The saving of our spirit is the direct result of accepting the free gift of the extravagant sacrifice His Son made for each of us on the Cross of Calvary. This is entirely His work alone. And it happens in the eye-blink of us confessing with our mouths and believing unto our hearts that Jesus is Lord and Saviour. However, the saving of our soul is an entirely different affair. Compared with the salvation of our spirit, which is an immediate "point" IN time affair, this feat is accomplished as a "process" OVER time. And as with the salvation of our spirit, the salvation of our soul is likewise entirely Jesus' accomplishment. But where the "salvation of our spirit" is the result of whether or not we simply accept His generous gift, the "salvation of our soul" is specifically a function and by-product of "how generously we come to Jesus IN RELATIONSHIP".

     This is the point God is making in His emphasis of the saving of our soul. The key to the accomplishment of saving our soul is entering into the "right relationship" with God that is only made possible by first entering into "right standing" with God (accepting the gift of spiritual rebirth). It's a sequence, a next-step progression. This relationship of a Father and son or daughter, and better yet, the right relationship of being a "relationship of love", is ultimately His heart's deepest desire. By extending His personal invitation to "intimacy through true love" that is His Word, God is setting a huge exclamation point on the "imperative of relationship". The work is not finished when our spirit comes alive to the Spirit of Christ. The work is then only just beginning. To present our whole spirit, soul and body blameless at the coming of the LORD requires the sovereignty and the imperative of right relationship.

     This is also the whole point to helping us understand what is the mystery of the tripartite God. The triune expression of "one God as three" inherently and intrinsically expresses the power and beauty of RELATIONSHIP. At the same time, it also demonstrates how through the power and beauty of relationship that we can also become ONE. God is completely relational. We are created to be relational. God is love. And love is relational. And when it comes to expressing God's standard of love through God's blueprint of relationship, God has TWO REQUIREMENTS. And we are called to be as one with these two requirements. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." There is a relationship of this kind of LOVE betweeen Father and Son. "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself". There is relationship of love between the Son and the Holy Spirit with God's neighbour, man, in both (1) teaching that neighbour how to have that same relationship of love with God and (2) there is a relationship of love for the neighbour in their saving of our spirits and our souls. In the same way, we demonstrate the height of love when we share with our neighbours how to have the same relationship of love with their Father, and when we lead our neighbours towards how to find the deep rest and lasting peace that is the exquisite salvation of their spirit and soul. "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." - Matthew 22:38-39. Love is entirely and specifically relational. These two commandments encapsulate and embody the coalescence of all that is the essence and heart of "real relationship", and simultaneously, in so doing, they thereby capture all that is both the letter and the spirit (the law and the prophets) of "His imperative of love".

     Everything God expects from us, He first expects from Himself. And He always shows us the way Himself first. This is why He IS the WAY, the truth and the life. He leads from the front. He does it first Himself so that we can watch, learn and imitate, just like babes who learn everything by imitating their parents (imitating God) and imitating others (imitating our neighbours in their love for God). And therein lies God's wisdom that we are to come unto Christ "like children". When it comes to the salvation of our souls, this is the purposeful operation that is embodied in the process that is "the exodus pilgrimage". It is the process which encapsulates the metaphor that God refers to as the "straight and narrow road". This pilgrimage process speaks entirely of the step-by-step journey that is right relationship. It represents the long walk back of systematically dismantling everything that keeps us "independent" of God. Replacing independence with "dependence" emphasises the restoration of the relationship of a child. "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 18:3. If one considers the relationship a child has with his or her parents, a child absolutely and unquestioningly loves its parents with all of its heart, with all of its soul, and with all of its mind. The salvation of our soul is the process of restoring the relationship of loving the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, all of thy SOUL, and of all of thy mind. Which is the return to the heart of a child. Which is also the heart of joyful dependence that belongs exclusively to a child in its relationship with its Father. And so it is that in the salvation of "our spirit", and then the subsequent salvation of "our soul", that God satisfies His promise in Ezekiel 36:26 of giving us a "new heart" and a "new spirit". For both a new heart and a new spirit are entirely fitting for loving the Father that is the great I AM appropriately and rightly.

     Relationship is a meeting of hearts and a meeting of minds. And in that meeting, the soul grows to love everything that becomes the edifice of relationship. But forget not, that before one can progress to "right relationship", one needs to first stand "rightly related". The first key to the kingdom of heaven is the salvation of spirit. It is the Memorandum of Understanding. It serves as the foundational Rock upon which the home that unfolds into relationship is established. It requires the explicit understanding that before one can save one's soul, which is the process by which we build our house of right relationship, that one's spirit needs to first be rightly related. Without first the salvation of the spirit, there cannot even begin any kind of relationship. The second key to the kingdom of heaven is, therefore, the matter of the salvation of our soul. When it comes to our citizenship of the kingdom of heaven, right relationship is the Articles of Association. After the Memorandum of Understanding comes the Articles of Association which spells out the specific terms and conditions of that right relationship.

     All of mankind is faced with two fundamental choices, the first being the personal choice between "life and death", and then, thereafter, the second being the personal choice between "the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world." The first choice deals with a "positional statement", about being rightly related TO God. The second choice deals with a "relational statement", of relating rightly WITH God. Whilst the SPIRIT is saved by "FAITH IN" Christ Jesus, the SOUL is saved by "FAITHFULNESS TO" Christ Jesus. This is why the LORD says I have searched the world all over for one who is faithful, for one who I can trust. He is not referring to who has faith "IN" Him. He is referring to faithfulness "TO" Him. And faithfulness TO Him is demonstrated by daily making the choice, not for the world, but for the Kingdom of Christ. It's about being faithful to the greatest relationship and greatest love available to the heart and soul and mind of man.

"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro
throughout the whole earth to show
himself strong on behalf of those whose
heart is loyal to him."

- 2 Chronicles 16:9

     The secret nectar behind relationship is the manifest Presence of God. That is the sweetness that is "honey". That is the fullness that is "milk". And of this Presence, it was Moses who declared that he would rather forsake all of the fat of the promised land if entering the promised land meant he should forgo the presence of God. Moses understood the imperative of relationship. He knew by personal access to relationship with God that relationship comes before seeking all the other things that the kingdom of heaven shall add unto you. "And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." - Exodus 33:15. And in the privilege and priceless treasure that is the "presence of the Father" to the heart of a child, as children of the Most High, our inheritance in having a right relationship with our Father is that:

     We have found our HOPE
     We have found our PEACE
     We have found our REST
     In the One who LOVES.

     He will light the WAY
     He will lead us HOME
     As we offer ALL
     To the One who SAVES us.

- Hillsong: The One Who Saves

     “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are SONS of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of ADOPTION by whom we cry out, “Abba, FATHER.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are CHILDREN of God, and if children, then HEIRS—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be GLORIFIED together.” - Romans‬ ‭8:14-17‬

     And because of this relationship, we can stand firm on the promises that although for a season ot a time, we may be "hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—” - 2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:8-9‬. For the sole purpose and meaning of life is relationship. And right relationship. Which is love. And specifically the love of a Father for His child, and the love of a child for His Father. It is most certainly not in placing trust or relationship in things, or self, but in placing trust in the imperative of relationship. It is not about pursuing and placing trust in the created, but in pursuing relationship with the Creator. For whilst moth and rust will destroy all that are things, neither rust nor moth can ever destroy the relationship that is the unquenchable love of a Father for His child. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39.

     In its final glory, through the imperative of relationship with God, the love of our Father will single-handedly be more than enough to save our spirit and our soul and our body, presenting all three entirely blameless at the coming of the LORD. And in so doing, we have a trinity of trinities. The trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, saving the trinity of our spirit, soul and body, so that sin will be defeated in three ways - Past, Present, and Future. 1. We have been saved from the PENALTY of sin (spirit). 2. We are being saved from the POWER of sin (soul). 3. And we will be saved from the PRESENCE of sin (body).

To God be the glory, forever and ever. Amen and amen.

#WarriorServants4God #LovingAuthentically #LivingAuthentically

"For My house will be called a house of prayer."