FOREWORD
My wife Yvonne and I decided to live in the countryside and give our children a quality way of living. A farmer gave us a piece of land to live and build on. I gathered dry hardwood from the mountains and carved it, and Yvonne sold it in the roadside shop we had built. Although we were poor, we had a quality lifestyle and the hope of a bright future.
We were however not prepared for the baggage that tourists and visitors left with us.
Yvonne with her sunny personality listened to the people and would get me to talk to them and we would strengthen them by the way we handle our problems, living our lives by faith and telling of our testimonies. We encouraged them to read the Word and wear the armour of God and understand the blood. It still surprises us how many matured childrenof God do not do these basics and then blame God. We were increasingly frustrated and kept asking the Lord for a way to help all the people we meet.
Three o’clock one morning I was sitting under the stars, the next moment I saw the Spirit World in a cave, and I saw many people being helped. From that day it became our quest to own our own property and to build this cave. This we have achieved through many trials and some of them are written in our book ‘The Line’. We spent six years guiding people through the cave with our children, Aldo and Michell, after which the Lord gave us a painting and in a supernatural way proofed that there is a spiritual line between the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness. For the first time we understood the cross and all the work that was done at Calvary. All our personal problems were solved because of this revelation of knowledge and we also saw our friends healed and relieved from burdens. We no longer need to go to a person for healing. THERE IS A HIGH PLACE IN OUR MINDS where we meet our Lord in the cool of the day and receive our healing and instruction to solve problems etc.
The ‘Short Sword’ is a result of us being willing to sow our spiritual growth with all people. If you sow you reap.
There are so many sick, poor, and depressed people who fear God, who simply do not seem to get a hold on what the Bible is about. This book is meant to be your short-cut to understand what the punch line of the Bible stories are, and the reason why God has put it in the scriptures at all, and also to encourage you to study the Bible and find out how every story leads to the Christ story.
Part 1
The Mind
It is general knowledge that there is power in the mind. As we know many people have used this power successfully but they are mostly non-Christians and this was what kept me from studying the mind. For Christians this is uncharted territory, because they do not want to become demon possessed.
It was therefore with great relief that I found out that the ‘soul’ is the ‘mind’ and that Jesus Christ sacrificed his soul for man’s sin. Sin is in the way we think, and this is how I came to the following conclusion – Jesus died for our minds.
As we continue these studies and you are serious about finding the truth for yourself, it will be necessary to load
E-sword onto your computer and check out all the statements and listen to what the Spirit of Truth has to say about it.
I wish we could only have done the punch line of every Bible story but I am hopeful that we will attract people on every level of spiritual growth; therefore we have to do a reasonable background sketch on every story. The idea is that this book will be a handbook to draw easy drawings or simply use it one-on-one with people you meet. I always feel so powerless without tools to help the needy. From now on if you visit the hospitaland the Lord gives you an opportunity to minister, simply whip out your ‘Short Sword’ and show them these pictures.
There is a power in the mind.
Gen 2:7 ‘Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being. (I Cor 15:45-49.)’
He is now a breathing creature (H5315). These numbers in brackets are there so you can type the number into your E-sword where the binoculars are, and then see what the contexts of these words are in the Hebrew Greek dictionary. The Old Testament is translated from Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek.
The power that is in Adam is God within. The breath of God is the power within us. He is the ‘I AM’. He introduced himself to Moses as ‘I AM!’-THE POWER WITHIN YOU. The last is my personal observation; this power within us is God within us, and it is the only reason why our hearts beat. Without His presence within us, we will die.
There are people who use the power within them without giving God the glory. Some bend iron, walk over coals and get healing and call it the power of the mind. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Marconi, Mark Twain all asked the ‘infinite power’ for inspiration before going to sleep. They would spend a lot of time looking at their personal dream and fill themselves with it. These people were not known for their devout beliefs; they ignored the negatives and looked only at the positive. One young man of about eight years old summarised it all by saying: “Uncle, it sounds easy, but it’s not so easy, hey?”
My own brother-in-law was a non Christian, successful, business man. We asked him to speak to a group during a weekend seminar. He said there is a power within us, he does not know what it is. Perhaps it is God, but he does not believe in God. Through personal discipline he used this Power for financial gain. He would get up early in the morning and dive into the pool, winter and summer. This was to train himself to keep his mind focused on whatever he had decided to pursue. There goes my new car, and he would rub his hands in anticipation. And he would get it!
This non-Christian person made the following statement: ‘Once you have decided what the goal is, you have to look at it constantly, do not worry if there is no money, money will come’. He never envied and was not jealous of others, HE ALSO HAD NO UNDERSTANDING OF HUMILITY. He believed in being good and spoke of Old Nick as a sort of personal chastiser.
He was however not so fortunate in the other areas of his life like his marriage, and relationships. There was a deep personal sadness inside my brother in law that could not be filled with possessions and a competitive lifestyle.
If you have read my book ‘The Mystery of the Ages’ you will have an idea of these inner wars that go on inside us.
The purpose of this teaching is for us to have holistic prosperity.
In my personal studies I have not found one of these successful people to work hard physically. They spend a lot of time looking at their personal goals and dreams.
Power
As Christians we are not encouraged to use this power of the mind as a devil could get into us and in any case it sounds too Eastern. However, we pray Eph 1:17: ‘The spirit of wisdom and the knowledge of the power we possess in Christ Jesus.’
We are not taught of this power in the mind as children and are encouraged, to borrow money from the bank. They say: ‘You do not need God, borrow your money from us and stay in debt, for the rest of your life. This may be the reason why we incur debt, because we want it now. In contrast the Bible teaches: ‘Not by might or power but by My Spirit’. Many power of the mind books do explain the mind power and do use it successfully, even quoting scripture. We however know that one can prove anything by quoting the Bible. But what we want to know is; how can we do it by the Spirit and truth and give God the glory?
In power of the mind books, many instances are quoted of supernatural things that come to pass because it was willed and waited for expectantly. My friend Trevor Thomson tells me of a time he was building a Christmas surprise for his children. To complete the project he needed hessian. On his way to search for a roll of the stuff he found an entire bail lying in the road. Now what are the chances of that happening? I can only conclude that this must be heaven providing, but Trevor is not into Christianity at all, so he must have used the power of his mind.
He said his mind felt strong during this time. He was obviously confident that what he was doing, was right, and he expected heaven to provide.
What is the point of the crucifixion if we use the power and get along without the cross in any case? For this reason let us find out what the mind is.
Soul
A study of the word ‘soul’ in the Hebrew and Greek concordance led to the following discoveries The Soul is the ‘mind’. If I had known this as a child my life would have been far different, for as a man thinks so is he.
The VINES dictionary on SOUL:
Vines on Proverbs 16:2: “The word appears to mean more than just the element of life; it seems to mean “soul”: “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.”
The KJV alone uses over 28 different English terms for this one Hebrew word which we will share with you during the course of this book and the big study in the book ‘A Room with a View’ which will be the fifth book in this series on the line.
The Soul and Spirit of man is one of the most confused subjects on earth, but it is after all the power of the mind that is being used when walking over coals, or bending iron with the power of the mind.
Then what is the spirit?
When a person meditates their anger for instance, we look at him and say he has an angry spirit. This means his anger thoughts are no longer merely thoughts but has become the meditation of his heart.
As a person thinks so is he, now see what the heart is.(3 John 1:2)
Heart
If you ask most people where the soul is they point to the heart.
Proverbs 4:23 ‘Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life’.
This word ‘heart’ is translated ‘mind’ and ‘centre’ (3820). This context of the word is used 666 times in the Old Testament.
Let’s read it correctly: Keep your mind (centre) with all vigilance for out of it flow the issues of life.
In other words as a man thinks so is he.
In Psalm 21:2 God gives us the desires of our hearts, but this word means MIND.
Therefore God gives us what we think in our hearts, He gives us meditated deep thought whether it be good or bad, if we think we are sick, we are sick, if we think we are well, we are well. This is why we read the bible for we want to think God thoughts, spending time with God in a relationship with Him we are led by the spirit in the cool of the day and this results in a Spirit led life. We are no longer doing it by might or the power of the mind but by the Spirit of truth. (Zec 4:6)
Ex 7:1 God hardens the heart of Pharaoh. ‘Heart’ meaning ‘mind’, we also harden our minds when we say for example; we will never again trust a person for some reason. This is a personal choice we made and not spirit led.
Gen 6:6 ‘And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart(mind).’
Pro 3:5 ‘Trust in the LORD with all thine heart (mind); and lean not unto thine own understanding.’
This leads us to the most important verse. The word ‘soul’ is ‘mind’ and is the Strongs number 5315. Its meaning is also ‘a breathing creature.’ The same that was breathed into Adam. This word is also the same life in all living creatures. GOD’S BREATH.
Is 53:10 ‘Yet it pleased2654 the LORD3068 to bruise1792 him; he hath put him to grief:2470 when518 thou shalt make7760 his soul5315 an offering for sin’
Sin is the way we think
Sin is non life giving thoughts. Thinking calamity, causes calamity, if our minds has such a immense ability to produce life or death we had better start watching what we think
Deut 30:19 ‘I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:’
In Rev 1:18 Jesus Christ holds the keys of death. This means only He can give us a safe mind in which to think life giving thoughts. John 10:10.
Figure 2 is what we are heading for; we want to be God’s kingdom, power and glory. Others must see we are different for the kingdom is within us. This sun in the mind is the name of the kingdom of God (Gen 1:4).
Mat 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
When we think and speak life, we loose heaven in earth.
Did Jesus really die for our minds?
The power is in the mind therefore it is the mightiest power house on earth, but is under constant attack of non life giving personal and carnal thoughts. During the course of this book it will be proven that THE WORK AT THE CROSS WAS FOR THE MIND.
Dr J. Murphy’s book ‘The power of the mind’ says: “Science informs us that we build a new body every eleven months. But if you build defects into your body by thoughts of fear, jealousy, and anger you will have no one to blame but yourself.”
The God power inside us is good and abundantly full of every good thing that we can imagine, think, or ask for. (Eph 3:2) It is constantly creating and pushing for ‘life thoughts’. Traditions and religions have robbed us of this constant life giving force and replaced it with fear.
By studying the lives of successful entrepreneurs, great artists, poets, speakers and writers you will always find them asking the ‘inner power’ to reveal things nobody knows. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dale Carnegy, Giacomo Puccini, Johannes Brahms, to mention just a few, said: “Straight away the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God.” They were not necessarily Christians and did not understand the work at the cross as we do now, nor did they know about the blood, but they believed in the power of the mind.
Most of them say they are the captain of their own souls. Not so with us. We have a Captain who reveals all things to us by his indwelling Spirit. We are guided continually by His truth and are the new generation the earth has been waiting to be revealed (Rom 8) and the nations will come to this light (Is 55:5). In these people is the light of the world (Matt 5:14). Therefore arise your light has come for the glory of the Lord has arisen upon thee (Is 60:1). The knowledge of the glory of the Lord has now come to us. (Hab 2:14).
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