The Beast Within

If you were to remove or incapacitate the spiritual aspect within any human being, you would be left with a large mammal. Then that large mammal would behave like any other large mammal. Chasing all its drives and urges in very predictable, mammalian ways.

That statement is clear, simple, intuitive and readily demonstrated. However, I am often confronted with a blank, confused, apparently disbelieving stare whenever I make such a comment. So, let me make another attempt at explaining it. But I’ll make this attempt from the ‘spiritual’ perspective rather than from the more conventional ‘animal’ perspective.

Genesis 1:28 says: And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the Earth.”

The phrase “every living thing that moves on the Earth” would include the mammal wherein you (the spiritual ‘you’) resides.

Got it? You are not that mammal. You simply reside in that mammal. In a sense, you are like a ‘guardian angel’ for your mammal and it’s your primary job to take care of it and teach it to behave according to God’s principles. Whether you recognize and accept your job or not determines where you spend eternity when your mammal dies. How well you do your job determines what you’ll do in eternity and how you’ll be regarded there.

You have been a resident of that mammal since it first germinated. You (the spiritual ‘you’) have been gaining an understanding of your position and function in parallel with the mammal as it grew and matured. This residence situation has been the case for every human being since the encounter with the ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’.

Your mammal is readily influenced by good or evil (all humans are) so your job is relatively easy if you keep your mammal away from evil. However, as you are undoubtedly aware, that part can be challenging.

(See Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is truly the way to worship Him.)

Another portion of your job is to aid other free-willed spirit beings who, like yourself, reside in other mammals. Some of those other spirits are well on their way to accomplishing their primary function. Others are not. Some haven’t the ‘horsepower’ to understand what their job is. Some know what is expected of them, but refuse to engage with it. But far and away the most common situation is spirits who take the easy way out by simply allowing their mammal to “run the show” – many of whom have been led down, or have simply stumbled upon, the wrong path.

The latter portion of your function – dealing with other spirits in mammalian residence – includes counseling, cajoling, encouraging, reprimanding, teaching etc. Whatever it takes within God’s will to motivate those kindred spirits. (See Matthew 22:36-40)

Does it make better sense now?

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