God, Man, and the Devil

In order for anyone to come to know God’s will, even before they can do it, they must accept God is supreme and Almighty, otherwise He is not God! …for he that cometh to God must believe that he is… Hebrews 11:6.   We need not understand “why” God is the Almighty One or “how” He came to be, so long as we accept He is capable of doing anything and everything, otherwise He is not God.

According to the Bible, the Word of God is God.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1.  We start with believing in Him, not just who He is, but what He said.  As the Word is God, God is a “Spirit”.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24.  In “construct” God is a trinity having three distinct parts, portions, or “presentations” in a single unit as a whole—as “one”.   For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 1 John 5:7.  (Many people are quick to replace “the Word” with “the Son” in 1 John 5:7 above when asked, “who is the trinity of God?  They rely on Matthew 28:19 which says: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost...  However, an understanding of the relationship between “the Word” and “the Son” is needed (and provided below) before anyone should comfortably make that substitution.  Similarly, please resist the temptation to replace “Holy Ghost” with “Holy Spirit” as the propriety of this change is covered in a later section as well.)

The three “presentations” of God as a single unit is the Spirit of God, or simply the “Spirit” as God is a Spirit.   Accordingly, as one Spirit all aspects of the trinity must agree in purpose here on earth, otherwise God is inconsistent in Himself which cannot be.  And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.  1 John 5:8.  His purpose is simply His will, i.e., the will of God as He is God.  For instance, He reveals Himself to us as He wills–according to His will, not ours.  His will is that which makes Him the Almighty, and we should pray for His will to be done.  ...Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6:10; and Luke 11:2. 

The Spirit of God, as God, must be “Holy”.  From Webster’s 1828 dictionary, “Holy” means: “perfectly pure, immaculate, sinless and complete in moral character.”  Therefore, God must be THE Holy Spirit and Almighty because of the surety of His will.  Moreover, each presentation of Himself is always loving in the purest sense, because God is also love, as love is His “spiritual” nature.   …God is love. 1 John 4:8 and 16.  (Please note, the association of God with love is not just a passing reference of adulation or admiration.) 

Therefore, just as the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost are each holy and each God per se (by definition), each is a presentation of God’s identity as THE Holy Spirit, and all such presentations of Him are LOVE!  Stated another way, the true love of God is the “type” or “kind” of spirit He is.  As such, love is an inherent attribute of God in all His presentations of Himself, namely, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. 

The love of God as the Spirit of God is shared with mankind as He wills.  His Word is that means by which He shares His will.  Thus, the Word is given to mankind as a gift of God, as a presentation of Himself in His love.  Thus, receiving God absolutely includes receiving His Word as God, i.e., part of Him.  In fact, according to His Word, His Word is the means by which we come to know Him as the Father as explained in detail below.  But note, our interactions with Him require us to receive Him as He is, e.g., in the truth of His Word as-is, not some interpretation or modification according to man’s religion(s) or theologies.  Simply stated, the truth of His Holy Word does not depend on our acceptance of it/Him, even though man’s version of truth often depends on his knowledge of himself or what pleases him in the context of the world around him thereby proving man’s carnality. 

Stated another way, His Word is the loving statement of His purpose (will) in Himself given to us.  His will becomes the focus of our desires in love for Him if we receive His love as His Word and desire to live forever pleasing Him.  Therefore, if anyone rejects the Word of God choosing to disobey or avoid knowing it for any reason, they also refuse Him as God and reject His love that gives eternal life as an attribute of Himself.  Why then do people challenge the truth of His Word, avoid it, or seek to change it?  (As a note of caution, He said unbelievers of His Word go to hell.  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.  Revelation 21:8.)

As to Mankind, the Bible says God formed man from the “dust of the ground” and made him a living soul.  And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7.  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;....  1 Corinthians 15:45.  Furthermore, mankind was originally created in the “image and likeness” of the Almighty God. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:26-27.  (The phrase “let us” in Genesis 1:26 refers to God as a trinity being the Father who is represented by His will, His word being the statement of His will, and the Holy ghost being the truth of His Word in power unto creation.) 

As to gender more specifically, the Bible says the flesh of the first woman called “Eve” was created from the flesh of the first man called “Adam”.  See, Genesis 2:22-23 and 1 Corinthians 11:8-9.  In the context of procreation, God made the first couple as a first instance of procreative capability by equipping them to reproduce more living souls of their kind as offspring. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1:28.  Thus, when mankind became a living soul, all of their offspring to follow, both male and female, would become living souls of like kind thereafter.  (Here again, even if you don’t believe in creationism, please don’t fret, but consider the phrase “dust of the ground” as a reference to the “Periodic Table of Elements” (chemistry) defining the natural world by its physical elements.)

As the flesh of the first man was created from the dust of the ground, and the first woman from the man, all of mankind has flesh and bones, but a spirit does not. ...for a spirit hath not flesh and bones,…Luke 24:39.  How then is man created in the “likeness” of God if the term “likeness” cannot mean men and women are created in the nature of God, as a Spirit?  What does God, as the Spirit, say about Himself, i.e., His own image, identity, and nature, etc., so that we may come to know ourselves and Him better? 

As we know, the Father is part of the trinity of God as one Holy Spirit, we should know the Father is also the “soul” of God.  God said: Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. Matthew 12:18 (Emphasis added); see also Isaiah 42:1.  As explained in detail below, Matthew 12:18 and Isaiah 42;1 are statements attributed to the Father as His Word.  Thus, the reference to “my soul” defines the “life” in God just as the soul defines the life in man, thereby making their respective souls the “likeness” between them by design.  (Man’s soul is explained in more detail below, and yet we should know now that our soul will live forever in heaven or die forever in hell, because our soul is eternal!)

Stated another way, the soul is the “life” of each person (Genesis 2:7) created in the “likeness” of the “life” of God which is also attributed to His “soul”–the Father!  By way of reproof, as the “life” of each person (and God) is each attributed to their own soul, so too is the “life” of every living creature on land and in the sea attributed to its soul and procreation of its kind. For example, and by way of indirect reference, …and every living soul died in the sea. Revelation 16:3.

For the sake of completeness, we should also consider man in the context of being created in the “image” of God.  We know the image of God is the trinity of presentations of that Holy Spirit–the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost.   Not surprisingly then, every person is also constructed as a trinity of one.  As a trinity, every person has a body, soul, and “spirit of man”.  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (Emphasis added).  (Please note, there are many other combinations of verses proving man’s body, soul, and spirit (of man) composition, but 1 Thessalonians 5:23 is cited here for conciseness.  Likewise, there are many other combinations of verses proving God is a trinity of the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, but 1 John 5:7 (above) was cited for conciseness.)

Just as God’s Spirit is eternally alive as of His will by which we may come to know the Father–the soul (life) of God, and being part of the trinity in one purpose (and intents) in true love as God as THE Holy Spirit of love, man’s spirit is his “will” as to his purpose (and intents) of love in man.  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.  1 Corinthians 2:11.  As the spirit of man is the “will of man” in us, it is that ability to choose our lifestyle as the representation of the love in our heart whether be of God or of man only.  (Do not be confused by the “Spirit of God” and “spirit of man”.  Simply know they are different as to the source thereof, i.e., Spirit–God and flesh–man, and the association with the “will of God” and “will of man” is the pathway to eternal life.  Much greater clarity in detail of explanation will be added below.) 

By way of comparison, man is carnal by nature, NOT of the Spirit of God by nature.  Man’s version of love is as temporal as he is temporal, and man’s love cannot sustain him unto eternal life without God’s love (His Spirit).  In fact, our brand of love perishes when our carnal body perishes.  By contrast, God’s love is eternal as He is eternal, although His will is often not compassionate in the sense of the “warm fuzzies” we like our flesh to feel.  Therefore, mankind’s version of love cannot be “true” in the sense of God’s love and Word is true as having the powerful witness of the Spirit of truth–the Holy Ghost.  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:  John 15:26 (Emphasis added).  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.  John 14:16 (Emphasis added).  (The Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of truth that bears witness to the Word (explained in detail later), gives eternal life as if endued with His truth in love and love in truth!)

As to man, there is nothing in us that can stave off the death of our flesh, or the certain destruction of our own brand love because it is limited to the extent of our fleshly life.  However, if we were able to receive HIS love as the Holy Spirit which makes Him God, and by Him share it with Him as He shares Himself with us by His Word witnessed in truth by the Holy Ghost in life giving power, we would serve Him in love for Him.  Accordingly, God is concerned with our eternal life forever in heaven, not our fun here on earth.  We should share His same concern.  Thus, He shares Himself with us by His love in the truth (“true love”) by the “spirit of truth” to save us from death by the power thereof (i.e., the Holy Ghost).  Hence, because the will of God the Father defines His supremacy and eternal life by Him is living in Him as He shares His Spirit as the truth in love (true love), man’s own “will of man” in his carnal, temporal life is his supremacy for himself as his own god.  As presented above, Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? John 10:34. 

As explained below, man’s spirit (will of man) is closely associated with, and governs, the eternal disposition of his own soul as he chooses to live by the Word of God unto eternal life, or that which pleases man’s own flesh according to what he loves most.  However, man cannot set the terms by which he may find eternal life.  He can only set the terms by which he may live in this temporal world as explained previously.  Similarly, the will of God is also closely associated with His soul–the Father the giver of all life from the beginning!  God set the terms for eternal life by His Word, and the Word shall determine our life or death as explained below.  Consider: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 (Emphasis added).

As to the terms and conditions of eternal life, man may only choose that which God establishes, by His will.  By accepting His terms and conditions so established we receive the power to become sons of God as noted previously!  We find life by receiving the love of God, His love, communicated to us in His Word.  We start with the Word as the first place we find interaction with Him as explained in more detail below.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,...  John 1:1 and 1:12.  Therefore, only we can choose an everlasting life by first desiring that “power to become” a son of God, and we do so by His Word–desiring Him according to what he says! 

Thus, in order for each person to be able to receive the power to become a son of God, i.e., for God to be one God for all, God Himself must be indiscriminate as in no respecter of persons, and yet the love of God unto eternal life is available for all who want it. …Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: Acts 10:34.  Moreover, God does not force Himself on us.  He makes Himself available!  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?  Luke 11:13.  In short, we must want Him–His will by which we know Him as our Father!  Thus, receiving His love is both voluntary on us, and conditional according to Him, because of His will.  Still, a lot of people confuse “indiscriminate” as properly used in the context of being “no respecter of persons” with “unconditional” meaning “without condition or prerequisite.”  Receiving God’s Holy Spirit (His love) is most definitely conditional on us.  We must want it/Him of heart.  This is where the spirit/will of man chooses his heart’s desire!

If we desire to live eternally we shall do so by the eternal love of God, from God, and find Him as THE doorway of eternal life as He provides it, not as we define or prefer.  Therefore, not only does it make sense to know His promise for eternal life is by and through His Word as absolute truth, we may know it first hand personally.  (His love and life in the Spirit that offers an eternity in that place called heaven!) 

Simply stated, living forever can only be according to the will of God, by the which will is communicated to us in His Word as we come to know Him as a Father.  We serve Him in power of the truth of His Word by the Holy Ghost in obedience to the Holy Spirit–the Father (by His will), the Word (as the statement of his will), AND the Holy Ghost (the power in the spirit of truth of his Word being the statement of his will), and NOT by conformance to the world or it’s religions!

What about the Devil? Be warned, in opposition to the supreme God there is a god of this temporal world known simply as “the devil”. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 2 Corinthians 4:4. (Emphasis added).  Thus, despite what some people choose to believe, God the Father in heaven is not the “god of this world”.   With that said, we should properly consider the enemy of God and not fear the enemy. 

Curiously, some people incorrectly say God almighty in heaven is universally in control of our enemies, including the devil, when saying so would mean the Father is a God of both good and evil which cannot be.  Moreover, those of us that are His disciples are the “‘saved” and live here in this world doing His will as His obedient children.  As such, we have been given all power and authority over the enemy, but have no power over God.  Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. Luke 9:1.

Why then would the Father retain control of the enemy in possible contravention of the authority over the enemy He has given us?  Does He intend to render our authority over the enemy meaningless?  God forbid!  The devil and his demons are doomed to hell as part of death per se (by definition) in the end, as per the Word.  Any assertion saying God controls the enemy, including the devil and his demons as they make evil an option in this world, would render God in heaven a God of the dead which cannot be.  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.  Mark 12:27.  Also, how could the devil ever be an enemy of God if God controls the workings of the devil?  Clearly, the enemy of God Almighty can do nothing against God.  Hence, the use of the term “enemy” should not be understood as a “threat” to God the almighty Father or His supremacy. 

What then is the enemy–the devil?  The enemy of God (the devil) is a spirit in the nature of an antagonist to the will of God and the “spirit of error”.  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.  1 John 4:6.  Simply stated, the devil opposes God’s will by his (the devil’s) own will, but this opposition is indirect.  ...if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.  2 Timothy 2:25-26. 

As the antagonist of the will of God (i.e., the anti-Christ or “anti-Word of God” as discussed later), the spirit/will of the devil is the enemy of God that temps us to choose to live the “will of the flesh” instead of the will of God.   Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  John 1:13 (Emphasis added).  Therefore, the enemy of God cannot harm or infringe on us, UNLESS we give in to his temptations by his (the devil’s) will that lead us away from God’s will and thus God. 

For completeness, God almighty is a Spirit and does not tempt anybody!  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:  James 1:13.  (The “will of God” is not specifically mentioned in John 1:13 above, but the concept is well accepted, easily understood, scripturally evidenced elsewhere, and addressed below.  The “will of man” (spirit of man) chooses the will of God or the will of the flesh to live or die by, respectively!)

  By way of example, the New Testament covenant for salvation discussed in detail below says we are “carnal” creations in the context of humanity.   Our carnality hopelessly subjects us to the temptations of the god of this world being the enemy of God–the devil.  More specifically, the devil works against us through the “lusts of our flesh” and the weakness of our carnality by tempting us to disobey God’s Word (and His will).  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Ephesians 2:2-3.  (In accordance with the original notes of the King James Bible, the “prince of the power of the air” is the devil.  The term “lusts” is not limited to sexual desires, but all physical desires regarded by man as more important than living according to His Word.  Further, the term “desires” in Ephesians 2:3 above is properly and correctly rendered “wills”.) 

Thus, the phrase “desires of the flesh and mind” is properly understood as the “wills of the flesh and mind”.  The Bible uses the singular phrase “will of the flesh” to mean the collective “wills of the flesh (and mind)” simply because the flesh and mind form a kind of “joint enterprise” as they act (DO) things in concert proving our carnality.  Stated another way, with respect to man’s body and carnal mind thereof, the “will of the flesh” is the joint enterprise of the carnal body and mind collectively defining human carnality as a whole.  This “joint enterprise” pursues a lifestyle fulfilling the lusts of the natural body according to the carnal desires of the flesh and mind as the will thereof (“will of the flesh”).  By analogy, the flesh body is the “vehicle” with the will of the flesh and carnal mind the driver within that vehicle.  Together they go places and do things in this world displaying man’s carnality. 

Of course, we eat and sleep and do those things we need to care for our flesh, and yet there is self-indulgence and excess in this world as the friendship of it.  As a form of “joint enterprise”, the will of the flesh and carnal mind is at odds against the will of God and produces a disregard for God’s will. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 1 Peter 2:11.  Not surprisingly then, because this world is the domain of the god of this world, and any friend of the world is also the enemy of God, the Bible also says there are children of light (Luke 16:8, John 12:36, Ephesians 5:8) as the children of God, and children of the night or darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:5) as the children of the devil as the damned.  In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God,... 1 John 3:10.  Similarly, any friendship of the world is “against” God.  Moreover, a friend of the world IS part of the enemy of God, the devil as the god of this world.  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4. 

We cannot expect God the Father to be a father to us unless we are desirous of His will.  By doing what we want instead of what God wants we give life to the enemy in our lifestyles, thereby proving whose child we are.  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?  Romans 6:16.  In short, without human action in accordance with the will of the flesh contrary to the will of God, there is no manifestation of evil because the identity of the devil!  Moreover, Hence, people become the captives of the devil when they give in to the devil’s temptation of the flesh and the lusts thereof.  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.  James 1: 14-15.

By way of continued proof, the Bible says every good and perfect gift is from above. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17.  With respect to the “children of light” only, as the children of God being born of the Spirit as discussed in detail later, the Father turns around the evil workings of the devil to work good for His children.   And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28.  (For all intents and purposes today, the god of this world (the devil) is NOT from above as a good and perfect gift from God almighty.)

[With respect to “evolution” as it relates to adaptation of the flesh which Charles Darwin observed and wrote about generally, the combination of the flesh of man as a natural body and his “will of the flesh” do have analogous similarities in other creatures on earth. This bible says: All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.  There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.  1 Corinthians 15:39-41.  Common sense says we know the flesh of a camel has desires and acts like a camel and the flesh of penguin has desires to do penguin things, etc.  

On that basis, all living creatures, including man, adapt and evolve to live in synergy with their environment as a whole including population, inhabitants, exclusivity, weather, etc.  As the environment changes, including the species present in the population, the change produces more change inducing reactions by the flesh to cope.  This is the response associated with the will of the flesh of all creatures to survive through adaptation, but we should take great care if we attempt to extrapolate a scientific theory to explain mankind.  ALL living creatures have a “will of the flesh”, but ONLY man has a “will of man” which IS the spirit of a man (person) in them! 

Stated another way, man is the only living creature with a spirit/will of man capable of choosing eternal life, and there is no “spirit of man” in an ape, making an ape like a man even if the ape walks upright.  As such, the spirit/will of man separates man from all other living things, and he did not get it from another creature.  God gave it to us!  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13 (Emphasis added). 

Thus, as evolution is a plausible theory to explain the morphology of the body (flesh) of all living creatures in adaptation to their environment and other living conditions overall, evolution does nothing to acknowledge, address, explain, or disprove, etc., the spirit/will of man (or God)!]