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As Your Soul Prospers Copyright © 2018 Colin Peter Norris PO Box 4139 Alexander Heights Western Australia 6064 All rights reserved. In accordance with International, Australian, and US Copyright laws, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the Copyright holder. Cover Design: Frog Print (frogprint.com.au) Cover Photo: fotolia.com First Printing 2018 Printed in Australia. ISBN: 978-0-9757168-5-4 Unless otherwise noted, all scriptures are from the King James 2000 Bible (KJ2K). Editor: Dr Robert A. Couric, ThD (1929-2011) Copyright © 2011 Thelma Couric Keesling 140218 This book is dedicated to all whom God has given me to travel with and encounter on this pilgrimage: those who loved me when I was hardest to love; those who refreshed me when I was struggling the most; those who invited me into their home and family when I was alone in the world; those who have toiled in prayer for me; my children Joseph and Samantha by whom I am privileged to be called Dad; and of course Diane my wife who persevered with me through the hard times, who has never ceased encouraging me to seek the truths of God, and who is to me the embodiment of the grace of God which I am truly blessed to experience every day. You have all been angels to me – messengers of God. v Contents 1. Introduction 1 Pillars of Truth 3 Ultimate Truths 4 2. The Human “Trinity” 7 Body 10 Soul 15 Mind and Will 15 Conscience 16 Personality 19 Feelings and Emotions 19 Being Offended 21 Soul in the Old Testament 22 Soul in the New Testament 24 Spirit 24 The Prevailing Wind 25 The Influence of the Holy Spirit 27 Summary – Body, Soul & Spirit 33 3. Comparing the Two Natures 35 Love and the Spirit Nature 35 Self-Control and the Spirit Nature 38 The Word of God and the Spirit Nature 42 The Two Natures in Church 43 False Christians and the Grace of God 45 4. Helping New Christians through the Transition 47 Water Baptism 50 Baptism in the Holy Spirit 51 vi As Your Soul Prospers Obstacles faced by new Christians 54 False Truths in the Church 57 Evolution 57 Do Not Judge 59 5. The First Three Essential Pillars of Truth for Overcoming Difficulties 63 God wants to help you overcome, and has equipped you to do so 64 God never promised you a trouble-free life 68 God gave us a community to help us 76 6. Replacing False Truth Labels 81 7. Eight Steps to Overcoming Personal Difficulties 87 Step One – Ensure you are born again 87 Step Two – Identify any ongoing sin, confess it, and turn back to God 94 Unforgiveness 94 Evil Speaking 99 Hypocrisy 101 Pride 104 Step Three – Take full responsibility for your actions and choices 107 Step Four – Identify the real problem 111 Step Five – Go back to when the problem began 112 Diet 117 Negativity 119 Step Six – Find out what God says about the problem 120 Step Seven – Get support from trustworthy leaders 124 Step Eight – Wait actively and expectantly 126 8. The Word of God Overcomes Difficulties 135 Contents vii 9. Relationship Problems 141 Sex and Marriage 141 Lying 147 Anger 148 10. Sexual Problems 151 Pornography 151 Homosexuality 152 Gender Confusion 156 11. Psychological Problems 161 Depression 163 Anxiety 166 12. Chemical Addiction Problems 171 13. Physical Problems 175 14. Financial Problems 181 15. Why Should You Believe Me? 185 Bibliography 199 viii As Your Soul Prospers ix Preface It is not the purpose of this book to entertain you but to help you understand the cause of a great many personal difficulties, and to provide you with tools to help you overcome them to live a victori- ous life in Christ. You will encounter in this book a number of unfa- miliar concepts supported by a great many scriptures. It is therefore highly recommended that you read it slowly and thoughtfully with your Bible alongside for reference and checking, and that you high- light passages that are significant to you, and make your own notes where relevant. It is hoped that this book will become a cherished and dog-eared reference tool. The chapters could be divided into four main sections: 1-4) Descrip- tion and Explanation of Body, Soul and Spirit, and how understand- ing this relates to overcoming personal difficulties; 5-6) Pillars of Truth and how they are constructed and replaced; 7) Eight Steps to Overcoming Personal Difficulties; and 8-14) God’s Truths about issues related to various personal difficulties. To help you understand the true intent of the original scriptures, this book regularly makes reference to the Hebrew and Greek words used in the source manuscripts. The meaning of these words, in the context they appear, is based on the work of highly qualified and regarded scholars of classic Hebrew and New Testament Greek accessed through renowned resources including Strong’s Exhaus- tive Concordance, Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, NAS Exhaustive Concordance, HELPS Word- studies, Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, as well x As Your Soul Prospers as exegetical commentaries of the original languages including Vincent’s Word Studies, Meyer’s NT Commentary, Bengel’s Gnomon of the New Testament, Pulpit Commentary, and Keil and Delitzsch OT Commentary. (A more extensive bibliography of the reference materials and resources used to research this book can be found at the end.) The last chapter of this book, Why Should You Believe Me?, is a brief description of some of my thirty plus years as a Christian and how I came to learn and apply the truths in this book. Reading it first might help you better understand some of the content of the book and my motivation in writing it for you. 1 1. Introduction If anyone ever told you, “The world does not revolve around you”, they were wrong. The truth is, every person is the centre of their own world. The world we each experience exists only to the degree that our senses encounter it. Therefore, whatever we believe to be true IS the truth, and if it is the truth, it must be right for us to take actions based on our own truth, regardless of anyone else’s view of what is true and right. The way people interpret what their senses encounter of the world is predominantly according to their own individual set of truths – their worldview. Whenever we don’t like what someone is saying or doing, the chances are high that it is something contrary to our worldview – our personal set of truths by which we determine what is right. In this sense, we are each our own god – the god of our own world which revolves around us. Drivers who speed do so because they deeply believe it is their right – regardless of what the law says is safe. It is also why when they are caught and fined, they claim to be victims of an unjust law. Likewise, people who park illegally in disabled zones hold to a truth which says they are within their right to do so – especially if it is raining, or they don’t expect to be very long. People who have violent tempers believe it is right for them to be violent against someone who goes against their wishes. People who steal believe their truth which says it’s okay for them to take what they didn’t pay for. People who are cruel to animals believe it is right for them to do so. Vandals and arsonists cause damage to prop- erty in response to their personal truths. Liars lie according to their personally held truths, adulterers betray their spouses according to 2 As Your Soul Prospers their personally held truths, rapists violate their victims according to their personally held truths, and paedophiles break the law in accor- dance with their personally held truths. It’s also because of personally held truths that people are offended, rude, lazy, fearful, cowardly, and so on. Everything done by people is because they hold to a truth which tells them it’s ulti- mately right for them to do so. Even if a person is unable to identify and articulate many of their truths, it doesn’t mean they do not hold them. In fact, as we shall see, many of our problems persist or repeat because we don’t identify or openly admit to our underlying beliefs about what is true and right for us. Even if being in a particular relationship causes a person hard- ship or pain, they may remain in it because their truth is that the benefits outweigh the costs. Their truth might be that some pain is worth the benefits they believe they get from the relationship, or that the suffering is not as bad as they believe it would be if they left the relationship. We are each the expression of everything we hold to be true for us. If what we hold as truth leads to our actions, and if our actions cause us hardships and difficulties, such sufferings must, therefore, be the result of the truths we hold. This applies to many relationship problems, physical health problems, mental health problems, and even financial problems. Often, in seeking relief from their problems, people spend thousands of dollars and years of their time in counselling and courses and on products and pharmaceuticals, yet they experience limited success in overcoming them.