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Beatty: [00:00:00.15] This could be another kind of interesting topic. We’re covering this topic on identity, and the identity is something we don’t normally understand. But before I do that, I do want to make a promotional blurb for my podcast listeners. I want to make sure if you’re listening to the podcast that you subscribe either on our YouTube channel or on our podcast channel. If you listen to podcast on your phone and the channel is very simply get sellers calling you also. What we’re going through is a lot of stuff from this book that I put together. And for those of you who are on the podcast, there actually is at Amazon.com, you can just type in my name Beatty Carmichael, and you’ll get that final thing for those who are interested in joining the live Bible studies as we do. You can go to get Radical Faith Dotcom and click on Bible study topics and you’ll get the Zoom link and you’ll get the times. Before I get started, I just wanted to make a quick comment. And these things that we’re teaching is pretty difficult. Last time we were talking about Christian Sin and we go through Scripture and it looks pretty obvious that no Christians don’t send they’re not supposed to. We’re going to cover some of those today as well. But these are pretty difficult topics and they stretch your thinking because it’s not what we normally think. A lot of times we have a theology that is based not on what God’s word says, but on what we think it ought to say.

Beatty: [00:01:30.45] And we base a theology based not on who God is, but who we think he ought to be. And a lot of times what we think it ought to say and what we think he ought to be. Is a lot different than what it actually does say and who he really is. And this is difficult for a lot of people. And I would like to encourage you to go back and relisten or rewatch these sessions. And with that, it’s sort of like lasagna. He’s made lasagna before. Okay. You know, when you make lasagna the first night that you make it that night and you eat it, it tastes okay. But if you let it sit for a day and you come back and eat it again, and all the flavors have melded, it tastes great. And that’s the same thing that happens a lot of this. When you say it the first time, it’s you’re resisting. And then once you have let it sit for a while and you go back and watch it again, it starts to make a lot more sense. So I would like to encourage you to do that. With that said, we’re going through a series on On Identity. And the whole idea with identity is I drew up last time you had these three concentric circles that looks more like a target. And in the center circle, this is what you believe and what you believe determines what you do and what you do determines what you get.

Beatty: [00:03:02.88] All right. And if we want to live a life that is greatly pleasing to the Lord, then how you believe who you are determines what you do in your life. And what you do determines who you become essentially, or what you get out of life. The we use the analogy of if you if you see yourself as fat, everything you do is going to keep you fat, You’re going to overeat, you’re going to under exercise and you’re going to go on a diet and try to force yourself from the outside, discipline to control your weight. And it’s always a yo yo. But once you change your belief and say, you know, I’m slender and fit, then you begin to act that way. You begin to eat the right type of foods. You begin to exercise more. Not out of coercion from your will, but out of the inside welling up of who you are. And that then ends up keeping you trim and fit as it relates to our walk with Christ. If we believe that we are sinners, then everything we do to try to resist sin, we call it sanctification, right? Everything we try to do to resist sin is going to be difficult because it’s not who we are. Because I look at myself and I call myself a sinner. And what do sinners do anyone know? Sin are so center sin. Then I must. I’ve got to sin. And it’s not that I want to send, but it’s who I think I am.

Beatty: [00:04:33.33] If I’m a saint now, saints are without sin, right? Because they’ve already been made righteous. If I’m a saint, then am I? Do I. Do I consider myself a sinner? No. And so when I about to engage in that same act that a sinner would give into as a saint, I’m going to resist. Why not? Because of an act of my will. But I’m going to resist because it’s not who I am. The reason Jesus resisted sin. It wasn’t who he was. He had no sin in him, no inclination. This is where this whole idea of identity is why it’s so important. Last time we talked about Christian sin. How many? All How many? Just raise your hand. Last time. Who’s here? And. And how many of it was it difficult that it was a difficult to to grasp and understand all these passages in the Bible that keep indicating we are without sin? Yeah, difficult, challenging. It stretches you, but like a rubber band. If you stretch a rubber band and then let it go, it doesn’t go all the way back. It stays in a stretch mode. You stretch it again and it stays even stretched out further. And that’s the whole idea is to stretch your thinking, not based on concepts, but based on God’s Word. So with that said, today we’re going to talk about the interaction between the body, soul and spirit. This is going to be really interesting. Most of us think we know about the body, soul and spirit.

Beatty: [00:06:17.50] It comes, I believe, mentioned in first Thessalonians and but I want to take us in on a really deep dive on this. So by the way, if you have my nuggets of faith book, this comes from page 34. We’re actually going to cover several nuggets throughout this topic. I want to look at two passages real quickly and just kind of tee up to the topic here. And the first one is Hebrews 412. Hebrews 412. And if you’ll turn to that. Hebrews 412 says for the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit. Dot, dot, dot. I’ll continue. That’s where I want to stop. Soul and spirit. So we know they’re separate, but do we know what they are, really? Let me look at another verse. First Thessalonians 523. First Thessalonians 523. And this has two things in there that’s pretty interesting. We’re going to tie back into our last session on Do Christian Sin with this. First Thessalonians 523 says Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Spirit, soul and body, that’s what we’re talking about. And it says, May it be kept blameless. Notice this doesn’t say may it make it blameless. It. It says. May it be kept blameless. If I’m going to keep something some way, does that mean it’s already that way right now?

Speaker2: [00:08:07.45] Yeah.

Beatty: [00:08:08.44] And if it’s blameless, what does that mean? Without blame? If I sin, am I without blame or with blame? Liz Blaine. So this is right now it’s saying again, you’re sinless. We are not under law. You can only be blamed by law, but if there is no law, you cannot be blamed. Just like what we talked about on the Autobahn. If I’m driving 100 miles an hour down the interstate here, I can be blamed for breaking the law and get a ticket. If I’m driving 100 miles an hour down the autobahn, I can’t get a ticket because there’s no law to govern me. Without law, the same activity has a different outcome. Okay, That’s the key. It’s still just as dangerous. It’s still just as fast, but it’s not breaking the law. And sin is simply breaking the law. That’s what Paul says. So the question then is, what is the difference between soul, body and spirit? Because if we start to understand this, we can start to understand more of who we are in Christ, because what part of us gets born again?

Speaker2: [00:09:18.06] So your.

Beatty: [00:09:18.69] Spirit. Okay, what’s the full implication of that? That’s what we’re going to kind of touch on. So, John. Three six. You don’t have to turn there. I’ll just. Jesus says flesh gives birth to flesh. Flesh gives birth to flesh. And it says, Spirit gives birth to spirit. In other words, all seed reproduces after its own kind. Do we? Does sin exist in the flesh or in the spirit?

Speaker2: [00:09:49.39] So I said.

Beatty: [00:09:50.32] Yeah, kind of in the flesh. We’re going to look at that. But when we’re born again in the spirit, who seed are we born from? The seed of God, the father. Right. Because it says that Jesus was born a few seed. The father. Right. And it says in Hebrews two that we have the same origin and therefore we’re considered brothers. So we’re born of the seed of God, and that’s why we’re considered brothers of Jesus. And if we’re born, if all seed reproduces after its own kind and we’re born in the state of God, then what does that make us? Sounds of God. Very cool. All right. So that gets a little edgy, so we won’t go too far there. I want to read you something this out of my book, not trying to promote it, but just saying that there’s a lot of great stuff here. This comes out of page. I’m not trying to promote the book, but it’s called Nuggets of Faith.

Speaker2: [00:10:54.52] Great stuff.

Beatty: [00:10:55.30] And by the way, right now I think it’s $18 at Amazon because they won’t let me price it less. They require that as the minimum price. So this is a nugget as I’m asking the Lord, what is the difference between body, soul and spirit? And I just want to read you what the Lord told me. This is pretty much taking dictation from that. He says the soul is who you are. Let me just kind of draw this up real quick. I think this will be interesting. So we have body, we have soul, and we have spirit. Let me just label these real quick body, soul and spirit. So I was asking the Lord then, what’s the difference between these? And he said, The soul is who you are. The body is where you live and the spirit is where you live in very simplistic terms. The soul is the who you are. The who you are is your memory, your emotions, your feelings. All of that says the body is where you.

Speaker2: [00:12:07.86] Live and.

Beatty: [00:12:10.20] The spirit is where you live. It says this is why the spirit must be born again, to live and have life in the heavenly realm. You must have a place to live in the heavenly realm. Very simple stuff so far. Right. So then I ask the Lord. But don’t all people have a spirit, even though it’s not a regenerated spirit? What do you all think? That all people have a spirit?

Speaker2: [00:12:38.08] I don’t think so.

Beatty: [00:12:39.58] So this is what he says. And he says, yes, all people have a spirit because all people live in the spirit realm. All right. Send occurs in the natural realm or in the spirit realm. Is the law natural or is the law spiritual? All right. Let’s look at this real quick. Watch this. I want to show this to you. Turn to Romans seven. I can tell already this is going to be a two part session. Romans seven. First 14. The first half of it, for we know that the law is spiritual. Can you break a spiritual law in the physical or must the spiritual law be broken in the spiritual realm? In other words, if I have a law of the United States, can I break the US law if I’m in Russia, or must I have to be in the United States to break it? I have to be in the US. So if the law this is the law that governs send, if the law is in the if it’s spiritual, then does it make sense? I can only break it in the spiritual realm. I can’t break it in the physical realm. This is something else that we start to see in this kind of starts to move us in this direction is what happens in the physical.

Speaker2: [00:14:12.53] Realm.

Beatty: [00:14:13.46] Is really a shadow of what’s going on in the spiritual realm. It’s the spiritual realm that has dominance over the physical realm. When you’re dealing with battles and issues in your life. If you solve the problem in the spirit realm, it will solve it in the physical room. Does this make sense? So the law of spiritual sin is in the spirit room.

Speaker2: [00:14:39.28] And.

Beatty: [00:14:41.35] People who have not been born again have a spirit. That’s the only way they can sin. They are spiritual. But continue on. Yes, all people have a spirit because all people live in the spirit realm. But not all people have life in the heavenly spirit realm. The body and spirit are more like containers for the soul, either for the natural realm or the spirit realm. So it’s a container in a very simplistic sense. It’s a container that allows us to live either in the earthly realm or.

Speaker2: [00:15:23.84] Live.

Beatty: [00:15:25.91] In.

Speaker2: [00:15:26.27] The.

Beatty: [00:15:27.92] Spiritual realm. So if we think about the soul as who we are. Then that.

Speaker2: [00:15:33.78] Soul.

Beatty: [00:15:35.31] Either occupies in the spirit to live in the spirit realm or occupies in the body to live in a body room. But the reality is it occupies both simultaneously. We’re going to show that to you just a little bit. So all people have a container in the spiritual realm because all people are spiritual by nature. It’s just that the container in the spiritual realm for those who have not been born again, is a container of death. When they have been born again, I give them a new spirit and now they have a new container of life. And then he goes on. He says, When Paul is speaking in Romans eight on Living by the Spirit and not by the Flesh. What he’s really talking about is which container you live in, operate from the flesh as a shadow of the dead spiritual container. If you live and operate from the flesh, then you’re living in operating from the container that is the shadow of the dead spiritual container. Does this make sense? If your mindset is on the flesh, you have sin and death. Mindset is on the spirit. You have life in peace, right? The dead container that does not have the spirit of God then, is sin and death. When we’re born again, we have new life. We have abundant life, breathes into us, and now we have a spirit of life, a container of life. And that life is what emanates into us. By the way, this was real interesting is another nugget somewhere in here. But if you think about man is made out of dirt, right? So when when God in Genesis, it says that man created Adam and he formed him from the dust of the earth.

Beatty: [00:17:22.70] But then he had to do something for him to become alive. What did he do? That’s right. He it says. And he breathed into Adam. And Adam became alive. You remember in I think it’s Ezekiel. And the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to all the dry bones he sees as fill to dry bones. And so he prophesized for them to come alive. And it says all the bones came together, rattle together, and muscles and skin was formed around it. But then it says. But there was no life. And then the Lord told his equal to prophesy. One more thing. Do you remember what it was? So speak to the spirit. Watch this. Is that the Holy Spirit He’s speaking to? Yes, Man is directing the Holy Spirit. This is really interesting. Speak to the Spirit and tell the Spirit to come and breathe life into these dead bodies. So Ezekiel prophesies to the spirit in the four corners of the earth and says, Come spirit and breathe life into these slain bodies. And it says in the spirit came in breathe life, and they arose an exceedingly great army. So what we see is we see two things. Our body is nothing but dirt. But gives the body life. There’s something in the spirit realm. I’ll draw a line right here. Soul and spirit are in the spirit realm. It’s the spirit that gives life. Now, this isn’t the newborn life of being reborn and regenerated. Everything that has life has life because God’s spirit breathes life into it. Whether it’s a bug, an insect, a dog, or a human. Everything has.

Speaker2: [00:19:15.96] Life.

Beatty: [00:19:17.51] And their spirit to sustain life, even if their spirit containers a container of death. There’s the element of that which causes life. In the body. Not to confuse it when we’re given a new spirit. That is full of God’s life. Is this making sense? It’s kind of difficult.

Speaker2: [00:19:41.02] Different words for that chiggers. Lice are plants, animals and rational beings and then spirit things. And there’s different words in the New Testament.

Beatty: [00:19:51.85] I’ll need a search on that. I bet that it’s interesting. So let me get pick back up. So the flesh is a shadow of the dead spiritual container. And if you live and operate from the flesh, then you’re living in operating from the container that is a shadow of the dead spiritual container. That’s why living in the flesh of sin and death. But when you shift out of the natural container and live in the reborn spiritual container, it is life in peace. And then he goes on and explains, It’s like having two homes. Think about this. You have two homes. One home is a huge mansion and the other home is a dilapidated shack. He said, whichever home you live and operate from, you become like that person who owns that home. So if you’re in the mansion home, then you’re operating as if as the person who has a mansion full of provision in authority and power, when you live from the shack, you’re living out of dilapidation, depravity and lack. And this is going back to what I was talking about in your identity. When you live from the spirit, from who you are, you live differently than when you live in the flesh, who you think you are.

Beatty: [00:21:16.87] If you live by your by what God’s word says you are, that you have been made blameless. You live differently than if you live in the way that your eyes see yourself and say, Well, I am a sinner. I don’t know if you have ever experienced this. Have you all ever driven either been you just you wear worn out clothes or you drive a worn out car and it just kind of pulls you down and then you put on nice clothes or you buy a new car and you feel like a million bucks. You know what I’m talking about sometimes how we live, how we see ourselves living, we kind of live it out. And that, I think, is what I’m trying to articulate on this. So with that, I want to go back to these three circles and start to. Give a little greater clarity on this because this is really kind of interesting. So the body, the soul and the spirit. And I want to redraw these a little bit. I’m going.

Speaker2: [00:22:21.12] To.

Beatty: [00:22:23.52] We’ll still keep the body and soul in spirit. But I’m going to show you a different way of drawing this out. So I’ve got the body on the left and I have the spirit on the right. And what actually happens in this scenario? This is the body and this is the spirit, what’s actually going on. And this is a simplistic way of seeing it, is you have the soul. And the soul encompasses both the body and the spirit. So this is your soul. And it’s like your spirit is in the spirit realm, Your body is in the in the earthly realm, and your soul ties both of them together. So your soul, the who you are. Is actually living in both realms simultaneously because it’s covering in both realms. And then in Romans eight, Paul talks about the mindset on the spirit is life and peace. So your mind is in your soul. So this is just a simplistic way of understanding this. As your mind is set on the spirit, imagine your soul. This circle of your soul shifting to the right. And now it’s more over the spirit and less over the body making sense. It’s more in the spirit and less in the flesh. When that happens. This is life and peace. But then. Imagine that. You shift to the left. Paul says the mind set on the flesh is sin and death. Sin and.

Speaker2: [00:24:14.32] Death.

Beatty: [00:24:15.46] So what we see is in a very simplistic way. It has to do with this simplistic understanding of where your soul shifts back and forth. The question is how do you shift your soul? One of the key ways in shifting it is understanding who you really are if you really think that you are a center. I have a.

Speaker2: [00:24:39.06] Friend.

Beatty: [00:24:40.47] And he had a dream or something that. I forget exactly what it was. But he wrote a poem and I read it. And in his comment was to me, I’m just a sinner. And life is just difficult. But I know it’s all part of the sanctification process. And he writes this poem and it’s a wonderful poem, but it’s a poem of. How bad I am, how much I sin, how much I need the Lord’s grace, and how much I appreciate his grace and forgiveness, which is all true. But it’s all a earthly viewpoint because it’s a viewpoint that says, Here’s what my eyes tell me, because my body has committed some sort of a sin. But the godly viewpoint that we saw last time is that the Lord looks at us through his son Jesus, and He has declared us righteous. Paul has said. When I do things I do not want to do. It’s no longer I who do them. It’s the sin that dwells in me. He disclaims that. It has anything to do with them. And this is where we get in the passage and first Thessalonians to be kept blameless. This is where we get back in. Romans We’re no longer under law, which is what convicts us as sin. If you cannot be convicted of sin, it means there is no sin, right? Your blameless conviction is blame. So when we’re no longer under law but under grace, that it means that even though we do the same activity, it’s counted different. In fact, it’s not counted at all. I don’t understand it. It’s a deep mystery. But here’s what I do understand. Paul makes special effort throughout all of his letters clarifying the same pattern. We’re going to see that in just a little bit.

Speaker2: [00:26:46.39] That’s why he says, wrecking yourself.

Beatty: [00:26:48.79] Yes.

Speaker2: [00:26:49.48] I mean, I mean, how do you reckon yourself that’s why he uses that word wrecking yourself.

Beatty: [00:26:57.07] Exactly. So I want to share something that happened this morning. I was asking the Lord for the last several weeks, or maybe it’s a month or two. I don’t know. I’ve had this. The Lord gives me. If you read any of my nuggets, you’ll recognize this. I’ll say in my mind’s eye, I see this picture right in my mind’s eye. And there’s this picture I’ve been seeing in my mind’s eye and understanding the body, soul and spirit. Because up until recently, this is all I understood it as. You have a body, you have a spirit, and connecting the two is the soul. And the more you shift your soul into the spirit realm, the more you live from the spirit and the more you shift it back into the fleshly body realm, the more you live from the flesh. And so the question is, how do you shift it? Fasting, prayer, all kinds of things. But most important is understanding who you are. But then I had this other this picture started kept coming.

Speaker2: [00:27:58.33] Up.

Beatty: [00:27:58.93] And I want to draw it out for you because I was asking, the Lord is just this morning. What does this mean? Then he said, We’ll speak it out. I’ll explain that in a little bit. So I want you to picture real quickly. Take an ice cream cone. You got an ice scoop of ice cream and a cone underneath and then turn it to the right. So you had this ice cream cone, Ice cream here, and you have the cone right there. So called that first ice cream cone. And this is where the pointy part of the cone is pointing to the left for our audio listeners. And the rounded part of the ice cream is on the right. So this is going to be your spirit. And then there is another ice cream cone turned to the side with the ice cream portion to the right and the pointy part of the cone to the left. And this is the sole. And then you have just the equivalent of a scoop of ice cream. Without a comb, and that’s going to be the body. So what this. This picture I kept having in my mind’s eye, it was cramming them together. So over here on the right hand side.

Speaker2: [00:29:23.20] I have.

Beatty: [00:29:25.20] My ice cream cone of the spirit here and the sharp pointy end of the cone is wedged into the ice cream portion. Of the soul. And it’s ice cream cone. And this is the soul. And then the pointy part of the soul is wedged into the scoop of ice cream of the body. Does that make sense? And this is the picture I kept getting and I couldn’t understand it. So I want to read. I want probably read this verbatim only because there are just some really interesting points I was asking the Lord. What does this mean and why have you given me this picture? This is what the Lord is telling me. He said the spirit pierces the soul because it is greater than the soul. The one who pierces is greater than the one being pierced. The spirit is greater than the soul. It has preeminence. Likewise, the soul pierces the body because the soul, too is greater than the body. It has preeminence over the body, but not preeminence over the spirit. And then he continues and justice in the hierarchy of leadership of the Godhead. The father has authority over the son. The son has authority over the Spirit. It says the same holds true with us. Our spirit, soul and body. There’s a hierarchy that our spirit has authority over our soul. And our soul has authority over our body. That’s what we’re starting to see with this. And then he says, and similarly, again, just as with the Godhead, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate entities, yet all one and the same. And the same is true with you. Your spirit, soul and body are all three separate entities, yet they are one and the same. They are.

Speaker2: [00:31:42.41] You.

Beatty: [00:31:45.86] This is the significant part. In body, soul and spirit. Is. You now the who you are in terms of your personality and those things, that’s your soul. But it’s the combination of body, soul and spirit that comprises you. And then he continues the leadership hierarchy is that the spirit has authority over the soul, and the soul has authority over the body. In other words, it’s the soul that drives the actions of the body. But similarly, when operating properly, your spirit drives the actions of the soul. So it’s this cascading down scenario. When operating properly, your spirit drives the soul and the soul drives the body. This is kind of what I was talking about earlier. You know, the what happens in the earthly realm is a shadow and reflection of what’s going on in the spiritual realm. And this happens with what we see going on with with our nation and the world right now. We see all kinds of evil. All this is a battle between good and bad in the spirit realm. But we see this also within our own body, within our own life. And then he continues, he says, in essence, just as with Jesus, there is no separation between the Spirit of Jesus and the person of Jesus. Jesus is one and the same, fully God in the Spirit, fully man in the body, as He lived in the Spirit. So he lived in the body. Can you all kind of see that throughout Scripture and understand as he is, you can’t separate him into two entities. He’s all one and he lives in the heavenly realm.

Speaker2: [00:33:36.96] Is.

Beatty: [00:33:38.01] As much as he lives in the earthly realm. And you can’t pull him out from one or the other. He’s living in both realms simultaneously. Is that making sense? This is what the Lord is saying about us. He says. The authority that he carried in the Spirit in the heavenly realm emanated down to the authority he carries through his flesh and the earthly realm. There is no separation of realms when you’re walking in the spirit and not in the flesh. This is a picture of Sonship. This is why I’ve kept giving you this picture of how it interacts. The spirit has preeminence over the.

Speaker2: [00:34:13.48] Soul.

Beatty: [00:34:14.47] And body. As you live in the spirit and live through the spirit, it drives your soul in your body and emanates into the earthly realm. And then when Paul talks about the mindset on the spirit and when he describes walking by the Spirit. This is in essence, what he’s talking about. You’re to live from the spirit and not from the body. You’re to be subservient to your spirit and not to your body. It’s your spirit that is born again and united with me. Therefore, as you live by the spirit, you’re living by my spirit operating through you and emanating through your body. This is how the body of Christ lives on the earth. It all happens in the heavenly realm, and then it emanates into the earthly realm. That kind of makes sense. It’s kind of it’s deep in it.

Speaker2: [00:35:08.00] Very deep.

Beatty: [00:35:09.35] So I want to expand this out a little bit and and just talk a little bit more about body, soul, spirit.

Speaker2: [00:35:16.29] And flesh.

Beatty: [00:35:18.54] And how to start? How this starts to how we live with it a little bit differently. So I’m going to let me draw this out. So I’ve got body here, I have soul, a spirit here. And then I have I want to put the soul right up here just to give me some.

Speaker2: [00:35:42.81] Room.

Beatty: [00:35:43.98] To show you something. Okay, so in this scenario, this is body over here. In this scenario, what we have is we have this. We have currently two of these three entities are in the spirit realm, the soul and the spirit. But the body is in the physical realm, not the spirit realm. But we send in the spirit. The mindset on the spirit is as about sin. The mind is in the soul. So we have to have one more entity to really understand that. And this entity is this thing called flesh. As I just mentioned, flesh is tied to the body. It’s the counterpart of the body in the spirit realm. Just like we’re body, soul and spirit. And the spirit and the body are kind of counterparts. To a degree, you have the same thing in a negative sense with the body in the flesh. And then you have the flesh that’s also tied to the soul. So we have this interesting relationship between all three of these, where the soul is tied into the body, and the soul is also tied into the flesh. So I’m going to eliminate being tied into the body for just a moment because I want to show you this relationship. So what we have is we have a tug of war. Very simplistic way to look at it. We have the spirit tugging on the soul that wants to move the soul into the realm of the spirit, the mind set on the spirit. And we have the.

Speaker2: [00:37:23.79] Flesh.

Beatty: [00:37:25.95] Tugging on the soul, trying to move it into the flesh, the mind set on the flesh. Do you see this tug of war going on? And it’s like there is an old Indian one time and this old cowboy sees this Indian always betting on these dogfights. And the old Indian wins every time every dog he bets on wins. And so after some of the fights, the old cowboy comes up to the Indian set. How do you know which one to bet on all the time? You said, Oh, that’s easy. I always bet on the one that I’ve been feeding the most. They’re all his dogs. Knows which ones are going to win. So here’s what’s interesting. This is something that I’ve learned over the years. How do you shift your soul more in the spirit realm than in the fleshly realm? The key is you have to get rid of your flesh. You have to weaken the flesh. You cannot weaken the flesh by an act of your will. I mean by saying I’m going to weaken you and pound him. But watch this, because in the tug of war, it’s always the stronger person that wins, right? And you’re the you’re the flag in the middle of the tug of war trying to get you over. So how do you get the spirit to be stronger than the flesh? You stop feeding the flesh.

Speaker2: [00:38:50.88] I’m going to say fast.

Beatty: [00:38:52.30] Right. So this is where what’s interesting is this. The flesh gets its energy source from your body. I don’t understand.

Speaker2: [00:39:04.19] It.

Beatty: [00:39:05.00] I recognize the truth because I’ve lived it out. So when you do a fast in your body and you go without food, not and I won’t call it. It’s not a cheater. Fast. So I want to I want to fast foods, but I want to fill up on shakes and take your calories in a liquid form instead of in a solid form. That’s a cheater fast, because it doesn’t do any good. Because what your body is looking for is calories. And if you supply the calories, it doesn’t matter in what form. You can be drinking juice all day long and you’re not fasting. Not the true fast that weakens the flesh. So when you fast and this is I’m going to call it a water only fast. No calories when you fast. It weakens the flesh. And as the flesh gets weakened, your soul moves into the spirit a little bit more because now the spirit can overpower the flesh. Is this concept making sense? The other thing I’ve learned about fasting is fasting is, for the most part, cumulative meaning. If I fast one day a week. For 50 days. That’s 50 days of fasting. I will be at the end of a year, about as far as if I fasted one day a year for 50 years. Because it’s not so much how many days in a row that you fast that has that has a benefit. But the general thing is the more you fast, it’s cumulative. And that cumulative wears down the flesh. If you think about a hemp rope, you’ve got a rope made out of hemp and you take a little knife and you fray.

Speaker2: [00:41:05.33] It every.

Beatty: [00:41:06.44] Time you fry it, you know, those little strings just kind of pop off on it.

Speaker2: [00:41:09.65] Right?

Beatty: [00:41:10.91] And that rope gets weaker and weaker. You can fray it now and it stays frayed for a month. You come back and put another slice in it. It frays a little bit more and it now is more frayed. It never mends back together. That’s sort of like fasting. Once you’ve fasted and weakened, it’s weakened. It doesn’t all of a sudden just regain its strength. And where I started to learn this when I was going out to Wal-Mart, praying for people saying, God Hill, I did a test and I said, I wonder if what happens if I go in? I fast the day before. And I remember several occasions where I would fast starting on Thursday night, I’d fast all day Friday and all day into Saturday when I would be praying for people and I saw more healings, more eyes opened up or whatever it is. I saw them done quicker, more powerfully than ever before, and I started to see this pattern. And so it was such a substantial pattern. I would always fast before I’d go out a couple of days later. And then I remember the other thing happened. I was, you may have met Daniel. He was a mohawk guy abroad to Sunday school. Right. Okay. So what happened that weekend is I had been fasting the week before for six days because we’re bringing him in town and we’re going to do deliverance with them. What happened was really interesting. So I have a list of questions. I’ll come before the Lord say, Lord, I got some questions and can you give me some answers? And normally it would take me 2 to 3 hours to get into kind of that. I’ll call it that mindset, that realm of really hearing the Lord speak. And I remember this one morning I went in there and right off the bat, just as I started my quiet time, I was taking multiple sentence dictations on every single question I was asking. I said, Lord, what? I’ve never heard you this clearly. What’s going on? He said, It was the six day fast.

Speaker2: [00:43:13.21] See, that’s what I was thinking, because it’s like you could fast, but like the purpose of fasting in it to take the time. In the spirit you’re taking time away that you would spend in eating and spending.

Beatty: [00:43:28.38] You can, but that’s not it. So when I fast I’m not spending all my fasting time with the Lord. I might my personal time with the Lord doesn’t change. It’s simply by. By severing the energy source to my body. It’s severing the energy source to my flesh. It has nothing to do with my activity in spending more time with the Lord. It’s simply a severing of the energy source. We have a friend that he was over here in one of our Bible studies and we’re talking about how do you hear God speak? And I was talking about fasting. And he shared a real interesting testimony. He said he had he had struggled with pornography and the Lord told him to fast. He would be fasting a day, a month. And everything was just kind of controlled and under control. But it started to get to the point where it became a god, where he was focused on. It was a work of the flesh, still a fast, but a work of the flesh. And so he stopped. And when he stopped, he said he started getting all these urges to get back into pornography. And it was really pulling on him. And he was saying, Lord, what happened? He said, You stop fasting. He said, Well, I thought I needed to because you said it was becoming a work of the flesh and idol. He said, No, I never told you to stop fasting. I just told you that, you know, get your attitude right on it. So it was the act of fasting, not how he fasted. And it was just that one day a month that kept the flesh under control and kept him from being in the flesh and focus on the spirit.

Speaker2: [00:45:07.63] Yeah, which is more powerful. I think I know the answer. I want to hear what you think tomorrow, which is more powerful. 51 days or ten five day fasts.

Beatty: [00:45:17.62] So cumulative at one time is always more powerful. You know, if I’m going to fast six days, then I’ll get a lot more power out of six days. If I am fast six days in a row, then if I fast six days one day know I’ll fast one day wait a week, fast one day and do that six weeks. There’s something about well, even though it’s cumulative, the the more you can starve it faster, it’s a more powerful starving. I don’t understand it. I do understand one thing. You’ll find a lot of people who are extremely powerful in the spirit. That they have fasted 40 days. There’s something about a 40 day fast that makes you Superman in a very general sense here. But the only way you fast 40 days is if the Lord is guiding you through it and providing the energy to stay through it. If you’re not doing that, you’ll you won’t make it. So to do it all at one time, it’s a lot more powerful. So let’s say. So that’s how you start to move into the more in the spirit, a little more in the spirit, the more you’re in the spirit. Just a habit of fasting. You’ll find that you’ll hear the Lord more clearly. You’ll resist temptations a lot more. You’ll recognize more of who you are. You’ll see the Lord working through you. If you do anything on the supernatural side, any of the gifting type things, you’ll find that those will become more powerful. Everything shifts. Because if you remember the ice cream cone scenario, the spirit has preeminence over the soul. And the more you can shove that soul into the spirit. The more powerful it is. Any other thoughts?

Speaker2: [00:47:16.09] I weighed one question, and I don’t mean this is just something that’s always kind of bothered.

Beatty: [00:47:21.54] I know you don’t like the fact I’m more handsome than your husband because I don’t have any here.

Speaker2: [00:47:27.75] You know, in the Scripture when I came, John’s disciples came and ask Jesus, How come your disciples don’t fast? And then he answered, or Why would you pass if the bridegroom is with you? And so I saw that that he’s personally, physically with them. But I still feel like he’s with me now, you know? And so why would I pass if the bridegroom is with me?

Beatty: [00:47:56.04] So.

Speaker2: [00:47:56.91] You know, I just always wondered about that. That’s been the one thing.

Beatty: [00:48:00.87] That’s a great question. Let me let me give you a corollary to that. Let me give you a corollary. So the fasting was part of the Jewish law. That’s what it was, part of their Jewish culture and their law. So was honoring the Sabbath. We’re no longer under law but under grace. Does that mean we stop doing the Sabbath? We don’t honor it. Or does it simply mean that honoring the Sabbath still has great value because it’s holy? But we now do it for a different reason. Now, I think the same thing is going on with fasting is is the Lord took all his disciples and he broke them out of the Jewish law. You remember they went through the grain fields one time and grabbed grabbing grains and chewing on it on a Sabbath, and the Jews got all upset. You’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath. And I get this picture, especially with the chosen, as I saw, I get this pictures. These guys were just rebels. Everything that they could rebel against from the Jewish law that their rabbis say you don’t have to follow. They were rebelling against it because they were something different.

Speaker2: [00:49:11.95] Well.

Beatty: [00:49:13.58] What I think happens is the fasting. While we don’t fast the way the Jewish people did as part of the law, the element of fasting is still very, very significant.

Speaker2: [00:49:28.01] It would be like a sacrifice. I mean, like, I guess kind of would be like it’s something you were sacrificing. You’re sacrificing food, you know?

Beatty: [00:49:40.13] Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:49:40.80] Kind of like an almost.

Beatty: [00:49:42.17] So you remember Jesus at the Well, he’s talking to the Samaritan woman, tells her about herself. She runs away all excited, and the disciples come and say, Master, eat something. You know what Jesus said?

Speaker2: [00:49:56.35] You know.

Beatty: [00:49:57.83] I have few that you don’t know of. So when my son started fasting, so the Lord directed my son to fast, and it was really difficult for him. And he was in this one fast and just really hungry, really weak. And he said, Lord, can I please eat? And the Lord said, No. And then the Lord took them. Up into heaven, into the heavenly Tabernacle, he said, is the first and it’s only time it’s been as clear, crisp and clear as it was then. And Beatty is in this in a heavenly tabernacle, and there’s a table with a show bread. And the Lord said, Eat some of the bread. So Beatty in the heavenly places ate the bread. And instantly his physical body was rejuvenated and revitalized and had no weakness. And the Lord told him, he said, Now you’ll come to heaven more. You won’t see it at this clearly. But when you feast on my word. You will be sustained.

Speaker2: [00:51:06.19] And see, that’s kind of why I said what I did, you know. I mean, that’s kind of the way I’ve looked at fast is because if I fast, what I do is I don’t eat and I spend that time in the world.

Beatty: [00:51:19.96] Right?

Speaker2: [00:51:21.10] And I thought, so it’s really speaking the kind of word that’s making me stronger. Yeah, well, the fact that I’m fasting, that becomes. You know. Yeah. So even that.

Beatty: [00:51:31.57] Up right So if you so let me just challenge that thought for just one second. If you’re going to do a five day fast, does that mean you’re in the word 24 hours a day for five days now you’re going to sleep some you’re going to do your other activities. So it’s not simply being in the word. Being in the word well is where you’ll be sustained. But fasting is fasting whether you’re in the word or not. That’s the point I want to make. You can spend more time in the word. In the time that you’re in, the word is really powerful. You’ll get a lot more revelation while you’re fasting because you’re just kind of pulled over into the spirit. But to fast and weaken the flesh has nothing to do with. Swapping the time and now spending that time in the word. That’s the thing that was really that’s really interesting is is they’re separate. They go together. But I don’t want to make it. I want to be sensitive that people don’t hear this and they go, okay, well, I’m going too fast, and now I’ve got to take that time and spin in the word. And now it becomes a work of the flesh. As opposed to spend time in the world. If you can love spending time and rate it while you’re fasting and you’ll find you, you can be sustained a lot longer, you get a lot more out of.

Speaker2: [00:52:56.77] It.

Beatty: [00:52:57.37] But it’s the fasting that weakens the flesh. Whether you’re spending the time in the word or not, that’s I think that’s what what I’ve learned out of all that. But let me share something. A friend of mine who’s a seer was sharing with me. So I was on a 21 day fast and I was asking her about sustaining and she said, Your flesh when you’re fasting, is going to try to take all of the energy from the body, so you have very little energy to operate on. So what you have to do is just take authority over the flesh, just like you would an evil spirit flesh. In Jesus name, I command you down, you let go of my energy and you speak to it and command it. And. And it works.

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