"...dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow..."

Think about it...you and I just might be that which is preventing others...friends...loved ones...even complete strangers...from truly finding God. Not just that...but doesn't slipping...sliding back into the ways of your past utterly rob you of and destroy your joy? I know they do mine. Those times when you do fall...don't you really feel the failure? You know something is off in your life...sometimes is blatantly obvious...and sometimes Satan finds way to hide these areas deep inside our subconscious...away from prying eyes. By sinning...slipping...we are actively and consciously choosing the path of Satan over the path of our loving and saving God. In order to stop falling back into this world...and the traps laid within by the Master Deceiver...we must let go. How...you may ask. Just how do I start today, instead of finding the seemingly inevitable areas of my life that I stumble into, through, and out of over and over and over again, how do I start today to walk away from these things...and thereby break their rule and control over me? The answer is simple...Truth. John 17:17 – “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” The thing that will separate us...divide us from the old world...from our self...and all that God wants us to be...is the renewing of our minds through Truth...God’s Word. Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-­edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Some have thought of the salvation…the sanctification…God gives us as a shower of sorts. Thinking of God’s saving love washing our sin away is kind of a bad descriptor. Looking at Hebrews 4:12, we see this process of separating us from our past self…from our worldly self…more-so as surgery. The truth that saves is not a watering can…but a scalpel. Sharper than any 2-edged sword, the Word of God is piercing, and the moment you open it, it is gutting for your heart. God is the Great Physician, the only one capable of defining and deciding what must go and what is allowed to stay and grow. God’s Word will split you wide open between soul and spirit. Soul is the Greek word psuche which means life. This is the physical tangible life that is shared by all the animals, us, and every living thing on this planet. Spirit is pneuma, which is literally translated as “breath”…life…the spirit of God. What God is saying is that He is performing surgery on us. The spirit of God will take the Word of God and drive it into the very core of our being. If we will listen, and we will open the Word of God, God himself will pierce us within. And He will lay-open the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, and we will have to look into the mirror of our self…and we will be forced to see what actions are for God…and which are for self. All of this is but for one purpose…it is the only way we can fully let go of this world.