Living Soul: In the Image of God

Copyright © 2014, 2016 Leroy Daley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-4179-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4180-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4181-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016907621

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/31/2016

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1     Before The Fall Of Adam

The Body of Man

Living Soul

What Is the Image of God?

What Constitute the Image of God?

The Mind of God

Chapter 2     The Fall Of Adam

Chapter 3     After The Fall Of Adam

The Body of Man

The Soul of Man

Qualities of the Soul

Physical Qualities of the Soul of Man

Emotional Character of the Soul

The Soul Sins

The Righteous Soul

Chapter 4     The Spirit Of Man

Chapter 5     The Unbeliever’s Soul And Spirit

The Separation

Chapter 6     Crucify The Flesh

Our Word and Fasting

Chapter 7     How Does One Lose His Soul?

How to Retain our Souls

Chapter 8     The Born Again Experience

The Importance of Water Baptism

Born of the Spirit

The Come Upon Experience

Changes at Pentecost

The Wait

How to Identify When the Holy Ghost Comes

Chapter 9     Fear, The Pit, And The Snare

Fear

The Pit

The Snare

The Snare of the Devil

Snares of Death

Contemporary Examples of the Snares of Death

Chapter 10     The Works Of The Devil

The Power of the Tongue

Sickness and Disease

Prison

How Sickness Happens

Money

Insanity

Religion

How to Serve God

The Church

Chapter 11     The Last Adam

The Seed of the Woman

Mission of the Last Adam

In the Image of God

Conclusion

About The Author

Notes

To Karen

PREFACE

In February 2010, I became a blogger. I built a website and began to write about the Word of God. Each day for two years I blogged and wrote Bible studies on diverse subjects. I wrote about everything. No subject was too difficult and none was off limits. This was true even when I was unfamiliar with a topic, but that did not discourage me one bit.

I spent many hours seven days a week searching the Bible for answers. I did comprehensive Bible studies on: fasting, prayer, salvation, and on Jesus Christ. I studied his conception, life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and Spirit. I wrote about the first century church, the apostles, and Moses. I did many Bible studies and still do.

During those years while I researched each day’s article, the Lord would provide snippets of revelation to me on a variety of topics. One day, I recognized that all those inspirations had one connecting thread running through them—living soul. I was excited to say the least.

I was instantly aware that what I had was too big for a blog post (Bible study), but inadequate for a book; nevertheless, I started to write a book.

If the material I had could reasonably be a large enough online Bible study, maybe I would not have written this book. I know I could have written an e-book, but I did not want to write one. However, after writing for some time, I stopped because I did not have enough information to continue.

I continued, though, to study the Bible and to blog, and the Lord gave me additional insights. More than eighteen months later, I resumed writing it; then it had a different title.

There were times I thought about abandoning this project. I doubted whether I was qualified (spiritually) to proclaim this Word of God; I’m not a pastor.

Nevertheless, I kept at it, for I felt strongly that the message of Living Soul would benefit the church, and the world needs to hear it. Writing it also affords me the opportunity to furnish far greater detail on a variety of topics in one place.

I have observed that the church’s claim of possessing the power of God is unsubstantiated by many Christians. Unbelievers and Christians experience similar predicaments.

Unsaved people are dying from sickness and disease, and Believers meet their demise by the same afflictions and infirmities. Unsaved ones are broke, and many Christians are penniless and impoverished. Where is the difference?

The Church has power over all the wiles of the Enemy, but it does not manifest this godly might. It has the power of God, but it doesn’t know how to harness and to use it. Where is the power?

I write this book to empower Believers. We could live above sickness and disease, and above lack and depravity, but we must be born again according to the Word of God.

I don’t write as an expert on the soul. However, I do write as a Christian who firmly believes and knows that God has answers for all our problems in His Word. If we merely read the Bible we will never discover the hidden gems that He has waiting for us.

As born-again followers of Christ, we have all the powers of God at our disposal. Learn how to align your daily conversations with the Word of God and experience untold powers, but we must obey Him.

I’m very grateful to my family—my wife Karen and our son Chad. I appreciate your love, patience, support, and understanding as I locked myself away for many hours during many a-day to write this book.

Karen, I thank you for your invaluable support in more ways than I can express here, and for your unwavering love and dedication to me and my ministry. I love you much. Chad, I love you too son. Without your constant and collective support this book would have remained a dream. Thank you for your assistance in making it a reality.

I’m also forever indebted to my parents Enos and Alvalyn Daley. Dad, thank you for your many lessons, but most of all, I thank you for teaching me to read and for imparting to me your love of reading.

Mama, I’m eternally thankful to you for being a consistent role model as a praying Christian and for ensuring that all your children attended Sunday-School and church Sunday after Sunday.

I also wish to thank Bishop Isaac Zedekiah Mitchell and First Lady Shirley Mitchell for their spiritual input into my life. They are from the First United Pentecostal Church of Highgate, Saint Mary, Jamaica West Indies (W.I.). Bishop, I thank you for your many life-lessons and Bible studies. But most of all, I am very appreciative to you for insisting and ensuring that we study and recite a different scripture verse every week. Thanks you too for explaining the god-head to me, and thirty-five years later, I still understand and remember it.

First Lady Mitchell, thank you for all the different roles you have played in my life. You have been a mom, counsellor, teacher, relative and friend. But, now I extend gratitude to you for your explanation of the seven Spirit of God. You opened my eyes to them long ago. Thank you.

I could not end without acknowledging the input of another spiritual giant in my life. I must convey my gratitude to another preacher and friend: Pastor Anthony Armstrong. He hails from the Emmanuel Apostolic Church of Port Maria, Jamaica, W.I.

Through your preaching, you kindle a passion in me to learn more about the Come-Upon of the Spirit of the Lord God recorded in the Old Testament. You are the only Believer I ever heard teaching on this topic. More than twenty-five years later, that desire has resulted in an important chapter in this book. Thank you fire-starter. Keep it going!

Without all your combined, and balanced influences, I would not be who I am today, and this book would never have been written. May the good Lord Jesus Christ continues to bless you.

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

INTRODUCTION

Living Soul investigates three phases of the life of the first man Adam: before, during, and after his fall. It examines the reasons Adam, Jesus Christ, and the first century church validated the power of the Lord God. It reveals the reasons the contemporary one is powerless and what it needs to do to regain dominion over the earth.

Sin changed Adam’s spiritual structure. At first, he did not possess a soul for he was 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).

Here, the Bible makes no mention of Adam’s spirit or his soul; instead, it declares that he is a living soul. How did he move from being a living soul to possessing a soul?

The soul of man can be the single greatest obstacle or aid in the life of a Christian. If left to its own devices, it will never please the Lord God. On the other hand, the restored living soul of man with his righteous spirit will always please the Lord God, our creator.

The spirit of man does not control his soul. Both the soul and the spirit are independent agents, but they work with or against each other, depending on a person’s born again status.

The Lord God started His creative process by speaking. He said, let there be and there was; however, after He created all the animals it got controversial.

When it was time to make man He declared, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth (Genesis 1:26).

Who was the Lord God speaking to when He said, let us? And how can we be certain about the answer?

The first century church showed that it possessed the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. They cast out devils, healed the sick, and raised the dead through the workings of the Holy Ghost. The present-day church, on the whole, demonstrates none of these signs of the Believer. What has gone wrong? Where is the power?

CHAPTER 1

BEFORE THE FALL OF ADAM

The Body of Man

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16).

We are aware that God is a Spirit, (John 4:24). However, the Bible assigns human attributes to Him, such as the five senses and body parts (like hands and feet), for our benefit, because humanity does not form relationships with spirits.

With this in mind, it may say that God hears, but He does not because He has no ears. He knows everything. It may also declares that He moves or walks, but He has no feet. He’s everywhere and has no need to move. Or that He speaks but He has no mouth but ours.

Nevertheless, it’s by thinking of the Lord God as another human being that we establish and nurture relationships with Him. But He is a Spirit.

God formed man [out] of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). The imagery is amazing. We perceive Him as a potter molding and making Adam from the soil. This is what relationships consist of—bonding

One of the most profound components of any relationship is the power of touch. If we cannot touch those we love, there is a void in the bonding. But He formed everything (including Adam) by speaking.

The Lord God made Adam and Eve, but they did not develop into adults. He created them as such, but they had no experiences and no memories. All that they were came from Him. They relied on Him totally for everything. They saw and understood their environment, themselves, and God through the mind of the Lord.

The body of man is the only physical component of the entire human being, and it is outermost. It interacts with its environment via its five senses, and it houses both his spirit and his soul. However, before Adam’s living soul died, things did not happen that way; man did not learn about his environment from the outside, but from within.

The physical body of humanity has a different function from all of God’s other creations. It is the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. This privilege of man comes with an awesome responsibility. It involves constantly maintaining as holy the temple of God—our body.

The Holy Ghost has no body. However, after we receive Him, our hands are His hands, and our feet are His. Most importantly, our tongues are His. In this way, our bodies give expression to the Holy Spirit of God. Man is the only creation of God to have this privilege. Our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Our bodies are different from those of all other living organisms. We are different from all fishes, reptiles, birds, and all other living animals, and from all the other sons of God. We are the only ones with living souls.

We are unique, for we are the only ones God made in His image. Satan is furiously angry because we possess the image of God. As sons of God, we have His image and are human beings, yet we have godlike qualities through the Spirit of God. We are fully human beings and fully gods, for we belong to a dual universe—a spiritual and a physical one.

The environment had no effect on the bodies of Adam and his wife. There was no rain, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth but a mist would water the earth (Genesis 2:5). Note God caused the rain.

The whole earth may have been cold because of this mist, but it did not affect Adam and his wife, even though they were naked. Later, after his living soul died, this would also change.

The Garden of Eden was a utopia, for it was a perfect world. Sin’s entry into it changed everything. Sin introduced work, death, and rain to the earth.

As born-again Believers, we are the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. When a Believer receives the Spirit of God, He dwells in that person’s spirit, and the two are inextricably mixed. The Spirit of God is the spirit of man.

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).

This is the very first mention of living soul in the Holy Scriptures. What we learn about it from this reference will permeate the entire Bible. Except for the mention of it above, only two others exist, one in Revelation 16:3 and the other in 1 Corinthians 15:45.

The term living soul is very important because it introduces two crucial concepts simultaneously. First, it exposes us to the idea that man has a soul and that it is separate from his spirit and that he received it from God.

Second, it presents the notion of the living soul. Many Believers run with the idea that man has a soul but they overlook its essential functions. A godly understanding of soul is predicated on our comprehension of living soul. If we fail to grasp the important concept of the latter, we will not perceive what God wants us to know about the former and about being born again.

Therefore, a sound appreciation of living soul is crucial to the body of Christ. It’s fundamental to our thrust