“Come let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.” Hosea 6:1-3
30 years ago, after a severe trial, I put this verse to music. Maybe it will touch you.
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The Latent Power of the Soul- Preface- Watchman Nee
“When in 1924 I first called the attention of God’s children to the dividing of spirit and soul, many well-disposed brethren thought of it as merely a dispute over words having no great significance. What they failed to see was that our conflict is not concerned with word but with that which lies behind. The spirit and the soul are two totally different organs: one belongs to God, while the other belongs to man. By whatever names one may call them, they are completely distinct in substance. The peril of the believer is to confuse the spirit for the soul and the soul for the spirit, and so be deceived into accepting, the counterfeit of’ evil spirits to the unsettling of’ God’s work.
This series of articles had originally been intended to be written immediately following the completion (in 1928) of The Spiritual Man. But because of physical weakness and the heavy burden of other service, I was only able to have them published in last year’s issues of Revival magazine. In response to the request of its readers, I now put forth this booklet.
The greatest advantage in knowing the difference between spirit and soul is in perceiving the latent power of the soul and in understanding its falsification of the power of the Holy Spirit. Such knowledge is not theoretical but practical in helping people to walk in God’s way.
Just last night I was reading what F. B. Meyer once said in a meeting shortly before his earthly departure. Here is a section of it: “This is an amazing fact that never has there been so much spiritualism outside the church of Christ as is found today . . . Is it not factual that in the lower part of our human nature the stimulation of the soul is quite prevailing? Nowadays the atmosphere is so charged with the commotion of all kinds of counterfeit that the Lord seems to be calling the church to come to a higher ground.”* Today’s situation is perilous. May we “prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess. 5.21).” Amen.
Watchman Nee March 8, 1933
The insight that Watchman Nee had in 1924 is amazing. And it is amazing how relevant that insight is for today. This information is not new, we are told about it in both the New Testament and the Old Testament. I will only share one scripture from each Testament, since serious study and meditation are encouraged.
Hebrew 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart”. That really is the matter of the whole thing, isn’t it? Being able to judge the intentions of the heart? Since so much of what we see today has the soul as it’s source and not the Spirit. How can we sort it all out? Whenever you see hype in the church, is that not usually created by the soul? When there is a sweet presence of the Lord in our midst, you can always tell that it is “different”, is is “holy”, something that is “other”. It is “holy, set apart”.
In the Old Testament, Ezekiel 22:26 “Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them”.
The Lord has always made a distinction between what is “holy” and what is “profane”, between what is of the “soul” and what is of the “Spirit”. It is safe to say that the Spirit is holy and set apart, and the soul is profane, unholy or as some translations put it, they are “common”. That is the distinction.
We all want God in our midst, to see Him move on our behalf. But we must learn to discern between what is of the “soul’ and what is of the “Spirit”. How do we do that? Well, we ask God to help us! We hold all things up to the light of the scriptures. We press in to the study of God’s Word. Knowing the scriptures is of vital importance. We must learn to walk by the Spirit in all things.
Free book download- The Latent Power of the Soul by Watchman Nee at
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Deuteronomy 8:2-3 “And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD”.
It would be a hard lesson to learn in our modern convenient culture, that God would actually allow you to go hungry. That He would actually test you to see what was in your heart. What form could that testing take in our modern world? Would there be anything off the table so to speak? There is some mystery in understanding how God works in our lives, Paul tells us in Romans 8:28 that “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. Does that mean all things? What will He allow in our lives in this fallen world?
One of the worst things that I can think of, that God used for good, was Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. It doesn’t get any worse than that. Who has been tested at a greater level than Jesus? Who has been abused more? Especially considering His perfect, sinless life? I do not minimize anyone’s trials or abuse. Or anyone’s severe testing! Like Jesus, we must have our own Gethsemane. We must have our own “wrestling with God” in order to find His peace with the way He has allowed things in our lives.
When we read in Genesis of Joseph and the trials that he went thru, we get a glimpse of how God can work in our lives. It shows the providence and sovereignty of God. In relation to Joseph, we read in Psalm 105:19 “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him”. Joseph was tested and came through that test. I encourage you to read the story of Joseph.
Even Paul was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble, God would not heal him. Can we handle that God would not heal him? In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Paul tells us, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”. When God tests us, it produces “an eternal weight of glory” that is beyond comparison.
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
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A great message from my good friend Storm Bailey!
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“A little common sense is better than a weak leading”. -Zion Faith Homes
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We live in an age of the church, where there are all kinds of speculations about the end times. There are speculations about who is prophetic and who is apostolic. There are speculations about Israel, a new temple, and red heifers. The writing of books regarding those speculations are endless. The number of podcasts and youtube videos of everyone’s thoughts on these issues is staggering. And everyone’s thoughts are mixed with some level of partial truth.
The thing that is scary is that many people are not grounded in the Word, and are easily swayed by speculative teaching. We are told in Ephesians that there is a fullness and maturity in Christ that we need to attain to, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming”.
1 Timothy 1:5-7 “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith. Some people have strayed from these things and have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions”.
Confident assertions!!! Confident assertions are presented as something that is true. Someone might say that “God showed me this” when they are making these assertions. It might be a book, it might be a video, it might be a podcast, it might be on CBN or the Victory Channel and it might come from the pulpit on Sunday morning.
All these assertions are mixed with some level of truth, maybe even a some scripture reference. And a lot of it is pleasing to our ear. We must grow to maturity in Christ, to the fullness of Christ. We must have the mind of Christ; we must judge all things by the scriptures.
Millions of prophetic websites, teaching videos and books are a very poor replacement for the scriptures. They are not enough! They will not give you the depth that meditation on the scriptures will give you. If we fail to know the scriptures, and to know God, we will be swayed by every wind of doctrine that comes our way.
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For many years, I have written songs based on scripture. A few years ago I read in Revelation 15:3, that “they sang the song of Moses and the Lamb”. It is a wonderful verse, and we will all sing it some day when we all reach Heaven. Here is my attempt at making a song using those verses.
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I have felt the presence of the Lord in my life. I see it as a kind of foretaste of what heaven will be like. It may come as an overwhelming peace, overwhelming joy or an overwhelming reverence, but you do feel it. Maybe some of you have felt His presence, and maybe some of you never have. Some may question whether such an experience is real or imagined. Yet we do find verses in the Bible supporting such experiences. We see in Acts 3:19 that when we repent and turn to God, that He will “send times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord”. Also, Psalm 16:11 tells us “in your presence there is fullness of joy”. That is something tangible. Jesus also said that “whenever two or more of you are gathered in My name, there I am in your midst”. Matt 18:20
If we were to see His glory, that would be another level all together. There are many places in the Bible where people experienced or saw the “Glory of God”. Most of those times people fell on their faces in fear and trembling. There are some places where something else happened.
One such place is when Stephen was stoned. We read that in Acts 7. Verse 55 tells us, “Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and the heavens opened and he saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God”. When Stephen told the Jews this, that is what caused them to stone him. This is where something other worldly happened, he cried out to the Lord, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Verse 60). We also see that when Jesus was crucified in Luke 23:34, He says “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. What manner of God do we serve? It is almost too unbelievable to imagine that these words were spoken. It would do us well to meditate on the nature and character of the God we serve. Even in the time of death for Jesus and Stephen, they were offering forgiveness to the Jews by asking God to not hold it against them, if they would only accept it. Maybe some did.
Now we come to the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our sins as we forgive the sins of others”. It is instruction for us, that we might become more like Jesus and Stephen. We need to get a glimpse of God’s Glory that we might forgive those who have sinned against us. If we can get a glimpse of heaven, we will be forever changed. We will see our own sins and God’s love and forgiveness, and because of that, we can forgive others. Some have been severely abused and betrayed, but not nearly as much as Jesus Himself. Yet He asked the Father to “forgive them for they know not what they do”. It is a difficult thing! Can we also forgive people for their sins against us? Yes, we can, we can be like Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit and forgive those who have sinned against us. If we can get a glimpse of His Glory and a glimpse of Heaven.
In the book Azuza Street by Frank Bartleman, he talks about getting a glimpse of Heaven. “Could we but catch one strain of heaven’s pure melody, it would spoil us for earthly sounds forever. Could we but catch one glimpse of departed loved ones through the gates ajar, earth would no longer hold us here. We must see things from heaven’s side. Earth’s sounds and spirits are so crude and cruel. Heaven is all love, joy and peace and rest! Thank God!”
May we press in to God and ask Him to teach us His ways, for His ways are so much higher than ours.
Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts”.
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Early this morning around 4:30 am, my wife and I went outside and sat and stared at the “super-moon”. It was chilly outside and the wind was blowing through the southern pines. It was very still and quiet, it was bright and beautiful. When I see God’s creation, I am always amazed and I can not help but praise Him.
I am reminded of Psalm 19:1-4 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world”.
There is a speech, a communication that pours forth without words when we view the majesty of God’s creation. Are we listening? Do we hear it? That silent voice “goes throughout the whole earth”. It crosses all speech barriers and proclaims God’s “handiwork”. Everyone can see it and “hear”, if they are listening. It is not a listening with the ear, it is a listening with the heart. All of creation is meant to speak to us yet without words, it is God’s gift to the world. Through it, He makes Himself known to all who will turn and listen.
Romans 1:20 tells us “For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” His creation was always meant to show us His “invisible attributes” and “His nature”.
As the New Year comes back to full swing, may we all take more time to slow down in our busy culture and have a listening heart. May we take time to see the Glory of God, and hear that voiceless speech as it pours forth from day to day, and night to night.
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