Series: Spirit, Soul & Body; Health

Sun am 30 June 2019 – Kobus Swart

John 7:38; 3 John 1:2 TPT; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; Prov.23:7; Col. 3:1-3 MIRROR; 2 Cor. 10:5; Matt. 5:28; Eph. 2:6; Phil. 4:7; Ps. 139:15-16; Phil. 4:8; Rom. 8:6-7; (Ps. 51:10); 1 Cor. 2:9-10; 1 John 4:16-17

We are going to look at the impact of your soul on your physical body. From your innermost being (=heart) shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). This river has to flow through the gateways of the inner man into the soul area and the gateways into the physical body and from there it will impact our surrounding world. It flows through who we are: spirit, soul and body. Beloved friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and that you continually enjoy good health, just as your soul is prospering (3 John 1:2 TPT). We are going to see the connection between a healthy soul and a healthy physical body.

We have looked at the gateways of the three-fold nature of man: from your soul you have several gateways affecting your body. I will focus on the mind. Many people do not know that our biggest problem in our journey as born-again Christians is in the mind. The renewal of the mind is not a once only experience; it is an ongoing experience to be renewed. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind (Eph. 4.23). ‘The spirit of the mind’ refers to your subconscious mind, also known in many verses in the Bible as your heart (not the physical heart). The brain is also not your mind. Your thought-life is your mind and that does influence your brain. As he thinks in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7).

The gateways from your spirit to your soul are hope, worship, revelation, fear of the Lord, prayer, perseverance and faith. The gateways from your soul to your physical body are your mind, imagination, reason, conscience, your will, your choice and your emotions. These are the gateways through which your soul impacts your body. Let us focus on the mind. It is critically important to be open for an ongoing renewal of the mind. Relocate yourselves mentally (Col. 3:1 MIRROR), which means go back to the position before the fall. These thoughts we read must go beyond information – it must go down as a reality in our subconscious mind. If these realities do not sink down into the subconscious mind, our Christian walk will be a wobbly walk! This has been written two thousand years ago. The Church has gone through ups and downs, revivals and declines. This reality is still there. That is why we have to go through a thorough, ongoing renewal of the mind and experience this as reality.

Absorb this again! Take it in, into the subconscious mind – into your heart! We must bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). Every thought! This is where our problems are! What is the relationship between your conscious mind and your subconscious mind? You think with your conscious mind and whatever you habitually think, sinks into your subconscious mind. We have to accept the truth of the Scriptures that we are co-seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6), and that should reflect in our life – spirit, soul, and body, into the world! “Psychologists and psychiatrists point out that when thoughts are conveyed to your subconscious mind, impressions are made in your brain cells” (Joseph Murphy). Here we go from the conscious to the subconscious and then it impacts your brain and your brain responds into your body. “Once your conscious or object mind accepts the thought completely, it is transmitted to the older parts of the brain, where it becomes flesh and is made manifest in your experience” (Murphy).

What do you think of yourself at this moment? What do you think of your body? What do you think about your life? What is your thought-life about your financial position? Remember, when you habitually think about it in the wrong way, it goes down into the subconscious and it affects your life. What do you think of your friends, your social status? What is expressed and finally settles down into your subconscious mind influences your life. The way you live is impacted by what comes from the subconscious mind. That is why I love that Scripture and I want a deeper understanding and experience of it: Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth (Col. 3:2). Detach from the frequency of this earth and the spirit of this age. We are being bombarded by negative information, all the time! Have you accepted negative suggestions about our country’s future? Be quick to digest the news in the right way, or else you become super negative. That is not what our country needs. Do not let that affect your subconscious mind! Trust! Our God has a plan for this nation!

Do you walk with thoughts like the following: “How am I going to make it?” Do you know how bad that negative question can be? Rather have a prophetic imagination. Look beyond the circumstances and think prophetically. See yourself out of debt, eat healthy, live a healthy life, have an environment that is peaceful. Imagine that rather than settling into a negative subconscious mindset.

Stress has now become a chronic disease in the world. If we do not watch it, stress can lead to a burnout. It can actually lead to a heart attack. Do not be robbed of your rest. Rest only comes when you trust in God who is omnipotent, all-powerful, and He has only the best in mind for you.

One of the speakers at a conference we attended recently said that his blood pressure went sky-high. He went to a doctor and the doctor warned him. As he was walking around, while preaching, and in his quiet times he walked and started to voice some things repeatedly. He kept saying, “I am health! I am health!” That thought finally filtered down to the subconscious and guess what? As your soul prospers, so your body will prosper. He went back to the doctor after a few weeks and his blood pressure was very good. You may have other problems. You may have anxieties. Try this, over a period of time, several minutes a day, say it: “I am peace! I am peace!” In the middle of fears, anxieties and storms, say it. When you do that with conviction, it is going to produce results. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7). When it says ‘hearts’ here, it talks about the physical heart.

Last night in a dream, I had this conversation with God: “Lord, why do I think of the Toronto outpouring in 1994, when we laughed in the Spirit?” In the night I saw a picture of us laughing, from the depth of our belly, laughing. Walk around and say, “I am joy! I am joy!” Why do we say, “I am”? Because Christ in us (the great I AM) is the hope of glory. Trust Him, because God has a plan for your life! My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them (Ps. 139:15-16). Can you claim that Scripture for yourself? Set your minds on the things from above. I prophesy that our perception and understanding of that Scripture is going to change in the next few months, in a radical fashion because we have always postponed that as some future experience.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things (Phil. 4:8). Get rid of negative, doom-and-gloom thoughts. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so (Rom. 8:6-7).

The word ‘heart’ appears almost 120 times in the book of Psalms (NASB) – and it was not talking about the physical heart. David, who became King David, had a turbulent life, but then he started writing psalms. Create in me a clean heart, O God (Ps. 51:10). Sing that song to yourself – sing Psalms like that!

Hear this with new ears: What has been concealed for ages in a realm inaccessible to the senses; what no human eye could catch a glimpse of, nor man’s ear could even hear a whisper of, neither could the inquiring mind decipher the code of that mystery which God has already fully arranged and was ready to reveal to those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9 MIRROR). Love God! He is ready to reveal things which eye has not seen and which ear has not heard! Incredible realms are beckoning the saints – those who love God. What our ear has not heard… God is ready to release a new sound. These profound mysteries of God’s eternal resolve are now thoroughly unveiled to us by his Spirit; nothing is hidden from him; he explores the innermost thoughts of God (1 Cor. 2:10 MIRROR).

Start proclaiming, based on the finished works: “I am health. I am peace. I am love.” Know that the Bible says, God is love (1 John 4:16). Then it says, as He is, so also are we in this world (1 John 4:17). So then we can say: I am love.