Another age is coming, the age of spirit. The age we have been in was an age of soul. It was a labor to be in the soulish age; we held the heavens up. In the spirit age, the heavens hold us up. There’s a big difference. The soulish age produced labor and turmoil.
In this walk in the spirit, the soul is active, but it isn’t the predominant or preeminent part of your nature; your spirit is. A walk with God comes when your spirit is in tune with God Who is a Spirit. Jesus made that plain in John 4:24: God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
It is the spirit that is the image of God, not the physical body or soul. God is a Spirit and we worship Him in spirit and in truth. We are leaning into the spirit age ahead of time since that is the age coming forth. The Kingdom of God on earth will be predominantly spirit, and that’s the way the Lord will rule with a rod of iron. Men like Nebuchadnezzar who were totalitarian in every respect would attempt to rule with a rod of iron on a soul level, or even on a physical one, but what is coming forth now will be different. Communism errs in that it is entirely soulish and physical; therefore, it is doomed because the soulish age is over. The spirit level is coming and before we have progressed very far, we will have learned how to accomplish things in the realm of spirit which will reach every other realm.
It is necessary to open our spirits to the Lord, because worship in the spirit will cause us to change physically and in our souls. When the spirit is predominate and the soul and physical nature are subordinate, it dominates the whole of the being. Then, complete transformation comes. We won’t make progress in our spirits only, our souls and bodies will follow into it; even physically we shall come into the manifestation of the sons of God. The body, which is groaning and waiting to be redeemed, will be ushered right in, though it will be last. It is important that we not worry about the physical or the soul, but that we give full attention to be open in our spirits and learn how to appropriate. Once we break through to mastery in the heavenlies, which is our heritage given to us in the Scriptures, where everything operates, any phase of life can be reached.
Although counseling has been effective through the years in solving problems, a more effective solution is to have the release within your spirit. Then you can take dominion over problems in other areas—in your marriage, home, business, associations—in everything. If oppression lingers in any area of your life, the answer is to concentrate not on that but on your walk with God, on your submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. Make sure there is no rebellion within you, and that there’s a transparency in you before the Lord—no walls, nothing hidden. That will bring the answer. Remember that every good thing comes from the Lord. If you concentrate on the problem, you won’t be able to solve it, but focus on worshiping the Lord will elevate you to a realm in which you will have dominion over it.
Once your spirit is open to the Lord, even physical problems and habits are changed, as are soulish oppressions which infiltrate your spirit. The things that work at you until they finally reach your spirit to defile it may come from satanic forces, but they can also come up from the soulish nature and natural heredity. You can reverse the process by appropriating from God to purge the oppressions. Open your spirit and be honest before God; in the realm of spirit there aren’t any secrets anyway.
In the New Testament, Christ opened up the day of soul, and because He did, the ministry of casting out demons came forth for the first time. In the Old Testament, for four thousand years God dealt with man on a physical level. The covenants He made were under the Law: all on the physical level. Although the Law tried to bring man into an obedience from the heart to live for God, Paul said that the purpose of the Law was to show that man was incapable of doing what God wanted him to do. The Law held every man guilty before the Lord. Then Christ opened up the realm of soul, and to some extent, the realm of spirit; but only in the Kingdom will the true realm of spirit predominate. Don’t misconstrue this; I’m not inferring there was no one with a right spirit in the first age, and that everyone was soulish in the second. I’m referring to the predominating area of God’s dealings during that time. God still dealt with the whole man—spirit, soul and body, but predominantly in one certain area during each age.
We have come up to the realm of Spirit, and that realm has opened up even to those who do not know God. People are trying to understand things that they’ve never even accepted before. Now, many areas of science accept much that they used to condemn when science was purely physical. They recognize them now because we have come to the end of the soul age. The end of the soul age produced psychology, a science of soul, though it denies the soul’s existence.
Reach into the age to come, because it will be more effective than any other age. You are not limited to the five senses or to the rapport that people have between their souls. A husband and wife do not have to be limited to a soulish love relationship; they can come into one that’s predominantly spirit, which is superior. This is the reason why people are working for spiritual oneness in their marriages, though few have it, even in this walk—but that doesn’t mean it cannot be done: we’re reaching into it!
How does one minister to himself in the realm of spirit? Every old reaction and response that has hindered you in the past must go. You must be free in your spirit to walk with the Lord. Open your spirit up to the Lord first, then take your walls down to others, because at first the greatest means of ministry to yourself is through others in whom the flow of God is present. By being open to someone who has developed a real capacity to receive the flow of blessing, you can receive an overwhelming amount. Some people respond to personal ministry and blessing long before they can wait on the Lord and appropriate much for themselves.
If you can open your child’s spirit to God so that he can receive from you, you will impart more than you could ever spank into him. Spankings have their purpose, but they can increase rebellion in a child whose spirit is closed and rebellious. You have to find a way to reach his spirit and teach him to train and discipline himself. Teach him to repent before the Lord, and to want a right spirit. Any spanking that doesn’t result in a good prayer session with the child weeping before the Lord and wanting to serve God is a waste of time in this walk, because our whole purpose is to bring that child into the Lord.
In the realm of soul, power is more important, but in the realm of spirit, authority is. In Christ is all authority in heaven and in earth, and when you move into the realm of spirit, His authority becomes the basis of dealing—the biggest demon can be subdued by the smallest saint who understands Christ’s victory over the spirit realm and his position of authority in Jesus Christ. It is like a policeman bringing a huge truck to a stop with a whistle—all the authority of the government is behind that little whistle. Come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, sensing His authority and that you are under Him, submitting to Him, and opening your spirit to Him.
Another way of self-ministry is through waiting on the Lord in worship. Sometimes as you are worshiping, the gulf between your spirit and your conscious mind is wide enough for you to become consciously out of tune. Continue to worship the Lord, even if your mind blanks out. You do not get a blessing through your mind, anyway. The carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7). Stand in expectancy; don’t worry about it and soon things of the Lord will be coming through that you have never experienced before. People draw back in discouragement when consciously they don’t know what’s going on. The enemy will bring confusion, fear, or a feeling of deadness to try to trick you, but you are closer to God right at that moment than you probably have been for a long time.
If you will accept this truth and keep on worshiping, you will leave with things in your life that you have never had before. Many who have been in a good free period of worship have felt defeated by this happening, not knowing it was because the Lord was blessing and instructing them. Their spirits were so drawn to the Lord that the signals were not coming through to their conscious minds because of the gulf between them and their spirits. The understanding comes through later, and they will know what God has done for them at that time.
Your understanding will always catch up after your spirit experiences a thing, but in the day of soul, understanding preceded experience. That is why we had to teach people into an experience with God. When you come to God, your spirit will experience things that you won’t understand. This is the day in which God ministers to your spirit, so let your spirit receive it. Trust God: if you ask for bread, you will not get a stone; if you ask for a fish, you will not get a serpent; if you ask for an egg, you will not get a scorpion (Luke 11:11–12). It is a complete trust from your heart in what the Heavenly Father will do for you.
If you can’t concentrate when you wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord anyway. Focus your spirit on Him, and If everything is incomprehensible, as far as your mind is concerned, it won’t make any difference—“They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings, as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). It is a promise and it will happen. You will experience it in God first, but the understanding of it and all the blessings may be a long time in flowing to you consciously. You may suddenly wake up to the fact that you have walked for six months in something that God did for you previously.
Here is another step on how to minister to yourself. Why did Paul say, “I thank my God I speak in tongues more than you all” (I Corinthians 14:18), yet write an epistle to the Corinthian church correcting the excessive use of tongues in their meetings? Because he knew the best usage of tongues. “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto God…he edifieth himself” (I Corinthians 14:2, 4). As you worship in tongues, your subconscious and your spirit are always active, but your conscious mind is not. The only part of your conscious mind that is operating is your will to speak forth praises to God, but you don’t know what you’re saying, so it’s not an intellectual exercise. Sometimes that’s the best way to get a blessing, because your spirit has made contact with God and you don’t have to contend with a wandering conscious mind. It’s like rewiring a circuit: you bypass the conscious mind, but the subconscious and the spirit are wired directly to God.
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shalt speak with new tongues; … they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Mark 16:15–18. When you break through to any realm or any new phase in the Kingdom of Heaven, you find opposition. The first thing you learn is how to communicate; you “speak with new tongues.” Then the infirmities of that level are healed; you lay hands on the sick and they recover.
The more you speak in tongues, the quicker you can bring any oppression that comes against you into the presence of the Lord for eternal judgment. This happens because the Holy Spirit is given to us for judgment. After Christ fasted for forty days and had broken through, He hungered and the devil came to Him. Christ faced this and overcame it; He came back and healed the sick, raised the dead, and preached the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven!