“The spiritual believer is described in 1 Corinthians 2 verses 10 to 13. Chapter 2 verses 10 to 13. This is what Paul says.
These things God has revealed to us through the spirit. For the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. Think about that for a moment.
Now you notice I have spirit uncapitalized here. Translations try to capitalize spirit when it’s referring to God’s spirit and make it lower case when it’s referring to our spirit. And honestly, through most of this, I’m just going to assume it’s our own spirit.
The thing is our own spirit is an extension of God’s spirit, but I just leave them all in lower case. You can decide if you want to capitalize some of these or not. For the spirit, your spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
Because God is spirit, you have a spirit, and your spirit is the part of you that is able to explore the very depths of who God is. As Yeshua told the woman at the well, God is spirit. He seeks those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.”
“Verse 11, For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him?
You ever heard someone say, you don’t know your own thoughts? And I was just in a conversation recently. I’ve been in many conversations over the last several days where people have thoughts, but they come and they want to ask, what are these thoughts?
And you almost feel like asking, well, they’re your thoughts, you tell me. But I understand what they’re asking, because they’re thoughts they have in their mind, but there’s something in their spirit that says these thoughts aren’t right.
But I’m not sure they’re not right, but I don’t think they’re right. What’s going on? How come there’s this division within me?
Because my thoughts have one thing, but there’s a part of me that says, no, that’s not right. What you see here is this pulling between the soul and the spirit.
So your spirit knows your thoughts, but your thoughts don’t know your spirit very well because your spirit is much deeper. It goes beyond human reasoning. It goes beyond logic.”
“So also, we’ll pick it up right here, so also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. And there I did capitalize spirit because we’re talking about the spirit of God himself.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
Soulish people are generally unhappy people because they are unaware of the spiritual wealth that God has given them that is at their, at their, that’s available to them because they’re unaware of it.
It’s almost like a person who thinks they’re poor because they’re blind and can’t see the gold and the riches that are in the room with them.
And the person who is not spiritually aware is completely, completely devoid of his ability to recognize the spiritual wealth that God has lavished upon us. The things He’s freely given to us.
He’s opened up the spiritual world to us with its blessings and its richness and its goodness. And I can’t imagine living a life that’s devoid of an awareness of that.”
“My awareness of it is limited, but I’ve seen enough that I know that this 1% world in which I live physically isn’t enough to satisfy. I want that 99% world where the things that are unseen are the things that are eternal, the things that satisfy.
So I’m not sure where we left off, but I’ll pick it up in verse 12.
Now, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, matching spiritual with spiritual.”
“…matching spiritual with spiritual. And translators have wrestled with that phrase, matching spiritual with spiritual. And we’re trying to figure out what Paul is saying.
But the best we can figure out, since he’s talking about words and talking about speech, that he’s talking about matching spiritual truths with spiritual words.
You know, there are some people I know, good people, good people, but they’re just soulish. They just don’t have a spiritual aptitude.
And when they read the Bible or listen to some lesson, they get all excited about something, say, Oh, you’ve got to watch this, you’ve got to listen to this.
And I’ll listen to it, I’ll watch the teaching, and I’m just bored almost to tears. Because it’s talking about some, something that’s just utterly physical, but there’s no spiritual food to it.
There’s no spiritual essence to what’s being said. There’s nothing there that nourishes my inner person.”
“And when I share a spiritual teaching with them, something that to me has brought so much light and strength and encouragement in my life, they’re bored to tears. Because spiritual things are just stupid to them.
But I have a little saying. We don’t want to condemn the soulish, because the moment we start looking down our noses at people who aren’t as spiritual as us, suddenly we’re not so spiritual anymore.
So here’s my little saying. You can’t get blood from a beet, but you can get beet juice from a beet. That ain’t bad.
So for those soulish friends of ours who just can’t comprehend spiritual things, love them anyway. They’re valuable, they can be good friends, and there’s still much we can learn from them.
But just because you can see something that they cannot, don’t become fleshly and spiritual and divisive. Just don’t do that.”
“Hebrews 10, verses 19 to 22. The writer says, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Yeshua, by the new and living way, that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true or genuine heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Now, there are spiritual words describing spiritual reality. This is a kind of a passage that a soulless person becomes bored with, because it doesn’t seem to make any sense to them. It’s a passage you have to chew on. It’s not a passage that easily reveals itself to our understanding.
But what it’s talking about here is moving from the holy place into the holy of holies, through the veil, through the flesh of Yeshua, from a lower place to a higher place, from a place that’s less spiritual to a place that’s utterly spiritual, and a way that’s been made for us by Messiah into the presence of God.
And the writer is talking about this as a very, very real, experiential thing. And it’s something he’s saying, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the new living way… he goes on and he’s saying, let us draw near.
Let’s do it. Let’s go. Let’s move in. The place has been open for us. Draw closer to God.”
“And drawing closer to God goes beyond the human intellect. You know, when you read the book of Job, all Job keeps asking, I just want answers to my questions. I’ve lost everything, including my health. I want answers. I want answers.
And his so-called friends come and they wrestle theologically with him and intellectually with him. And Job keeps beating them. He keeps winning the intellectual contest. And he just wants answers.
And then finally, there at the end of the book, God shows up. Doesn’t give him a single answer to his questions. But Job sees God, and he just withdraws his questions. He says, I don’t have any questions anymore.
That’s kind of what’s going on here. All of us have questions, things we don’t understand about God. We just want answers to our questions.
And then God reveals himself, and you forget what the questions were. I hope that you’ve had that experience and have it again, because this is what God calls us to, just to behold him.
Because so many times our questions are about us, about our need, our shortcomings. But when we see God, all of a sudden, we forget about ourselves altogether. That’s what happened to Job. That’s what needs to happen with every one of us.”
“So, last episode, we introduced the Tabernacle. And this is the same image we showed before.
And we talked about how the outer court is like the body. The Holy of Holies is a picture of the Spirit. But this place in the middle, this holy place, is the soul.
And here in the holy place, we have the Table of Showbread. We have the Golden Altar of Incense. Then over here on the south side, we have the Golden Menorah.
These three objects hold valuable lessons for you and me about our souls and how we become spiritual people.”
“So here’s the question. What do all three of these have in common?
Now, the first thing you’ll do is you’ll look at the materials they’re made of. You can say, well, they all have gold on them, and these two are wood covered with gold. This is solid gold.
These two have staves, but this one doesn’t, and then you kind of get stuck.
So the next question would be, what goes on these? Well, on the table of showbread, you put bread. On the altar of incense, you put incense, and then the menorah, you put olive oil.”
“The next question is, what do these three things all have in common? When we answer that question, we begin to find out the key and the process for becoming a spiritual person.
And here it is. The table of showbread holds bread, but that bread is made from grain that was crushed. The menorah has olive oil which burns to produce light, but that olive oil came from olives that had to be crushed. The oil of incense produces an aroma that comes from incense spices that had to be crushed.
Let that sink in for a moment. The grain had to be crushed. The olives had to be crushed. The spices had to be crushed.
For you to become a spiritual person, you must be crushed. Another way to be crushed is to move from being a soulish person to being a spiritual person. Suffering is the way. You must go through suffering. You have to go through suffering.”
“And even as we read in the passage in Hebrews, we have an opening into the Holy of Holies by a new living way, which is what? The blood of Yeshua. Yeshua suffered to make this way open for us.
We must suffer to follow in those steps. What did Messiah himself say? If any man will come after me, you want to come after me? You want to come into the Holy of Holies? You want to come into my Father’s presence with me? Then you must deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me.
We don’t like suffering. That’s why it’s called suffering. But there is no shortcut.
But for some people, their sufferings are wasted, because their sufferings are resisted, their sufferings are medicated, their sufferings drive them away from God instead of closer to him.
But if we can learn the lesson that’s illustrated for us through the death of Yeshua, and embrace our suffering, take up our cross, and say, God, let this suffering produce in me your purpose and accomplish your goal.
I don’t like the suffering, but if you’ve ordained the suffering for me, I’m yours. So have your way.
When you can do that, you’re on your way to becoming a spiritual person.”
“Now, there’s one other thing all of these have in common. For grain to become bread, it requires heat. For olives to produce light, there has to be fire set to it. For spices to become this aroma, there has to be fire.
And all three of these, fire is involved. You think, oh, that sounds really painful. It isn’t. The fire is the good part.
Now, in the flesh, fire is unpleasant. When I get, you know, at a distance, fire is comforting, but when I get into the fire, it’s torture. It’s danger, it’s horrible.
But we’re talking about spiritual fire for the spiritual you. Because the spiritual part of you, its essence is fire.”
“This is why John the Immerser says, I immerse you with water, for he who comes after me will immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire.
My body is made mostly of water. It likes water. But my soul and spirit are spiritual, and fire is its natural essence.
And so if we want to experience the fire of God, which is good and purifying, it’s the very essence that strengthens us, it can’t happen till you’re crushed.”
“I love this statement by Rabbi Nachman of Brett’s Law. He says, A person who rejects his suffering is in effect telling God, get away from me.
Let me read it again. A person who rejects his suffering is in effect telling God, get away from me.
Are you rejecting your suffering? That suffering is God’s messenger in your life. That suffering is God’s hand in your life.
And to reject your suffering is to reject God himself.
Now, there is some suffering we bring on ourselves because we just make really stupid decisions. We’ve made really bad choices, but even there, the consequences of the bad choices are a way of bringing us to wisdom so we make wise choices.
So even that suffering has God’s presence in it.”
“I’m going to show you some words, some Hebrew words. And if you’re listening on a podcast, I really encourage you to go to our website, toretodayministries.org so you can print out the notes, you can see the things that I’m showing on the screen now.
But on the left, and I’m going to shrink this down a bit so the law will show up. On the left, we have five Hebrew words. The words are misfortune, affliction, bitterness, battle, and sword. All unpleasant things, aren’t they?
But the words on the right are all included in the words on the left.
The word misfortune, zara, when we just switch the last two letters, it becomes zahar, which means a window. Every misfortune in your life is actually a window that God says, I want to shine my light through. It’s a way that breaks open the wall to where we can have fellowship with each other. Quit looking at your misfortunes as just unreasonable suffering, pointless suffering. There’s a purpose to it. So let my light in.
On the left, naga means affliction. But you rearrange the letters, it spells oneg, which is pleasure.
Mar means bitterness. Reverse the letters, it’s ram. It means to be uplifted.
Reve is battle. Take out the yad in the middle and you have rav, a teacher. Your battles are your teachers.
Kharav is sword, but hevr is a friend. The words on the right are hidden in the words on the left.
And all the unpleasantness you go through hidden in there is a window to God, pleasure, being uplifted, a teacher and a friend. It’s all there. But the crushing that the things on the left bring, reveal the blessings in the right hand side.”
“There are many other words I could have put on here. That’s just the nature of Hebrew. It is just so full of meaning and insight.
I’m going to show you two more words, but before I do that, I’m going to share Luke 9.24 with you. Now this same statement of Yeshua is found in Matthew and Mark and Luke.
And you see two pictures. On the left is an unlit candle. On the right is a candle that is lit.”
“Under the unlit candle, I have the words of Yeshua, for whoever would save his life will lose it.
So you see a candle. You can tell it’s never had a flame set to it. So that candle will remain that size and that shape. It won’t get any shorter. It’s saved. That candle has been saved because no fire has been set to it.
But on the right, you see a candle that has a flame on it. And the words, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
So here’s something I want you to hold on to. That candle on the left, eventually something happens to that candle. It gets broken, it gets stepped on, it gets crushed, it gets lost, it gets buried in a landfill. Something will happen to it.
And it will never have reached its potential. But the candle on the right, where you set a flame to the wick, that candle will reduce and it will melt down. It will be turned into heat and to flame. The wick will go along with it.
But light is eternal. Light goes on forever. So that’s a scientific principle. The light never ends. It goes on forever.”
“Now, the candle seems much more substantial. But the flame, the light from that flame is eternal. So which of these two candles will really last forever? The one that loses its life, what is in actuality saved?
Candles are not eternal, but light is. Each of us is a candle. The question is, have you been willing to submit yourself, your life to God’s flame?
If you have, then you are a light to the world. In Matthew 5, Yeshua says, I’m the light of the world. And then he looked at his follower and says, you’re lights of the world. You’re the light of the world.
The thing is, are you a light? Are you just a pretty candle, just for show? You know, you probably heard that statement, big hat, no cattle. Well, we could change that, and in the religious realm, we could say, fat candle, no flame.
I don’t want to be just a fat candle. I want my life to be invested. And even though I decrease, my decreasing makes him increase, and that is an eternal reward. That is worth investing in.”
“I want to show you two more Hebrew words. Here’s the word Isha. And when you learn Hebrew, the first thing you’ll learn is Isha means a woman or a wife.
But the word Isha, Aleph-shin-hey, is also the word that means fire offering. You want to be the bride of Messiah? You have to be a fire offering.
As Paul says in Romans 12, I seek you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
What happens on the altar? What’s on the altar goes up in fire. And if you want to be the bride of Messiah, if you want to be that person, that woman of valor, you must be a fire offering.”
“And along the same vein, here’s the word kalah. Kalah means to perish or destroy. It’s also the word for bride. Kaf, lamed, hey, kalah. To perish or destroy, but to become a bride.
You know, when a young woman gives herself to a man in the covenant of marriage, her previous life goes away. Because now she has a whole new identity. Now she’s becoming one flesh with this man.
And now, as a married woman, her whole identity changes in some very profound ways.”
“So here’s the image again of the candle that’s lit. And the rabbis over the years, I don’t know who the first one was to point this out, but they say the wax body of the candle is like the flesh. It’s like the body.
You drop a candle, it goes down. It follows the laws of gravity, and it’s just a solid piece of substance.
But the flame on top is like the spirit. It doesn’t go down. It is always moving up. It’s pointing up. It’s trying to rise.
And you can see the ripples in the air around it as they go up. It always is moving up. The candle is subject to gravity, but the flame is fighting gravity. It’s always trying to ascend.
And that’s the way it is with my body and my spirit. My body is prone to all the physical laws of this world, but my spirit is always moving up.”
“But what is the purpose of the flame? Is the purpose of the flame for the candle or the purpose of the candle for the flame?
The candle exists for the sake of the flame. My body exists here for the sake of being a light to the world.
But what connects the candle to the flame? What connects the body to the spirit? It’s this wick. It’s this part right here.
And that’s the soul. That’s the soul. That’s the part that connects the one to the other.
You cut that wick, the flame is gone, and the flame and the candle have separated.”
“So keep that image in mind. And candles are pretty simple things to understand. But the light and the flame, something more complicated, something mesmerizing.
I mean, who doesn’t find looking into a fire just totally captivating? You’ve sat in front of a fireplace or around a campfire, or at Hanukkah just last week, lighting the candles on that menorah, we turn all the lights off, we sit there. We’ll sit there for an hour.
We’ll talk a little bit, but our eyes are just fixed on the beauty of those flames. Fire is a beautiful thing. It can be dangerous, but it brings forth warmth, it brings forth light, and that is what God wants to do with us.”
“I know this may seem strange to close this teaching with a quote from Albert Einstein, but I think it’s fitting.
Albert Einstein said, For the rest of my life, I’ll be trying to understand the meaning of light. That’s a profoundly spiritual statement.
I think if there’s anything in this world, any physical thing that comes closest to being utterly spiritual, yet still be tangible physically, it’s light, especially the light of a flame.
So almost as if God created the light of a flame, he says this is the sample of true spirituality. This is as close as you can come to tangibly grasping the spiritual.”
“And don’t you find it interesting that whenever you find fire in the Bible, it’s always a symbol of God’s holy presence.
Whether it’s the flaming sword at the entrance to the Garden of Eden, the chariot of fire that took Elijah into heaven, the burning bush that Moses saw, the tongues of flame that rested on the heads of the apostles.
And we can go on and on and on. When you find fire in Scripture, it’s a picture of God’s holy presence. Our God is, after all, a consuming fire.”
“So I hope that this concluding lesson in this four-part series will just hit something visceral within you and create in you an appetite to be a spiritual person because to not become a spiritual man or a spiritual woman means you missed what life is really all about.
But to become that spiritual person, there has to be suffering. And if it’s an encouragement to you, let me just share this. All of us suffer in this world. All of us do. You don’t get through this world alive. Nobody gets out of here alive.
And every day has its own amount of trouble and tribulation. There’s going to be suffering. So I would much rather my suffering have a purpose and a goal and accomplish something than for it to be pointless suffering.”
“Some people fear following God because they’re afraid it might hurt, because they might suffer. Well, what do you get out of suffering for sin? Because sin will really make you suffering.
I’d much rather suffer for righteousness than suffer for sin and rebellion, because that kind of suffering is pointless. So let’s not hold on to our lives. Let’s God have them.
Let God have them and turn them into light that is eternal and will impact the world for Him.”
“So with that, I wish you shalom and may God bless.”
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#1 – The Fleshly Believer
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Messiah. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
Hebrews 5:13-14 For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
#2 – The Soulish Believer
1 Corinthians 2:14-16 The soulish person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are stupid to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually examined. The spiritual person discerns all things but is himself discerned by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him?” [Isaiah 40:13] But we have the mind of Messiah.
James 3:13-18 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, soulish, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Jude 1:19 It is these who cause divisions: soulish people devoid of the spirit.
#3 – The Spiritual Believer
1 Corinthians 2:10-13 These things God has revealed to us through the spirit. For the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the spirit, matching spiritual [truths] with spiritual [words].
Hebrews 10:19-22 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Yeshua, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true/genuine heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Table of Showbread
Grain —– Bread
Menorah
Olives —– Light
Altar of Incense
Spices —– Aroma
A person who rejects his suffering is in effect telling God, “Get away from me!” — R’ Nachman
צרה “misfortune” —– צהר “window”
נגע “affliction” —– ענג “pleasure”
מר “bitterness” —– רם “uplifted”
ריב “battle” —– רב “teacher”
חרב “sword” —– חבר “friend”
Luke 9:24 “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”
Candles are not eternal, but light is.
אשה (ishah) = “woman, wife” or “fire offering”
כלה (calah) = “perish, destroy” or “bride”
For the rest of my life, I’ll be trying to understand the meaning of light. — Albert Einstein
RESOURCES:
We have to change our way of thinking. Why does HaShem bring problems? It’s His way of saying to us, “I miss you. I’d like you to talk to Me a little bit. Open your heart to Me. Say something. Pray to me! I am the One who is giving you this problem.” (R’ Yaakov Hillel)
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