The Soul – Running After Papa

Day 4b – Always in God’s Presence…

This is why I love running! God has my complete attention.

During my run tonight, I was talking to Papa and just praying for His presence and more of Him when he reminded me of the passage in Romans 8:38-39 (yes, I had to look up the reference when I got home!)

Rom 8:38-39 (ESV) 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Here are His words to me: “I am everywhere, all the time. I am omni-present, all the time. There is no mountain too high, no ocean too deep, no desert too wide, no star too far that I am not there. You cannot escape My Presence. You don’t need my Presence to come to you, you need the eyes of your heart opened to recognized that YOU ARE ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE!”

WOW! I was immediately reminded of Ephesians 1 (yes, I knew this reference because I attempted to memorize this chapter once) when Paul prayed for the “... eyes of their hearts to be opened…” to know the hope of His calling.

That may be old news to some of you, but my soul awakened with those life-giving words from my Abba!

Run on, soul…. run on!

…Running After Papa

** Post Script **

It’s 11:15 and has been a couple of hours since my run and epiphany. As I finished a book I’m reading, (The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning) the end of the book has 19 devotionals (which I’ll be doing of the next few weeks).

The first devotional’s reading is all of Psalms 139. I’ve included a few verses that literally made me giggle and God’s craftiness and timing – given the events and revelation during my run tonight (a few hours previous)…

Psalm 139:7-12 (NLT) 7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. 9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. 11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— 12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

God cracks me up. His timing is impeccable. I guess this was my great revelation today… I can never escape the presence of God. He is everywhere, regardless of whether or not I realize, acknowledge, or feel his presence – He is here!
*** Post Post Script *** – June 18, 2011

While running today what God spoke a couple of days ago is absolutely changing my worldview, my faith-view, and quite possibly some portion of my theology… more to come in a separate post… Unbelievable!

The Command Center

Continuing the the thought of the last post is where Paul picks up in Romans 8.

Remember, I posed the question of why Jesus added the “mind” to the greatest commandment (Mark 12:30), when God himself gave the command (Deut 6:5) without the identification of the “mind”. Read what Paul has to say about it…

Romans 8:5-6 (NLT) “5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

No wonder Jesus thought it was important. The mind is the command center of the spiritual battlefront between our spirit (controlled by the Holy Spirit) and our flesh (controlled by the enemy). Wikipedia defines the command center as:

A command center is a central place for carrying out orders and for supervising tasks, also known as a headquarters, or HQ.

Whoever controls the mind, controls the battle. Note: We can lose a battle, but we’ve already won the war. (Thank you God!) No wonder Paul writes a few chapters later in Romans: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2 NIV).

So the question becomes, if the mind is the command center and the key to victory, how do I send in reinforcements (to continue the war metaphor)? Verse 6 says by “… letting the Spirit control our mind…,” but what does that look like?

How does one renew the mind? Is it back to what God’s been saying to me over the last several, seemingly unrelated, journal entries? Thus the beauty of journaling… to be able to go back and see how God is speaking in themes… then BAM! He ties it all together. Cool. Very cool.

Is it back to the spiritual disciplines? Are Romans 12:2 and 1 Cor 9:24-47 related in this way?

Running After Papa…

Battleground of the soul

I have known for some time that we are made up of three “parts”: the spirit, the soul, and the flesh. Additionally, the soul appears to be further divided into three parts: the mind, the will, and the emotions.

The spirit-man is what gets saved when we surrender our will to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The spirit IS saved. The soul IS BEING saved and the flesh is NOT being saved. The Word tells us we will get new bodies (Rom 8:23, 2 Cor :1-5) It’s like the good guys vs. the bad guys (spiritually) all the time in our lives. Jesus has our spirit, the devil has our flesh and they are battling for the soul – the mind, the will, the emotions.

Romans 7 makes it very clear that the remnant of sin from our sin nature is very alive an well in our flesh (Romans 7:18).

Romans 7:22-25 (ESV) 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

It’s like the soul is Hell’s Gate (Lord of the Rings reference). The spirit man is Gandalf, Aragorn and the Fellowship, while the flesh is Sauron and his army of Orc’s. The assault is non-stop. The attack is relentless. Legions and legions of orcs and darkness continually bombard the soul. The mind wants to do one thing, but the flesh wants to do another. (Romans 7:14-20)

I find it interesting that Paul says, “… I myself serve the law of God with my mind…” How does one do that? It the mind – that part of the soul – more closely aligned with the spirit?

The Greek word used for mind, nous, in this passage means “1b reason in the narrower sense, as the capacity for spiritual truth, the higher powers of the soul, the faculty of perceiving divine things, of recognizing goodness and of hating evil.“

Jesus said (Mark 12:30) “30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” It’s interesting that Jesus inserted the word “mind.” The original version (Deut 6:5) only has “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.“

Why does Jesus add “mind” to the list? I think it’s important. I think it goes back to spiritual discipline. Practicing and exercising those spiritual disciplines to have my spirit (and my mind?) stronger than my flesh (and my emotions?). All the spiritual disciplines involve the mind and exercise the will. Pretty soon, I’ll have my flesh outnumbered!

Running After Papa…