The Doctrine Man

”Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count
the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man;
and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by rejecting God’s wisdom, but instead held fast to the words of the Serpent and clung to their desire to partake of this beautiful, desirable fruit, their bodies were remade into the flesh and blood that we now have.  Today, mankind is comprised of two main parts: 1) His body of the flesh which is corrupted, and 2) his eternal spirit.  This body of the flesh will die and return to the ground from which it came.  The spirit is eternal.  This spirit is the real us.  It will live forever either with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Heaven, or in Hell where there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For our purposes, the body is comprised of two main parts:

• The brain.  The brain is not unlike the computer.
  • The physical part of the brain, similar to the hardware of a computer, is made up of all the various cells, neurons, etc., that allow the brain to behave in a manner similar to a running computer.
  • The “software” portion of the brain utilizes the physical structure of the brain to have a preprogrammed area, which determines our personality bent, talents, predisposed behaviors, etc., and a memory area, which is the composite of all life’s experiences whether real or imagined.
• The rest of the body that is not a part of the brain.

The two together allow us to function in this life.

When the brain is working properly, the “software” portion of the brain is the “living” part of the body. One might refer to this as man’s soul, which is separate and distinct from his eternal spirit. The soul, or the “running software” part of man’s brain, based on its predetermined “programming” combined with life’s experience, is the driving force that determines who we are, how we behave, how we live our lives.  Bear in mind, what I have just discussed is the “flesh and blood” part of us.  The spirit of a man, that is, his eternal part, plays no part in the flesh’s functioning.  This body of flesh would continue to function with or without an eternal soul within.

The question is, where does the spirit of man come in? - who is in control?  Is the software, living part of the body in control, or is man’s eternal spirit which resides within this body? 

God gave me the answer one day while I was driving.  A dash warning light came on.  Simultaneously a very loud and annoying buzzer sounded.  This was an issue that needed to be dealt with, but it wasn’t something that needed care of immediately. It wasn’t going to ruin any major part of the car; engine, transmission, etc., if I kept driving.  However, that buzzer wouldn’t stop.  After several agonizing, painful hours of trying to ignore it,  I surrendered and fixed it.

Our body of the flesh works in a similar manner.  As a baby, our newly formed body of the flesh is endlessly feeding information to our newly created spirit - a spirit that has no past, no memory, no history, no understanding of this life nor of anything else.  All this spirit knows and is aware of is what the brain is feeding it.  This brain, this soul, that is, this “Mind of the Flesh,” is endlessly demanding, endlessly pushing, endlessly screaming commands that are intended to offset discomfort or cravings the body of the flesh is feeling.  By the time we reach the age where we can interact with those around us, we’ve already been programmed into unconditionally doing whatever our Mind of the Flesh dictates.  It has total control of our eternal spirit. So much so, that we are unable to discern a separation between the two. We live believing that our mind of the flesh is who and what we are.

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing to do good is in me, but the ability is not … because the mind of the flesh is at enmity with God. It does not subject itself to the law of God, nor is it able to do so.” - Apostle Paul

Blessings,

Glen