In 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Paul wrote, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What is man? Well, according to Yahweh, Who inspired Paul, man is comprised of spirit, soul and body. These three “parts” are not discrete, divisible subunits; they are integrated, indivisible subunits, which interact to comprise the whole man.
A man’s spirit connects him to the spirit realm. A man’s body connects him to the earth realm. A man’s soul connects his spirit to his body. This means that a man’s soul manifests the spirit realm in the earth realm.
There are two kingdoms in the spirit realm: Yahweh’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom. A man’s soul works in conjunction with his body in order to manifest a spiritual kingdom on the earth. The spiritual kingdom that a man’s soul and body will manifest on the earth, depends on which spiritual kingdom his spirit resides in.
Since we are all born into Satan’s spiritual kingdom, it is natural and normal for us to manifest Satan’s spiritual kingdom on the earth. This is why Satan’s kingdom currently rules over the earth and its inhabitants. This is why no one has to teach us to be selfish, lustful, greedy, unruly, rebellious, power-hungry liars. It is why no one has to teach us to manipulate circumstances and people. And it is why no one has to teach us to seek pleasure and run over those who try to restrain us; that is, this is why no one has to teach us how to become addicted to alcohol or drugs.
The First Addict
Yahweh created Lucifer, and put him in His Kingdom. The reality Yahweh put Lucifer in was unacceptable to him, however. Lucifer rebelled against Yahweh’s authority, and tried to reshape his reality. Yah put Lucifer in that reality, so he would grow and fulfill his eternal purpose, but he refused to cooperate. Lucifer lifted himself up, and conspired with other angels to overthrow Yahweh.
Lucifer got a taste of power and worship, and it gave him a rush. After this initial rush, Lucifer continued with his plan to overthrow Yahweh, in spite of the risks. Lucifer had to know that eventually the all-knowing, all-powerful Yahweh would discover his plan, and punish him, but nevertheless, he continued down this destructive path, deceiving himself in order to get more pleasurable rushes.
Lucifer is an addict. Lucifer is hooked on worship, and power. Lucifer rules the kings and kingdoms of the earth, and receives worship from all those he deceives. Lucifer knows that one-day Yahweh will banish him in the fiery lake, but he will not repent because he likes the pleasurable power rushes. Sadly, Lucifer is trading his long-term welfare for short-term rewards, which is what addicts do.
Yahweh put Lucifer in a place of authority. Lucifer guarded Yahweh’s throne. Yahweh built Lucifer with mechanisms that gave him pleasure when he exercised his authority, and fulfilled his purpose. Yahweh set boundaries for Lucifer’s authority, however. Lucifer stepped over the boundaries that Yahweh erected, and abused his pleasure mechanisms, and they enslaved him.
Like Father, Like Son
Yahweh created man with a brain/body complex that gave him pleasure whenever he engaged in activities that promoted his survival. Activities like eating, drinking, and having sex, triggers the release of chemicals in the brain/body complex. As these chemicals (neurotransmitters, neuromodulators and hormones) circulate in the bloodstream, they bind to sights throughout the brain/body complex, which release secondary chemicals and generate electrical impulses. The secondary chemical messengers open up specific pathways for the electrical impulses.
Man perceives the flow of this chemical and electrical energy, and “experiences” it. The flow of chemical and electrical energy does not produce pleasure, in and of itself. The pleasure is generated as our spirit (our immaterial subject component) experiences the flow of chemical and electrical energy through our brain/body complex (our material object component). Why do we perceive pleasure? For the same reason we perceive red. We perceive the color red, and the sensation of pleasure, because we are immaterial subjects interacting with material objects.
The experience of perceiving the color red or the sensation of pleasure cannot be reduced down to biology or physics because they are subjective experiences; that is, they are the ontological activities of a subject interacting with a universe of objects. It is not the flow of dopamine through the brain’s mesolimbic system (reward center) that generates pleasure; it is the spirit experiencing the flow of dopamine through the mesolimbic system that produces pleasure. As our spirit enters the “pleasure state,” this shift triggers the release of chemical and electrical energies that trigger physiological processes to manifest pleasure in our body.
Yahweh created us with a reward center in our brain that is automatically triggered by a range of very specific behaviors. Since pleasure is a subjective experience, however, we have the leeway to value, interpret and define pleasure for ourselves. This is why I may derive an enormous amount of pleasure from an activity that you derive little or no pleasure from, or find repulsive. This is also how people get addicted to strange things like eating cigarette butts or bathing in bleach.
Yahweh set boundaries for the activities that give man pleasure, and when a man steps over these boundaries, he opens himself up to the possibility of enslavement to these feelings; that is, he opens himself up to the possibility of becoming addicted to the activities that produce these pleasurable feelings.
Since we were all born into a fallen world that is filled with fallen people, often, our reality is not what we want it to be. And since we abide in Satan’s kingdom, as his children, many of us attempt to change reality (the reality that we experience). We drink alcohol or use drugs to trigger our brain’s reward center, and experience pleasurable feelings, or change the interaction of our brain modules in order to produce an altered state of consciousness that is more acceptable to us.
As we ingest chemicals to trigger our brain’s reward center, or a change in consciousness, we create an altered reality that is more pleasing to us. This is how we escape from the reality that Yahweh has placed us in. But here’s the problem: Yahweh placed us in a reality of His choosing that would force us to confront the issues in us and grow into our eternal purpose. So when we attempt to change reality by ingesting chemicals, we circumvent Yahweh’s plan for our eternal well-being. We rebel against Yahweh, and commit the sin of witchcraft.
When we repeatedly enter the reality that we create by ingesting a chemical, at some point, this altered reality becomes the only reality that we are comfortable in. So, we devote ourselves to the chemical that produces this altered reality. Our spirit-man bows down to the chemical, and devotes itself to it, and this sets into motion a spiritual-psychological-biological process that takes away our heart.
Here’s what I mean.
Over time, the chemical saturates our body and sets up a homeostatic imbalance, which pushes us towards the chemical (a compulsion). Then, we get accustomed to living in the altered reality, and so we disconnect from Yahweh’s reality. Soon, we begin to merely react to the reality that Yahweh created and manipulate it in order to support the reality that we created. The two conflicting realities create crises that we must defuse. Our new lifestyle rewires our brain, and generates psychological forces that drive us towards the goal of sustaining our altered reality (an obsession). These spiritual, psychological and biological forces interact and form a strong bondage (an addiction).
After an addiction forms, its spiritual, psychological and biological forces exert a tremendous amount of pressure on our heart. This is very important because our decisions flow from our heart. The spiritual, psychological and biological forces that we set up, by our own actions, which we freely chose, now hold tremendous sway over all our future decisions. From this point forward, we tend to make decisions that support and sustain our altered reality. Often, these decisions bring us into conflict with Yahweh’s reality, and generate negative consequences for us.
Even though we know full well that a decision will bring us into conflict with Yahweh’s reality, and hurt us, or our loved ones, we will proceed with it in order to support and sustain our altered reality. Following in Lucifer’s footsteps, we make irrational decisions, and trade our long-term welfare for short-term reward.
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