Video Transcript: The Care and Decluttering of the Soul
Hi, I'm Henry Reyenga. And I want to welcome you to the care and decluttering of the soul mini class. Since I was called into ministry at around the age of 12, I have often thought about the soul. In fact, I went to Dordt college. And I studied philosophy, because I wanted to learn. Who are we? What does the Bible say about who we are? When we think about the decluttering of the soul, a little anthropology must be shared. And this is an area of big debate and Christian philosophers, since the early church, and through the Reformation, and in recent times, have made their decisions on what is a soul. So I'm going to propose how I see it. And I love you to research this yourself. But we need to come with a working definition. So when we talk about the clear care and decluttering of the soul, we, you can at least know where I'm coming from, and how I see it now. Again, these are deep questions, and research them yourself, but I'm going to attempt to share the clarity that I have come to understand about the decluttering of the soul. So first of all, what is the soul? What is the soul? We read in the Bible that you are created a living soul, you were created a living soul, Genesis 2:7, and Jehovah, God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. So what is that living soul? That's the word nephesh. And the nephesh, the living soul, created in Genesis has a body, you are a physical dimension with breath of physical life, you know, inside to be you are given into your nostrils the breath of life. And it's the soul is also spirit. You have a spiritual dimension with the breath of consciousness, awareness, and identity. Then there's this question, Where was Jesus between Good Friday and Easter morning? So that was one of the big research papers I had in my studies at Dordt College, and even then Calvin seminary. And I remember writing a paper, probably my seminary, research paper on that question, Where was Jesus between Good Friday and Easter? So we read the Scripture that Jesus gave up his spirit, you know, after My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me, paid for our sins on the cross, then his body died? Where did his spirit go to this spirit, sleep until Easter morning. And those were some of the questions. But there are a lot of insights into that in Scripture. And after researching all of that, and came to this conclusion, that Jesus consciousness, his spiritual person, so to speak, preach to those in prison, so that everybody, before Jesus could also hear the Gospel. Now, that's where I came down. Again, I'm coming into a long discussion on that. And maybe one of these days I'll do a mini course, that gifted all the passages. But we see one clue in that passage when the thief on the cross, said, you know, remember me when you get into your kingdom, Jesus said, today, you will be with Me in Paradise, in paradise in the intertestament period, meant the place of blessing for disembodied spirits as the were waiting for
the Judgment Day. And, and there were two compartments, we see that in the story of Lazarus and the rich man. And the rich man is in this place of torment, waiting for the Judgment Day, and the blessed are in the bosom of Abraham. So But you You see Jesus using the word, today you will be with Me in Paradise. And then Easter morning Jesus rises from the dead. So when I see, for the purposes of this class, I see a living soul to be body and spirit. So you have a physical dimension, with the breath of physical life, and then have a spiritual dimension, with a breath of consciousness, awareness, and identity. So, now, let's look at something else here. So, you were created with a human nature, not a divine nature, not an angel nature. So Romans 1:3, regarding his son, who asked who is human nature was a descendant of David. In other words, Jesus was born in a manger, through Mary, a descendant of David. He's fully God, and he's fully human man. And we also see that in the categories of existence, that there's a God nature, Romans 1:20, For since the creation of a world God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen and been understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. So what we have here is, we see those two categories. And we also see in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 1and 2 about there's the angel nature. So now there being there may be in the universe, different natures. I mean, some would argue in philosophy, there's the animal nature, which is different than the human nature. In it, who knows, but in terms of what we see in Scripture, we have, there's God nature, that category of existence, God created this world, God is separate from this world, in this essence, and he created this world, then there's human nature, that we experience, there's angelic nature. But when we think about decluttering, the soul and our topic, you know, we need to be clear this is we are of human nature. And, and we see that in Philippians, 2:7 about Jesus Philippians, 2:6-7, who, being in very nature, God, that's talking about Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing taken the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. So where do we fit, we fit as creations of God nephesh that's that Hebrew word for living soul, with a physical body dimension, and a spirit dimension. So that makes up our soul. When we think about decluttering of the soul, we're talking about the body, the spirit that makes our soul who we are in where we fit. So your soul was created to love God and others. We see that in Deuteronomy 6:5, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. Jesus reiterated that in Luke 10:27, He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your strength with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. So in a sense, that's the north star of a decluttered soul, to love God, and to love our neighbor. So that's what we want. And I wish it were that easy, but
we know that this soul fell into sin. So your fallen human natured soul is fallen at the human or at the human body, and human spirit level. And we can look to Genesis chapter 3 And I would love for you to read that on your own. In the, in this mini course, we want to try to get through this material. But if you pause or, and maybe you know that passage very familiar. But here's the synopsis, Adam and Eve and we see in chapter 1, the creation of humanity, we see that Adam and Eve are in a garden. They're loving God, they're loving each other, and the serpent, the devil. And he has an angelic nature, which has its own spiritual and powers created by God to be come to Adam and Eve, and tempt them to go beyond their human identity or nature, and actually be like, God, that was the lie. And they took up that opportunity, and they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and fell into sin. Now, some people think about that. It's like, well, the next day God was walking in the garden, and you can read about how they then said, We're shameful, you know, we've hid. We, you know, we blame they're blaming the serpent, they're blaming each other. And all of that, you know, I believe there that there could have been a passage of time where they actually imbibed in the fallen nature. Before God showed up, you know, we don't see God showed up the next day. There's no cool of the day, I mean, things cooled down, and who we don't know the exact time. But we know that Adam and Eve fell into sin. I believe at first it was heavy, amazing. Satan gave them things they never thought they could have imagined with the knowledge of good and evil. And then when God showed up, they had their answer their narrative down, it was this it was that the serpent it was the woman it was, you know, it was you, yourself, God, who created this mess, because as they imbibed in the sinful nature, that fallen sinful nature, they started seeing shame and hurt, and in all sorts of things, things that we see today. So that's Genesis 3. So it is interesting that that Human Fall targets the body and the spirit differently. And we see that Romans 7:5, for when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our body so that we bore fruit for death. Romans 8:13, For if you live according to your sinful nature, you will die. But if you put to death, the misdeeds of the body, you will live Galatians 5:13, you My brothers are called to be free, but do not use your sinful or use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another in love. The apostle Paul even mentions the body the misdeeds the body. So our human nature, affected by the fall of Adam and Eve that we experienced this fall in people, but the body reacts different that's the potentially than the spirit. When it comes to that sinful nature, the body we have senses pain and pleasure. And you can study, a lot of work has been done on the senses of the body, but the you know, we're hungry and the fallen nature and hunger creates this the fallen nature with our sexual desires creates this. So in
many ways, the clutter on the soul does enter into your and my life through the body. And we're going to talk in this class about how people in the history of the church sought to address that. issues related to the fallen human as experienced with a body but there's also interesting your fallen human nature and soul is fallen at the human body and spirit level, but there's also the Fallen spirit. You know, we can't get into all of II Peter 2, but again, it's one to read. These men are springs without water and mists driven by storms. blackest darkness the reserved for them for the mouth empty, boastful words and by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful of the human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in air. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity, for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. What does this have to do with the spiritual side? Well, Peter is talking about that there is a spiritual fallen side. And in. This is where temptation often occurs. But it occurs, you know, at the depravity level, with how the spirit thinks about things and how others lead others in certain areas. A person in history like Adolf Hitler, at the spiritual level, he really took Social Sciences of the 19th century, and applied a worldview in evolution, this worldview and applied it toward the annihilation of certain peoples like the Jewish people and others. So it was very spiritual. You know, I know that in the study of philosophy, and right now we see very fallen spiritual spirits out there and the ideas, worldviews that bring chaos and bring the world to ruin. A lot of times people think of the sinful nature as moralistic in terms of the body. But no, it's also very spiritual. You know, those first commandments in the 10 commandments, you know, to love God. To not create an idol. All of those things are extremely spiritual. And if you've been mastered by someone, other than God, in some idol, that's a spiritual exam. That's an example of the spiritual side of you the dimension of you that's fallen into sin. They will we talk about the declutter of the soul. These are important discussions. So there's a war inside yourself your soul, your wonder? I Peter 2:11. Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Now the sinful desires could be body desires, spirit desires, as a soul that occupies a body and spirit, there's often a war between your body and spirit and themselves. So sometimes your body and spirit fight against themselves. Your soul can become jaded through your bodies, or spirits experience. This is what I see in ministry. And as we study ministry sciences like what what is happening, you know, we see when a human fallen into sin apart from conversion, which we're gonna talk about a little bit. We all become like, there's a phrase in English called a headcase, you know, like, just, you know, it's almost like a form of mental illness like an angst Well, the soul, that is, the body and the spirit, had many experiences in the fallen world fallen from within, experiencing
abuse or sadness from without. So what starts happening is bitterness, like bitterness is an example in my opinion, of, of, you know, a form of clutter, we're going to talk about that later, where hurt from the past becomes internalized, and those experiences make that consciousness, the spirit, that is jaded. But we also see that in in very bodily forms, where, if someone is imbibing in their sinful nature as it applies to the body, even the very pleasures that once made, their body experience, pleasure becomes less and less and less. And again, I'd go back to Adam and Eve when they fell into sin, I believe there was a time when God gave them over to these desires. But at some point, you know, he comes in the cool the day to talk with them. And, and all of a sudden, you know they have their whole story down. But the pleasures of first falling into sin, before God showed up. Were diminishing, diminishing, diminishing. So in spite of all this fallenness, God shows up, and he shows up in the Bible in the Old Testament, giving of the law, the prophets. The whole point was ultimately that humans would be restored. And then Jesus comes along his work and ministry. And it's fascinating that it comes down to that conversion, is the only remedy of the soul and the conversation with Nicodemus, in John 3, brings this so clear. We see that salvation enters through the spiritual side of our soul. So remember the soul is body and spirit. And we see in John 3, this whole discussion was brought up where Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and said, No, how can someone enter the kingdom of heaven? And then Jesus says, well, to be born again. And and you Nicodemus didn't think about that spiritual dimension of our existence of our soul, right away went to. That's crazy. How can you be born again, go back to your mother's womb and be born again. And Jesus makes it clear that salvation comes to us where our spirits are born again. And that then revitalizes, renews, it revives our dead fallen souls, and that has implications for our body has implications for our spirit, our very essence, is then saved, we are saved from the fall, we are saved from death. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water, and that is our physical body, birth. And the spirit, Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit, you should not be surprised at my saying, You must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases you hear it sound, you cannot tell where it's coming from, or where it is going. So does every one born of the Spirit. So conversion, changes the soul, the body and the spirit. Conversion, changes the very trajectory of your life. So when we talk about the care and the decluttering of the soul, that very first piece is, are you born again? Have you surrendered your soul that is body and spirit to the living, Lord Jesus? Have you prayed, Lord, forgive my sins, my rebellion, my soul rebellion to you. I put it at the cross. I bring it there. And maybe as you're taking this class, some of you have not done that. So I'd like to right
now, if you you've probably heard the gospel, it's as simple as essence is this? Do you confess your sins? Do you want to have a restored relationship with God through Jesus Christ? Do you want the Holy Spirit to enter into your soul's existence? That Your Spirit will be impacted by the Spirit of God? And do you then want to live your life in a decluttered way, a spiritually decluttered way that affects your spirit and your body. So let us pray. Oh, Lord, someone here may have prayed in the past that they want more of you But today we're going to ask that you totally fill them up that you make them born again in their spirit, so that their soul might be connected to you. And that as we begin this soul care and decluttering class, we begin with salvation Lord, and for all of us, Lord, renew us at the soul level, fill us more with your Holy Spirit that our spirits may actually think the thoughts after you. That our spirits may put a death the misdeeds of the body, that our spirits will live for you in a mission to love our neighbors more, that the fruits of the soul connected to God might be seen by everyone. And Lord, again, if someone has not come to know you. If you're praying this prayer with me, we're gonna have a prayer of salvation. Lord Jesus, if you have not given your life to God, pray this with me, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. At the spirit and the body level, I have rebelled against you. And now Lord, I come to you to give my very person my heart to you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, I claim the blood of Jesus. And I receive the promise, that if I confess with my lips, that you are Lord And Lord, I do this right now. And believe in my heart, that I might be saved, Lord, I receive your salvation, the salvation of my soul, through Your Holy Spirit, in Jesus name, Amen. So, if you already are a believer, that prayer resonates again, as a beautiful hymn, that every time you hear it prayed, it is like a beautiful hymn that's been played in the past. And it still is as if it's fresh. Even if you've said this sinner's prayer in the past, you've heard this like fresh again, if this is for the first time you are saved. If your soul, your spirit, to your very heart level said that prayer, you are saved. And this is what you have in store for you. You have a heart that reflects who you are. And listen to Luke 6:45, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart, bring forth that which is good and evil man, the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth, speaketh, speaketh with that passage is talking about is when you are connected to God, your soul, which is your body and spirit, your soul. The Bible tries to talk about the wonder behind your soul, like how did you describe it, and it's often talked about as your heart, your heart, your wanter your spiritual and body wanter, this composite essence, in again, it's hard to explain. But the best way, one of the best ways the Bible explained it is your heart of the overflow now of your heart. You speak in James talking about our what we say out of our words, comes out of our heart. So this soul
declutter class is going to pursue the care and nurture and decluttering of that soul, so that the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the fruits of righteousness, the fruits of love, may shine in each one toward God and love towards your neighbor. I am so happy that you're part of this. This first session I know is pretty deep. You don't We don't often talk about Christian anthropology. So maybe watch it again. I believe God is going to do a mighty act in your life as we explore the decluttering of our soul.