Hello again! Hope everyone's week went well. This week is about God creating man, but first I want to touch back on last week's newsletter in one aspect. I didn't really explain my use of Yehovah as a reference to God, and I realized that some may not understand why I did that. Especially with certain denominations using God's name that aren't necessarily seen in the best light. It is true that Yehovah is the name of God, and the reason you don't see that in scripture is because when they translated their superstition was that no one could even write the name let alone speak it. So whenever you see the words "LORD God" (notice the capitalization) in the KJV that was their way of not writing God's name. In fact, the word God is just a word and a reference to powerful beings. It has become the name that we call the one true God, but there are multiple places in scripture that use that word in reference to other supernatural beings (Psalm 82:1,6).
When I learned how man was created, it was surprising and exciting to me because I had never put it together before. In fact, it was confusing to me as I read it before since it seems like man was created twice. When we read Genesis, we see that on the sixth day, along with the land creatures, God said, "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness..."(1:26) and "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created He them" (1:27). But what does the "image of God" mean?
We read further in verse 7 of chapter 2 that Yehovah, "formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul." Initially, reading these two different places where man seems to be created, it seemed to me to be a repeated statement with more detail. But if that were true, why is male and female created in chapter 1 but only male, Adam, is created in the beginning of chapter 2?
The image of God is saying that God created male and female spirits in chapter 1, and breathed this spirit into Adam in chapter 2. This puts together the spirit and the body and creates the soul. Therefore, man/woman is composed of a spirit, a soul, and a body (1 Thess 5:23). This distinction is important later in scripture when the apostles talk about the salvation of your spirit and the salvation of your soul. I talked about this in The Second email when I discussed the millennial kingdom. There's a lot of places that talk about spirits, and it's important to realize that not only do we have spirits but we can also be influenced by other spirits. For example, Numbers 5:14 talks about the "spirit of jealousy" coming upon someone, and Leviticus 20:27 talks about someone having a "familiar spirit." This second one is very interesting as it's a reference to someone that is in close contact with a spirit that is not their own. One that gives them information about things they would not otherwise know. We may scoff at "psychics" and "fortune tellers" these days, but do not be fooled. Many of these individuals, the ones that are truly successful at what they do, are in communication with these "familiar spirits" via their own spirit. And the fact that the source of their abilities is hidden, and that God is vehemently against them (Lev 19:31, 20:6, 20:27, and many other places), shows that these "familiar spirits" are of Satan. My personal belief is that the reason these psychics and fortune tellers are made a joke in this day and age is an effort to hide what's really going on when people go to them. They are inviting evil into their life.
It's also important to realize that your body is not you. Your spirit is you. Your spirit is what Satan is after, and sometimes he uses the body to try to get to it. That's why Paul talks about bringing his body under subjection of his spirit (1 Cor 9:27), and crucifying the flesh's affections and lusts (Gal 5:24), and walking in the spirit (Gal 5:25, 5:16,17). He even gives a litmus test to let us know how to tell whether or not we're conducting works of the flesh or fruits of the spirit (Gal 5:19-23).
Finally, keep in mind that while we see battles of the flesh daily (violent protests, wars, murders, sex trafficking, affairs, etc.), behind everything we see in the physical is a part of the spiritual battle we are a part of. And the only way that battle will be won is by actions taken spiritually, not physically (Eph 6:12).
Bonus (aka I forgot to talk about this and didn't see where I could fit it in lol): Have you ever wondered how God knew you before you were born? (Jer 1:5) Gen 2:1 tells us once God finished the sixth day he had created "all the host" of the heavens and earth. Our spirits were all created on day 6 of creation!
Comments