Section 05 - Origins of Separation and Loneliness Part 2

We saw in the previous section that God intends us to come together in our spirits, our souls and our bodies. But problems in each of these areas prevents us from entering into good relationships.

It prevents us from developing lasting relationships. It also prevents us from experiencing the joy and the happiness that God intended for us in having a relationship. And of course the ultimate relationship is the marriage relationship.

We come now to the third and final part of our being that is involved in relationships. You may think that this one is probably the least important. But in reality it is probably the most important in the thinking of most people.

In God's economy it is the lowest part; it is the least. God's order is always spirit, soul and body. God is more concerned about and places greater importance on the spirit, than on the soul and lastly on the body.

However, because of the fall of man in the garden of Eden, because of our inherent sinful orientation and nature, we tend to reverse the whole thing and to put the physical first instead of last.

So when it comes to the problems from a physical viewpoint that affect our relationships, we are going to find there is a lot more to look at here.

When we looked at the spirit we looked at only one function. We looked at the function of communion or the ability to fellowship with one another.

As we got to the realm of the soul, we saw that it expanded somewhat into two main needs. They were the need for acceptance and recognition.

As we come now to the body, we find that there are actually even more factors that are involved. And so I would like to look at the three main functions of the body and how each of these is associated with relationships.

You see the body actually has three main functions. I am not going to give you all of them up front or you will know what I am going to share on, but I will fill them in as we on.

Where does the body fit into a relationship? Firstly people need to come together spiritually and socially. That is very important. It is the first stages of developing a true relationship, but in the end the body comes into play.

There are blockages that affect the communion in our spirits as we saw. There are blockages in our emotional expression of the soul which are caused largely by our own inner needs.

But the third area of blockage in relationships is uncontrolled functions of the body. It happens when instead of coming under the control of the spirit and the soul, the three functions of the body begin to control our lives.

You see God's order is that you bring your body in subjection to the spirit within. Your soul should take control of your body and bring it under control.

But what inevitably happens, because of sin we tend to listen to our bodies more than we listen to our spirits. The Bible calls that walking in the flesh.

The Importance of Appearance

What is the very first physical quality that affects a relationship? I like to call it first sight. When you see a person for the first time, you make a very quick assessment within a very short space of time, and you ask yourself this question.

You say, "Do I want to get any closer to this person? Do I want to know them any better, or do I want to turn and run?"

That is our human nature whether we like it or not. We can look at that person and say,

"They are so spiritual. I can see they have a real healthy spirit and they love the Lord. They have such a beautiful soul. They have it all together, but it's a pity about their ugly body."

It is human nature. It is the way we are.

Eating Correctly

Your appearance is very important. And there is one main bodily function that is probably involved more than any other and that determines your appearance. It is the bodily function of nourishment.

Nourishment is the inbuilt function to make your body healthy and to maintain it in a good condition. To enable that, God has built certain mechanisms into the body.

The one which is probably the strongest is the one which makes us sit down at a dinner table three times a day if possible; sometimes more often. It is eating, and let's face it eating is such a wonderful experience.

We all have our passions for certain kinds of food. But what we eat can change what we look like. It is a fact whether we like it or not.

Nourishment also involves keeping the body in a healthy state. That means forcing ourselves to get involved in a certain degree of physical activity.

If you are in a position where your job involves you walking a lot, very often that alone can be sufficient to keep your body in a pretty healthy state. It is actually all that Adam and Eve had in the garden. They had to walk everywhere they went.

Unfortunately modern appliances have saved us that effort. We get in the car, on a motor bike or a bicycle. We find a way to use them. We don't climb the stairs anymore. We get on the escalator or take the elevator and save ourselves the effort.

When it comes to food, instead of making the effort to find healthy food, to cook it and prepare it properly, it is just so much easier to buy it out of a packet, a box or a can.

And usually junk food is cheaper so it saves us money. It is quick and easy to grab a hamburger on the run, because you say,

"I don't have time to make food. I have a busy job and I have been working hard all day. I come home and I don't have time to cook. We'll just go and buy some fish and chips down the road."

What is happening is we now are violating what God built the function of nourishment for in the first place.

Included with that is keeping the body clean, getting rid of all the diseases; washing your body to keep away all the germs, the bad odors and all the poisons that are exuded. It is to keep your body in a healthy condition.

So we need to eat correctly, do the right amount of exercise and keep our bodies clean. And then the last one is to dress it up a little bit so that it looks good.

All of these things make a difference to what people experience in first sight. When they see you, what do they see?

Demonic Influence

What do you think when you see a person who is fat or obese and who doesn't care about their appearance? Their hair is uncombed and they look as though they haven't bathed for a couple of days.

What is your first impression of such a person? For most of us the impression is to keep away.

You know the Scripture teaches us that Jesus met a man who came out of the tombs. He was walking around naked, tore himself, foamed at the mouth and did all sorts of things.

You see Satan wants to steal the good things that God has for us. And when I see a person who is incapable of disciplining their body in any way, who is not even prepared to make the effort, I see someone who has been influenced by demonic powers.

You will find that people who are in demonic bondage gravitate that way. You will find that the place where they live is dirty and disgusting.

They seem to live in filth, poverty and uncleanliness. That is why the demonic forces are often called unclean spirits because they are unclean.

God designed us to use our natural function of nourishment to produce a body that is attractive. When a woman is slim and curvaceous and she radiates good health, fitness and cleanliness, a man sees her and the first sight is not enough.

He wants to take a second one, and maybe a third also. The next thing he says is,

"I would like a relationship with this person."

He hasn't even assessed her spirit or soul yet.

Well it is not as strong the other way. But let's face it, a guy who has a nice masculine shape, who is slim, well built, has a healthy body and who dresses well, is far more attractive than a sloppy bum.

A guy like that is far better than someone who is half shaven, with his hair hanging down and his shirt hanging out over his big belly. Who is attracted to such a person? Such a person might say,

"I can't understand why I can't get a relationship. Well you know I do like my food. Hey I have nothing else to do in life."

A woman might say,

"I don't have time to put make up on and look attractive. Besides I can't afford it; it is expensive."

You can make every excuse under the sun that you like. But I'm sorry it is not going to work.

Diet and Exercise

You need to care for your body. And one of the first things that Satan wants to introduce to overcome the natural function of nourishment is gluttony.

How does he do that? He does it by stirring up all the conflicts in your soul. Then you have to eat to try and meet your emotional needs.

Yes he attacks us in our spirits and our souls and it is reflected in our bodies. We need to overcome it, even as we have been teaching in this whole series on overcoming evil. We need to overcome the powers of darkness.

We also need to overcome some of our bad experiences of the past. We haven't covered that here, but we will be covering it in some detail in another course on overcoming hurts and bad experiences in life.

We can overcome these things. And when we do we take away the license of the enemy. But you see Satan will work through the body first because he comes in from the outside.

He doesn't have access directly to your spirit if you are a child of God. So he is going to come in from the outside and hit your body, your mind and your emotions.

He will try and make you too unattractive to develop the relationship that he knows is going to be a threat to his kingdom.

You are not going to have the happiness of finding your life's partner and of entering into the joy that the Lord has for you. You will end up with an ugly body.

You can overcome a lot of that by exercise. Even if you are eating badly a bit of exercise can make a difference. And in the end if you are still struggling you can hide it in some good clothes and still look attractive. But the first impression or sight is most important in developing a relationship.

Once you have enough interest from the person after the first sight, then you can bring out all those wonderful qualities in your soul and your spirit that will make the person think,

"Wow, this is what really attracts me. I don't even notice the body anymore because there is something far greater within."

But you are not going to get to that stage, and that is why Satan is determined to destroy the human body. That is why sickness and disease is rife in this world. We have already dealt with the origins of sickness and disease.

Satan also wants to keep you poor so that you cannot take care of your body. We have dealt with that in the teaching on the origins of poverty and lack in the previous two sections.

These things all flow together. He wants to keep our bodies in a state of bad health, so that our lives are shortened and so that we don't enter into those relationships and the joy that God has for us.

You need to have all these areas under control. You need to control your appetite and keep your body in a healthy condition through diet and exercise.

You need to care for your body properly and dress it well. If you can do these things I believe that you have a body that is ready to enter into a relationship.x

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