Angels, Demons, and the Human Soul and Spirit
Part 2
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When Jesus talked in the Gospels, He always spoke relevant to the written Word of God, because he is a teacher and He is the revelation of the Father to mankind. What the Father wanted men to know about himself he put in the Old Testament. Jesus is the revealing of what was written and concealed in the Old Testament. This is important to understand when we read statements in the New Testament like, “In the beginning”. This term does not mean in the beginning of all things. It means the beginning of what is relevant to us, namely, the creation of the Heavens and the Earth. Why would Jesus speak of something the Father did not? Of course, He wouldn’t, because He is the Logos. With that in mind, what does the following scripture mean when Jesus references Satan?:
John 8:44
“He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.”
It means that from the beginning of man’s creation, satan was a murderer and a liar. We do not know when the angels were created, except that they were created before us, because Lucifer had become Satan already by the time man was created. So Jesus is referencing the event in the Garden when He says “in the beginning”. In other words, “In the beginning, in the Garden, when this whole mess got started, the devil was a liar and a murderer”. Who did he murder, and how did he do it? He murdered Adam and Eve with his lies. So death was passed onto Adam through words that were contrary to Jehovah Elohim’s words.
Death came through Adam via a lie from the devil. Life comes through Christ via truth from the Father (1Cor 15:21,22).
If you want to experience resurrection life in your soul and your circumstances, you must simply quit listening to and acting on lies, and begin listening to and acting on the truth.
Demon spirits follow the lies in your soul and manifest them into your body and circumstances. The Holy Spirit follows the truth in your soul and manifests it into your body and circumstances.
Adam died in Spirit, Soul, and Body in the Garden that day. The consequences were as follows:
1. Spirit – He was no longer in the image of God. His Spiritual Father became the devil. He could no longer see the Father’s Glory, so he could not reflect it. His mirror (spirit) became broken (Gen 3:22, John 8:38). Apart from God’s intervention, he was spiritually blind because of the darkness that now filled his spirit.
2. Soul – He no longer had the capacity or ability within himself to become like God or to attain to God’s glory, but became progressively more evil so as to reflect and to become the likeness of satan. (Rom 1:28-32, Rom 3:23, John 8:44)
3. Body – His body became weaker and weaker as the generations progressed and began to embody diseases and malformations which were the consequence of his soul’s imaginations and decisions.
Are all Men and Women in God’s Image?
You may have heard this stated by well meaning people many times in your life, “We are all God’s children and created in His image.” This is a wonderful warm and fuzzy thought, but it is entirely untrue and has no biblical basis. This thought actually has its roots in pagan cultures that worship multiple gods, such as the Hindus or Buddhists. In these cultures of devil worship, there is no value or reverence placed upon the Only Living God and His Holy or Righteous nature that is set apart from all worldliness and corruption. Therefore, anybody can be a child of the “gods” because there is no real qualifying factor, except to be born. Not so in God’s true Word to man, the Bible. It is a very sad testimony against the Church, Christ’s body, that we are so ignorant of God’s Word, His plan, and His purpose, that we would accept such nonsense as “spiritual truth”. For the term “image of God” to be used so lightly in the Church would seem to indicate a major ignorance of God’s Word, which is a shameful thing indeed (2Tim 2:15).
Why is this doctrine “We are all created in God’s image” a destructive teaching? Let me answer this question by asking a question. If all human beings are in the image of God, then why does Paul and the Holy Spirit find it necessary to point out to us in 2Cor 4:4 “…Christ, who is the image of God…”? If every human is the image of God, then what is the significance of Christ being the image of God?
Here is another scripture that would be impossible to explain if we are all the image of God:
Rom 8:29 “…he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son…”
Are people conformed, or changed, from one image of God to another image of God? If we understand that the word image in the New Testament is ‘eikon’ which means “reflection”, does this mean that God has two different reflections? That is obviously absurd and a non possibility. Therefore, we are led to scripture to find out the truth about “all men in the image of God”.
Discovering the Truth about “Man in the image of God”
Here is what we find from Scripture:
Gen 1:26 “And God said, Let us make(asah) man in our image, after our likeness…”
In this verse God said what He was going to do, which was to form or ‘asah’ man into His image and likeness.
Gen 1:27 “So God created (bara) man in his image, in the image of God created (bara) he him..”
In this verse God did the action of creating or ‘bara’ man into His image.
Some facts deduced:
Now let’s take a look at some facts that we can deduce from the above break down of scripture by adding some other things that we also know from Scripture. Please take the time to read the supplied scripture reference if you are unsure as to why I consider the following points as facts.
1. Adam was created not born. (Gen 1:27)
2. Adam was the son of God. (Luke 3:38)
3. Adam was the only created son of God. (Gen 5:3)
4. Only Adam and Eve were created, every other human being has been born.
5. Jesus was born and not created.
6. Jesus was the Son of God.
7. Jesus was and is the only born Son of God. (John 3:16, Isa 9:6)
8. Adam was the image of God and Jesus is the image of God. (Gen 1:27, 2Cor 4:4,Col 1:15)
9. No human is ever again called the image of God until Jesus is born.
10. No human was ever called the son of God except for Adam and Jesus. (Math 16:16, Mark 1:1, John 10:33-36)
11. After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, believing man is changed into Christ’s image, who is himself the image and likeness of God. (Rom 8:29, 2Cor 3:18)
12. The spirit of man is the image of God. It is here that the Father’s glory is reflected to us. (Prov 20:27, 2Cor 3:18, Math 18:10)
13. With a dead or disconnected spirit, we cannot see God or His Kingdom. We need this connection reestablished in order to see again. (John 1:18, John 3:3)
14. In Christ our spirit is reconnected to God. (1John 5:11&12, John 15:5)
15. This reconnection is also considered a new creation. (Eph 2:10, 4:24,Gal 6:15, 2Cor 5:17)
Discussion on facts:
Man was created in the image of God. He then fell from that image through transgression and took on iniquity. The result was that every man born after the fall was not in the image of God, until Christ came. Christ was born a man after Adam, but with one major difference; His spirit came directly from God and was not after Adam’s fallen spirit. Christ’s spirit remained connected to God because He never transgressed God’s word. Now man can come back into the image of God through a union with the spirit or image of Christ (Rom 8:29). Once man is back into the image, he can now be formed into the likeness of the Father. This image, or recreated spirit, is the power, or authority, or ability to become the sons of God, as stated in John 1:12.
What is Likeness?
The likeness is the result of the expression of the image onto the soul, which is why Jesus is called the “expressed image” in Hebrews 1:4. Likeness is only formed in a soul when action is taken on the reflection seen. That is why Jesus said He only did that which He heard and saw His Father do. You “see” by faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, but not seen (in the natural). So faith is substance. It is the substance of the Glory of God, for we “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:2).
How Do We “get” Faith?
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (rhema) of God.” (Rom 10:17)
The ‘rhema’ of God is the now word. It is not past tense like ‘logos’, but it is the “now” word of God. That is also why Heb 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance…”. When God speaks to you in the now moment, there is an impartation from Him to you. Remember that Jesus said, “The words (rhema) that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63). When God speaks a now word (rhema) there is an impartation into your soul from the Spirit. Jesus said that one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to “guide you into all truth” and to “show you things to come” (John 16:3). He does this by taking of the Father “things” that now belong to the Son, and He shows (announces or declares) them unto us. This “showing” is actually an impartation to our soul. It is the “rhema” and the result in our soul is ‘faith’. This is a measure of the Father’s glory, which is his concentrated personal presence, deposited in our soul.
What is righteousness?
Jesus said that if we “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Math 5:6) we shall be filled. Righteousness is the rightness of God. Nothing is more right for the human soul than the glory of God, that which we have all fallen short of. If we hunger for His glory, then we will hunger for His likeness. For with His likeness comes His abiding glory. The two cannot be separated. Man lost the image of God in the fall of Adam, therefore He lost His ability to become like God. He therefore never attained to the goal of abiding in God’s glory (Rom 3:23). Man is restored back to the image of God through union with Christ. He now has the ability to become like God (John 1:12), and to obtain the glory of God (2Thess 2:14). The glory of God is God’s ultimate “righteousness” or rightness for mankind, and it will be obtained relative to each person’s hunger.
As you hunger for God’s “righteousness” or glory, you will be filled. But how? Through faith by rhema. As you hunger you will position yourself to be filled by doing things that will open you up to receive a “rhema” from God. When you receive this “rhema”, you will receive an impartation of faith that will allow you to “see” a part or portion of the Kingdom. When faith comes, you understand or “see” something in God (John 3:3, Heb 11:3). As your sight is restored, you can begin to see more clearly. The clearer you see, the more you are changed…into His likeness (1John 3:3. 1Peter 1:13). As you act on what you see your soul begins to be filled with a living, growing faith. The substance in you attracts more substance (Math 13:12), which brings clearer sight or revelation, and so you are changed from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord (2Cor 3:18).
Remember, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26), but “…by works was (is) faith made perfect.” (James 2:22). So faith with works makes faith alive, which in turn brings life to the soul. A person must act on the reflection of God’s glory that he sees in his spirit. When he does, he becomes alive. Faith with works makes a person alive. True permanent life is when we are found in His likeness. This is faith perfected. This is when man’s soul has finally found rest, and this is when God’s glory has found a place to rest. This is the believer’s rest. This is the Sabbath rest. This is God’s rest.
Angels: In the Old Testament Tutors, In the New Testament Servants
The purpose of this section is to bring an understanding on the role of Angels in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, to discuss the differences, and to use this information to help better understand the important role of “image” in man’s development into his destiny.
The following scriptures will be foundational for our study:
Gal 3:19 “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”
Gal 4:1&2 “Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.”
Heb 2:2 “For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward…”
Heb 1:1&2 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things…”
Acts 7:35 “This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.”
Acts 7:38 “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina…”
Acts 7:53 “Who received the law by the disposition (administration) of angels, and have not kept it.”
Psalm 91:11 “For he shall give his angels charge (a superior giving verbal communication to a subordinate, as a father to a son, or a teacher to a student;) over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”
Heb 1:6 “And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him.”
Dan 4:17 “This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones…”
Heb 1:14 “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”
Math 23:10 “Neither be ye called masters (guide, teacher): for one is your Master (guide, teacher), even Christ.”
Facts Deduced from the Above Scriptures
1. The Law was delivered to Moses by an angel
2. Moses spoke to an angel in the burning bush
3. God honored the word of angels as law and disobedience to the word of angels was punishable by death.
4. The prophets who gave commandments from God did so under the administration and commandment of angels who were given charge over the human race.
5. In the Old Testament, the job of angels was to give the Word of God, instruct, protect, and administer judgment to the human race until the appointed time. They were the “Tutors” and the “Watchers” of all humanity to lead people to the God.
6. In the New Testament, angels still perform the same service for God towards the unregenerate as they did in the Old Testament, but they also have become the servants of the regenerate sons of God. As sons of God in Christ, our position with angels has changed. We no longer receive instruction through them. We have one Teacher, and that is Christ. God now speaks to us through His Son, and no longer angels.
Angels are the image of God, Christ is the image of God
This is a bold statement, but it is scripturally accurate and important to understand. To start our investigation of this truth, we need to look at three scriptures and then reflect back in our book to the meaning of “image”.
Math 18:10 “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”
2Cor 4:4 “…lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
2Cor 4:6 “…to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Do you see any similarities in the above scripture about the angels and then the other two scriptures about Christ? There is one key word that we will look at that gives us an insight: ‘face’.
Notice what is in the face of Jesus Christ? It is the glory of God. So what do you suppose the angels see when they look into the Father’s face? They see the glory of God. The glory is seen in the face because it is the place the soul is seen. The glory is the concentrated personal presence of God in His soul.
We see from 2Cor4:6 that the glory of God is seen in the face of Christ. It shines from him to us.
Jesus said in John 17:24
“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me…”
and then also in 2Cor 3:18,
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are changed…”
We are to behold the Father’s glory, which is now Christ’s, and be changed. Christ now lives in us and we are with Him where He is. He is seated in the Father’s throne, according to Rev 3:21. Therefore we are seated in the Father’s throne with Christ. Therefore the glory we behold is within us. Where is the Kingdom of God? Jesus said it is within us. Where within us? It is in our spirit, because the King lives in our spirit (Gal 4:6). The Kingdom is the King’s Domain, or Dominion. This will be covered more in the last section of this book.
If the glory we behold is within our spirit, then according to 2Cor 3:18, the mirror we are looking at to see the glory is our spirit. This used to be impossible, for our spirit was disconnected from the Father because of iniquity (Is 59:2). Now our spirit is recreated in Christ, eternally fused with His spirit (Eph 2:10, 1Cor 6:17, 2Cor 5:17, Gal 6:15, Col 3:10), and therefore reconnected with God. Our spirit now reflects the glory of God from the face of Jesus (His soul) back to our soul. This is all done by the Holy Spirit flowing in and through all parties involved (John 16:12-15). As this happens, we are changed to reflect the same thing that is reflected into us, namely, the likeness of Christ (1John 4:17). As we are changed in our soul from glory to glory, we then reflect the same as Christ does… back out to the world. This is how He is the light of the world and why we are the light of the world (John 8:12, Math 5:14).
Now, let’s get back to the angels and see their role in all of this.
Jesus said that the angels of “little ones” always behold the face of the Father in Heaven. They behold the glory and they reflect the glory of the Father into the souls of these little ones. That is why a baby’s face seems to ‘shine’ with a presence of love, peace, and joy. When you see a baby’s face (of course they have to be in a good mood), you are seeing some reflection of Heaven and of the Father’s face. This truth can lead us to the following significant conclusions when combined with other scriptural truths that we have uncovered so far in this booklet:
1. The spiritual nature is what reflects God. The spirit is the image.
2. When Adam fell, his spirit was disconnected from God. His ‘mirror’ was broken. He could no longer get a reflection into his soul from the Father’s face. He could no longer see the glory of God. God provided a temporary reconnect through angels.
3. Angels are created ‘spirits’ and ‘flames of fire’. (Heb 1:7)
4. Angels are an ‘image’ or reflection of God to man. (2Cor 3:7, Math 18:10)
5. Angels take a substitute or surrogate role for man until Christ (the new spiritual nature) should come. (Gal 3:19, 3:25, 4:2, Heb 1:1&2)
6. Part of this substitute role was to provide an image or reflection of God’s glory to man so that he could grow in the experiential knowledge of God and be formed incrementally into the likeness of the Father, even before Christ came. This was seen in the case of Enoch and Moses, as well as David and many other Old Testament saints, especially those listed in Hebrews chapter 11. (Gen 1:26, Ex 33:11, Rom 1:28)
7. Angels still provide this substitute role for man until they come to Christ. However, as children grow up and begin to transgress, the light in their eyes begins to fade because they begin to get “blinded by the god of this world”. When a person turns to Christ, then they are now reconnected in spirit to God through union with Christ’s spirit, and they no longer need a “substitute” spirit to reflect God’s glory to them.
8. The glory that was reflected through angels was only temporary and could not make men perfect. Man can only be perfected into the Father’s likeness when he has a recreated spirit where he is permanently reconnected to the reflection of God’s glory. (Heb 11:39&40, 2Cor 3:6-18, John 1:12).
