June 2001

[Part 167]

“Sleeping Beauty” [A]

                God cast a deep sleep on the spirit-soul of the first and only man of flesh ever created; then severed this unique one into two beings of male and female. We call him the “only” man since all other beings, male and female, came from him! Even Jesus, the Christ-Seed born of the virgin Mary, was clad in the same flesh-pod as the first Adam! (Jn 1:14) For this cause, God named Him the “Second and last Adam”! But consider this strange sequencing; for surely multitudes were born before Jesus came to earth, and millions were born after He left the earth- so by what stretch of the imagination could He be numbered “second” or “last” of all created ones? Yet we must trust the accounting of Him Who created all things, so He must be devulging a great Truth!
                God made ONE BODY OF FLESH in which TWO SEPARATE LIVES OF SOUL AND SPIRIT must be lived! “The first Adam was made a living soul; the Last Adam was made a LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT!” (1 Co 15:45) The last Adam is called “Life-giving” by virtue of the CHRIST (God’s Anointing) that possesses His Spirit; while the first Adam is only a “living soul” by virtue of the breath of God sustaining his sleeping spirit! Every person born in this world must experience both of these lives. The body of flesh houses the two as a TEST OF CHARACTER!! The soul nature [which encompasses “intellect, emotions and will”] must succumb to all incessant, unworthy demands of the flesh while it lacks the divine restraint afforded by the Anointing of God! The spirit nature [comprised of “conscience, discernment and desire to worship”] when deprived of the Life-giving Christ must accede to the will of his flesh-controlled soul! This vicious cycle of terrible tyranny can only be stopped whenever the word-seed of man undergoes the BAPTISM (lit. “total immersion”) in GOD’S OWN HOLINESS! It is the WORD- of Life or Death- operating in man that initiates thought; forms speech, and dictates actions! “Death and Life are in the power of the tongue (man’s language resource, and his fleshy, oral instrument of speech); and they will eat the fruit they love [of either the word-tree of Life or tree of self- knowledge of good and evil]!” (Pr 18:21) Without Christ [God’s Power of Holiness] the controlling “word” in every heart is DEATH! God defines death as “flesh-mindedness” and Life as “spirit-mindedness”; (Ro 8:6) The “prize and recipient” of these influences is the soul! The Lord God, Himself, first initiated man’s propensity toward death when He “Caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam!” (Ge 2:21) But the consummation of death came when he had eaten of the forbidden fruit of his own flesh mind! That “deep sleep” He imposed was the withholding of God’s ANOINTING THAT SAVES [lit. “Christ Jesus”]. This Power of God speaks to men saying, “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (Jn 15:5) Though these Words were spoken from the lips of a certain Nazarene carpenter from the House of David, God was surely not saying, “Without the FLESH NATURE of this human being, we can do nothing”! Rather, it was HIS HOLY SPIRIT NATURE Who said through that Man, “WITHOUT ME [My ANOINTING THAT SAVES, i.e. “Christ Jesus”] you can do nothing!” The Dict. defines “doing nothing” as “Idleness, indolence and slothfulness”; and interestingly Pr 19:15 says, “Slothfulness (Heb 6103 also: “Idleness and indolence”) casts into a deep sleep!!”
           So who really “slept” in that first fleshly tabernacle of Adam? The answer is symbolized in Mt 8:23-27 as JESUS SLEPT IN A WOODEN SHIP (wood represents flesh) amid a violent storm that did not arise till Jesus entered the ship and went to sleep! Similarly the “storm of temptation” did not assault earth’s dust till God’s Word-Seed entered the ship of humanity and went to sleep! And also, the storm of all storms did not break loose on the earth till Noah (lit. “REST”) entered the ark of wood and rested in the Lord! When the “storms of life” come to every man, the element that causes the most terror is the feeling that “A SLEEPING GOD” has abandoned us to them! Carnal minds rage with fear, doubt and unbelief as we hurl false accusations against our Creator! But our loving Father knows the exact moment to awaken His Saving Anointing in His people!

“AS A DREAM WHEN ONE AWAKENS, SO IT SHALL ALSO BE
WHEN Y-O-U A-W-A-K-E-N, O LORD, FOR YOU SHALL
ABOMINATE THE IMAGE OF THE UNGODLY!” (Ps 73:20)

[TO BE CONTINUED]