It seems that most people are of the opinion that they have just one mind. Unless, of course, they are schizophrenic. The probable reason behind this strange opinion is that the soulish mind is selfish and likes to think of itself as “the one and only” mind.
But move over, O my soul. Make room for two others.
We are a tripartite being that consists of spirit, soul, and body. Each of these parts has a mind, a consciousness, with varying abilities to think and to be aware.
The brain is the mind of the body. What we normally call “the mind” is actually the consciousness of the soul. There is still a third and most important mind, “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16) by which your spirit (“Christ in you”) has awareness and knows all things.
The Greek Dichotomous View
Paul had studied the various Greek philosophies of the day and discussed their soulish “wisdom” in the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians. Most of the Greeks were dualistic and believed that man was a dichotomous creature having a material body and a spiritual soul. However, Epicurean philosophy taught that even the soul was made of matter.
Paul presented a different truth to the Church in Corinth, because, as Greeks, they needed to know the difference between the soul and the spirit. They needed to know that the best efforts of their soulish (“natural”) minds were insufficient to know God or to believe divine revelation.
Godly Wisdom from the Spirit
In speaking of “God’s wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:7), which the present rulers cannot understand with their soulish minds, Paul refers to Isaiah 64:4 in 1 Cor. 2:9, saying,
9 … Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.
Paul was speaking quite literally that the perception of our eyes and ears (i.e., the body) cannot compare with the revelation that comes by the Spirit of God. Our soulish minds obtain knowledge through the senses and act accordingly. But our spiritual mind obtains knowledge, not through physical eyes and physical ears—or by any other earthly senses—but by an inner revelation from the Spirit.
10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
The average person, untrained in spiritual matters, obtains knowledge through the body parts, and this makes the soul dependent upon the manner in which the body senses things. That is why the soul is carnal, or fleshly. The soul looks to the body as its source of knowledge, thereby giving the flesh a position of power. “Knowledge is power,” and if the soul depends upon the flesh for its knowledge, then the soul has empowered the body and all material things. Hence, we have a carnal soul.
This actually goes back to the Garden of Eden, when Eve saw that the fruit was “a delight to the eyes” (Gen. 3:6). When she acted upon this knowledge, she empowered her eyes and by extension put the body in a position of power over her soul. That was the point where her soul became carnal. And so, in the laws of blood we read in Lev. 17:11, “the fleshly soul is in the blood” (literal rendering).
The prohibition against consuming blood is based on the principle that we are not to be in agreement with the fleshly soul but rather to breathe in the revelation of the Spirit. We are to recognize that it is the breath of God that gives life to the blood (where the soul resides).
To truly understand the divine order of things, you must understand the parable of spirit, soul, and body. The relationship between these three parts of our being is depicted in our breath, blood, and flesh. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach, “breath, wind, or air in motion.” It is pictured as the breath that we breathe, which gives life to the blood (soul), so that the blood may in turn give life to the flesh.
That is the proper order of dominion. When the spirit of man replaces the body as the source of life to the soul, then and only then can a person be said to be “spiritual” or “spiritually-minded.” A materialist cannot comprehend such things, for they normally reject the existence of spirit. Modern science too was founded largely on materialism, but as science has matured, it has rediscovered the realm of spirit. I suspect that this new science of the spirit began with quantum physics in the 1920’s, which says:
- Your consciousness affects the behaviors of subatomic particles;
- Particles move backward and forward in time and appear in all possible places at once;
- The universe is connected with transfers of information that are faster than light.
(From Dr. Carolyn Leaf, Switch On Your Brain, p. 105)
In other words, they discovered a dimension in which time and space do not seem to exist or at least is not relevant. That is the realm of spirit. It is all around us and in us. With the emergence of quantum physics, science is now agreeing with the Bible. This must drive the materialists a bit crazy, because they have made it their mission to make atheists of all intelligent beings. Yet His Truth is marching on.
The Law of Entanglement
Another principle of quantum physics is the Law of Entanglement, which is really the law of Intercession and ultimately of Universal Reconciliation. Dr. Carolyn Leaf does not appear to understand the real implications of this Law as I do, of course, but see what she says:
“The law of entanglement in quantum physics states that relationship is the defining characteristic of everything in space and time. Because of the pervasive nature of the entanglement of atomic particles, the relationship is independent of distance and requires no physical link. Everything and everyone is linked, and we all affect each other.
“The law of entanglement has a biblical correlation: ‘So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another’ (Rom. 12:5). If you are not doing what God put you on this earth to do—your divine sense of purpose (Eccles. 3:11)—then even though you may not know me, you are still affecting my life. We are all part of God, so this interconnectedness is not surprising. Your intentions, your prayers, and your words toward others will have impact because of this law…. In fact, we are so entangled that our intentions alter not only our own DNA molecules, but the DNA molecules of others as well.
“An ingenuous [ingenious?] experiment set up by the HeartMath Foundation determined that genuine positive emotion, as reflected by a measure called ‘heart rate variability,’ directed with intentionality toward someone actually changed the way the double-helix DNA strand coils and uncoils…. Other research shows that even thirty seconds a day of direct heartfelt intention will cumulatively alter not only your own destiny, but impact the lives of others in this generation and the next three at least.” (Leaf, pp. 110, 111)
In other words, the Law of Entanglement is the scientific way of expressing the biblical principle of intercession called “Identification.” Intercession works because we are all one body, and when one person weeps, we all weep. When one person rejoices, we all rejoice.
Yet identification is only the first step of intercession, as I showed in my book, Principles of Intercession. To complete the process and make changes outside of ourselves, we must go through the same steps that Jesus did, first identifying with us, then bearing our iniquities (being blamed for the problem that the intercessor is trying to change), then undergoing death and resurrection, and finally ascending to the place of authority. Once an intercessor has been seated in authority over the objects of his intercession, then he is in a position to make decrees which are authoritative in the divine court and which must be obeyed at some point in time.
The Law of Entanglement presents us all as one body, and causes us all to be affected by what other people do. However, intercessors suddenly turn in a new direction, and their actions affect the rest of the body. An intercessor takes the lead. Instead of being affected by the negative things happening in the body, an intercessor rises above this and brings positive change to the rest of the body. This is not an easy work, for all intercessors must become part of Jesus’ pattern and actually participate in a lesser way in His identification, death, resurrection, and ascension.
The same Law of Entanglement also identifies us with Jesus Christ as part of His body. This is the basis of our communication with Him, in addition to the benefits we receive from the work He did (and still does) in the earth. We will all benefit in the end, but there is an established path that all must follow. Some follow that path earlier than others. Most will not follow that path until after the Great White Throne judgment, when every knee bows before Him. Yet in the end the Law of Entanglement guarantees that Christ’s work of intercession will affect all men in a positive way.
Meanwhile, our prayer, intercession, and spiritual warfare affect all other people in some way, even though most people are unaware of it. Most never make a connection between the events in their lives and the events happening in the heavens. Yet if we know that true prayer recognizes Christ’s voice coming from within our spirits, then we may break the flesh’s cycle of bondage. We may then walk in the Spirit, as admonished to do in Scripture.
All Creation has God in Common
The Law of Entanglement shows that we are all interconnected in ways that most of us do not understand nor even believe. Dr. Carolyn Leaf tells of a scientific experiment showing this “entanglement,”
“In the experiment researchers got two people to meditate next to each other in an electronically shielded room, called a ‘faraday cage.’ Then they separated them into two separate faraday cages, and as they continued to meditate, researchers shone light in the eye of one of the meditators. The part of the brain that lit up in that person’s brain also lit up in the other meditator’s brain, even though there was no sensory or electromagnetic connection.” (Leaf, p. 113)
Why are we all connected? What do we have in common? Paul gives us the answer in Rom. 11:36,
36 For from [ek, “out of”] Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
In other words, all things in creation come out of the Creator. I explained in my book, Paul’s Epistle to the Saints in Rome, Vol. II, pages 88, 89,
All things, whether they be physical or not, come from (ek, “out of”) Him. This has to do with the origin of the building material by which God created the heavens and the earth. Theologians have used three Latin terms to describe differing views:
creatio ex nihilo, “creation out of nothing”
creatio ex materia, “creation out of some pre-existent, eternal matter”
creation ex deo, “creation out of the being of God”
In the first century, Paul says that all things came out of God, which is the third view (above). The second-century Church fathers began to teach that God created all things out of nothing, based on 2 Maccabees 7:28, written over a century before Christ:
“I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not; and so was mankind made likewise.”
The ex materia view was the Greek classical view that matter was eternal and chaotic before being formed and organized. They also believed that the devil (“demiurge”) was the creator, because they believed that matter was inherently evil, and only spirit was good. So the normal Greek view in Paul's day was the second (above). This view today is perpetuated by the Mormons, who took issue with the ex nihilo view and began to teach the ex materia view of creation.
Paul's view was that all things came out of God Himself. His statement in Heb. 11:3 “that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible” is quite different from 2 Maccabees, for Paul only says that matter is made out of things invisible, or too small to be seen with the naked eye (i.e., atoms, electrons, neutrons, protons). He does NOT say that God created these things out of nothing (ex nihilo), as does the writer of 2 Maccabees.
Paul tells us that because all things came out of God, all things must inevitably return to Him. This is his way of expressing the divine plan. The smallest pieces of matter are not atoms or protons or even quarks. They are called by physicists “God Particles,” and (like light) can act as either a particle or a wave. They are the point of transition from spirit to matter.
In other words, we have God in common, because we are all made of material that came “out of” God. If God lost any part of Himself in the end, then He would remain forever incomplete. Quantum physics, however, shows how we are all interconnected, and in the end all must return “to Him,” that is, to God.
We are not alone in the world. We are all connected in Christ, in spite of the temporary dysfunction and sin and lack of faith that is evident in the majority of humanity. It does require faith to reconnect with God, but Scripture makes it clear that God will indeed cause all men to have faith in Christ, for “every knee will bow” at the Great White Throne. This revelation will produce faith. And at the end of the age of judgment, when all men will experience the Creation Jubilee, God will be “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).
The New Identity Perspective
At the present time, we are learning how to function in the spiritual dimension while living under the earthly laws of time and space. Our bodies are subject to time and space, but our spirits have no such restrictions. Our perception—that which we focus upon—determines our walk, our life, and everything we believe and do. Carolyn Leaf says,
“We know God operates outside of the space-time dimension. And we know prayer does too.” (Leaf, p. 113)
Our soulish mind is the mediator between spirit and body. It has the ability to see and interpret both earthly and spiritual experiences. The souls of most people are tuned largely to earthly things, for this is how we have been taught. This is, in fact, the perspective and condition of the soul on account of its mortality—the disease of the soul that eventually leads to death. Hence, the prophet laments that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20, KJV).
Everyone knows that the body dies, but some (like the Greeks) believed that the soul was spiritual and was therefore immortal. Scripture contradicts this. The soul dies with the body. Only the spirit and its conscious mind is immortal, for Scripture never speaks of the spirit dying.
Since Adam’s sin, our soul’s tendency has been to follow the leading of the body or flesh. But the soul has retained its inherent ability to perceive spiritual things, even if it cannot understand or evaluate what it sees on account of its flesh (1 Cor. 2:14). But when you identify “the real you” as the Christ in your spirit and reject the old identity given to us though Adam, then you may begin to use “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16) to perceive things you never thought possible.
This is called praying in the spirit. Such perception occurs when the soul receives data from the spiritual realm by downloading it from our spirit which knows all things and is not bound by time or space. True prayer is a spiritual experience. It is a communication with Christ within the spirit, whether by word or vision.
I have found that the biggest obstacle to hearing God’s voice or seeing Him in the spirit is the fact that it is TOO EASY. The soul naturally has this ability that can be used at any time, but because it is too easy, we find it difficult to believe that it is really happening. All of our past training makes us skeptical. We are not worthy to approach such a holy God. We are not saints. It must take years in a monastery or in a cave to train ourselves to be spiritual. Only prophets can hear God’s voice.
None of these objections are true. These objections originate in the flesh. The spirit calls us into continual fellowship with the Creator of the Universe, who resides in us in the form of “Christ in you.”
The Greek view that matter is inherently evil and that a holy God would never taint Himself by inhabiting human flesh is a gnostic world view that the Apostle John refuted in the first few verses of His gospel. “The word became flesh,” he said in John 1:14. The Pentecostal experience in Acts 2 was another refutation of Gnosticism, for there we see that the Spirit of God does indeed indwell human flesh.
There are non-believers who train their souls to receive data from their spirit. They are often far more efficient at this than Christians. However, they are at a disadvantage because they are unable to communicate with Christ—who is not in them. They may only peer into spiritual things without the voice of Christ to instruct them in what they are seeing or hearing. Often they hear things that are unlawful to hear and see things that are unlawful to see apart from the leading and approval of Christ.
In fact, they peer into the spiritual realm as outsiders, for they are yet identified with the old Adamic man, the fleshly soul. They believe in the inner man, but that inner man is not Christ in them, but the soul itself, which thinks it is spiritual on account of its ability to see into the spiritual realm. But this is untrue, for there is only one way to beget Christ in anyone. It is by the Holy Spirit overshadowing us.
True believers are those who have been begotten by the Holy Spirit so that Christ indwells their spirit. Those who develop the inherent ability to walk in the spirit enjoy a tremendous advantage. They do not peer into the realm of spirit as outsiders, but actually identify with Christ, known as the New Creation Man (Gal. 6:15). As such, you do not peer into the realm of spirit, but rather you peer out into the material world. Heaven is your natural home. Your view of the world is through the eyes of your Christ identity.
What do you see? Quantum physics says that you see an infinite array of probabilities according to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which are only made certain when a decision (choice) is made. Choice collapses all probabilities into a single actuality. We are called to make the correct choices according to the mind of Christ. In fact, the mind of Christ will always make the correct choice. An incorrect choice, by definition, is a choice of the old man of flesh.
This is not to say that a correct choice will always lead you in a successful or pain-free path. Jesus Himself chose the path of the cross. Often God intends that we walk a path that seems unsuccessful or one that brings pain, in order to give us an experience in earth that is necessary for our spiritual growth and discipline.
Being led by the spirit does not separate anyone from the soul or body. It simply means that the soul and body are in obedience to the spirit (or Christ in the spirit). This begins to rewire our soulish mind as well as our fleshly brain. There are many toxic thoughts in both of these minds that need correction over time. These toxic thought patterns and negative emotional experiences are the building blocks of heart idolatry, which must be replaced by Spiritual Truth.
Our brains are wired for love. This is how we were created. Toxic thought patterns are abnormal and produce guilt and fear. Guilt and fear are the religious principles of the carnal mind as it worships at the altars of its idols.
