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Mind Is Spirit & A Look At XMas
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MIND IS SPIRIT
AND
A Look At Christmas
by
Mary Jane Sears
LIVING EPISTLES MINISTRIES
P. O. BOX 562
PT. JEFF. STA., NY 11776-0562
U.S.A.
E-mail: livingem@aol.com
URL: http://www.webinc.com/lvng
D E D I C A T I O N
_________
TO: The Lord, Who Does All Things Well
When I was a child my father would continuously
tell me to stop and think. I resented it then, but as I
look back, I see that this learning skill which he
passed on to me is a special blessing.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a
child: but when I became a man, I put
away childish things (1 Cor 13:11).
Mind Is Spirit
The Lord has allowed me the
time to look up various words in
Strong's Concordance in the Hebrew and in the Greek as I studied
the bible today. I noticed an underlying theme in the various words
that I looked into. They all seemed
to be speaking about different aspects of our mind.
I've become more and more
convinced that the Lord is rarely
speaking about these physical bodies, or the geographical areas of the
earth and planets, or even of the
animals upon the earth. I have
repeatedly stated that this fallen
creation is not the handiwork of our
Heavenly Father. His original
creation was visible, but spiritual
and incomplete, when stolen by the
serpent at the time of the fall. This
visible and very physical creation
came into existence through the
power of the god of this world. We are born in the serpent's
image, and the bible calls us devils
who have a carnal mind, and Satan
as our unconscious mind.
This world is the abode of the
dead because of our separation
from the only source of spiritual
Life, and it is called hell. We are
the living dead because we do not
have the mind of God. In a sense
we are brain dead spiritually.
As I looked up the various
words such as glory, cherubims,
goodness, etc. it seemed as though
puzzle pieces were coming together
to make sense out of the odd terms.
I began to realize that my mind was
being enlightened.
Proverbs 25:2 says: It is the
glory of God to conceal a thing:
but the honor of kings is to search
out a matter. The word glory in
this scripture refers to the specific
purpose in the mind of God to keep
His secrets hidden until such time
as He chooses, to give enlightment
to one He is preparing as a son.
A son must have the mind of
Christ formed and maturing in him,
while humbly confessing any sin
that is exposed in him. He must
war against his own carnal mind by
commanding Leviathan, the name
of the carnal mind in man, to be
unwoven.
Minds are three thread woven
cords that are not easily broken,
and are referred to as garments in
the scriptures. Minds are also
sharp warring weapons. An expression in the world is that someone has a sharp mind. It is a two
edged sword. I can remember the
Lord speaking a very sharp word of
correction to me right in my own
kitchen. It felt as though I had
been pierced by lightning. In that
instance it was the mind of God.
Remember that the spoken word
comes directed from a mind, or
perhaps I should say, the spirit in
that mind.
The battle for truth is between
our flesh minds and the mind of
Christ. As we lay our weak carnal
minds down before the Living God,
He will strengthen us with His truth
and understanding, by piercing
through the layers of deceptive
walls that keep us in darkness. I'm
reminded of a saying that I heard
long ago, that some people have
minds like cement. They are all
mixed up and permanently set. It
makes me think of stony hearts, or
minds set against God. Our minds
are like fallow ground which has to
be broken, or pierced, by the mind
of God to receive His truth. Hebrews 4:12 says For the word of
God is quick and powerful, and
sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart (mind).
Again and again it was obvious
that God is constantly dealing with
mind, as I continued to look into
the word glory.
The word speaks of the experiences of the mind, such as being
grieved, burdened, sorrowful, or of
having a great weight upon the
mind. It speaks of the intentions of
the mind as it prayed, willed or
wished for something. The Lord
says in Isaiah, come let us reason
together. One of the meanings of
the word glory is to think, reason,
understand, and specifically comprehend the heights and the depths
of the mind of God. It is glory to
meditate upon the thoughts, ways
and purposes of the mind of God.
Receiving His enlightment upon a
scripture, situation or something in
your own mind that He is dealing
with, is glorious. It is the mountain top and valley experiences, and
all the high and low places we go
through in between.
One of the translations coming
from glory is the word liver. Our
liver is a necessary cleansing organ
in our body and that speaks of the
purifying process our mind must go
through.
Some translations for cherubims is an imaginary figure; to take
off; or to sweep away. It made me
think that it is the imaginations of
our carnal mind that are to be taken
off as a garment, and swept away.
The glory that man receives from
God is obviously the mind of
Christ. He is the garment, the
mantel, the covering, the image of
God revealed in us. Luke 2:14
says, Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will toward men. That says to me that
the mind of the Father, or God's
will, has come in Jesus to establish
peace between man and God, by
forming the mind of Christ in us. Christ is the anointed mind of
God functioning in human flesh.
The god of this world (of our own
carnal mind) is doing everything in
his power to keep us blinded to the
truths that our Heavenly Father
desires to give us, as we are ready
to receive them. The light or illumination coming from the mind of
God exposes darkness, and the evil
things in our minds are revealed as
they really are.
The scriptures refer to our
mind as a garden growing in various types of soil, which represent
prepared or unprepared minds. We
are the plantings of the Lord and
are described as grass, trees, vines,
flowers and fruit. It is our Heavenly Father's desire that we bear
His fruit. That is to say, that a
prepared mind is a spiritual reproductive, fertile ground, or womb,
awaiting His seed, to bring forth
fruit which is the mind of Christ. This is the spiritual application
of a virgin, or pure mind, being
prepared to bring forth the
manchild in the book of Revelation.
To be prepared in our minds, we
must be watered by the word of
God, fertilized, pruned, constantly
watched over so that the weeds
don't overtake us. We must also
be nurtured by basking in the presence of the Son, meditating or
soaking in all that He pours into
our minds. It is a long slow process to be seasoned by the Lord.
Another aspect of the mind is
that it is the source of the various
animal natures that contribute to
our behavior and emotional responses. We are stubborn as
mules, wild as untrained horses
neighing after anything that the
wind brings along, gentle and submissive as sheep, able to ascend
over our circumstances as the eagle, as plentiful as the fish of the
sea, which represent the whole of
humanity that is existing in a watery grave, because of our stinking
thinking. Another way the scriptures speak about us is the way we
are driven as a ship out of control
heading for destruction, because we
are off course. Only Jesus can
show us the way and calm the waters for us. I think you get the
idea.
The various parts of our physical bodies are mentioned in the
scriptures. Our tongues, for instance, get us into many difficulties. A tongue can only speak what
the conscious or unconscious mind
thinks. James says it can start a
fire that quickly gets out of control
and utterly destroys. The bible is a
literal "think tank" experience.
Jesus developed many picture stories, or parables, that we could
identify with to cause us to start
thinking for ourselves, and break
out of the mind set that keeps us
tied to this world system. He
meets us where we are at in our
mind, so to speak.
I have a whole different understanding of the phrase mind over
matter at this point in my walk
with God. It is obvious that anything that we see about us had to
exist in the mind or imagination of
some spirit before it existed in its
physical form. It required a certain
mind power to come into being.
Nothing exists unless it is first conceived in someone's mind first.
The hand, in obedience to the mind
directing it, will manifest the
thought in the form that is intended
by the mind.
Am I right? Think about it.
Remember, too, that mind is spirit.
I'm not talking about our organic
brain that the mind operates
through. When someone dies, their
brain remains in their dead body,
but there is no response because the
spirit no longer is there in the form
of a mind. Do you understand
what I am saying?
In this day and age we are
seeing many examples of higher
mind control, or mind power, than
we have ever experienced in the
past. Most of it operates out of the
fear in men's minds, and its ultimate end is destruction. The bible
calls it witchcraft power. We see it
in many forms, such as the flood of
psychic phone lines, New Age
Movements, the various cult
groups, and we find witchcraft in
the fundamental Christian groups,
as well. One of the obvious examples that comes to my mind is the
laughing phenomena that has been
sweeping the churches recently.
The mind of God, in contrast, operates out of love, and its ultimate
end is abundant spiritual life in its
fullest sense, not just the good life
of this existence.
When I see something on television, I just can't help making a
mental evaluation almost immediately. The evil that men do is just
so indictive of the mind that is operating in them. We are the devils
that Satan, our unconscious mind,
uses to do his dirty work. Of
course there are varying degrees of
evil, but, at our best, we fail miserably, until the Living God begins to
move in our lives on our behalf.
Even then, it is an uphill battle for
a long time. I had to laugh at a TV
commercial for a computer that had
all the answers. The question What
is the meaning of life was asked.
The reply was next question
please. Without the mind of
Christ, there is no possible answer.
The meaning of life, is that it is the
will of our Heavenly Father to
bring us forth in His image, or
mind, and then we shall truly begin
to see the manifestation of the glory
of God as He unfolds it.
Let God be true and every man
exposed as a liar, if he does not
line up with the Spirit of the word
of God, coming out of the mind of
God. Here's hoping we all having
a meeting of the mind with the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the real
catching up that the bible is referring to. Our crowning glory is not
some diamond studded crown or
tiara, but the mind of Christ permanently imparted to us. Such
glory!!!
A Look At Christmas
Most of us who have been
walking with the Lord for any
length of time, know that December 25th is not the birthday of Jesus
Christ. December 25th is the pagan day for the worship of
Tammuz, and it was celebrated for
hundreds of years before the birth
of Christ.
It began after the flood, when
a grandson of Noah named Nimrod
married Semiramis. Nimrod was
the founder and builder of Babylon,
a name which means confusion.
Nimrod and Semiramis were called
the King and Queen of Babylon.
After Nimrod's death Semiramis,
finding herself pregnant, declared
that her unborn child, was to be
worshipped as the Sun-God. She
then gave birth to her illegitimate
son, whom she named Tammuz,
the God-child, and claimed he was
Nimrod reborn by supernatural
conception. She set herself up as
the Queen of Heaven and ordered
her God-child to be worshipped on
the 25th of December. In addition
to this, Semiramis claimed that
overnight an evergreen tree sprang
up from a dead tree trunk stump,
with gifts under it. The new evergreen tree supposedly symbolized
that Nimrod had come to life again
in the person of her son, suggesting
that Tammuz was conceived by
Nimrod's dead, departed spirit.
From that time on, the evergreen
tree became part of the idolatry and
scheme of deception that continues
to this day in the form of Christmas.
Even the balls that decorate the
Christmas trees symbolize the sun
and represent the worship of Nimrod, who was supposed to be the
god of the sun. Lights on the trees
originally were candles that were
burned to the god of lights, Februa,
but today, electric lights are used to
decorate the trees.
Jeremiah chapter 10, verses 1
through 5, are interesting scriptures
for you to consider: Hear ye the
word which the Lord speaketh unto
you, o house of Israel: Thus saith
the Lord, Learn not the way of the
heathen, and be not dismayed at
the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For
the customs of the people are vain:
for one cutteth a tree out of the
forest, the work of the hands of
the workman, with the ax. They
deck it with silver and with gold;
they fasten it with nails and with
hammers, that it move not. They
are upright as the palm tree, but
speak not; they must needs be
borne, because they cannot go. Be
not afraid of them; for they cannot
do evil, neither also is it in them to
do good.
In time, the yule log, holly and
mistletoe became part of the pagan
fertility rituals of Christmas, as
used by the Druids in their worship
of Satan. Then Santa Claus came
along as having the qualities of
God, such as being omni-present by
being everyplace the same night,
all-knowing as to whether children
are good or bad all year long and,
of course, bringing with him the
false teaching that you have to
work for these so called gifts.
A gift is supposed to be unmerited favor, given for no other
reason than love. This system
lends itself to deep rejection and
low self esteem in a child, when the
gift that they feel they deserve is
not obtainable. It also interferes
with understanding the scriptural
principle that faith is a free gift of
God, and is not given because of
our good works. Children don't
come to expect, or respect, truth.
Another interesting scripture
verse which speaks about the exchange of gifts, is in Revelation
11:10 And they that dwell upon
the earth shall rejoice over them,
and make merry, and shall send
gifts one to another; because these
two prophets tormented them that
dwelt on the earth. The truth coming from the prophets of God hurts
and brings torment. For some it is
a judgment unto correction and
leads to Life.
Several years ago the Lord
began teaching me about Christmas. While driving home behind a
car with a bumper sticker that said
Santa Claus, the words Satan's
Claws, jumped out at me in big
bold letters. I was immediately
alerted that God was saying something to me. Arriving home I received a request from our postmaster asking me to reply to Santa
Claus' letters from children in our
town. If the Lord hadn't forewarned me, I don't think I would
have been able to refuse to go
along with his request. I was in the
process of being taught that others
may do this, but I was not permitted to.
Other things began to alert me
also. For instance, as I looked at
the word Christmas, I saw Christ
mass. Raised as a Catholic, I knew
that the mass was not of God and,
somehow, understood that the Catholic Church was involved with
these same doctrines of demons.
Much later I was to find out that
the word Christmas was of Roman
Catholic origin, meaning a mass
said for Christ.
Last year, during the Christmas season, I complained to the
Lord that I was grieved with
Christmas and all it represented,
and that I felt the same way about
birthdays, as well. With that the
Lord said to me, being born in the
image of the serpent is nothing to
celebrate about. It all became so
clear as the shock wore off. These
bodies of ours are not in the image
of God, but are fathered by the
devil, and in the image of the serpent. Our Heavenly Father is
Spirit, not flesh as we are. That's
why we have need of adoption by
our Heavenly Father, and must be
born again, not of flesh but via the
Spirit of God.
We are warned not to love the
world and the things that are in it,
because it is not the creation of our
Heavenly Father. This is a world
brought about by the fall from the
visible spiritual creation that God
originally planned. Everything
here is a deceptive illusion including the celebration of Christmas.
In vain do you worship me says
the Lord. A few centuries back it
was forbidden to even celebrate
Christmas in this country. There
were no questions concerning its
origin. It was a known fact that it
was a pagan practice to be shunned.
Shop owners would be penalized if
they didn't conduct their business,
as usual, and they did not close
their stores on December 25th to
celebrate the day.
The Lord is gradually bringing
me to the understanding that we
must break all ungodly soul ties to
this world, because it keeps us
from receiving the truth He desires
to give us, to set us free from the
bondage we have to this world. If
we can't come to the place where
we are willing to surrender and
submit to His ways, we will never
be set free. Only the Son of God
can set us free. He is the only
Way, the only Truth and He alone
has Life to impart to us in this
realm of death.
It is my understanding that
God is Spirit and mind. Therefore
the glory of God is His mind and
all that His mind thinks, reveals,
produces or creates. Paul tells us
in the scriptures, that the crown of
glory that we are to seek and need
to apprehend, is the mind of Christ.
I understand the word Christ to
mean the anointed mind of God
functioning in human flesh.
Therefore, for us to be in the image
of God, we must have the mind of
Christ. From the very beginning it
was the purpose of our Heavenly
Father to create a spiritual, but
visible creation, a man in His image having His mind. We know
that before God completed weaving
the three thread cord mind that
scripture refers to as a garment, the
serpent stole the creation and
caused us to fall down into this
trapped physical realm of existence.
Scripture calls it death and hell.
But that's another whole story.
I said all that to quote the
scripture, let God be true and every
man a liar. Christmas in no shape
or form is giving any glory to God,
because it was never in His mind in
the first place. I'm laughing about
a car bumper sticker that said Keep
Christ in Christmas. The truth is
that He never was in Christmas.
We do know that Jesus was
born between the 15th of September and the 15th of October, because of computer calculations that
are able to estimate the time that
Zacharias performed his priestly
duties at the temple. It was at that
time, that Zacharias was told that
his wife, in her old age, would bear
a son who would prepare the way
for the Messiah. That son was
John the Baptist, a second cousin of
Jesus, who was six months older
than him. We also know that it
couldn't have been the cold, snowy
month of December that Jesus was
born, because the animals were still
out in the fields. Furthermore the
scriptures don't say He was born in
a stable. They simply state that
Jesus was placed in a manger after
His birth. It was sort of a feeding,
or window box, attached to the side
of a house, to hold straw for the
animals.
Traveling in those days was
slow and difficult, and accomplished on foot with the help of
pack animals. The wise men did
not see Jesus until He was about
two years old and living in a house
with His mother and Joseph. When
the wise men did not return to tell
Herod of the whereabouts of the
child, King Herod had all the boys
under the age of two murdered, in
a vain attempt to kill the Messiah.
This is the fulfillment of Jeremiah's
prophesy in chapter 31, verse 15.
It was never in the plan of God
for this world to be created. All it
represents is an abomination to the
Living God. This is the creation of
the serpent who stole the substance
of God to bring it forth. Each of
us is the devil, who is in the image
of the serpent, and Satan is our
unconscious mind.
Christmas came out of that
unconscious mind that is a part of
all of us. It's purpose is to show a
form of worship to cover up the
truth that it was never God's will
for any of us to be formed in these
physical bodies, or live in this
physical world. We were supposed
to be a spiritual creation. When
the scriptures speak of glory to God
in the highest, it is not speaking of
the physical form of the baby Jesus,
but of the seed of the mind of God
that was in Jesus that would develop into the mature mind of
Christ. Christmas is a literal
smokescreen to cover over the truth
about the whole plan of God.
Catholics venerate Mary, calling her the Mother of God, and
worship her as a god, because they
pray to her to intercede on their
behalf to her god child. In countries where Catholicism doesn't
hold full sway, the ancient system
of Baal worship just worships the
woman and child under different
names. Sort of changing the label
on the outside, but it still contains
the same can of worms.
In Egypt, they are called Isis
and Osiris. In India, Isi and
Iswara. In other parts of Asia,
Cybele and Deoius. In China she
is called Shing Mo, and is portrayed with a light of glory around
her, while holding the child in her
lap.
There is much more in the
pagan rituals coming down from
the worship of Nimrod that led to
the reindeer, Santa Claus, and it
just kept snowballing. Even the
Christmas ham and the Christmas
goose go back to the pagan festivities. Whole pigs were roasted and
eaten to commemorate their gods.
In Egypt, a favorite offering to
Osiris was a goose. It was believed
that if she was offended, she could
only be pacified by a large goose
and a thin cake. The thin cake has
become the wafer used in the Roman Catholic sacrament.
Scripture purposely does not
mention the exact date of His physical birth or of His growing up
years, because that was not the
theme of God's plan of salvation.
Thirty speaks of maturity in the
scriptures and does speak about the
maturing of the mind of Christ in
the man Jesus, as He came up out
of the waters of baptism, when the
Father said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. The
Father was pleased with the mind
that was matured, submitted and
obedient to Him. That was what
pleased the Father.
These carnal minds that we
have in us are of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, and
we are as the leaves of that tree.
Any goodness in us at all comes
from God joining Himself to the
good side of our two-sided nature.
Scripture says that our own righteousness is as filthy or menstruous
rags. This means that the spiritual
life of God cannot appear in us in
our double-minded condition, no
matter how hard we try. Only a
sovereign move of God, which adds
Himself to us, is able to bring
about our change. We are the literal pots of death which shall be
healed when the flour, which typifies Christ Jesus, is added to us, as
spoken of in 2 Kings chapter 4:40.
For peace to exist on earth, we
would have to have the Prince of
Peace residing in our physical temples, as our mind. The very character of God is love. The very
character of our nature is just the
opposite -- fear, self preservation,
lust for power, money, etc.
It is our nature to desire to
have God serve us in meeting our
needs, desires and that which we
believe to be in our best interest. It
is common knowledge that the
Christmas season is the biggest
money making time of the year for
the merchants. The love of money
is the root of all evil according to
scripture. We don't want to serve
God, especially when we find out
that His ways are not our ways, His
thoughts are not our thoughts,
which is to say, that His mind is
not our mind, and that His mind is
gloriously superior.
Jesus said if you love me, keep
my commandments. He also said,
we worship Him in vain believing
and keeping the doctrines of demons.
The Christmas spirit is not the
Spirit of God. We are instructed in
the scriptures to test the spirits to
see if they are of God. Since
Christmas has nothing to do with
the Living God, I suggest to you
that it comes from the god of this
dying world, who is Satan. The evil
things which proceed out of the
minds of man are what defile him,
because his unconscious mind is
Satan. I pray that you will humbly
and prayerfully ask the Lord for
His truth in every area of your life.
You will not be refused, if you
truly seek Him.
The following article and pictures are taken from Is Christmas Christian? by
Sheldon Emry, published by Lord's Covenant Church, Inc., America's
Promise Radio, PO Box 5334, Phoenix, Arizona 85010
