WHO TOUCHED ME?

  Miraculously healing is called “thaumaturgy.” When kings do it, it is called “the royal touch.” For French and English monarchs, as Christian rulers, they touched the afflicted by the laying-on of hands on those of any social class. Much of the time, the “king’s touch” was to heal those with scrofula. For those who have seen that affliction, it is so unsightly that ordinary people would not have touched it. Scrofula is believed to be caused primarily by impure air. People with scrofula were shunned, surely for two reasons: (1) fear of transmittal, and (2) it looks reprehensible.
  Scrofula was to the English and French what leprosy was to the Jews. Lepers were outcasts and that disease was not due to impure air, but transmission, as it is infectious. It is supposed that lepers were considered unclean by “doctors” in apostolic times because the etiology of diseases was largely unknown.
  Women were considered “unclean” at the normal time of menses.

¹⁹ And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even.

²⁰ And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.

²¹ And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

²² And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

²³ And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even.

²⁴ And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean.

²⁵ And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean.

²⁶ Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation.

²⁷ And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

²⁸ But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.

²⁹ And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

³⁰ And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her before the Lord for the issue of her uncleanness. (Lev 15:19-30)

  I believe you get the point. Even women on their menstrual cycles were ritually unclean, and were separated from commerce with others. Women with blood issues “socially-distanced” themselves so long as the blood flowed (verse 25). (And you thought “social distancing” was a new thing!) The women with blood issues were set apart, indubitably because they might be infectious. If their uncleanness was to spread, the Jews would no longer have a future in God’s Plan for mankind. Jews believed that disease was a consequence of sin. Since women could not procreate during their “period,” obviously sexual engagement would have been for pleasure alone. Perhaps the isolation was to discourage coitus when pregnancy would not have been an outcome. Many believe that Adam’s and Eve’s original sin included coming together for pleasure rather than to multiply as they were directed. (That is cognate with the passage Jas 2:10 which indicates that breaking even one commandment is as breaking them all.)
  The point, however, is that for whatever reason, women with blood issues, even natural ones, were considered not only unclean but sinful as well. God knew what scientists just learned — that infectious diseases are more prevalent during menses (ScienceDaily.com), and especially social diseases. Why was menstruation sinful in the eyes of Jews? Surely it has to do with Eve being mother of all. In other words, Eve’s sin was not intentional, and women were to make sacrifices because they were women. There is much that is not known about God’s Plan for everyone, but God planned for the longevity for the Hebrews because they were a peculiar and chosen people (Deut 14:2) and much like Gentiles of apostolic times (1 Pet 2:9).
  Today's key verses are about the woman with the blood issue:

KEY VERSES: 

²⁵ And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

²⁶ And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

²⁷ When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

²⁸ For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
²⁹ And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

³⁰ And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

³¹ And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

³² And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

³³ But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

³⁴ And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. (Mark 5:25-34)

  Surely, this poor woman had been isolated and avoided. Menses lasts about seven days, and she would have isolated herself, but since the blood issue was prolonged, she sinned because she failed to distance herself from others. She was not only considered to be contagious but a great sinner as well! She had been treated by doctors to no avail. She dared not touch Jesus because she was both biologically and spiritually unclean; so, she touched his clothes.
  Jesus felt the Power that he had lost; “virtue had gone out of him” (Verse 30). Jesus did not touch her by his “royal touch” as a king would do, but exposed his hem for her to touch. It was not His faith that healed her, but her faith (verse 34). What was the condition that allowed her to be healed? She was humble; she knew her place and that was not to touch anyone. She was an untouchable and accepted her condition. There is no record of her bringing doves or pigeons as sin offerings. Her only “sin” was what everyone has and that is Eve’s original sin (from Adam of course.)
  The woman was healed from her biological malady when she touched Jesus’s garment (verse 29). Humble Jesus did not even need to touch her. He was Royal, but He did not lay on hands as a king would. It was what the woman did that healed her. She lost confidence in the doctors and trusted Jesus. She was “born again” (John 3:7) when she did that. Why so? She humbled herself and elevated Jesus — recognizing that He is God. She did what those during the Exodus did: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). She had quit depending on her own devices, using doctors who could not help, but lifted up the Son of Man (Jesus). She touched the hem of His garment. (Mat 9:20). What was she doing down there? Prostrating herself to Jesus. She was diminishing herself and lifting-up Jesus. She was “born again,” as Jesus would say.
  She was healed in two ways; her blood issue dried up, and her spirit was healed: “Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague” (verse 34). She was cured of what plagued her, but more importantly her entire existence. Her flesh and spirit were healed. When Jesus lost His virtue to her, the woman received His healing Spirit. Her “regeneration” commenced right then. I say, “commenced” because perhaps entire regeneration is at the time of glorification. Her body was cured of the plague to preserve it to the time of her “gain” at death when Christians who have died in Christ become as they were when they were generated in the beginning.
  In the scripture, Adam’s duty was to “dress and keep the Garden” (Gen 2:15). That was the duty of “entirely good” Adam (Gen 1:31) — the one made in the image of God. “Dress and keep” can also be translated, “serve and preserve.” When Jesus healed the woman with the blood issue, the drying-up of life-giving blood, was Jesus serving her, and making her whole again was Jesus preserving her for a future. Blind Bartimaeus saw “men as trees; walking” (Mark 8:24). Jesus saw the woman has a tree kneeling, for Him to serve and preserve her. Jesus saw and experienced the “tree standing” because He was crucified on it. It surely pleased Him to see this “tree” kneeling in His Presence! Jesus was doing what Adam was designed to do, and those in Christ are to serve and preserve our fellow “trees.” We are to dress and keep others as the woman did on her knees anointing Jesus’s feet, and then as her servant, Jesus dressed and kept her! He even “dressed” her with His garment.
  Jesus knew who touched Him, but the crowd failed to see Jesus touching her with His Spirit. It is seldom what meets the eyes that is truth, but what goes on in the Spiritual world.
  What do I see with the coronavirus plague? I see Jesus waiting on His people to touch even the hem of His garment! Will that happen? Will we humble ourselves for this plague to dry-up? It depends on us who get on our knees and humble ourselves, and admitting, I am unclean… Jesus heal me of my uncleanness.
  I do not have coronavirus, but I may get it if I am not humble. Those who have it should ask, “Who touched me?” I submit that Jesus is touching us, and can heal our land as He already lost all His virtue to save the world from sin. His virtue is there to pour out and heal us, and people need only to humble themselves, and take what is already available for the cure of the plague and the healing of their souls.

Picture credit: Pininterest

A HOUSE DIVIDED

  The United States is a nation divided, and the House of Representatives, a house divided. Nikita Krushchev said that America would destroy itself from within, obviously by internal conflicts, and Benjamin Franklin said that “we have a republic, if we can keep it.”  Validating that, progressive Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.” He reiterated that just this week, with the coronavirus crisis.
  Is the virus the problem or is it us Americans, and even the world? The United States is the lead nation, and our president the most powerful man in the world. The world has demonstrated by their criticality that we are the “evil empire” and Donald Trump the demonic force. However, this commentary is not about Donald Trump but us earthlings!
  What does the world deserve? What do us earthlings warrant? What Jesus said:

But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:25:27)

  Scripture is brief about the days of Noah. Whatever they were doing, the sons of God were marrying the daughters of men (Gen 6:2). That is explained in sacred literature: Seth’s line on the Holy Mount Hermon saw Cain’s line doing evil on the plain, and wanted to do as they did, and did so: “Jared continued to teach his children eighty years; but after that they began to transgress the commandments he had given them, and to do many things without his counsel.”
  “They began to go down from the Holy Mountain one after another, and to mix with the children of Cain, in foul fellowships” (I Adam & Eve 19:8). What foul things? “It pleased well the children of Cain, who inflamed themselves with sin among themselves, and burnt as with fire; while Satan inflamed their hearts, one with another, and increased lust among them” (1 A & E 20:4). Further reading reveals that the days of Noah were like Woodstock with free love and inebriants flowing vociferously. Implied was everyone had an inflammation regardless of gender.  That is the way it is today.
  In that day, there were two philosophies, and indeed, there are always two: (1) holiness of Seth’s line, and (2) iniquity with Cain’s line. (Fair Warning — this gets political as there is no wall between the separation of Church and State.) Seth’s line did what is right according to the Doctrine of God. Cain’s line did according to the vain philosophies of men. Those “vain philosophies” have ended up being the creed of the Satanists — “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” (Aleister Crowley), and means “hedonism.” That’s what Seth’s and Cain’s line were doing in unity. Evil seemed to win the day until God’s wrath caused a flood.
  God’s wrath caused the coronavirus. Nothing happens unless it is God’s Plan for mankind. He is angry because of us, both pagans and Christians, represented by Cain and Seth, respectively. God expected Cain’s line to be hedonistic but he did not Seth’s. He had them “sanctified” on Mount Hermon, away from temptation. They looked down and lusted. They wanted to be as the world was! Then they entered into temptation, and the righteous people became nodifferent from the worldly ones.
  That’s nearly where the Church is today! It is difficult to discern between the hard rock concerts and worship service in megachurches. I went to one recently, and it looked almost like I would expect and rock concert to look. That’s not the problem, though. The root-cause is that many Christians love the world so much that they can’t stand being away from it for one hour. Church should be our sanctuary from the world; it should be our own holy “Mount Hermon,” but it is more as Cain’s plain; doing what they wilt!
  This commentary is about political division, but who is responsible for the great divide? Christians voting for and electing ungodly people! Christians seem to not care whether the candidate is in favor of abortion, same-sex marriage, attacks on the Church, and against free speech and the Bill of Rights or not! They vote their conscience and mostly because of misinformation. The love of money is the root of all evil. People vote for their true love, and with poetic justice, their true love is an infidel. Evil people promise many things, but they can’t deliver. Because they can’t, they get mean-spirited. That is socialism — people demanding control and obtaining it by empty promises. When their demands are not met, then they get nasty! Now for some scripture:

And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. (Luke 3:24-27)

  We are a nation divided, but also our “house” is divided. Socialism copies its author. Karl Marx, in his Manifesto, delineated groups within the masses of people.  Socialism, propagating unity, divides. It is okay for them to hate to eliminate those who hate. That is a paraphrase of Popper’s Paradox of Tolerance which progressives use to divide. They decide the standards and determine who to hate. They hate righteousness in the name of social justice. How easily fooled people are! That trick is as old as the Devil himself.
  Satan is the author of division. He wants the nation to fail, and he will use the House divided against itself. Never in my life have I ever seen such division as in the U.S. House of Representatives. Now is the crisis that Rahm Emanuel taunted. Now is the time to do mischievous things that people would not buy into at any other time. Much as in the Faustian story, they have held the President and the people hostage while they sell the living souls of thousands of people for money for their social programs. They will kill for their cause! They “one-up” Christians who are encouraged to sacrifice themselves for Jesus, but the Democrat Congress would sell the lives of others for the cause of Marx!
  Dead people don’t bother them; they often still vote (sic). Dead people don’t bother them because they define little people as non-persons. Dead people don’t bother them because they have seen the deaths of millions destroyed by socialism, but still prefer socialism! They are not insane but they are inherently evil.
  Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumer are the faces of evil, and the vipers who beguile them are the “gang of four.” Never in the history of America has the irrational ideas of the few hurt so many. They care not whether they hurt people as long as they get their way. Christians in their paths are merely collateral damage, but yet Christians still vote for Democrats. How insane is that? Better yet, how beguiled they are!
  In the Old Testament, God used evil people. It was not the pagans who were the problem, but those called to righteousness who were like the pagans. God didn’t punish the Babylonians when they were evil, but he punished the Jews using evil people as his fools. Christians today are those being punished. We have become too much like the world. Although the Chinese are pagans, God seems to be using them to punish those of us who would be Christians. If you doubt that, merely read about Ahab and Jezebel and how the Jews were punished for being like them.
  Let’s be straight-forward. Do people stay out of the churches because they are more like the world,  but poorer performers? People could be watching Christian movies rather than the blood, sex, and gore of the mainstream, but Christians with their poor acting is not overwhelmingly desirable. Christians prefer pagan entertainment even while they stand on a “holy mountain” but crave what the world provides. My wife’s cousin asked me why there are so many R-rated movies. I told her that the people vote for that. “How so?” she asked. “By buying tickets.” The world gives them what they want, and Christians pay for what they claim they hate.
  Christians vote for wicked Democrats although they claim to hate their evil ways! Why is the US so wickedly liberal (do what thou wilt) now? Because Christians are not what they claim to be! Let’s call them what Jesus did – “a brood of vipers.”
  That is children of the Serpent for those who did not get the point.  This coronavirus is a house-cleaning. People will die. Some will lose and perish in Hell but the true Christians’ deaths will be gain. Why would a good God allow evil? Because that’s what the deceived prefer. Each time a sin is chosen, it tells God, I prefer this to what you offer.  Quit blaming God. Quit blaming Trump. Krushchev was right. We are destroying ourselves from within, and him and the old Devil are probably laughing at us right now; that is, if the old guy was not in agony!

THE HOLY GHOST - Part 2

  Remembering that Eve was from Adam’s “flesh” (not specifically s “rib” but his side, take into account that Jesus was from God’s “right side,” as it is written. As “the right hand of God, it comes that Isaiah was writing about Jesus when he wrote, “I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (Isa 41:10).
  “Hand” therein is as much “side” and comes from the Hebrew “yamiyn.” As Eve was taken from the side of Adam, perhaps the left side, Jesus was taken from the right side of God, leaving it to be the left side of Mary. Eve was “woman” – of man. Jesus was Son of God — of Yah. 
  Jesus is the physical manifestation of God. The Holy Ghost is the spiritual manifestation of God. Jesus is as much God as the Father, and as much the Holy Ghost as well.  The point is that the Holy Spirit is the universal “substance” of God’s Spirit, and the Holy Ghost specific to Jesus. The two differences are in nomenclature. The Holy Spirit is ultimate Existence, and the Holy Ghost is a distinct Existence. The Holy Spirit has the “experience” of Being, but the Holy Ghost the “experience” of dying.
  God transformed Himself — from the Intelligence to the Spiritual, then from the Spiritual to the Flesh, then from the Flesh to the “Ghost” of the flesh. Indeed, a “ghost” is “a disembodied soul,” but also “the seat of intelligence” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary.) Therefore, intelligence is not of the brain, but of the soul. Cognition (thinking) remains with the soul before and after death. Paul wrote, “He (God) hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame” (Ephes 1:4).
  God is the Immortal God, and as God, Jesus was with God and was God at the creation (John 1). Jesus is the Alpha and Omega… the Beginning and the End. Man was made in the image of God — in our image. (Gen 1:25-26). Jesus was Holy Spirit. Why not Holy Ghost?  “But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39).
   It seems that before living, Jesus as God, by experience was the all-encompassing Holy Spirit. After Jesus experienced physical life, His Spirit was distinct to His body, and when his Holy Spirit experienced death, that experience transformed His Flesh into the Holy Ghost.
  Don’t think of the Spirit of Jesus as either universal or specific to Him; it was only a difference in experience!

With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism. (Ephes 4:2-5)

  There are many verses that identify ONLY one spirit. Every Christian has the same spirit, and that is the Spirit of God, and is the distinct Spirit who experienced death on the cross. The death of Jesus transformed God’s Holy Spirit into God’s Holy Ghost in that God had experienced disembodiment. The “Sacred Three-in-One” experienced death on the cross. God’s Mind is omnipresent. The Father was in heaven and in earth at the same time.
  Don’t think of heaven and earth as separate places, but the same place in different realms. Calvary was the Kingdom of David and Paradise is that same Kingdom in another realm. Jesus traveled freely from one realm to the other, and it took no time to do so! I have written on that before, but there are at least three examples of that; one that he merely appeared to the eleven apostles in a locked room (Luke 24:36). How did God in Mind and Spirit experience death on the cross while at the same time was elsewhere? Because physical barriers did not contain Him, as was found out when Jesus, as the Angel of God, merely left the tomb through rock walls, and rolled back His own stone, not to escape, but that others would see that He was not there (Mat 28:2)!
  Now examine the birth of Jesus again:

And the angel answered and said unto her (Mary), The Holy Ghost shall come UPON thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. (Luke 1:35a)

  The Holy Ghost, that specific entity of God that was creating a specific Glorious Being, was experiencing life. A “ghost” is much more than a “disembodied soul” but also a “seat of intelligence.” God was fulfilling His Plan for mankind, hence the experience of that was of the “Holy Ghost.” I am not certain that the KJV translators had exactly the same notions that I do, but perhaps since so many scholars arrived at the same wordage, that God was inspiring them. Am I spot on? Perhaps… perhaps not. You evaluate yourselves.
  The distinction that I want to make is that the Holy Ghost came upon Mary. She was not filled with the Holy Ghost, and perhaps she came late to that relationship, as there is no evidence that she was born again until later. It seems that the Holy Ghost used her as a pure vessel, but the “vessel” was a clean but empty “cup,” (as Jesus called His own soul) (Mat 20:23).
  On the other hand, God had an immediate spiritual purpose for John. He was filled with the Holy Ghost from the beginning, as is written:

He (John) shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. (Luke 1:15)

  "Filled" is pimplemi in the Greek. In that passage, wherein for “upon” when the Holy Ghost encompassed Mary, she was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost who came “upon” (epi) her.” Epi is superimposition by overshadowing Mary. Pimplini could be “imbued,” “influenced,” or “filled.” Perhaps “satiated” is a better definition. John was certainly “influenced” but is it something more profound than that? The Holy Spirit dwells within Christians as the “Ghost” of Jesus; not a phantasm, but God’s experienced Holy Spirit. The exact same portion of God that was in Jesus as he died, and who He gave up when it was finished (John 19:30).
  In the Old Testament, the patriarchs “gave up the ghost” as well. Jesus had yet to die, but the patriarchs depended upon Jesus’s eminent death for salvation of their souls. They too were in one spirit with God. Abraham for instance, “gave up the ghost” (gava’) because he indicated that he depended on Jesus’s death for salvation. His body “breathed out” God’s “wind” so to speak (Strong’s Dictionary.)
  God’s “spirit” would not always be with men (ruwach). That “wind” that God breathed unto Adam and Abraham to make them living souls. Their souls before that were spiritual existence. Life came when God animated them with His Spirit. God’s “Spirit” (ruwach) created everything (Gen 1:2). God breathed life unto everything with a specific Spirit to Adam and Abraham, for instances. Coming, in the “wind,” in the Hebrew was ruwach, coming out, it was gava’. It was the same “wind” from God but the wind coming out had experienced life. When life was over, God’s “wind” was transformed by experience. Abraham’s thoughts were breathed out with his personal gava’.
  Thus, even in patriarchal times, the nomenclature for God’s “wind” was based on experience. As such, Mary experienced the Holy Ghost – a specific experience – upon her, and John within him. As a probable Nazarite, John was cleansed from the hint of contamination (wine, death, etc) whereas Mary very well could have drank wine. John was consecrated before birth for reception of the Holy Ghost whereas Mary was a clean “vessel” for God’s Flesh. Jesus was apparently born in the Flesh, and received the Holy Spirit when He was baptized. John recounted that:

And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove UPON him (Jesus), and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 33:22)

  So far, I have contrasted God’s general Spirit to people’s distinct portion from God. I bet the following has gone unnoticed, but Luke validated that: “in bodily shape.” Whose bodily shape? The dove’s?  I believe it was a Jesus-shaped Spirit, and since “it” was specific to Jesus, would be his “Ghost.” I have said before that the Holy Ghost experienced death with Jesus as the Ghostly form of Jesus. However, the Holy Ghost experienced life as Jesus as well. God’s “Wind” within Jesus was breathed specifically into Jesus as he was transformed from only Flesh to a Body and later to Ghost.
  But that passage says, “upon Him!” not filling Him. Jesus had been overshadowed by God’s Spirit in Jesus’s bodily shape. That indicates to me that the soul is a person-shaped “cup” to contain God’s Ghost. Jesus’s “Ghost” looked just like us, in the same image, so it fits within our souls quite well. Not precisely, because Jesus was created perfect and mankind only very good (Gen 1:31).
  What is the difference? Perhaps our free will to accept and contain sin! Jesus’s “Ghost” was different than ours in that respect, since God and sin cannot reside together. We are not gods, and until we are glorified and regenerated into the image of God, some sin can and will inhabit the same soul. Care must be taken, however, to not let resident sin overcome us; we must endure to the end to be saved (Mat 10:22). Endure what? The dualism within us — the war that goes on between a willing spirit and a weak flesh (Mat 26:41).
  That war will be over when our bodies are perfected, the space in the soul removed for sin, and it becomes like Jesus. Glorification is Jesus’s Ghost as Jesus appeared, fitting perfectly into our restored bodies, back to the same image as when they were created, but without the room in our temples for evil!
  Since sin and righteousness endeavor to occupy the same space in our souls, repentance cleans it out, and essentially makes more room for Jesus to live within us. Sin endeavors to crowd Jesus out. Sanctification – setting ourselves apart for Jesus to live within us – is what we do for God. That is a difficult task and the Holy Ghost of Jesus overshadows us to protect from the Evil One. Christians have the Holy Ghost of Jesus upon them!
  Soon after Jesus had the Holy Ghost upon Him, and it remained there (John 1:33), unlike the others, but before he faced the temptations from Satan, he was filled with the Holy Ghost.

And Jesus being FULL of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. (Luke 4:1-2a)

  The Greek therein for “full” is a little different; it is pleres, which is “filled up”, “covered in every part,” or “permeated.” Again, I think “satiated” fits that quite well. That is “fully satisfied.” Jesus had all that he needed to encounter Satan, but his was the “shape” of his body. He was indeed fully satisfied.  In that God will not give us more than we can handle, Christians are “adequately satisfied” with a certain “amount” of “me-shaped” Ghost of Jesus within, hopefully co-existing with very little sin.
  The so-called “spirit-filled” then are not totally without sin, for to say so, it is written, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1John 1:10). (Yes, Jesus is speaking to the righteous, and when sin enters in, even Christians who have the Holy Ghost, must continually pray for cleansing of it.)  
  Christians are not FULL of the Holy Ghost, but they are “adequately satisfied” until they are glorified. Of course, Christians are never to be satisfied with the sin within, and pray for God to consecrate His temple again and again as the Devil continually attacks the walls to gain entrance into God’s Temple.
  Baptism with water covers the flesh. Baptism with the Holy Ghost is covering the flesh with a Jesus “shaped” covering.

I (John) indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. (Mark 1:18)

  The veil is no longer required to cover sins, and it was torn asunder because the Ghost of Jesus, when it was finished, was sufficient. The curtain covered God’s Temple; it was not inside the Holy of Holies but in front of it. Jesus’s Holy Ghost covers His “temple” within us to keep sin out, just as with the Holy of Holies. Sin sometimes entered in, and the priest had a cord to be pulled out if he was impure. When Christians are impure, we too have a silver cord that must be tugged. It is the cord that’s there to keep the soul and body together (Ecc 12:6).  Satan never quits tugging on that cord to rip down Jesus’s protective “curtain” of the Holy Ghost.
  I admit that the Holy Trinity is difficult to understand, but this is how I understand God. He, however, is not “God as we understand Him” like the Twelve-Steppers believe, but a God that we don’t fully understand, and that is why all the different doctrines. Personally, whether you believe you are “filled” or “covered” with the Spirit or Ghost is not my concern, but that Jesus has satisfied your every need as he has mine. I did nothing for salvation; He did it all, and that satisfies me.
  “Satisfaction,” for some, is dancing, twirling, hard music, and such; but for me, it is that I am satisfied with contentment. “Joy” for my part is not a demonstration of excitement, but assurance that I shall have eternal life. What a great day that will be!

(photo credit: Today's Christian Woman)

THE HOLY GHOST

  It may be that even the apostles failed to understand how the Holy Ghost interacts with mankind. The “Holy Ghost” is “hagios pneuma” in the Greek, ultimately meaning “Sacred Presence” as all the definitions are considered. However, that “Presence,” according to Strong’s Dictionary is described as a “Breeze.” Strong also indicated that the pneuma has personality, and as such, would be a person.
  Strictly speaking, the early Church and Strong’s understanding seems to be oversimplified. A “person” in archaic times was a “bodily appearance” (Webster’s Dictionary.) Early writers refer to “homeostasis” in describing the Holy Trinity. Homeostasis is “equilibrium between the independent elements of a group” (ibid). Thus, the Holy Trinity is the elemental substances of God. “Substances” is used because substance is a “fundamental quality,” and applies to both the physical and non-physical in this context (ibid).
  My conclusion is that the Holy Trinity, or “Sacred Three-in-One” is not three “Persons,” but three Qualities in One Existence. The “Father” is the Creative Quality of God, and creativity indicates imagination. Hence, the “Father” Quality is God’s supreme, omniscient Intellect or Mind.
 The Son is then, the Appearance of God. What God looks like. God in bodily form, or God’s Person. As God’s Person, Jesus is the One Existence of God who has three qualities: Mind, Body, and Spirit. We know that because when Jesus died, he “gave up the Pneuma” (Mark 15:37). (Hold that thought for a moment.) As the Word who spoke (John 1), Jesus was creative. He is Mind. People think of Jesus as only God’s Flesh, but he is also the Mind and Spirit of God. Jesus is the “Three in One Existence of God.”
  Forty-eight times in the New Testament, Jesus, in speaking about Himself, said, “I AM” (English) from the Greek “Ego Eimei.” In Hebrew that is Hayah – which means simply “Exist.” God said, “I AM WHO I AM” or “Hayah ‘Asher Hayah.”  Jesus, therefore, is Hayah. Jesus, the Name, is “Ya Yasha’,“ in the Hebrew, and “God Saves” in the English. Hence, Jesus IS God, and His purpose Is salvation. God’s Flesh would be the substitutional sacrifice for our own weak flesh.
  The Greek word, “Pneuma” is used throughout for the New Testament for both “Spirit” and “Ghost.” The King James Version is the only translation that uses “Ghost” and “Spirit” for Pneuma, but perhaps not interchangeably but in context.
  Jesus, the very Flesh of God, contained the Sacred Essence of God which we call the Holy Spirit. Adam’s flesh had the Spirit of God breathed into him: God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7). Living soul in the Hebrew is “chay nephesh” or “animated being.” 
  “Ruwach” in the Hebrew is used for “Spirit” in the Old Testament (e.g., Gen 1:2). That Spirit is the Power of God which animates. Hence, “soul” differs from “spirit.” It seems that God animated or made Adam a “living being” through the use of His Spiritual Presence. Adam had breathed into his body, God’s Spirit. Perhaps, the soul is a body-shaped container which for Adam was surely filled.
  Eve was taken from Adam’s side. In scientific terms, a female “clone” was made of Adam, and she was “woman” (of man). Because Adam had God’s Spirit, it is a fair assumption that Eve did as well. God warned Adam that if he sinned, that he would die. If the Spirit animated Adam, then “death” is the de-animation of Adam, and God exhumed His Spirit from Adam.
  Thus, although physically alive, Adam was spiritually dead.  God’s warning to Adam applied to all of his flesh. Thus, Eve died too because she was “of Adam.” With the “original sin” mankind’s soul was emptied. As Eve was the mother of all, Adam was the father of all. Our flesh is his flesh, and when everyone is born, they are born in “iniquity” (Psalm 51:5).
  “Iniquity” is a state of immorality, or inherently evil. Thus, the animated being is generated with an empty container, awaiting to be filled. Gradually, Satan breathes his spirit into the being, and he animates everyone. “All have sinned” (Rom 3:23) and hence deserve death. “Death,” I have shown, is a being without the Spirit of God within their soul, but is also, a soul with Satan’s spirit residing in it (John 8:44). Christians live according to the character of the Spirit, and non-Christians live according to the character the Devil. The “Devil” is the spirit of Satan residing in human beings, until that spirit is exhumed.
  The soul is a “container” which must “hold” some spirit. There are two types of spirits: Right Spirit and wrong or evil spirit. Since the soul of human beings can hold one or the other, but not both conclusively, care must be taken to allow one of the other to be the master of the human domain: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other” (Mat 6:24a). It may be that “babes in Christ” as they are sanctified, increase in Holy Spirit and decrease in unholy spirit. (We will consider later the phrase “filled with the Holy Ghost.”)
  As children of the Devil, the iniquitous are evil which the Bible refers to as “Demons.” There can be one or legions of demons (Mark 5:9). There can be either (1) an empty soul, (2) one demon in the sould, (3) many demons in the soul, or (4) only the Holy Spirit in the soul. Perhaps, the Holy Spirit specific to our body is what the KJV would call the “Holy Ghost.” “Ghost” is specific to the human animated form.
  Satan is not like God at all. God has omnipresence whereas Satan does not have that power. His “spirit(s)” are the demons that are individual beings, and the following  is ambiguous, but that they are our equals, and both beings are lower than God.
  Because we will not marry as angels do not when in Heaven, it makes sense that human beings are as angel beings. Angels, which are messengers of God, have the Word in them. Those who are messengers of Satan have the anti-Word in them. God’s “Messenger” has the Spirit of God within just as Adam had, and seems to be spiritually equal to original Adam, and that is “glorious.”
  On the other hand, Satan’s angels are “Messengers” with evil news — that against Christ. Those who have demons are antichrists as is written: “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). In that sinners have the demon-spirits who are messengers of Satan, they must be cast out. The soul must be emptied before the Spirit of God can enter into the soul.
  In KJV context, the “Holy Spirit” is the overall “Sacred Presence” of God, but the “Holy Ghost” is the specific Spirit that would fill a human soul. God’s Flesh (Jesus) was generated by the God’s Creativeness (His Mind), and by the Power of a specific “Pneuma” – the Spirit of God that would occupy the Body of God. Perhaps, it seems, that Spirit of God took on the form of Jesus’s body and became Jesus’s specific animated Spirit. How did I deduce that?

She (Mary) was found with child of the Holy Ghost. (Mat 1:18)

  This is getting lengthy; I will continue it tomorrow. It will surely take the reader as long to consider this as it has for me. Much of what has been handed down to modern-day Christians is from Catholicism. Perhaps English cannot describe the Textus Receptus adequately, or perhaps I am wrong! However, translations are merely that. That is why there are so many.  That the Holy Trinity is Three Persons seems at odds with scripture, because Jesus is the Person of God. The other two substances are Mind and Spirit, or Thought and Power.

Picture credit: "Holy Trinity" from pinterest by Evelyn

YOD

  Abraham’s wife, Sarai was “a fair woman to look upon” (Gen 12:11). God had a plan for her. She was the be the progenitor of the Savior although she was barren. “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai (שָׂרַר) thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah (שָׂרַי ) shall her name be” (Gen 17:15).
  The tetragrammaton “JHVH” is yodh he waw he, or in Hebrew script, יהוה. The yodh or yod, is the first character on the right in  יהוה (Hebrew reads from right to left). Yod looks like an apostrophe, but it is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. “Yah” is a shortened designation for God, as in Yahweh, the way JHWH is pronounced.
  Now back to Sarai. God renamed her. He dropped the “yod.” She was barren so why would she need the yod? “Yod” in many languages means “I” and in English as well. יהוה means “I AM THAT I AM.” By dropping the yod, God dropped the “I” because righteous people are to be diminished. The “I” is what Sigmund Freud called the “ego” from the Greek. Then yod=ego=I. Sarai was to relent her “ego” and drop the “I”. Don’t worry about that, Sarai, because God will restore the “yod” much later.
  Sarai means “princess” and Sarah means “noble” (woman). We think of “noble” as nobility as in royalalty. “Noble” is having outstanding qualities (Merriam-Webster). What was outstanding about Sarah?  She was the one chosen to antecede the Messiah. When the Messiah came, He was the great I AM in the flesh and Jesus said, “Ego Eimi” (I AM) forty-eight times.  John the Baptist avoided “I AM” and merely said “Ego.” He reinforced that he was not Ego Eimi by saying “Ego” with the “Eimi.” He acknowledged that he was not, but that he had “ego.” Freudian “ego” would be of a high opinion of himself. Everyone loves themselves, even John did. (Ephes 5:29; Mat 22:39).
  Sarai had “ego” as well, but in Hebrew that would be “Yod.” Just as John the Baptist diminished himself, God diminished Sarai. He took away her “I” totally. She lost her “yod.” She may felt as if she was “Yah” but she was not. (Yod is the first letter of Yah.) Sarai was transformed by Yah from princess to noble woman. God had the yod, and Sarai would not need it. By taking away the yod (I) Sarai was diminished from the “princess” attitude to the woman with qualities outstanding enough to precede Jesus (Yeshua). Which is “Yah preserves.”
  In a spiritual way, Sarai is the missing link between Yawheh and Yeshua. She had the yod, didn’t require it, but passed it down to Yeshua. Her DNA was passed down through “noble woman” Mary to Jesus who IS the Ego Eimi or Yod He.
  Think about all this Hebrew and Greek. Words means things! “For verily I say unto you, ‘Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled’” (Mat 5:18). In English the “jot” is the Hebrew character (yod) and “tittle” is iota in the Greek. “Tittles” are diacritical points which were added to the Hebrew to make Yahweh read Adonai (“Majestic Lord“ with the diacritical marks).
  Leaving our the yod and tittles in the Old Testament would diminish the Lord, and like Matthew wrote, “till all be fulfilled.” Who fulfilled all? Jesus Christ “finished” it (the Law) on the Cross. The yods and diacritical marks are crucial and without them Adonai would have never been Ego Eimi in the flesh! The “Ego” (Yod) was withheld from Sarai until Jesus fulfilled the “I” (Ego).
  And what did God add to make Sarah? A second “Waw.” Since it appears twice, Sarah is that she is, and God IS THAT HE IS. And now you know that God planned Jesus’s birth when he planted a seed in a barren woman. When Isaac was born, vicariously, it was Jesus – hold that thought, Sarah!

Three Samples of the Tetragrammaton (Wikipedia)

THE SILVER CORD REMAINS UNBROKEN

  Honestly, as a Christian, do you not wonder about the Holy Spirit residing within you? Do you feel distant from God? When you sin, as a Christian, you are said to be FILLED with the Holy Ghost. First off, the very nomenclature offends some because Pentecostals use the term “Ghost” and other evangelicals oftener “Spirit.” They are two translations for the same Greek word, pneuma, but have entirely different meanings. Spirit is “the supernatural essence,” and ghost is “a disembodied soul.”. Soul is an immaterial essence, and thus it would seem that spirit and soul are more equivalent than spirit and ghost (Merriam-Webster Dict).
  Spirit and soul are “essences,” or “existences;” essence is reality. Spirit, although supernatural, is real. With all those definitions, it is still not clear what any of those words mean. Think of it as the spirit and soul must be experienced to understand. Why do people not understand God’s Holy Spirit? Perhaps they have yet to experience God. My own definition of spirit is “experiencing Existence,” meaning having “God in you,” as Paul wrote: “And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Cor 9:14-15).
  When Adam (man) was created in body, God went unto him: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7). Soul in the Hebrew therein is nephesh, and means “a breathing creature,” (Strong’s Dict.) but is that not what all animals are? Note that animals were merely created, but God did not breath unto them as he did with human animals. Hence, “living souls” are animated creatures with “God in them.” In stands to reason then that those without God in them are “dying souls.” The apostle John confirms that:

I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. (John 5:41-43)

  The animal kingdom did not receive God as Adam’s body did. The animating feature from God is love, from John above. Christians have the “love of God” within them. How can those who claim to be Christians perceive Christ in them? By the love they have for God and others! “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:8). John thought that having God could be better understood by comparison to not having God. Before God comes into people, they do not love God. We all know that feeling because we were “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5).
  Adam knew God because he was “shapen in love.” Hence, because of sin that everyone has, everyone else but Christ was shapen without love, and are like the animals that God made. We are born brute beasts, and to become generated like Adam, must be regenerated from our natural state. Regeneration is not a return to childlike, but a return to Adam-like, as he was generated.
  Adam despised no one, not even Lucifer. He didn’t sin because he despised God, but because he dishonored God (John 5 above.) Adam dishonored God (that is hatred) because he did what he wanted to do despite God telling him what His Will was for him.
  Adam was credited with the sin, although Eve ate first, because God commanded Adam, not Eve. She was beguiled, but Adam dishonored God because he willed too. He elevated himself above God.  God had endowed Adam with love, and when he sinned, love flowed out of him, and he became a beast like the other animals, and apparently the animals mimicked Adam since they lost their docility.
  Virtue is the display of love, or love manifested. When God generated Adam, virtue would have flowed from Him. Solomon called that stream of virtue, the silver cord (Eccles 12:5-7) which is “loosened” and “then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
  The substance of the silver cord is love, and that “cord” bonds living souls with God. The “silver” description of the cord is virtue. Jesus felt that when others received his healing love: “And Jesus said, ‘Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me’” (Luke 8:46). Love heals all things, and when God heals, love flows from him unto those He has healed. When Adam was created (healing is repair of the creation), the breath of life from God was the silver cord and was a stream of love flowing from God unto Adam. Rebirth (John 3:7) is the beginning of the regenerating process and love flows from God to re-animate the beasts, and the silver cord is tightened again.
  The silver cord’s tension is perceived, therefore, to how much love Christians have for God and others. Love flows from the Christian to those around him or her, and if the love is not flowing the silver cord is loosened. It makes sense, that apostasy is breaking the silver cord by dishonoring God. It is Christians re-shaping themselves, not to the pattern of God, but the pattern of Satan, and his law of sin. The Law of God is the Law of love (John 14:15) so if love is not in a person, then they have not God in them.
  How then to detect the presence of the Holy Spirit;  by how much we love God and others. The Ten Commandments are metrics of how much we love God, and not by chance, the First Commandment is a measure of honor for God. The next three are the metrics for honoring God, and the last six are how to measure the tightness of the silver cord between ourselves and others. If we even sin once, it as if we broke all the commandments, but God is a graceful God. He knows the “tension” in the silver cord… “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41). So long as the silver cord remains unbroken, then God maintains his grace. When Christians fail to endure to the end (Mat 10:22), rather than “be saved,” they shall perish. “Saved” is living and continuing to exist as Adam did in the beginning. The breath of life that defines living beings shall remain unbroken forever! Spiritual death is a breaking of the silver cord, and God leaving the souls to Satan to do with as he wishes.
  Thus, the soul is not a physical entity to be defined but an attitude that only people can have. The soul is an attitude of love, ironically like the docile creatures who love their masters just because they are there! Christians are regenerated fully in Heaven when they become glorified – which will be just as Adam was generated. Thus, the silver cord has come full-circle, and the loop is closed, the tension ceased, and love is fulfilled.
  Indicated before is that the Holy Spirit is known by experience. Those of us who have it know it because God’s love can be sensed. With sin covered, the tension on the cord (guilt) is relieved, and Satan’s choke-hold is removed. Relief is how the Holy Spirit is sensed, and gratitude is sent along the silver cord to God!
  What about the Holy Ghost? Since a ghost is a disembodied spirit, then the “Holy Ghost” is the loosening of Jesus’s “silver cord.” He did that on Calvary: “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished:’ and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). So that Christians’ silver cord remains unbroken, Jesus allowed his to be loosened. He became sin on our behalf (1 Per 2:24). Jesus’s own “silver cord” was broken when His Holy Ghost left Him, and at that time God’s need for flesh (His Purpose) was finished. Our silver cord remains intact as His was broken, and that was God’s gift for mankind, who could not keep the silver cord intact themselves! Some think they can and are proud. Those who realize they cannot, are humble, and shall be saved.
  Before Jesus died, God’s Holy Spirit was in Him. As life was finished, Jesus gave up the “Ghost.” God’s Holy Spirit was transformed into Jesus’s Holy Ghost by the experience of death for us. Only God’s flesh experienced physical death, and He compared it to sleeping. God’s Spirit experienced death as well, but never died. Death transformed Jesus into a Ghost as John explained: “But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). What happened on the Holy Cross? The Holy Ghost left Jesus, and he was glorified upon His own regeneration. The “Resurrection” was Jesus’s regeneration and when Christians arise from the grave, they will be regenerated in the same manner!
  All the while Christians lie inanimate in the grave, their “ghost” is with Jesus. With the rapture, the soul will have life breathed back into it, recombined with the dust, and finally, the mortal Christian’s flesh is ultimately saved! The Holy Spirit is the Essence of God, which upon Jesus’s death is “God in us” and is essentially “Jesus in us” because He is the “Ghost” of Jesus.
  If that is complicated, don’t worry about it. The Holy Spirit can be detected by how much we love. Some love is caring about others. Much love is desiring that none should perish – the same way God loves us! The ultimate love is honoring God. For what? Generating us in the first place and the hope of regeneration. “Hope” is seeing the prize as if it is in hand. The reason “death is gain” is because the prize is obtained. The precursor to that is if, “Christ is in us” (Phil 1:21). It is finished when Christians endure to the end as the silver cord remains unbroken.
  How can Christians tell if Christ is in us? By honoring God. The “feeling” inside is how Christians sense God’s Presence, as we compare how we are to how we were. If we have not changed since we were born again, we are as we were, and people have a reason to be worried. At one time I hated God’s Church and would have rather been elsewhere. Now if I am not in God’s House, I feel desolate. I am Comforted when I am in sanctuary with God. If that Comfort is not felt, then the Holy Ghost of Jesus is not in us; God is not in us: “He (God) shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever” (John 14:6) after Jesus was to leave. The Comforter is the silver cord which will remain unbroken if Christ is in us, and forever!
  If you cannot feel the Presence of the Holy Ghost, is Christ in you? Are you indeed honoring God with your attitude and actions, or even behaviors? Are you honoring God by loving the other human creatures that God generated as He did you? Do you value others and God supreme to yourself? If that is not the case, the silver cord has loosened and is in danger of falling away.

Silver Cord (Credit: JesusFreakGeek Freak.com)