Longtime my Conquerors,
Many times i have been approached by individuals who are confused about life, the problems or challenges they face and have come to a point where they wonder whether their lives are worth living, a picture well painted in the book of Psalms:
“Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.”
Psalms 107:17-18
To be honest, i carry scars from similar thought patterns and experiences brought about by cycles of failed missions with no real explanation. Its one thing to fail when you did nothing about prospering but its a whole different story when you have put in the hours of effort only to get nothing. I have certainly been in the shackles of bondage or what would seem like a dark hole that continues to swallow you but doesn’t eat you up so you can at least know its over. Yes i have and i believe that i have been translated from the overbearing pain of hopelessness and even suicide ideation at some point to meaningful existence.
In this series of Re-Branding Self, i want to share some insights that i have discovered through my own transition over the past decade from hopelessness and despair to peace and victorious living. It is important to note that being victorious not only means being triumphant but also means losing victoriously I.e possessing the wisdom to accept and learn from what did not work out thereby making way for actual wins otherwise not imagined. May i mention that for me the process was not as clear cut and systematic as i will present it here. It was pure discovery and learning led by the Holy Spirit of God as i submitted and inquired on him everyday. All the same, I was not aware that this system actually existed or that i was on it myself until recently when i began to look back and reflect and put together points of how i had become a better person over the years. Like Paul, i do not claim to have mastered it or arrived as i am certain that as long as we are in this world, we can’t arrive. We have to keep learning and at our very best we can still do better and so life goes on.
Background to Re-Branding Self
Since 2009, I make interesting discoveries (soul) daily in my life (body) and in the word (spirit) and i can attest to some spiritual fruits gained along the way and physical rewards that followed too.
Therefore i have discovered that the brand self has 3 operational divisions which require team spirit to function. These are the Spirit, Soul and Body which make up a complete human being. For a detailed explanation of how this is so please click here
Protocol
Hierachy and protocol must be observed as with any organized entity. The Spirit being of God was first to exist. The spirit was and is as it existed with God. The soul was created before the body as scripture mentions that we were foreknown before we were formed in the womb. Of the three, God formed the body last and then after he breathed into it, it became a living soul.
Re-branding of Self: Spirit, Soul and Body Roles
1. Spirit– This is the Breath of God which is also in body form but unseen. This means it requires food and so has all the parts of the body but is not seen by anyone except when it manifests itself in spiritual fruits. These then benefit the soul’s existence in the body on the earth. The spirit must eat the word of God only to survive as it is of God. God is Holy and pure and nothing else is pure on this earth so to feed his spirit being requires the bread of life-the word of God. Being in a body however and having an earthly experience the spirit can be subjected to counterfeit foods (religions) which then mislead the soul into making wrong decisions which in turn affect existence in the earth negatively. We all know that eating wrong foods in the earth realm causes sickness or health challenges which can be life threatening. So it is with the spirit. If the spirit is not awakened by the right food (Word) the life of an individual is that of a dead being- nothing to write home about, nothing to show for their existence and if this goes on they begin to feel like there is nothing to live for. These are cases of people who are living but dead -the walking dead! Simply put, it means that the body did not come in contact with the spirit so there is no life. As it was in the beginning, the body was formed and breathed into by God forming a living soul. Life was the result of the spirit of God coming in contact with the body he had formed from earth.
“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.“
Genesis 2:7
As it were, if the natural man has not received Christ for re-birth John 3:5-8, life is worthless, hopeless and going nowhere slowly because the spirit is either sickly or dead by starvation and or exposure to wrong foods. Unfortunately because of the abounding mercies of God, people often mistake some permitted manifestations of ‘life’ (a bit of riches here, some success there, some peace here and there) as life. Most have found it difficult to change or even conceptualize change and confidently ward off persuasions of the gospel with statements like:
…if God can bless me in sin, what is the point of changing…
…if a prostitute can get married, then why can’t i…
…if the wicked are still prospering, then it doesnt matter…
…if it was mean’t to be, then it will be or whatever i do is written in my book/destiny and i can’t change it…
What they do not know is that they are already picking a side in doing so and that is the lane of the body and it’s lusts. In some cases the individuals are aware of their predicament and they fight it. Sadly not all the battles for a better life are fought on the right front and so while others may get fruit from their endeavours, others see no fruit as they remain stuck in nothingness, emptiness and a never ending cycle of failure which may lead to self harm. In the mandate given to the man of the law-Moses for the people of God lies an instruction to choose life. In saying this God reveals to his people that there are two roads to take:- LIFE- the road of the law and obedience (to the spirit) or DEATH- the road of lawlessness and disobedience (obedience to the body and its lusts). This law is unfortunately not given to the spirit but to the soul. The spirit is God’s and is loaded with godliness which it can only exhibit once the soul chooses God and begins to make daily choices/decisions to feed the spirit with the word of its maker that it rightful requires. When word taken in through choice by senses of the soul meets word already in the spirit a climax is reached that brings inexplicable joy and peace in the innerman. That is revelation and the beginning of wisdom. That is the meeting of God and man! That is the building of faith and the rebranding of self!
Thus, interms of protocol, the SPIRIT being first to be in existence, being the imprint of the Creator in us takes precedence above all other members of the tripatite being and must be honored, respected and listened to only as it has been duly fed correctly by an act of obedience-LIFE. Is is only the spirit in man that knows the thoughts of man (1 Corinthians 2:11) and only the spirit of a man that will sustain his infirmity (Proverbs 18:14)
2. Soul (mind, thoughts, will, emotions). This the centre-piece of all decisions. The administration headquaters where whatever is decided goes even if it will affect the entire being. Firstly there is the mind. Many battles of the mind take place here and for most individuals it is a total gamble and gropping about in the dark through trial and error. If something seems to work, it becomes recorded as a template and copying mechanism to be used in other like events or occurences. The problem with this as you can imagine is that there are no principles, no regard for others and this kind of government supports the dog-eat-dog theory or survival of the fittest doctrine. Everyone faces their own life fights their own battles the way they want even if it will harm others on the way -after all its a jungle and infact a battle! Next in the soul are thoughts-another challenge to human existence. Sometimes they are uninvited and invasive, sometimes even unpleasant and unwanted and yet they have the ability to bombard an individual to the point of surrender and death as in the cases of worry/confusion/frustration/anxiety/stress/distress/depression and ultimately suicide if nothing is handled properly. As it were, most actions originate from thought and one is evidence of their thoughts. Then ofcourse God gave man the freedom to choose and called it WILL. This is were intents are housed, another facet of the soul. The will power is the highest level of freedom granted to man by the creator and owner of all things. Infact the idea that the soul is the decision centre rests on this very premise. God was merciful to freely give out information on what any decision made could mean, the consequences thereof and the ultimate endgame of choice. Lastly we have emotions in the soul. The interplay of mind decisions, thoughts and choices made everyday is the cook book of emotions. It also works the otherway. While emotions can be triggered by what goes on in the soul, the emotions themselves can inspire what decisions are made therein. As it were, feelings are triggered by what we see, hear, smell, touch and taste (5 senses) and when we reach decisions in the mind because of what we have sensed, a choice is made. Yet again feelings can set a pace of how we see, hear, smell, touch or taste things!
So in the terms of protocol, the soul comes after the spirit and is foreknown by the spirit and must submit to the spirit for instruction in running its affairs. It is the soul that was given a mandate to choose LIFE and life is in the Spirit. In seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteouness, all other things are added to one (Matthew 6:33)
3. Body– The body is the shell that houses the soul and the spirit and is made of external parts e.g head, face, legs, hands, stomach, feet, fingers, toes, mouth internal organs and systems e.g heart, lungs, respiratory, digestive, reproductive, blood stream etc. The functioning of the physical body is well instructed mostly by science or earthly discovery. We discussed that decisions are made in the soul but the soul actually needs the body to have sent information obtained through the senses to make the decisions it does. Now it is certain parts of the body that carry these senses e.g eyes=sight; fingers=touch; ears= hearing; nose=smell and tongue=taste. As much as these senses are active, the instruction to choose LIFE necessitates the observance of protocol in making decisions and dealing with life and what challenges it brings on the table.The whole of creation is aware of these guiding principles (commandments) which is why there is such a heart-bell known as conscience. Sadly, continued dishonor and failure to heed to the warning signs of the conscience sears it to a point where it begins to see those disobedient behaviours and mindsets as normal, acceptable and noble. The body is prone to an insubordinate attitude caused by the very fact that is is the one housing others. It is always scheming, screaming out loud and crying to be heard at all times and in all things. The body is made from earth, knows only the earth and its earthly ways and is the one that suffers the pressures brought upon the whole being by the earth. Its is afterall the body that fellow humans see, hurt or reject. It is the body that craves for comfort and entertainment through its senses. For this cause the body is outspoken to the soul on what should go and if the soul succumbs to its pressure and neglects to observe the rule of law i.e put the spirit first, then problems and conflict begin attracting all kinds of curses, punishments and consequences. The body cannot submit to either soul or spirit as it is territorial in nature BUT by a decision of the soul to choose LIFE (spirit), the body is automatically put to sleep and can’t do anything. It is only the soul that can empower the body
Thus, in the terms of protocol the body is last in line being the one to be made last of the three. The body must submit to the soul as the soul submits to the spirit and in this way the body honors the spirit of God in it (Romans 6:19)
Summary
In self- branding therefore, the idea is to go back onto the original rail and press towards the mark of our high calling. Our high calling as human beings is embedded in the mandate to worship the Most High God and him alone.
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.“
Ecclesiastes 12:13
This is our whole duty as man and is evidenced in our day to day choices. It thus becomes imperative to focus and work on dying to self and awaken to spirit deliberately and constantly. Although choosing Christ can be done on a particular day, Salvation is not a one day event and working it out becomes a lifestyle of killing the flesh and awakening the spirit. The more the inclination of the soul to the body dies, the more the Spirit takes its place to bring life and livelihood to its host. This is the only way the soul can be governed correctly leading to God-led choices and victory therein. It must be noted that all self- insipired decisions are bound to fail being birthed from the effects of earthbound senses. It may seem like body (death) made choices work but that is purely facilitated by the mercies of God. By and by we should train ourselves not to take advantage of those mercies and remain lawless. We need a higher power to lead us in the way and if we do not make that all important decision of choosing God himself everything becomes tainted by the earth and inspired by the earth even though it may seem to work. This unfortunately doesn’t alter the word that has gone out of God’s mouth concerning those things and as such, punitive curses so installed before creation are always in-play causing havoc to unsuspecting individuals or those who know but are uninterested in keeping to the book.
“18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.”
(Romans 1:18-20)
While other individuals seek out these things, others simply work around life according to how they were raised or taught by their predecessors or how they themselves are interpreting the surroundings they find themselves in. Ofcourse they neither own themselves nor yet those surroundings they attempt to understand based on own self. Unfortunately as individuals form self-truth innocently or in full awareness of the fact, they continue to be governed by the laws of the creator set in place by him who owns everything.
As such, rebranding of self is infact the journey of returning to the first love-Christ who loved us first when we were yet sinners, reconciling every facet of our lives with him and giving him the pre-eminence in all things. All other forms or versions of peace and prosperity humanity experiences outside the blood of Christ are counterfeit and bound to expire leaving the victims exposed. Therefore, it is not enough to be a christian and it will not change anything if one is not changing themselves according to the word of God. Like the Israelites, being a chosen people was not enough. Obedience to the Spirit is what holds the relationship with God together.
“Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses”
Psalms 107:17-19
And returning to him in repentance and humility brings restoration.
Thanks for reading this post. Dont forget to share with others!!!!
Till Then
OneLove
Riseup Conqueror
Join me again in the part 2 as we begin a step by step process of Re-Branding Self.
Remember falling is not the problem but failing to riseUP is!!!!
Thanks