"The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," 2Cor. 2:14.
The verse says: The natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned. My natural mind cannot know the things of God, only my spirit can, and therein is the problem. My natural mind is continually questioning what my spirit knows to be true and my spirit has to continually remind my mind of this truth.
I have this ongoing struggle inside of me between my spirit and my natural self. My spirit receives from the Holy Spirit a truth that Jesus expected the Pharisees to know when it was time for Jesus to come to earth, so He expects me to know when it is time for Him to come back. If I was wrong in my timing, He would correct me. Instead of correcting me, Jesus is affirming I'm right in my assessment. But my natural man cannot receive what my spirit man has received and continually questions.
When my natural mind questions, I go back to what is naturally known. John the Baptist said the Lamb of God would take away the sins of the world and lambs do not die on crosses. Jesus said we must believe in the only begotten of God in order to receive everlasting life and Genesis tells us everything begets after its own kind. It would be impossible for Mary to begat God. Jesus said, I have kept my Father's commandments. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. The only commandments that could possibly be Jesus' commandments are in Acts 1.
In other words, I use logic to convince my natural mind of spiritual truth. My natural mind cannot receive spiritual truth, but also cannot argue with natural logic. It is the highest form of natural knowledge and for the natural mind, irrefutable. When the argument is made in this way, the natural mind cannot refute the spiritual wisdom, and though it cannot receive it, it cannot deny it. This only works for a little while, and then the natural mind is back with, "But how can you know that?" and the argument has to be made all over again.
So, this is the world I live in, but not everyone lives in a struggle between their head and their spirit. There is the heart to consider. I don't live in that world so it is much more difficult for me to address. The key here, however, is that the heart is not ruled by logic; it is ruled by feelings. The one who lives in the realm of the soul would say, "But I just feel." The struggle then is between what they feel and what God is saying.
I believe feelings, or the realm of the soul, is where Satan holds most Christians in bondage. As I have preached this message to Christians, the major hurdle I have come up against is a lack of respect for God's Word and a high respect for feelings. I can't tell you how many times I have heard the words, "Well, I just feel." These people believe their feelings should dictate what they believe and most of the time it has to do with goodness. Their feelings dictate how they feel about themselves and how they feel about God and how they feel about their fellow man, all determined by how they perceive goodness.
The problem is, the soul is part of the natural man that cannot receive the things of God. The verse could read, "The man ruled by feelings receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The things the Spirit of God says are nonsensical to the person ruled by feelings and they summarily reject them as being true. It, the thing the Spirit of God says, cannot be true, because I feel..
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Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments," but the person ruled by their feelings would define love differently. Love has to do with how they feel or how others feel and has nothing to do with obedience. So, when John says, "This is the love of God that we keep His commandments," or, "He that says I know Him and keeps not His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him," the one ruled by feelings says, no, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Because they are ruled by feelings, they cannot see that Jesus loved us by being obedient to His Father's law, thereby fulfilling it, and delivering all mankind from its sentence of death through obedience. The one ruled by feelings cannot see the truth because truth is spiritually known. It cannot be known naturally.
There will always be a struggle between the natural side of man, whether it be the mind or the soul, and the spiritual side, because the natural man cannot know God but the spiritual man can and we all have these two parts within us. The one ruled by feelings has to find a way to overthrow the feelings and give place to the spirit.
The "feeling" part of the equation is where most people get hung up. They feel that, God being a good God, and not willing that any should perish, would not send thousands of well meaning Christians to hell, just because they failed to keep a couple of commandments that don't make good sense anyway. It’s the feelings that make it difficult to believe. The feelings are placed on a higher plane of authority than God's Word.
These strongholds must be pulled down, torn down, and destroyed, or held captive by our spirit man. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." 2Cor.10:4,5,6.
The weapons are the Word of God and the battle is within us. Our feelings, or our thoughts, cannot be allowed to exalt themselves above God's Word, no matter how preposterous it seems. Notice the last verse: "And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." We must see the thoughts or feelings that work against our obedience as enemies and be ready to execute vengeance against them. If we don't, they will steal our eternal life.
"The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." We are all made up of natural man and spiritual man. If we allow our natural man to rule us, we will never attain to God's plan for us and never arrive in heaven. This really is the crux of the matter. The natural man looks at the scriptures and says, "This can't be right," and interprets it to its satisfaction. Thus, the commandment to wait for a baptism with the Holy Spirit Jesus issued in Acts 1, is judged to have been fulfilled by the apostles and no one else is required to obey it. It is nonsensical, foolishness, to the natural man. Similarly, that God would require all mankind to keep this command, or that this could be the issuing of the new covenant, is preposterous to the natural man; the natural man cannot see it, so it is summarily rejected.
These are the strongholds we must tear down. They are bull works set up in our minds by our natural man. I have never understood this verse like I do now. The realization that each of us has a natural man and a spiritual man within us and they are constantly at war with one another for the ascendancy in our being and the natural man almost always wins, is new revelation. It explains why it is so hard to believe the truth and be at peace with it. The natural man is constantly trying to tear down what the spiritual man wants and the spiritual man is constantly trying to tear down what the natural man wants and it is eternal life that is at stake. I, am caught in the cross hairs.
The truth is Jesus lived His life by the old covenant law, keeping it perfectly, then died as one who had transgressed it fully. This fulfilled the old covenant, and like every other contract, once every clause of the old covenant was fulfilled, it became obsolete. This gave Jesus the right to establish a new covenant. John the Baptist said, the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world, which means, Jesus did not take away your sins on the cross. Lambs do not die on crosses.
When Jesus saw Mary at the tomb, He said, “Don’t touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” When Jesus did ascend to the Father, He presented Himself as a spotless lamb, and the Father sacrificed Him. Now, God can begat God, so this is when Jesus was begotten by the Father as the Son of God, and this is the Jesus we must believe in to inherit everlasting life. This Jesus was raised from the dead with all power and all authority, came back to earth, and issued the commandments of the new covenant. If we do not keep the commandments of Jesus, we cannot inherit everlasting life, John 15:10. Your natural man will never receive this as truth. It is up to you, your spirit man, to rule over your natural man, and tell him what he will believe.
What are the commandments of Jesus? Just before His ascension into heaven, He gathered His followers about Him and commanded them to wait for a baptism with the Spirit. This baptism occurs each time you allow a gift of tongues to pour out of your mouth. The word, baptize, means, to saturate, and since Christians leak, effort must be made to maintain some level of saturation constantly. Jesus also commanded them to preach this gospel, the gospel of saturation, and to disciple converts.
We live in a world of people ruled by the natural man and: "The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," 2Cor. 2:14. Disobedience of these commandments is the accepted norm, and we are told it is belief in Jesus’ death on the cross that gives us eternal life, John 3:16, even though it was impossible for Mary to give birth to the Son of God. After all, she was only human. Very few people have received a baptism with the Spirit.
There is hope however, 1John 1:9 tells us “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” If you cannot speak in tongues, you can repent of your disobedience and be cleansed and still receive everlasting life. Now, again, your natural man, of whom we all partake, will never be able to accept any of this as truth. Your natural man will summarily reject all of this as foolishness.
Your natural man is fully aware of a truth that it regularly transgresses against the old covenant law and is guilty and therefore is not free from the law. If you live your life by the dictates of your natural man, you will never be free. If, however, you use the Word of God to put your natural man in his place, as subservient to your spiritual self, you can live above the law and its guilt and condemnation.
2Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, all things are become new.” Who is right, God’s Word, or your conscious? Verse 19 continues, “For God was in Christ, not imputing man’s sins against him.” Are you a new creation? Are old things passed away for you? Or, are you a washed old creation that still must repent of sins committed against God? Are you ruled by your natural man, that says my feelings and my thoughts are correct, or are you ruled by the Word of God and what it says?
We have a choice to make. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Jesus defines love as obedience but our natural man defines love by feelings. The kindest, most beautiful thing you can do for Jesus is keep His commandments. The kindest, most beautiful thing you can do for your fellow man, is keep Jesus’ commandments. The question is: will you be ruled by your spirit or your natural man.
Now, let me remind you, although most Christians will tell you, you are saved by faith in Jesus, Hebrews 5:9 tells us: Jesus gives eternal life to those who obey Him. The truth is: Jesus was not begotten of God through Mary's womb, so it is not the Jesus who died on the cross that takes away the sins of the world. The natural man is very willing to accept interpretation provided by other natural men, but very reluctant to accept God's Word as truth.
Thus, man's interpretation of God's Word spreads like wildfire, but the truth projected of the Word of God is not easily accepted by men. They are ruled by the natural man.