Salvation, Overcomer's Life

Adam lived by the breath of life becoming spirit in him. By the spirit he sensed God, knew God’s voice, and communed with God. He had a very keen awareness of God. But after his fall his spirit died.

When God spoke to Adam at the first He said, “in the day that you eat of it (the fruit of the tree of good and evil) you shall die” (Gen. 2.17). Adam and Eve nevertheless continued on for hundreds of years after eating the forbidden fruit. This obviously indicates that the death God foretold was not physical. Adam’s death began in his spirit.

What really is death? According to its scientific definition, death is “the cessation of communication with environment.” Death of the spirit is the cessation of its communication with God. Death of the body is the cutting off of communication between spirit and body. So when we say the spirit is dead it does not imply there is no more spirit; we simply mean the spirit has lost its sensitivity towards God and thus is dead to Him. The exact situation is that the spirit is incapacitated, unable to commune with God. To illustrate. A dumb person has a mouth and lungs but something is wrong with his vocal cords and he is powerless to speak. So far as human language is concerned his mouth may be considered dead. Similarly Adam’s spirit died because of his disobedience to God. He still had his spirit, yet it was dead to God for it had lost its spiritual instinct. It is still so; sin has destroyed the spirit’s keen intuitive knowledge of God and rendered man spiritually dead. He may be religious, moral, learned, capable, strong and wise, but he is dead to God. He may even talk about God, reason about God and preach God, but he is still dead to Him. Man is not able to hear or to sense the voice of God’s Spirit. Consequently in the New Testament God often refers to those who are living in the flesh as dead.

In examining the fruits of the Holy Spirit—which express Christian witness—we shall readily see that they are none other than selfless acts. What is love? Love is loving others without thinking of self. What is joy? It is looking at God in spite of self. Patience is despising one’s own hardship. Peace is disregarding one’s loss. Gentleness is overlooking one’s rights. Humility is forgetting one’s merits. Temperance is the self under control. And faithfulness is self-restraint. As we examine every Christian virtue, we will discern that other than being delivered from self or being forgetful of self, a believer has no other virtue. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is determined by one principle alone: the losing of self totally.


Samson was a man who was full of power. The source of his power was in his hair. And as soon as his hair was shaved, Samson’s power was lost. What was there about his hair to make him powerful? This hair of Samson’s, we must remember, was the hair of a Nazirite. And a Nazirite in Bible times was one who was fully consecrated to God. And hence all real spiritual powers derived from the measure of one’s consecration to the Lord. If our consecration is superficial, we shall be like a paralyzed person who has no power. But if our consecration to God is absolute, we will find the power. Therefore, no matter how and where we seek, we must be mindful continually that power is conditional upon man’s consecration.


Do not think that there is very little in the earthen vessel, which metaphor Paul uses to refer to our physical body. We learn from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian believers that there is a tremendous treasure in our earthen vessels. But do we actually believe it? God’s children ought to know what they have obtained at the moment of new birth. It may have taken only a minute to have received the Lord and been born again but it will need thirty or forty years beyond that moment to discover what each received in that one precious moment. No child of God can fully know on earth the extent of what God has given him at the moment of regeneration. Nevertheless, blessed are those who know somewhat more.

Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are going to Hell. They will never give their lives to Christ. They are too set in their ways.

What is it worth to be such wonderfully good people so loving to their family and others, give away so much money, yet still reject Jesus for their salvation?

Is it worthy it?

Is it worth it for Warren to give a personal compliment (as taught in his favorite books - How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie or Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill) to gain productivity out of someone or take advantage of them by causing them to sell to Warren at a lower price or buy from him at a higher price while secretly rejecting Lord Jesus Christ? Would the Apostles conduct themselves that way? Is that how Jesus would behave? "He who despises the word [of God] will die" in his sins (Prov. 19.16).

Is it worth it to influence people to be like you yet not say a word about Jesus who died on the cross for the sins of the whole world? To more is given, greater is his responsibility. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have squandered their family and financial blessings because they are at the end of the day antichrists.

How many have they turned away from Jesus with their approach to life? The children of the Gates and Buffet family should be ashamed of their dad.

How much money have they given to non-Christians over Christians because of their disdain for Jesus being God?

I think Warren and Bill Gates cumulatively have done more damage than any two individuals in history because of their influence. They don't give their lives to Christ and don't mention Jesus to save sinners because it hurts their pocket book too much.

I was trying to decide if I should provide the common verses about how it is harder for a rich man to get into heaven who gives his money away after he dies than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, but then I thought, I am not to give what is holy unto dogs, so I am not going to provide any Scriptures here. I certainly won't mention anything about Jesus having said, If you are unwilling to confess Him before others, He will certainly deny you before His Father in heaven. And if you are not for Jesus, that is, who He really is, you are certainly siding with Satan against Him.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have chosen to be eternally separated from God so however good they may appear to be on television or in jesting with one another, even in their personal lives, don't buy it because the greatest sin of all is in rejecting God the Father's only begotten Son who Himself is God the Son in the Godhead who created all things and rose the third day as only God could do.

Though I am sure others have said this, I haven't read anywhere anyone pointing out these obvious facts, so I thought I should just plainly state it here. Hopefully, more people will point this out for the betterment of mankind.

Amen.

Troy