The Transformation

 

The Cleaving Apart of Soul and Spirit: merismos

The Word transforms us.  We are being changed from glory to glory.” But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). As we look into the glass dimly now like a blur, we see ourselves being changed into the image of Christ which is clear and brilliant. The more we are changed the more we can’t wait to change because we become more of who we are created to be in the Kingdom and things become more limpid. While our carnal mind is in the fog, the Kingdom is in the light and life becomes more and more crystalline in Christ. As the “templet” of the image of Christ becomes more visible in our being–we become who God created us to be from the foundation of the world. This is what the first meaning of the word “merismos” found in Hebrews 2:4 is referring to: “with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own.” The gifts of the Holy Spirit are quickened within us as our soul and spirit are separated by the living Word.

We are being transformed in His image while we become all that God created us to be from the foundation of the world. “For you fashioned my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). The blueprint for our life is imprinted on our inmost being—where the joints, marrow, and bones of our lives are knit together with our unique gifts, personality, purpose, and God’s plan.

 I love the scripture in Hebrews 4:12 that speaks about one of the ways this happens–this is how I have interpreted this scripture.  “For the word of God is living and all-efficient, and much sharper than a double-edged sword, and it pierces to the separation of soul and spirit and of joints, marrow and of bones, and judges the reasoning and conscience of the heart.” It is interesting to note that the words, “reasoning and conscious” are referring to the heart—not the mind. The heart is where the soul through the spirit learns to discern the will of God.

The Greek word “merismos” embraces a “cleaving apart” concept of soul and spirit—this is how our carnal thinking changes to Kingdom thinking while we are being transformed from glory to glory. This is where repentance begins convicting the reasoning of the mind and where compassion and love develop in the “conscience” of the heart. This is where we change one way of thinking to another way of thinking–where we learn to walk out our lives in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Through trial and testings dealing with the dictates of this fallen world and our sin nature, our soul and spirit are in a state of merismos in terms of coming into balance with our unique identity and purpose; we are quickened, illuminated, and transformed by the Word of God because it is alive. In order to become the person God created us to be, the Life in the Word of God initiates the will of God for each living soul on the face of the earth who has chosen Jesus Christ as Lord–King over their soul– The breath of life to their spirit.

The Greek word for soul is “psuche” and refers to our unique identity. The Greek word for spirit (breath) is “pneúma” and used in scripture connotes the Spirit of the living God. Our spirit or “pneuma” is quickened in terms of the Holy Spirit transforming our psuche when we meditate upon the Living Word. I believe that our thinking changes within our psuche because the Holy Spirit of God teaches us truth and wisdom while we are being quickened or changed. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Jesus shows us the way through every trial and tribulation through His Word, Jesus tells us the truth about every situation, and Jesus breaths new life creating the new man/woman who is changed and transformed through the Word–there is no way to avoid the fact that Jesus Himself is the Word.

When we meditate on the Word of God something supernatural happens by the power of the Holy Spirit. In a sense, the Spirit of God is “hovering” over us like a hen over her young to create something new in our being. Keep in mind that Jesus is the Word. “He was in the beginning.” He created the universe. “And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). This is where life begins in the universe. Why would not God hover over us in this same fashion to quicken something in us? “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy, Word has quickened me” (Psalm 119:50). *Primarily, to make alive; to vivify; to revive or resuscitate, as from death or an inanimate state.” Doesn’t this sound like a rebirth? Doesn’t this sound like being changed from glory to glory in the sense of becoming more like Jesus who is the Spirit of the Living God?

What I mean by this is that  God is all about creation. He creates a new man/woman when the Spirit of God inhabits our being. “ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Hebrew 8: 10). God has the power to transform us by writing His laws on our hearts–thereby quickening our hearts to follow His leading. Returning to the fact that Jesus is the Word, this correlation reflects the idea that God’s Law–which is foundational in The Word–is written on our hearts and placed into our mind so that we have His perspective engrafted into our being creating the “New Man.” The New Man thinks differently–he is a “Kingdom thinker” in the light of the way, the truth, and the life.

The Hebrew word translated as “moved” in verse two is “rachaph,” which means,” to hover; as a bird hovering and brooding over it’s young.” I believe the Spirit of the Lord hovers over our soul and spirit through the Word, while he separates them imparting the “DNA” of the Kingdom. Then He “knits” our soul and spirit back together quickening our carnal mind and flesh to become the image of Christ as we change from glory to glory becoming more of our original self in terms of God’s design. The DNA of the Kingdom of God, also makes us members of God’s household and worshipers in “spirit” and in truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We are now filled with the Kingdom of heaven–it is within us uniting us with God in one spirit and with the Body of Christ. The Hebrew word Ruach HaKodesh means “the spirit of the holy one” and refers to a saint of God. When we look at the word, “Ruach” separately, it means spirit. Being filled with the Holy Spirit of God supports the idea of actually being re-born from flesh into spirit. When we meditate on the Word of God, our flesh and spirit become more and more united in the Spirit of the Living God which transforms us from glory to glory becoming the image of Jesus.

The Word separates the soul and the spirit in order to line our thinking up with “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) because the Word is the mind of Christ. The Word is also the Heart of Christ. Our first commandment is to Love God. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Mathew 22:37). He renews our mind and heart—He transforms them for Kingdom thinking which is motivated by love. Staying in the Word is how we learn to develop the mind and heart of Christ and the capacity to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.

Kingdom thinking is not world thinking. The good news is we really do not have to try to be Kingdom thinkers—it is God’s will that everything Christ is was imparted to us at the moment of our salvation. “All that is in The Messiah is, therefore, The New Creation; the old order has passed away to such” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The old order is the dictates, thinking, and behaviors of this world—the flesh—the carnal mantle of sin upon us because of the fall of man. Jesus IS the Word continually renewing the old man who walked in selfishness, fear, doubt, worry, and sin.

This is the way I believe we see into the spiritual realm of God to recognize reality beyond the knowledge and understanding of the world.

Kingdom thinking lines up with the Word and is obedient to Christ. When we walk in Kingdom thinking the Shalom–“optimum condition for life to unfold” is revealed day by day. The Word invites my mind and heart to depart from the thinking and apathy of this world and become a Kingdom thinker every day of my life. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). I cannot take every thought captive in my own strength— but I can submit my will to the will of God by obedience to the Word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the way I believe we see into the spiritual realm of God to recognize reality beyond the knowledge and understanding of the world. Transformation develops discernment and wisdom to understand what God is doing in terms of His direction and purpose in our lives and the lives of others. The Word of God is sharp because nothing can penetrate our being for change except the Spirit of the Living God. When we are changed it means we are no longer subject to chaos. A Kingdom thinker with a transformed mind and heart is equipped to have discernment for the needs of others and is willing to take action by the power of the Holy Spirit of God to fulfill His purpose. In so doing we are becoming all that God intended for us to be as the blueprint of our lives unfold into a life of love and service to our King within our own unique capacity and circle of influence.

The Word of God is alive, it speaks the Words of God so that we can find the way, the truth, and the optimum condition for life to unfold. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet guiding us out of darkness on a path of purpose and calling; abundant direction fulfilling all the promises it contains for us. This is a new hour since the cross of Jesus–we are allowed a new and living way as a Kingdom thinker who is willing to love: “greater love has no man than to lay down His life for a friend.”

By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 10:20).