Křesťanské Společenství Brandýs nad Labem

[Jiří Šitner]

August News 2008
DIRECTLY FROM DR ALAN PATEMAN’S DESK:
Protection from Deception and the minefield of Signs and Wonders
As most of you are already aware the global blogosphere has been all alight with ongoing fervent debate concerning recent out breaks of so called “refreshing” or “revival” – namely and most specifically in reference to the Lakeland revival in Florida USA. All forms of communicative media especially the internet has been all abuzz with those who are either for or against this revival – reaching dangerous levels of either extreme – people not wanting to miss God so are willing to embrace everything while others criticize and completely throw out the proverbial baby with the bath water, while yet others safely stop short of ever really endorsing the revival in case it might not be God after all!
The result of all this of course is confusion and division right across the board. All the claims and counter claims of mass healings and salvations lending to the confusion; some attempting to label it even “charismatic civil war!” Because after all, who can argue with results some say? Well sound doctrine and theology certainly can of course.
The greatest concern of many has been the “extra biblical” doctrine that have surfaced and the over emphasis on the supernatural without too much anchorage to scripture. The accusations are many and defences are just as numerous. Is it mass hysteria or mass division? Has Todd fallen????? or just stepped back? Has the founders of God TV been grievously wounded by this or even misled to the extent that they have misled millions?
These are just a few in the swell of questions swirling at this time. One thing is certain; the “revival” was never intended to “end” on this note. From every angle of the diamond – there is lots to be learnt and gained from this. And of course there will be many who will say “I told you so” when in reality they too were undecided. And there will be those who publically endorsed the “revival” and “Todd” personally, who now will scramble to present Christendom and the world with their disclaimer!
But whether you liked or agreed with all the talk about the multiple raisings from the dead or the spirit guide / angel with the alias of “Emma” (and the gender confusion that went with that!) or the mention of gold dust, gold dental work or gems appearing, you have to admit this has caused one almighty stir.
So where did you stand in all of this, from a safe distance or with agreeable excited involvement?
And my stance? Well like most I believe; amongst the endless debating - we as a ministry have been tentatively cautious and perhaps even puzzled at the boldness of some statements while at the same time wanting to remain open to the true manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
To conclude I personally think it has been a true “mix” maybe even a cauldron pot of the good and the bad the true and false, maturity and immaturity.
Hindsight is always the wiser and it is easy “after” an event to be the wise voice on it all... but as I was personally seeking answers to this lively debate I came across the teaching of Derek Prince entitled “Protection from Deception” I believe it offers some of the most balanced teaching to cover all of this. In fact, like myself, I think you will find when you read the 3 chapters that it is almost like Derek Prince is speaking prophetically right into this current situation that the Body of Christ is in right now.
As an Overseir of a Network, IFN... www.cfe-internationalfamilynetwork.org I feel it my duty to try and offer some assistance and insights into these current events in order to help quell the confusion ensuing and most defiantly will engulf many. Some will never recover.
So please take time to use this point of reference and read what Derek Prince has to say about Deception and the minefield of Signs and Wonders in these last days. Remember that we are in times where a “free-for-all” attitude exists, where “anything” goes and those who are miss informed or without doctrine will be the ones to suffer the most. But even the elect can be deceived, we must ALL watch and pray. It is a dangerous place to be where people want to “embrace all” or either “reject all” both extremes are dangerous... what is needed is truth on the matter.
Again I point to some of the most balanced teaching I know that will help you “Protection from Deception – Navigating through the minefield of Signs and Wonders....” (Please find attached) take the time to read and be ready with answers for those who will approach you with questions. If it were not Lakeland Florida, it would be somewhere else and if it were not Todd Bentley it would be someone else. So we must be ready in season and out to offer advice, as these are the signs of the times. This is where we are...
With respect
Dr. Alan


Protection From Deception
Navigating Through The Minefield
Of Signs And Wonders
by Derek Prince

Based on a series of talks given by Derek Prince to
his coworkers in Derek Prince Ministries in March 1996

Chapter 1
Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Let Us Honor God's Holy Spirit
Signs and Wonders Do Not Determine Truth
Mixture Produces Confusion and Division
The Identity of the Holy Spirit

Chapter 2: Earthly, Soulish, Demonic
Understanding the Human Personality
From Rebellion to Salvation
Discerning Between Soul and Spirit
From Earthly to Soulish to Demonic
Is There a Way to Protect Ourselves?
Five Movements that Went Astray

Chapter 3: Four Safeguards
No. 1: Humble Ourselves
No. 2: Receive the Love of the Truth
No. 3: Cultivate the Fear of the Lord
No. 4: Make and Keep the Cross Central
Let Us Honor God's Holy Spirit
This is the first in a series of three messages. In this, number one, I will seek to analyze a problem that
has arisen in many sections of the church in many parts of the world. In the next message, I will seek
to analyze how the problem arose. And in the third message, I will consider ways to guard against
that problem arising again. The title of this first message is "Let Us Honor God's Holy Spirit."
Signs and Wonders Do Not Determine Truth
There has been in recent years a worldwide explosion of signs and wonders. Some have been biblical
and helpful. Others have been bizarre and unbiblical. Signs and wonders are not new. They are
recorded in various passages of the Bible and in different periods of church history. However, the
current explosion extends more widely than any particular church or denomination and has attracted
widespread attention in both the religious and the secular media.
I want to make it plain that I have no personal prejudice or anxiety concerning unusual
manifestations. In actual fact, I have in my own lifetime experienced quite a number of them. They do
not frighten me. I am not negative about them.
As I recorded in my booklet Uproar in the Church, my own personal encounter with Jesus in World
War II began in a very unconventional way. In the middle of the night, in a barrack room of the
British Army, I spent more than an hour on my back on the floor, with my body first racked by
convulsive sobs and then filled with a river of laughter which grew continually louder.
Next morning, I found myself a completely different person, changed not by any act of my will but by
yielding to the supernatural power that had flowed through me. I then looked up various passages in
the Bible that speak about laughter. To my surprise, I discovered that - for God's people - laughter is
not primarily, as we imagine, a reaction to something comical, but rather an expression of triumph
over our enemies.
In Psalm 2:4, David actually depicts God Himself as laughing:
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall hold them in derision,
Here, God's laughter is not a reaction to some comedy that is being enacted on earth. Rather, it is His
response to the ridiculous human midgets who have the effrontery to oppose His purposes. It is His
expression of triumph over all the forces of evil.
Sometimes, God fills us with His own laughter that we may share in His triumph over those who are
both His enemies and ours.
Later I pastored a fellowship in London that met on the top floor of a five-story building. One evening
a lame man was miraculously healed and threw away his crutches. We all burst into spontaneous
praise. At that moment the building began to tremble and shake with the power of God. The praise
and shaking continued for about thirty minutes.
I realized that something similar was recorded of the early church in Acts 4:31:
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
At that particular time, our fellowship was conducting several evangelistic meetings each week in the
streets of London, and we certainly needed more than natural boldness.
But with regard to any kind of manifestation, there are two questions that I always want to ask.
Number one: Is it a manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God? Or is it a manifestation from some other
source? And number two (and this is related to it): Is the manifestation in question in harmony with
Scripture?
In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul says, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. In other words, the Holy Spirit
is the author of all Scripture, and He never says or does anything to contradict Himself. Every
genuine manifestation of the Holy Spirit will, in some way. harmonize with Scripture.
Now, I want to begin with some warnings of Jesus, particularly related to the end time period in
which I believe we are living. These are warnings against deception. They are found in Matthew
chapter 24, verses 4, 5, 11 and 24. In other words, four times in 21 verses, Jesus specifically warns us
against deception in this period of the close of the age.
The first thing Jesus said about the events leading up to His return, in Matthew 24:4: "Take heed that no
one deceives you." Verse 5: "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Messiah (Christ),' and will
deceive many." Verse 11: "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many." And then in verse 24:
"For false messiahs (christs) and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if
possible, even the elect."
So, Jesus warns us four times against deception. Anybody who shrugs off that warning or treats it
lightly does so at the risk of his own soul.
The greatest single danger in this end time is not sickness, nor poverty, nor persecution. It is
deception. If anybody says, "It could never happen to me," it has already happened to that person,
because that person is saying something could never happen that Jesus said would happen. That is a
sufficient indication that such a person is deceived.
Next, I want to say something important about signs and wonders. They do not determine truth. It is
very essential to understand that. Signs and wonders do not determine truth! Truth is already
determined and established, and it is the Word of God. In John 17:17, Jesus is praying to the Father,
and He says, "Your word is truth." And in Psalm 119:89, the psalmist said, Forever, 0 Lord, Your word is
settled in heaven. Nothing that happens on earth can ever change the smallest little sign or letter of the
Word of God. It is forever settled in heaven.
Now, the Bible speaks about signs and wonders. It says some things about them that are good, and
some that are very frightening. I want to turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and read a few verses
there, beginning at verse 9.
The coming of the lawless one [that is the title of the Antichrist] is according to the working of Satan,
with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who
perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this
reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be
condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
So, Paul says here there are such things as lying signs and wonders. There are true signs and there are
lying signs. True signs attest the truth. Lying signs attest lies. Satan is fully capable of supernatural
signs and wonders. Unfortunately, many in the Charismatic movement have the attitude that if
something is supernatural, it must be from God. There is no scriptural basis for that assumption.
Satan is perfectly capable of producing powerful signs and wonders to attest his lies, and the reason
such people are deceived is because they did not receive the love of the truth. On such people God will
send strong delusion.
That is one of the most frightening statements in the Bible. If God sends you strong delusion, you will
be deluded. I think that is one of the most severe judgments of God recorded in Scripture, sending
these people strong delusion. They will be condemned, these people, because they did not believe the
truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Therefore, signs and wonders are not a guarantee that something is the truth. There is only one sure
way to know the truth. It is in the Word of God. Jesus said in John 8:32, "You shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free." There is no other way to be sure that we can escape deception in these
days except that we know and apply the truth of God's Word, the Scripture.
In 1994, for the first time, I was brought into fairly direct contact with one of the groups where those
manifestations were occurring. A group of leaders went to some of their meetings and returned all
excited, saying they had experienced something wonderful and we all needed to experience it. They
said, "Now, you don't test it. You don't try it out. You don't examine it. You just open up to it and
receive it." That was the first time that I really began to be suspicious of some of these things, because
such a statement is directly contrary to Scripture.
In I Thessalonians 5:21, Paul says to Christians, Test all things: hold fast what is good. So, if we do not
test things, we are disobeying Scripture, and anybody who tells us not to test things is, himself, not in
harmony with Scripture.
Our hearts cannot be relied upon to give us the truth. Proverbs 28:26 says, He who trusts in his own
heart is a fool. So do not be a fool. Do not trust your own heart. Do not rely upon what your heart tells
you, because it is not reliable. Again, in Jeremiah 17:9 the prophet says, The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
That word deceitful in the Hebrew is a very interesting word. In 1946, I was attending the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem as a guest student studying the nature - or the law - of the Hebrew language.
I was listening to the head professor in this field at that time talking about this verse: Jeremiah 17:9:
The heart is deceitful above all things. He gave reasons which I cannot carry over from Hebrew to show
that this form of the word deceitful is active, not passive. It does not mean that your heart is deceived.
It means that your heart deceives you, so you cannot trust your own heart.
The professor gave a very vivid picture of what it means to find out the truth about your own heart.
He said it is like someone peeling an onion. You peel off skin after skin, but you never know when
you have reached the last skin - and all the time your eyes are watering. So that has remained with me
now for 50 years - such a vivid, scriptural warning against relying on my own heart to tell me the
truth. There is only one source of truth, and that is the Scripture.
Mixture Produces Confusion and Division
Now, I would like to give briefly my summation of this whole phenomenon /movement/whateveryou-
want-to-call-it, based partly on personal observation and partly on what I believe to be reliable
reports. My summation is very simple: it is a mixture of spirits, both the Holy Spirit and unholy
spirits. They are mixed together.
In Leviticus 19:19, God warns us against mixture. He is opposed to mixture. God says this, "You shall
keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with
mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you." So, God warns against three
things: breeding mixed livestock, sowing with mixed seed and wearing a mixed garment.
We could say that sowing with mixed seed represents the message that we bring, when it is partly
truth and partly error. Wearing a mixed garment would be like a lifestyle that is partly scriptural and
partly of this world. And letting livestock breed with livestock of an incompatible kind would be
equivalent to a Christian ministry or group aligning itself with a group or ministry that is non-
Christian.
It is an interesting thing about such breeding; its product is always sterile. For instance, you can mate
a horse with a donkey and the product is a mule. But a mule is always sterile; it cannot reproduce. I
think that is one reason why there are so many "sterile" operations in Christendom - they are being
bred with the wrong mate.
Now, I have observed this carefully, and I have had grievous experience of this condition of a mixture
of spirits. I find that it is something which the Scripture warns us against. For instance, there is a
character in the Bible, King Saul, who had a mixture of spirits. At one time, he prophesied in the Holy
Spirit; at another time, he prophesied in a demon. His career is really a warning. He was a king who
ruled for forty years. He was a successful military commander. He had a lot of successes. But mixture
was his undoing, and his life closed with tragedy. On the last night of his life, he went to consult a
witch, and the next day he committed suicide on the battlefield. Surely that offers no encouragement
to any of us to cultivate any kind of spiritual mixture in our lives.
I have observed that the result of mixture is two things: first of all, confusion; and then division. For
instance, we have this mixed message, part of which is true, part of which is false. People can respond
in two ways. Some will see the good and focus on it, and therefore accept the bad. Some will focus on
the bad, and therefore reject the good. In either case, it does not accomplish God's purposes.
Once upon a time I was a pastor, a long time ago, but I remember that the most difficult kind of
people to deal with were people who were a mixture. I will give you a little imaginary example. We
have Sister Jones in our congregation. One Sunday she gives a beautiful, prophetic message and
everybody is uplifted, excited. But two Sundays later, she stands up and gives a revelation which she
had in a dream. The further she goes with this revelation, the more confused and confusing it
becomes. Eventually, as pastor, I have to say to her, "Sister Jones, I thank you, but I really don't
believe that is from the Lord," and she sits down - but that is not the end.
After the meeting, Sister White comes to me and says, "Brother Prince, how could you talk to Sister
Jones like that? Don't you remember that beautiful prophecy she gave two Sundays ago?" And when
Sister White is gone, Brother Black comes to me, and he says, "If that's the kind of revelation she has, I
won't listen to any more of her prophecies!"
So, you see what we have? Confusion, and out of confusion, division. I believe that is exactly what is
happening in the church: confusion resulting in division. Certainly there is tremendous division! I
believe confusion will always produce division.
The Bible gives us no liberty to tolerate the incursion of evil into the church. We are not to be passive;
we are not to be neutral. Proverbs 8:13 says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. It is sinful to compromise
with evil. It is sinful to be neutral toward evil. In John 10:10 Jesus spoke about the thief, the devil, who
comes: to steal, to kill and to destroy. We always need to remember, whether it is in an individual life or
in a congregation, the devil only comes with three objectives: to steal, to kill and to destroy.
I can remember many times I have been speaking with a person who needed deliverance from an evil
spirit, and I have said to that person, "Remember, the devil has three reasons for being in your life: to
steal, to kill and to destroy. You need to take a stand against him, not be neutral - you must drive him
out." What is true of an individual is true of a congregation. It is true for the body of Christ,
worldwide.
Some of these unusual manifestations have been compared with unusual manifestations that
accompanied the ministry of John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney.
Undoubtedly there were unusual manifestations in the ministries of those four men, and I have
studied some of them myself, but I think the differences are greater than the similarities with the
present situation. Let me point out to you three differences:
First of all, all those men majored on the strong preaching of God's Word. They hardly did anything
until they had preached the Word of God, or apart from the preaching of the Word of God. Finney,
himself, commented somewhere about his ministry, "I usually spoke an hour or two." I do not know
how many contemporary Christians in the West would listen to a two-hour sermon, but Finney gave
the Word in its purity and in its power.
Second difference: All those men made a strong call for repentance. That was their primary demand
on the people to whom they ministered. Some people call what we are seeing today "a refreshing,"
but in Acts 3:19 Peter says that refreshing must be preceded by repentance. Any refreshing that
bypasses repentance is not scriptural.
The third difference is that in the ministry of those men, there is no record as far as I know that any of
them laid hands on people. I am not saying that it is unscriptural to lay hands on people, but there is
a difference. There is a situation in which people receive directly for themselves from the preached
Word and another situation in which people have hands laid on them by others.
If I could take a simple example. It is like rain. If you are out in the open and the rain falls upon you,
you have received your rain direct from heaven. But, on the other hand, if rain is caught and stored in
some kind of a cistern, then you are not receiving that rain direct from heaven. You have to take into
account the cistern and the pipes through which you receive the rain.
This is very vivid for me, because my first wife, Lydia, and I lived in Kenya for five years in a house
where our water came from rain caught on the roof and channeled into concrete cisterns. Although
the water came from heaven, we quickly learned by experience that if it stayed for any length of time
in the cistern, worms developed in it and, consequently, we always had to boil our drinking water.
There was nothing wrong with the rain as it came down, but something happened in the channel
through which the rain came to us, and it was no longer pure. I think this can be true of laying on of
hands. It is a channel which is not always pure.
Recently some ministers have moved from actually laying on hands to some other action of the hands
- such as waving or pointing. However, this does not change the fact that something is being
transmitted through the hands. Otherwise, there is no reason to use the hands at all. The important
question still remains: Are those hands pure channels through which only the Holy Spirit can flow?
For instance, Ruth and I were in a meeting fairly recently where ministers deeply involved in the
current move were speaking. We were sitting about two rows behind a woman who was having a
terrible experience. She was like somebody continually trying to burp or trying to vomit, and she just
went on and on and on. Eventually, I said to Ruth, "I think we ought to try to help her."
So, although it was not a meeting for which we were responsible, we went over quietly and started to
talk to her. We discovered very quickly that she was speaking in a tongue, but for both of us it was
evident that it was a false tongue; it was not a Holy Spirit tongue. We challenged her to confess that
Jesus is Lord, and she was not willing or able to say that. So I conclude that she had a false spirit.
Later on, the people who were with her came over and talked to us and asked us what they should do
about it. I asked them, "How did it happen?" And they said, "Well, she went to a church that's
involved in this move and somebody laid hands on her and this is the way she has been since then.
But," they said, "she's convinced it's from God. We can't help her." That is just an example of "rain"
that came through a "cistern" that was not pure.
Also, in the present move, there is a great deal of emphasis on love. I agree that love is the greatest
thing. But the trouble is that people are not always clear about the nature of love as it is described in
the New Testament. First of all, love in us is expressed by obedience to the Lord. Any kind of love
that does not result in obedience is unscriptural love.
In John 14:15, Jesus said to His disciples, "If you love Me, keep My commandments," or, in a perhaps
better text, "You will keep My commandments." In other words, what is the evidence that you love Him?
The evidence is keeping His commandments. Then in verse 21a. Jesus says, "He who has My
commandments and keeps them. it is he who loves Me." And in 1 John 5:3, it says, For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments. Therefore, any kind of love that does not result in obedience to the will
of God revealed in His Word is not scriptural love. It is a counterfeit, a substitute for the real thing.
Then, we need to consider the way that God expresses His love toward us. True, God is our Father,
and He loves us. But as a Father, if necessary, He is prepared to discipline us. In the messages to the
seven churches depicted in Revelation, I would say that Laodicea is probably the one that
corresponds most closely to the contemporary church in the West. And to that church the Lord said,
"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent" (Rev. 3:19).
So, God's love is not sloppy. It is not sentimental. It is right down-to- earth. If we are straying from
His ways and if we are disobedient, His love is expressed in rebuking us and chastening us, and He
commands us to repent. Once again we have the problem of trying to get what God promises, but
bypassing the basic condition of repentance - which is a deception.
I recently read the following comment by a British Bible teacher:
Some Christians take the text "God is love" and turn it around to mean "Love is God." In other words,
nothing can be wrong if it is rooted in love. However, any love that comes between us and God is an
illegitimate love ...
Likewise any love that diverts us from obedience to God's Word is illegitimate.
The Identity of the Holy Spirit
In all of this that we are speaking about. this worldwide phenomenon, I believe there is one, central,
underlying issue, which is often obscured. In fact, very seldom do we come really to grips with this
issue.This issue is the identity of the Holy Spirit. How do we recognize the Holy Spirit? How do we
know what the Holy Spirit is like? And how do we distinguish the Holy Spirit from other spirits?
I read a statement recently by some New-Ager in which she said about the "New Age," "When the
holy spirit comes, then the New Age will be here." Of course I am sure most of you would understand
that when she talks about the holy spirit, she is not talking about the same Holy Spirit that the Bible
speaks about. This is one of various indications that there is a counterfeit holy spirit.
It is nothing new for Satan to produce a religious counterfeit. Since the time of Jesus, history records a
whole series of counterfeit messiahs who have risen among the Jewish people. All of them had a
following. Some like Sabbetai Zvi, had a widespread and enduring influence. The latest of them died
in 1994.
Another religious counterfiet is the being titled the "blessed virgin Mary." With all the claims that
have been made for her and all the titles that have been ascribed to her, she bears no resemblance to
the humble Jewish maiden who became the mother of Jesus, and later of His brothers and sisters. Yet
over the centuries this counterfeit has claimed the devotion of millions of sincere Christians.
We need to be on our guard, therefore, that we do not entertain a counterfeit "holy spirit." I want to
suggest to you three ways to identify the Holy Spirit, to recognize who the Holy Spirit is.
The first way I refer to in my little booklet Uproar in the Church, which I wrote about two years ago. I
will just quote a few paragraphs:
Another danger that threatens those who minister in the supernatural realm is the temptation to use
spiritual gifts to manipulate or exploit or dominate people. At one period in my ministry I found
myself casting spirits of witchcraft out of church-going people. Eventually, I asked the Lord to show
me the true nature of witchcraft.
I believe the Lord gave me the following definition: Witchcraft is the attempt to control people and
get them to do what you want by the use of any spirit that is not the Holy Spirit.
After I had digested this, the Lord added: And if anyone has a spirit that he can use, it is not the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, and no one uses God.
That is very important. The Holy Spirit is God, and no one uses God.
Then I went on to say,
Today I tremble inwardly when I see or hear of a person who claims that he has spiritual gifts which
he is free to use just as he pleases. It is surely no accident that some of those who have made such
claims have ended in serious doctrinal error.
It is important to see that there is a difference between the Holy Spirit Himself, as a Person, and the
gifts of the Holy Spirit. In Romans 11:29, Paul tells us that the gifts ... of God are irrevocable. In other
words, once God has given us a gift, He never takes it back. We are free to use it, not to use it, or to
misuse it. But even if we misuse it, God does not take it back. Otherwise it would not be a genuine
gift, it would only be a conditional loan.
It is a fact that people do misuse gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul provides a clear example in I
Corinthians 13:1:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding
brass or a clanging cymbal.
Obviously the Holy Spirit Himself does not become a clanging cymbal. But the gift of speaking in
tongues - when misused - can become an empty, discordant noise. Unfortunately this often happens
in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles.
I believe it is possible to misuse other spiritual gifts - such as a word of knowledge or a gift of healing.
This can happen when a person uses a spiritual gift to achieve a result or promote a movement which
is not in harmony with the will of God. One obvious misuse would be for personal gain.
In such a situation, our safeguard is to be able to recognize the Holy Spirit as a Person and to
distinguish between Him and His gifts. This, then, is the first and most important fact about the Holy
Spirit: HE IS GOD. And we need to relate to Him and treat Him always as God.
The second fact about the Holy Spirit is that He is the servant of God the Father and God the Son.
This is an exciting revelation because it gives such a high value to servanthood. Many people today
despise the idea of being a servant. They feel it is demeaning and undignified to be a servant. But I
think it is wonderful that servanthood did not begin on earth. It began in eternity and it began in
God. God the Holy Spirit is the Servant of the Father and the Son. This does not demean Him or make
Him less than God. But it is a fact that we have to recognize about Him, which directs His activities
and the things He does.
In John 16:13-14 Jesus gives us a glimpse of the Holy Spirit's ministry and activity:
"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth: for He will not
speak on His own authority [literally: from Himself] but whatever He hears He will speak: and He
will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to
you."
So we see: the Holy Spirit does not speak from Himself; He has no message of His own. Isn't that
remarkable? He only reports to us what He is hearing from the Father and the Son. Secondly, His aim
is not to glorify Himself, nor to attract attention to Himself, but always He glorifies and focuses
attention on Jesus. That is the second important way to identify the Holy Spirit.
Now, I want you to listen to this carefully, because it is revolutionary. Any spirit that focuses on the
Holy Spirit and glorifies the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit. It is contrary to His whole nature and
purpose. Once you have grasped that, it will open your eyes to many things which are going on in the
church that are otherwise difficult to understand.
For example, we have a very beautiful chorus that we sing about the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
The first verse says to the Father, "Glorify Thy name in all the earth." The second verse says to Jesus
the Son, "Glorify Thy name in all the earth." The third verse says to the Spirit, "Glorify Thy name in all
the earth." I love to sing the first two verses, but I decline to sing the third verse, because I do not
believe it is scriptural. The Holy Spirit never does glorify His own name. His purpose is to glorify the
One who sent Him.
Let me make another statement which may surprise you. I have not found in the Scripture anywhere
an example of a prayer addressed to the Holy Spirit. So far as I can understand, no one in the
Scripture ever prayed to the Holy Spirit. You probably would do well to check that for yourself, but I
have looked carefully and have not found one example.
You might ask, "Why so?" And I would give you this answer: It is a question of heavenly "protocol."
There is so little respect nowadays for protocol on earth that we sometimes do not realize that there is
protocol in heaven. It is protocol relating to a master-servant relationship. In such a relationship,
when you are dealing with a servant, you do not speak to the servant, but to the master. You ask the
master to tell his servant what to do. It is wrong to directly address a servant when his master is
available for you to speak to.
I believe that is heaven's protocol. When you recognize the relationship of the Holy Spirit to God the
Father and God the Son, you understand that we never give orders to the Holy Spirit. When we want
the Holy Spirit to do something, we address our request to the Father or to the Son.
When I was looking through this, I found a passage in Ezekiel chapter 37 which I thought, at first,
was an exception. It is part of Ezekiel's well-known vision of the valley full of dry bones with no life
in them. First of all, he prophesied and the bones came together, but they were still lifeless corpses.
Then, in verses 9 and 10:
Also He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says
the Lord GOD: "Come from the four winds, 0 breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."'"
So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon
their feet, an exceedingly great army.
So, I thought that the "breath" is really a picture of the wind - or the Holy Spirit - and so Ezekiel was
praying to the wind. But he was not praying. He was prophesying. And it did not come from himself.
He merely passed on to the wind a command that he had received from God Himself. Therefore, as
far as I have been able to discover, there is not a single example anywhere in the Scripture of praying
to the Holy Spirit.
Now, I am not seeking to make a big issue out of that. On the other hand, I think it is very important
as we try to discern the nature and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You would say to me, "Well,
doesn't God hear our prayer when we pray to the Holy Spirit?" I think He does. But we are not
praying in full accord with heaven's protocol. If we really want to please the Lord and show respect
for Him, we will show respect for His protocol.
The third important fact about the Holy Spirit is what is indicated in His name: He is Holy. This is
His primary title: the Holy Spirit. In Hebrew it is the Spirit of Holiness. He has many other titles: for
instance, the Spirit of Grace, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Power, and so on, But they are all
subsidiary. His name and His primary title is the Holy Spirit. Anything that is unholy does not
proceed from the Holy Spirit.
The Scripture also speaks of the beauty of holiness. There is a beauty in holiness when it proceeds
from the Holy Spirit. It is not necessarily external. It may be internal beauty. For instance, in I Peter
3:4, Peter speaks about the hidden person of the heart, and he speaks about the adornment of a meek and
quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. This is not external beauty. It is internal beauty,
which comes from the Holy Spirit.
I want to say, however, with the utmost emphasis: Anything unholy or ugly does not proceed from
the Holy Spirit.
I will give you a list of 12 adjectives, all of which I believe cannot be applied to the Holy Spirit or to
anything that is the product of the Holy Spirit. As I go through the list, I suggest you check mentally
and see if you agree with me. Here, then, are words that would never apply to the Holy Spirit:
self-exalting
self-assertive
degrading
flippant
rude
sham
vulgar
indecent
insensitive
stupid
silly
degraded
I have in my heart, if God wills and I live, to write a book at some time of which I have already
chosen the title. The title is this: Holiness Is Not Optional. Only God knows whether I will ever succeed
in writing the book, but I want to say, in any case, that the title states the exact truth. In the Christian
life, holiness is not optional. Many Christians seem to think about holiness as if it is like something
added to a car, such as fancy leather upholstery instead of the normal kind of plastic. But that is not
true. Holiness is an essential part of salvation. In Hebrews 12:14 the writer says, Pursue peace with all
people, and holiness, without which no man will see the Lord. What salvation do we have that does not
bring us to see the Lord? But without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
We have in our contemporary Western Christianity a very incomplete picture of salvation. "If I get
saved and born again, and then I want to go on and be holy. I can do it - but it is an option." I want to
tell you that your salvation depends on your being holy. And holiness comes only from the Holy
Spirit.
There are many features of purported moves of the Holy Spirit that I could pick out and hold up as
examples of things that are not holy. But I will only deal with one, and that is: animal behavior in
human beings attributed to the Holy Spirit. There are many such examples, some I have witnessed
and some have been reported.
First of all, there is no passage in Scripture that I know of where the Holy Spirit causes any human
being to behave like an animal. There is the example of Balaam, but that is a strong contrast. God
caused Balaam's donkey to speak like a man - but He never caused Balaam to bray like a donkey!
There was one man whom God caused to behave like an animal: Nebuchadnezzar.
He was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his
hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws.
(Daniel 4:33)
But that was God's judgment, not His blessing! Revelation 4:6-8 depicts four living creatures that
surround the throne of God. Three are there as representatives of the "animal" kingdom: a lion, a calf
and an eagle. But none of them make noises that express their "animal" nature. All of them alike
proclaim the holiness of God in pure and beautiful speech.
It is important to understand that there is an order in God's creation. Man was created in the image
and likeness of God to exercise authority over the animal kingdom (see Genesis 1:26). Man is, in fact,
the highest order of the creation described in the opening chapters of Genesis. This has a bearing on
the way the Holy Spirit blesses us. He uplifts those whom He blesses. He will at times cause an
animal to act in some ways like a human being. But He will never degrade a human being by causing
him to act like an animal.
I have a certain amount of experience in this area because I have encountered animal spirits many
times in Africa. I recall one particular deliverance service that I held in Zambia with about 7,000
Africans present. When I had finished the teaching and began to command the evil spirits to manifest
themselves and come out of the people, there were all sorts of animal spirits that were let loose. By
"animal spirits" I mean evil, demonic spirits that enter human beings and cause them to behave like
animals.
The first thing that happened was that a man with a "lion spirit" tried to charge me. But someone
tripped him up and he did not reach me.
You need to know that the reason these Africans in this part of Africa have so many animal spirits is
because many of them are hunters of animals. They have this superstition that in order to hunt an
animal successfully, you have to get the spirit of the animal in you. So a man tends to have the spirit
of the animal which he seeks to hunt. For instance, the man who is hunting a lion, will get a lion
spirit.
There are many others. We dealt with spirits of wild boars that caused people to burrow in the earth
with their noses like a wild boar rooting for something. Then there were many snake spirits. These
were mainly in women, and when they were manifested, the women were flat on their bellies
slithering around like snakes. All these I actually witnessed myself.
There was one other spirit that I did not witness, but heard about from the missionary couple who
organized the meeting. Later I met the lady concerned. She was a very sweet Christian lady - a school
teacher - but her husband was an elephant hunter. When she came to the missionary couple for
deliverance, they commanded the elephant spirit to come out. Immediately she dropped on her hands
and knees, crawled out through an open door, put her forehead up against a small tree, and began to
try to push it down. Wasn't that remarkable?
Perhaps some well-meaning Western Christian might have said, "Our sister is pushing a tree down
for Jesus," but that was not the explanation. The elephant spirit in her was causing her to do what
elephants regularly do, which is push down trees with their foreheads. As soon as she was delivered
from that spirit, she no longer had any urge to push trees down with her forehead.
In the West, we sometimes tend to speak about the people in Africa as unsophisticated and to
consider ourselves more sophisticated. However, I think in this realm of animal spirits it is we, in the
West, who are unsophisticated and the Africans who are sophisticated. They have lived for
generations with such spirits, but until the gospel came, with the power of the name of Jesus and the
Word of God, they had no way to deal with them. Thank God that many of them now know how to
deal with them!
Another example of which various reports have been given is people behaving like dogs. I am a dog
lover, but I think dogs should be kept in their rightful place. I do not believe that the Holy Spirit ever
causes anybody to bark or to run around like a dog.
Where such manifestations of animal spirits have occurred, there are certain steps that we need to
take. We cannot tolerate or encourage such manifestations. Nor can we merely sweep all this under
the carpet and go on as if nothing had happened.
In Matthew 12:33, Jesus instructs us:
"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is
known by its fruit."
Wherever there is bad fruit, it comes from a bad tree. It is not enough to get rid of the bad fruit. We
must also cut down the bad tree that produced it. If we fail to do this, the bad tree will go on
producing more bad fruit.
Undoubtedly the tree that produces animal behavior of this kind is some form of occult or pagan
practice. For instance, there are frequent manifestations of animal behavior in some parts of Africa
and India.
To cut down the tree requires that the leaders responsible identify the problem, confess it as sin and
repent of it. Nowhere in the Bible is there any ground to suppose that God will forgive sins that we
are not willing to confess.
Somebody has said, "The confession must be as wide as the transgression." If leaders have tolerated
these things in the presence of their people, then in the presence of their people they need to confess it
as a sin and cancel it. Otherwise, if the bad tree is not cut down, it will go on producing bad fruit.
In closing, I want to give a little "parable" of my own construction, which is about my relationship
with my wife. In this parable my wife represents the Holy Spirit and I represent God. Now please
understand, this is a very simple little parable and I am fully aware that the Holy Spirit is not the wife
of God. But with those cautions, let me relate the parable.
A friend comes to me and says, "I saw you and your wife together on the platform the other evening
and she looked so beautiful, so fresh, so full of the Holy Spirit." So I say, "Thank you. That's really
how she is." Then, a little later, the same man comes to me and says, "You know, yesterday I saw your
wife in a bar with a man drinking." And I say, "That was not my wife! My wife is a pure and godly
woman. She does not go to bars and she does not drink with strangers. My wife was right here with
me all day yesterday. Don't speak that way about my wife!"
But a little later, he comes to me and says, "You know, I saw your wife yesterday sunbathing topless
on the beach." Then I get really angry. I say to him, "My wife was nowhere near the beach yesterday,
and she would never expose herself like that! If you want to remain my friend, you've got to come to
the place where you don't identify that loose, immoral woman as my wife, because that's an insult to
her and to me, If you want to remain my friend, you've got to change the way you speak about my
wife."
The application, of course, is this: if you want to remain a friend of God, you cannot afford to identify
His Holy Spirit as something that is loose or immoral or ugly or unholy, because that angers God
intensely.
Now we come to one final Scripture, which is in Matthew 12:31-32. Jesus says,
"Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the
Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be
forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven him, either in this age
or in the age to come."
That is a very solemn and frightening warning. We are warned by Jesus Himself to be very, very
careful how we speak about the Holy Spirit, how we represent the Holy Spirit.
Jesus uses the word blasphemy, and I decided to look it up in my big Greek lexicon. The primary
meaning of to blaspheme is given in the lexicon as this: to speak lightly or amiss of sacred things. So when
you speak lightly or amiss concerning the Holy Spirit, or misrepresent the character of the Holy
Spirit, by definition you are close to blaspheming.
If you have ever done that, or been prone to do it, or been associated with those who do it, I want to
offer you some sincere advice: You need to repent. You need to settle that matter once and for all with
God and never again be guilty of misrepresenting God's Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is holy and
He is God.
Protection From Deception
Navigating Through The Minefield
Of Signs And Wonders
by Derek Prince
Based on a series of talks given by Derek Prince to
his coworkers in Derek Prince Ministries in March 1996
Chapter 2
Table of Contents
Chapter 2: Earthly, Soulish, Demonic
Understanding the Human Personality
From Rebellion to Salvation
Discerning Between Soul and Spirit
From Earthly to Soulish to Demonic
Is There a Way to Protect Ourselves?
Five Movements that Went Astray
Earthly, Soulish, Demonic
Our proclamation this morning is I Thessalonians 5:23-24:
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify us completely; and may our whole spirit, soul, and body
be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls us is faithful, who also
will do it. Amen.
We will carry on from yesterday evening, when I did my best to analyze what I consider to be a
problem. This morning I purpose to analyze how this problem arises in terms of Scripture. This is
very important because the problem continues to arise. I will give you five examples of the same
problem arising in the last fifty years in the Charismatic movement. I feel that if we can analyze the
problem, then the next step is to avoid it. So, what I have to say is entirely practical, I hope.
Understanding the Human Personality
Today I want to deal with the total human personality. And particularly, two elements of human
personality. If we don't understand ourselves and how we are made up, we have a problem. The total
human personality, I believe, is unfolded in the verse that we quoted: Now may the God of peace Himself
sanctify us completely, and may our whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless. So completely means
our whole spirit, soul and body.
It says in Genesis chapter one that God decided to create man in His own image and in His likeness
(Genesis 1:26). His image would refer to His outward appearance. There is something in the outward
appearance of man that reflects the outward appearance of God. Let me point it out this way: it was
appropriate that the Son of God should be manifested in the form of a male human being. He could
not have come in the form of an ox or a beetle, because the male human being, in a sense, represents
the image or the outward appearance of God. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the
image and glory of God ... (1 Corinthians 11:7).
The other phrase that is used is not image but likeness. Likeness, I believe, represents the inner structure
of the Godhead. The structure of the Godhead is triune: Father, Son and Spirit. In that likeness man
was created a triune being - spirit, soul and body. So man, in a unique way, represents God to the
creation over which God set him as a ruler: in his outward appearance and in his inner composition.
We are not going to deal with the outward appearance, but with the inner structure of human
personality, which is threefold: spirit, soul and body.
If we go back to the creation, we can trace the origin of each. The spirit came from the in-breathed
breath of God. When God breathed into Adam, that produced spirit in Adam. Incidentally, the words
for spirit and breath are the same both in Hebrew and in Greek.
The body was clay infused with divine life. The soul came about through the union of spirit and
body. The soul is the part that is difficult to understand. It is the unique, individual ego - the thing in
each of us that can say, "I will" or "I won't." It is usually defined as consisting of the will, the emotions
and the intellect. So, very simply, these are represented in three verbal statements: "I want," "I think,"
"I feel." That is the nature of the soul. Those who are separated from God by sin are dominated by
their soul. You will find, if you analyze it, that the life and actions of the natural man are controlled by
those three things: "I want," "I think," "I feel."
Now, let us consider what happened to Adam and Eve through sin. First of all, the spirit died. God
said in Genesis 2:17 to Adam, "The day you eat of that fruit you will die." Adam did not die physically
for more than 900 years, but he died spiritually the moment he disobeyed God.
At the same time, Adam's soul became a rebel. We have to bear in mind that every descendant of
Adam, male or female, has in him or her the nature of a rebel. That is our biggest single problem. For
that reason, it is not sufficient merely to have our sins forgiven, though that is wonderful. But the
rebel has to be put to death, and that is part of the provision of the gospel.
Let me just look at two passages in Ephesians which deal with both of these conditions: the death of
the spirit and the rebellion of the soul. In Ephesians 2:1-3, speaking to believers who have come alive
in Christ, Paul says:
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, [They were not physically dead, but
they were spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And it was the new birth that brought them back to
life. Then it says about these sins:] in which you once walked according to the course of this world.
according to the prince of the power of the air [that's Satan], the spirit who now works in the sons of
disobedience, among whom also we all [that includes the apostle Paul] once conducted ourselves in
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of
wrath, just as the others.
There is a picture of the whole human race in rebellion against God and, because of the rebellion,
dead in trespasses and sins. That is the outcome of sin. The spirit dies; the soul becomes a rebel in
rebellion against his Creator.
What happens to the body? It becomes what the Bible calls corruptible. That means it is subject to
sickness, aging and ultimately death. But, as I pointed out, the death of Adam did not take place
physically for more than 900 years. The death that Adam experienced when he disobeyed God was
probably what the Bible would call the first death. Then the New Testament speaks of the second death
(Revelation 20:6,14), which I believe is the final separation of the rebellious spirit and soul from God
forever.
From Rebellion to Salvation
Now, what happens when we get saved? To our spirit? It is made alive. We have become alive again
in spirit, in Christ. Let me read Ephesians 2:4-5:
But God. who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were
dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us
up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus....
So, God made us alive. That is not all He did. We do not have time to analyze this, but He also
resurrected us, and then He enthroned us. All that is in the past tense. So, if we can accept it,
spiritually we are seated with Christ upon the throne. But the thing that I want to emphasize now is:
we have been made alive!
Now, the soul, through repentance, is reconciled to God. It is very important to emphasize
repentance. A rebel cannot be reconciled to God as long as he remains a rebel. So one of the things
that is involved in salvation is that we lay down our rebellion. Lots of people who claim to be born
again and saved have, in actual fact, never renounced their rebellion. They have an outward form of
Christianity, but the inner reality is not there. Let us look in Romans chapter 5 for a moment. Romans
5:1:
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ....
We were at war with God. Now we have been justified by faith - we have peace with God. Then in
verse 11 it says:
And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
now received the reconciliation.
We were at war with God; we have been reconciled.
Then, what happens to the body through salvation? It becomes a temple for the Holy Spirit. I think
this is very important. A lot of believers do not realize that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit,
and that we have to treat them with reverence. In I Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul begins, Do you not know ...
? a phrase that he must use at least a half a dozen times. My observation is that every time he says, Do
you not know ...? most Christians do not know.
Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from
God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price: therefore glorify God in your body
...
Let us sum up what happens at salvation:
Our spirit is made alive.
Our soul is reconciled with God
And our body is made a temple for the Holy Spirit and also becomes eligible for the first resurrection.
In Philippians 3:10-11 Paul says that our body is made eligible for the first resurrection and that this is
the goal of his Christian life:
... that I may know Him [that is, Jesus] and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the
dead.
The word used means the out-resurrection, not the final, complete resurrection, but the resurrection
which is only of true believers. I am always impressed by the fact that Paul did not take it for granted.
He said, "My purpose is so to live that I may qualify for the first resurrection." I really do not believe
we can take it for granted. It depends on how we live,
Now, what are the functions of these three elements? First of all, the spirit. The spirit is capable of
direct communion with God and worship. It is the part of man that originated from God and can
return to God in fellowship and worship. This is stated in 1 Corinthians 6:17, a very important verse:
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
In my opinion, it would be completely incorrect to say one soul. It is one spirit. If you take that in its
context, Paul is talking about a man being joined to a prostitute and he says that is a physical union,
but what he is talking about is a spiritual union. If you take that picture, it becomes clear that it is a
very real union. But it is only the spirit that can be united with God. The soul cannot, the body cannot.
Because of that, the spirit, and the spirit alone, I believe, is capable of true worship. In John 4:23-24
Jesus says:
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and
truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. [That to me is a staggering statement. Almighty
God, who created the universe, is looking for people who will worship Him. And then it says:] God is
Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
The spirit is the element in us which is capable of worship. The soul is capable of praise and
thanksgiving. But only the spirit, I believe, can offer to God the worship which is acceptable.
What happens to the soul? The soul is the decision-making element, and through regeneration, the
soul is able to make right decisions. David said in Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, 0 my soul. He was talking
to his soul. What part of him was talking to his soul? His spirit! His spirit sensed the need to bless the
Lord, but his spirit could not do it until his soul activated his body. So the spirit in this present
creation moves upon the body through the soul. We will come back to that in a moment because the
New Testament speaks about a soulish body and a spiritual body.
To take a very crude example. I think the soul is like the gear lever in the car. You sit in the driver's
seat, switch on the engine, but to get the car moving, you have to use the gear lever. The gear lever is
the soul. The spirit is there, but it can not move the car without the soul.
My purpose in all of this is to come to the place where we can distinguish between the spirit and the
soul, but that is not easy. In fact, there is only one way we can do it effectively, which we find in
Hebrews 4:12:
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to
the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart.
Notice the word even. The Word of God is the only instrument which is sensitive enough and sharp
enough to penetrate, to divide, between soul and spirit. In no other way can we understand the
different functions of soul and spirit, and the relationship between them, except by the Word of God.
You cannot rely on your own understanding, your own feelings. They are not reliable. The only
reliable discerner is the Word of God. But, to use the Word of God as a discerner, two conditions are
set. They are found in Hebrews 5:13-14, where the writer is talking about the difference between
mature and immature Christians.
For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
[Those who can only feed on milk are still babies. Then he goes on to say:] But solid food belongs to
those who are of full age [or who are mature], that is, those who by reason of use [but the margin says
"practice"] have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
In other words, discernment is not something we can take for granted. It only comes by practice, and
it only comes as we take in the whole counsel of God through His Word. If we are living like babies
on milk, we do not have the ability to discern. If we have grown beyond that, we still cannot discern
unless we practice.
I would like to challenge you and ask you: Are you practicing discernment? I think I can say of myself
that, to a certain measure, I do practice discernment. When I walk into a situation, I put up my
"spiritual antennae" and I ask myself, "What are the spiritual forces at work in this situation?" When I
listen to a sermon, I not only listen to the words, I try to discern the spirit that is coming through the
words.
But this only comes by practice. If you just walk around carelessly and casually, you will not have the
ability to discern. I believe we need to practice discernment in every situation. I believe discernment
should be as regular a part of our spiritual life as prayer. Otherwise, we will be in trouble.
Discerning Between Soul and Spirit
Now I want to talk about the difference between the spiritual and the soulish, which I will illustrate
from the following table:
Language
Greek
English
Greek
English
Noun
pneuma
spirit
psuche
soul
Adjective
pneumatikos
spiritual
psuchikos
soulish
To understand this you have to go behind translations. I will try to explain why. In this table we have
the Greek and then the English, the Greek and then the English. We have the noun and then the
adjective. When you see them in writing, the relationship is obvious.
The Greek word for spirit is pneuma, from which we get the English word pneumatic - that is a drill
that is operated by air. That is because pneuma means "breath," "wind" and "spirit." Now the adjective
from pneuma is pneumatikos. How do we translate that into English? We know that pneuma is "spirit."
Obviously, the English adjective from pneuma is ... what? Spiritual. That's right. There is no choice.
Now we come down to the Greek word for "soul," and here is the problem: the Greek word for soul is
psuche, from which we get countless different words like psychological or psychiatrist or psychosomatic.
A psychiatrist is a doctor of the soul, because iatros is the Greek word for doctor.
All right, we have psuche and the adjective is psuchikos. Now, there is no hesitation about the
translation of the noun - it is "soul." But what about the adjective? The problem is that English does
not have a word "soulish." I believe, therefore, that we have to create a word to translate the Bible
correctly. According to my understanding, in German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian - in
all those