15

Spiritual Awareness

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the

life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he
shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me
shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-
26, emphasis added).

It is necessary to be spiritually aware of who and

what we are, in Christ, so that we can relate more
correctly to God, one another and the rest of
creation. We need to have a good understanding of
how life was in paradise; how we live our present
lives as fallen creatures in a broken universe and
the meaning of resurrection life to know better how
to fulfill our destinies through faith in Christ. If we
can come to an understanding of the truth
concerning our past, present and future, we will see
the path of life clearer. We will have to start at the
beginning of man, look at the metamorphosis he
underwent when he sinned and touch on
eschatology to gain better understanding of who
and what we are and what our future is in Christ.
Our future that we see is the vision of our hope that
empowers us with a focus of faith that leads us to
the fulfillment of the dreams that God had
deposited in our spirits. Enoch and Elijah saw their
future and through faith live their future in the
present. The upcoming generation of saints is
called to live their lives just like these two mighty
prophets of God lived theirs (Jude 14). I am just one
of many that help preparing these Knights of the
Cross of Christ to prepare for the last epic battle of
this dispensation. The only preparation I can give
them, and the only way I know, is to illustrate to
them how to walk with God. It is all I know. My
qualifications: “I am walking with God.”
God formed man of the dust of the ground and
breath into his nostrils the breath of life and man
became a living soul (Greek: psuchë; 1 Corinthians
15:45). He created him in His image and likeness.
This means his perfect soul, which is his mind and
memory, seat of the emotions and desires,
conscious and subconscious and his will, was alive
to God and he was totally aware of Him, all the
time. His soul was filled with God’s perfection,
which is His life force. The members of his body
were perfect because these were alive to God and
were the servants of his perfect soul reflecting the
glorious character and power of God made
manifested in divine magnificence. His body
responded in total harmony to everything that his
perfect soul desired to do. Adam’s bodily senses
were alive to God and he could observe his Creator
with his natural senses, who is Spirit and dwells in
heaven. All of his senses, his whole being,
were aware of God. And they heard the sound of
the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day… (Genesis 3:8a).

Adam was created the son of God (Luke 3:38). The

Spirit of God led him. All of his senses were alive
and divinely focused on God to please Him. As he
was doing the will of God he delighted himself in his
Creator simply by being aware of Him all the time.
His delight in God was the reflection of godly light
in him. Because Adam was in God and God was in
Him, he knew God even as he was known. He knew
Him as he is known because he was continuously
aware of Him to constantly respond to His will. His
whole life was a flow in the will of God because he
was totally alive to Him and aware of Him. Because
there was no sin in Eden there was no awareness
of tears, or death, or sorrow, or crying, or any pain
or sweat.

When Adam transgressed the commandment of

God, he died to God entirely, which are his spirit,
soul and body. Just like a branch that is severed
from the Vine and gradually dies until it is only
good for firewood, he gradually died until he gave
up the ghost at the age of 930 years. Just like the
ashes of firewood he returned to the soil whence he
was taken from. Because Adam sinned all of his
offspring sinned and is born dead to God. Man is
born in sin and shaped in the unrighteousness of
his apostate heart. Unless man turns from the
consequences of the transgression unto Christ he
will die in his sin and will suffer the torments of hell
in eternal separation from God. Separation from
God is death.

Since the transgression man could no longer relate

to God with his soul because Adam destroyed his
perfect soul through sin. Adam brought man’s soul
in enmity with God. Since that tragic day the carnal
mind could not subject itself to the law of God, nor
indeed can it be because the transgression took
place in the heart of man. The heart of man is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked
(incurably sick); who can know it (Jeremiah 17:9).
Neither can you relate to God with your body
because it is dead to Him as a result of sin. The
mortal body of man is the slave of his deceitful
soul. Since the transgression, man cannot observe
God with his natural senses. He cannot see Him
with his natural eyes, hear him with his natural ears
or touch him with his hands. The carnal flesh of
man is the combination of the deceitful soul and
the sinful mortal body of flesh. This situation will be
changed with the resurrection from the dead. When
the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead
will indwell you He will give life to your mortal body
through His Spirit that indwells you. Then you will
be in the Spirit with your body because of the Spirit
of God (Father) that indwells you (Romans 8:9-11).
The Spirit of God will transform your natural body
into a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15: 42-45). Then
will come to pass that your whole spirit soul and
body will be preserved blameless at the coming of
the Lord.
Paul devoted the entire 1 Corinthians 15 to
resurrection. Verses 1 to 19 are an account of the
resurrection appearances of Christ and Paul also
presented a positive argument supporting the
resurrection. Verse 20 says, But now Christ is risen
from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of
those who have fallen asleep. This does not mean
that before Christ, no one was raised from the
dead. The prophets Elijah and Elisha raised people
from the dead. Both Enoch and Elijah experienced,
before the appointed time, resurrection and were
translated not to experience death. The death of
their mortal bodies was swallowed up in victory.
Their whole triune natures were made alive in
Christ Jesus and God took them. God had to change
them because flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God. They saw through the Spirit of
Christ who was in them beforehand the sufferings
of Christ and the glories that would follow (1 Peter
1:11). They believed God, their faith defied time,
which said they had to wait until the last trumpet
before they can be translated. They lived their
future in the present through faith. They received a
testimony that they were pleasing to God because
of their faith, the Spirit of God translated them,
and God took them. This is the kind of faith that
makes God to sing and shout for joy.

Christ was the firstfruits, the first one to come forth

from the dead in resurrection life. He brought back
to life, the widow’s son, the daughter of Jairus, and
Lazarus, but this was not resurrection in the final
sense. They represent three excursions of Christ
entering into the realms of death to bring forth and
reanimate, but they lived and apparently died
again. Jesus was the firstfruits of those who fallen
asleep. He was raised up in so much power that the
graves opened up and many bodies of saints who
tasted corruption in the grave were raised with Him
in power not to die again. Many saw Jesus after His
resurrection. Those who were resurrected with Him
appeared too many in the holy city. And the
graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints
who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out
of the graves after His resurrection, they went
into the holy city and appeared to many (Matthew
27:52-53, emphasis added).

The Book of Revelation, chapter 11, indicates that

one man (probably Elijah) who was translated
without seeing death must return again in human
form and suffer death. There is no Scriptural
foundation for the belief that every man has to die.
Hebrews 9:27 says, … it is appointed for men to die
once, but after this the judgment; but in Christ
there is the opposite promise… and whosoever
lives and believes in Me, shall never die. Do you
believe this? (John 11:9). Enoch and Elijah is proof
that we need not to die if we believe God for
resurrection life. Eventually we must come into the
experience known as resurrection. Resurrection is
not coming back to life only; it is coming into a
heavenly body, not made from dust but a spiritual
one that is from heaven. It is eternal and functions
in a different manner.

There is a natural (Greek: soulish) body that we live

in now. There is also a spiritual body, which we will
receive in resurrection. The miracle of resurrection
is far more than reanimation. A person will not be
reanimated to perpetuate his old life and functions
as in this life. There may be certain similarities in
appearance, but all of the corruption of the aging
process, limitations and blemishes as it exists now
in the natural or soulish body will be removed in the
spiritual body.

But some will say, “How are the dead raised up?
And with what body do they come? Foolish, one
what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And
what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall
be, but mere grain – perhaps wheat or some other
grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to
each seed its own body (1 Corinthians 15:35-38).
When a seed is planted, part of it dies. The same
principal applies to this body. Just like a seed that is
planted and the plant that proceeds from that seed
differs in glory of appearance to the seed, so will it
be when the soulish body will be transformed into a
spiritual body. The body will be resurrected into a
specific form or glory, because inherent within each
human spirit is the prediction or prophecy of what
the body will be. As certainly as a plant seed, when
planted, brings forth after its own kind so the
spiritual body will take on the shape of the human
spirit. What we have attained in our spirits, when
they go to God and our bodies are laid to rest,
predetermines what kind of bodies we shall have.

There will be many different bodies in the

resurrection. All flesh is not the same flesh, but
there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of
animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial
bodies; but the glory of celestial bodies is one, and
the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one
glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon,
and another glory of the stars; for one star differs
from another star in glory. So also is the
resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:39-
42a). No two stars have the same glory, so is the
resurrection experience. The glory that the spirit
attained, in Christ, predetermines the glory or
resurrection form that the body will receive during
the resurrection. Others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a
better resurrection (Hebrews 12:35b). Suffering
produces perfection of spirit (). Why must we have
a body? Though we are created in the image of God
we are also called to conform to the image of
Christ, which include our spirit, soul and body and
through eternity we shall be a triune being like Him,
namely, spirit, soul and body. Jesus is the first of
many brothers and as He is, so we are.
To be complete in Christ we must be spirit, soul and
body. In this complete new man the greatest divine
force will be released in us to manifest Christ. The
saints that will come with Christ to earth will enter
into the perfect resurrection body that is essential
for them to function on whatever plane their spirit
laid hold of Christ before they died. Paul indicates
that as the glory of the stars differ one from
another, so will there be a great deal of difference
in individuals in the resurrection of the dead.

The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in

incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in
glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It
is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual
body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam
became a living being (Greek: psuche or soul). The
last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Corinthians
15:42b-45). Every descendent of Adam has a body,
which is mainly dominated by the soul, not by the
spirit. When resurrected in Christ you will have a
body that will directly respond to your spirit, just as
the body now responds to your soul. There is a
soulish body (natural body) and there is also a
spiritual body.

The soulish body responds and reacts on the

emotional and mental level. It is limited in time,
space, and ability to move from one place to
another. The spirit body is unlimited and is able to
move to any distance or planet instantly, and is
able to tune into anyone, anyplace with its senses.
Jesus appeared suddenly in the midst of the
disciples. The doors were locked for fear of the
Jews, but no walls could hold Him out. They were
mistaken Him for a spirit. And He said to them,
“Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in
your heart? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is
I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not
have flesh and bones as you see I have.” When He
had said this, He showed them His hands and feet.
But while they still did not believe for joy, and
marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food
here?” So they gave Him a piece of broiled fish and
some honeycomb, And He took it and ate it in their
presence (Luke 24:36-43). Jesus had a body, but it
was surprisingly not limited, like our present
bodies.

In this mortal body we groan earnestly within

ourselves to be clothed with the body from heaven,
and not to be disembodied spirits. We ourselves
groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the
adoption, the redemption of our bodies. This is the
full manifestation of sonship (Romans 8: 22-25). We
cannot clothe our spirits with a body of spirit apart
from entering into the process of death, as we have
known it. For we know that if our earthly house,
this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to
be clothed with our habitation which is from
heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall
not be found naked. “To be found naked” means a
spirit without a body. We do not want to be naked
in that sense. For we who are in this tent groan,
being burdened, not because we want to be
unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may
be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared
us for this very thing is God, who also has given us
the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always
confident, knowing that while we are at home in
the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk
by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well
pleased rather to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:1-7).

When at home in this body, you are absent from

the Lord. Your fleshly nature, which is enmity with
God, which is your deceitful soul and body of death,
do not have excess to the Lord. So you are absent
from the Lord because you cannot observe him
with the senses of your fallen fleshly nature or get
in contact with him through the natural body. The
natural body responds to the emotional and mental
impulses of the deceitful soul that has its input
from this broken natural realm of the earth.
However, we walk by faith and not by sight or by
feeling. You cannot relate to God with faith that is
generated by the desires of your own deceptive
soul because you will pursue something different
than the will of God. You ask and do not receive,
because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on
your pleasures (James 4:3). Faith from your own
resources is only as strong as your own will power
is, which is legalism, and will not stand the ultimate
test of spiritual endurances. Not by might nor by
power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts
(Zechariah 4:6b). When faith flows forth from your
own redeemed spirit it is in the power of the Spirit
of Christ because He is one spirit with your spirit.
The redeemed human spirit responds only to the
Word of God and the Holy Spirit. It is that part in
you where the seed of God is, which is the Word of
God (Jesus), that cannot sin. It is your inner man
that has strength through God’s Spirit that is filled
with the faith of obedience and that cannot believe
amiss. However, when you will put on your spiritual
body you shall see Him as He is with that body’s
eyes because you will be like Him. The eyes of the
spiritual body will see heavenly things just as your
spirit sees heavenly things now and just as your
natural (soulish) body sees natural things now. With
your spiritual body you shall live in the realm of
spirit, just as you live now with your natural
(soulish) body in this natural realm that is broken,
as you know it.

Adam came first and afterward the Lord from

heaven. And so it is written, “The first man (of the
earth) Adam became a living being (soul). The last
Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the
spiritual is not first, but the natural (the natural or
soulish came first), and afterward the spiritual (the
spiritual body comes later). The first man was of
the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord
from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are
those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly
Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as
we have borne the image of the man of dust, we
shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man (2
Corinthians 15:45-49).

The natural (soulish) body has been conformed to

the earth. Man is earth-born and responds and acts
in that way. The spiritual body will be from heaven
that will be as the glorious body of God’s beloved
Son. If a natural man cheers on his football team,
you hear it with your natural ears if you are in the
vicinity; it is an earthly thing. If angels rejoice over
one sinner that repents, you cannot hear them
rejoice in this soulish body of death. In the
resurrection we will be made alive to another
existence in the realm of heaven, just as we, fallen
men, are now alive to this world.

Some people argue that they do not believe in God

or in angels, for they cannot see God or the angels.
They are not supposed to see them. A soulish body
is alive to the things that belong to the natural
world and its senses can observe the things in the
natural realm. However, the soulish body cannot
observe the things that pertain to the kingdom of
God, which is in the realm of Spirit. The body of
death (soulish body) is dead to the realm of Spirit
and therefore has no excess to it. When we will
come into the spiritual body, we will be alive to the
realm of the Spirit. On the natural realm everything
is deceptive illusionary; the scene passes and we
do not know whether it was real or not because we
observe everything through a heart of stone that is
filled with deception. The heart of stone is incurable
sick. However, if you walk in the Spirit you observe
things through a heart of flesh, which is the spirit of
your mind.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a
mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and
the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall
be changed (1 Corinthians 15:50-52). The bodies of
people that will be alive at the last trumpet will
undergo an instant metamorphosis from mortality
into immortality. Those that have gone on to be
with the Lord will be raised incorruptible. When the
resurrection takes place it will be a new day. When
the Lord gives the command at the last trump all
who are prepared in their spirits will come alive to
God, in their bodies. As they have had soulish
bodies, they will have spiritual bodies. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality. So when this
corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal
has put on immortality, then shall be brought to
pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed
up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O
Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is
sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks
be to God, who gives us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast immovable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not
vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:50-58).

The early church had a different perception and

attitude toward life and death. They understood
that they were trapped in soulish bodies and thus
had no instinct for self-preservation. They lived with
all the courage and perseverance they had because
they had the hope of a better resurrection. As
mortals they did the will of the Lord and serve Him
with all their hearts until their work was done. They
ran the race; they kept the faith until their work
was completed.
A hundred and forty years ago, at the end of the
pioneer era, when life was tough in the United
States, people had another attitude. At the old
camp meetings they were singing songs about
going to heaven because their lives were
miserable. They worked hard to take care of their
large families and looked at heaven as a welcome
escape. They were not wrong. They searched the
Scriptures to take care of their needs.

The people of today have an entire different view

than those of the early church and those old
pioneers. People today do not want to face death.
When someone dies the word death is substituted
for another word. The hairdresser and makeup
artist change the appearance of the corpse to make
it look as if it is still alive, busy to sleep. The corpse
is dead! Why trying to make it look alive? The
carcass of the natural (soulish) body has started its
corruption or decomposing process – ashes to
ashes and dust to dust. The spirit of that person, if
he or she is born of God, is waiting in heaven to be
clothed with a spiritual body at the last trumpet.

The glory of a spiritual body, which is awaiting us,

is exceedingly better than the limitations and death
that we experience now in this soulish body. No
sorrow, no death, no suffering, aches and pains are
present in the resurrection or spiritual body. Our
bodies will respond to everything that our spirits
wish to do. Its existence and functioning is identical
as Jesus’ resurrection or spiritual body. Imagine
Jesus appears to His disciples coming as He did
through the walls. The stone of His sepulcher was
not rolled away to let Jesus out – He was already
out! It was to let the women in to see an empty
tomb.

We have this hope that we will attain to the

resurrection from the dead and be perfected. How
will we live? Like Enoch, Elijah and Paul did – the
life, which we now live in this soulish body we live
by faith in the Son of God! We press toward the
goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus. We are living in the day of the resurrection.
The first one mentioned in the Scriptures may take
place within a decade. The end-time events dictate
that the resurrection will follow in sequences - each
one in his own order (1 Corinthians 15:23). We are
right in it! What if some of us are killed serving
God? It is not important if we die but of importance
is what we attain in our spirits, in Christ. We believe
God to enter into resurrection life without tasting
physical death. We are to loose our lives for Christ
sake to find it. What we sow is not made alive
unless it dies. We need not to die physically
because the Lord laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all.
So, in Him, the death penalty is removed. Paul said,
“That I may know Him 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” (Philippians 3:10-11, emphasis added). Paul
did not refer to physical death but dying to self. If
we persevere to the end we will be translated like
Enoch (without the law) and Elijah (under the law)
and God will take us! (Revelation 12).

What should the attitude of your spirit be? You do

not need to become spiritual. The Holy Spirit
birthed you a spiritual being, one Spirit with our
Lord, a life-giving spirit. However, the problem is
the flesh lusts against the spirit, who is one with
the Spirit of Christ, and the spirit against the flesh;
and these are contrary to one another, so that you
do not do the things you wish (Ephesians 5:17).

You only need to believe God to be what He

created you to be in Christ, a life-giving spirit. If you
focus on it you will become aware of it.
Awareness gives birth to faith. You just accept
it through faith. You need not to work for it,
because it is done! This is the grace of God that you
accept His full provision through faith. Do you
know how simple is faith? Faith is expressed all the
time in thoughts, attitudes, words, works and your
daily walk. Your whole existence is expressions of
faith. Some expressions of faith are vanity (faith not
expressed in God or unbelief or also called negative
faith), which is sin, and others lead to eternal life. If
you live according to the flesh you will surely die
but to live according to the spirit is eternal life and
peace (rest of God). To believe to attain to the
resurrection from the dead and perfection without
tasting death, without a dedication to live in the
spirit, is wishful religious thinking.

If we sincerely set our hearts to walk with the Lord

and fall, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only but also for the
whole world (1 John 2:1-2).

To live this life in the flesh you need to present your

soulish body to God as if it is a spiritual body. To
live forever you need to inhale the air of heaven,
which is His presence. To do so, you see your body
as a spiritual body in an atmosphere where heaven
and earth has come together. You live than the life,
which you believe you should live in a spiritual
body. It is easy. Just share Jesus’ live totally with
Him then it takes the pressure of you to do
anything. You just flow with Him all the time,
sharing his faith, hope and love. Use your
imagination and visualize it. The more you meditate
on it and you give yourself to it the easier it
become. It is too lonely to struggle with an
imperfect prayer life of your own. Share His exciting
prayer life with Him. Your imperfect relationships
you should abandon and share all of His perfect
relationships. Can you see how easy it becomes
now? Just remember this faith life is exciting but
not comfortable for the flesh. If you are faithful in
this you will discover what I mean.
Now that you flowing in His faith you create with
Him substance in the realm of spirit. Now you share
Jesus’ life with Him and you live no longer but He
lives in you. Not that you have already attained, or
already being made perfect but in hope that you
may attain to the resurrection from the dead in the
same manner as Enoch and Elijah. Paul did it. He
said that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, which is in the realm of Spirit. To
illustrate: we know that Peter, James and John
witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain.
That experience they could not see with their
soulish bodies because flesh cannot see in the
realm of Spirit but it is limited to the natural realm.
They witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration with their
spirits in a vision. Now as they came down from the
mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell
the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen
from the dead” (Matthew 17:9, emphasis added).
How then did Paul testify about him being caught
into the third heavens not knowing if he was in
heaven with his spirit or with his body? If he knew
flesh and blood cannot enter into heaven or see
heavenly things why did he deem it not strange for
his body to be caught up into heaven. I know a man
in Christ who fourteen years ago – whether in the
body I do not know, or whether out of the body I
do not know, God knows – such a one was caught
up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2,
emphasis added). In the realm of Spirit where the
faith of Christ is expressed it violates the laws of
time and space. Paul presented his body
continuously a living sacrifice to God as if he has
attained to resurrection life and be perfected in his
soul in hope that the Spirit that raised Jesus from
the dead will quicken his mortal body. He brought
every thought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ that he may be renewed in the spirit of his
mind in hope that when his obedience is fulfilled all
disobedience in him will be punished. He was
determined that his carnal mind or emotions will
not govern his body but his spirit, which rule it from
the spirit of his mind. That is the part of him where
the light of the glory of the Word of God is seated,
which is the seed of God that cannot sin.

It is easy if you share Jesus’ life because He has

already attained to resurrection life and was
perfected trough His sufferings. He died for you
that you might share all of His life with Him, which
is divine perfection. Enjoy Him!