The mind (the Hebrew heart) is the intelligent control center that runs a food producing plant (the stomach), which extracts the nourishment from the intake of the edibles, then feeds the brain itself, and the bones, nerves, muscles, and the rest of the organs of the human body. The problems begin when the mind becomes incapable of controlling the intake of healthy food and liquid that are necessary for the body to stay healthy in order to function. When the craving of the body robs the brain of its power to manage, such a person becomes a helpless vegetable. The condition is also depicted as being morally and spiritually dead. Such individuals cannot and does not discern the differences between good and evil. The Scriptures tell us that such people regard evil as good and good as evil (Isaiah 5:20). The eye of the body is the mind! And an impaired eye cannot choose the proper nourishment for the body, which houses the “Spirit or Breath of God” (Matthew 6:22-23). The Apostle Paul faced the problem head on:
Brethren, join me in imitating me, and mark those who live as you have an example in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds on the earthly things. But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself (Philippians 3:17-21).
Jesus Called His Own Body “A Temple”
The temple was holy unto the Lord Yahweh. The temple housed the Spirit of God, His Words (the Law), and His Presence in the Holy of Holiness. God and his people would meet regularly to hear God’s Words and reaffirm their relationship with their Benefactor and Maker. But, when God’s Spirit re-entered the world in His Son, Jesus the Christ, the Housing of God had been filled with everything else, but holiness. Jesus was to restore the purpose of the temple and provide man a place where he could meet God. The Son of man took that place! And the Son of man demonstrated how the Spirit of God lives and works in man. The human body and flesh has been and is being defiled by man himself with his unholy living. The Gospel of John helps us understand how the two temples function.
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for thy house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him (Jesus), “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scriptures and the words which Jesus had spoken” (John 2:13-22).
When Did Jesus, The Son Of God, Assume His Human Body And Made His Human Body “A Temple?”
Being human, I am subject to forming opinions that do not agree with the facts. The presence of the Spirit of God in man is such a concept that has been misrepresented. The human mind has difficulties in perceiving the “Presence of God” in life; yet, without God’s Breath and Spirit, life would not exist, especially human life (Genesis 2:7). So, when did God’s Son become a man? And when did God’s Son receive the Spirit? There are three possibilities and none of them can be tenable, regardless of what I have been taught to believe. These are being generally discussed that Jesus received the Spirit at conception, at birth, and at the baptism. The problem was this: “When did the Son of God stop being God and become a man?” To the Hebrews, God could appear in any form like a burning bush or an angel in human form; and yet, not give up “His Divine Nature.” Paul’s people appear to have been the first plaged by that problem. There were people, who regarded Christ as being in a “likeness or form of God,” but not as “God.” This concept has been widely held by translators! And fortunately the New International Version has returned to the true nature of Jesus Christ as being of the same nature with God. He was “Emmanuel”, “God with us”, and not the other way around (Matthew 1:23).
“Your attitude (understanding) should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself (nothing ?), taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:5-7; NIV).
Paul’s Answer To The Colossians — As To Who Jesus Was?
How does one explain the “Presence of God” to the human mind without imagery (eikown)? For want of a better word that describes Jesus Christ’s relationship to God, He used the word “image.” The image alone could not explain the true nature of Christ, but his word does. The heavens do declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). They did for Paul:
“He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:15-20).
The Desire To See Or Feel God Is Misleading
Jesus compared the work of the Sprit to a wind (breeze) (John 3:8). We know the wind by the way it moves things and touches us. Jesus defined his relationship with God and each other in a similar way. Like wind, God’s Spirit is always present. When Philip wanted Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus pointed at Himself and told the disciples that they had been with God, while they were with Him. What Jesus said regarding Himself is true of every human being, who has been created in the image and the likeness of the “US” and Gods and the “I Am” (Genesis 1;26-27). And every person has within their body God’s Breath (Genesis 2:7). And we all breathe in God’s Air (oxygen). Anyone who desires to get closer to God, can try this: “Stand before a mirror and look at yourself and then at a neighbor or at a total stranger; then kick out all the evil and unwanted desires and you shall see and feel touched by God.” The reason we do not see God at work is because we clutter God’s Breath in us that keeps God’s Spirit from helping us see and feel what we should. Jesus’ answer to the disciples was very revealing.
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Sow us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his work. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves (John 14:8-11).
The Birth Of Jesus Was By Direct Insemination Of The Spirit Of God
The Holy Spirit informed Joseph and Mary that their son was and would be conceived through the Holy Spirit, and assume human form and identity (Matthew 1:20-25; Luke 1:26-38). Now, how can the “Only Begotten Son of God,” who existed before the world was created, become a seed that is planted in a woman and grows into a “Human Being?” This human being is the “Second,” and even more important miracle, than the creating of the first man Adam! Adam brought sin and death into the world, while this “Second Man” brought back “Life and Redemption” (Romans 5:12-21). The Son of God made that choice to live in a human body! And therefore, turn the tide of man drifting from God by “His Sacrificial and Moral Guidance” (Mark 10:45). The Spirit and the Son of God are “One” and the “Same!” The physical demonstrations and signs, like the “dove and the power over demons, as well as the voice from heaven,” were to get the attention of the public (John 12:29). But, while the Son of God was the Son of man, He took the Spirit that all human beings have, except His was not cluttered, and He allowed God’s Spirit constant access to His own Spirit. That was why Jesus did what the Father wanted Him to do.
Jesus said to the people, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he him all that he himself is doing; and greater works than these will he show him, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:19-24).
“I (Jesus) can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of Him who sent me. If I bear witness to myself, my witness is not true; there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not the testimony which I received is from man; but I say this that you may be saved. He (John) was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear witness that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen; and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent” (John 5:30-38).
IN SUMMATION: God the Spirit partnered with Mary the virgin to beget a Son named Jesus (Emmanuel – God with us). For the Son of God to redeem mankind, He too had to live and work in a human body that was holy and clean, and unmarred by sin. Jesus became the “New Creation” in whom the human spirit was not being interferred in an intimate relationship with the Spirit of God his Father. For man to have a similar relationship with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit God, man must be born anew and separate from everything that can and will hinder the communion between the human spirit and the Spirit of the Lord.
Stop and Think - Rev Dr. Daniel Kolke 