Dear Children,

Would you believe, for this week’s message we’re gonna kinda like finish-up the sermonet on Pastor Stephens And The Rejected Word From God. What was that you said? What do you mean you thought we were finished already? I mean even though that very long twenty (20) page sermonet contained lots of details, there was tons of information that we left out. And it’s likewise that one particular prayer, that never got prayed, that the Good Lord wants us to put in the form of a sermonet. Because you see it’s those ministers in the Word Of Faith movement, who’re caught-up in the lie that Jesus actually had to suffer (be tormented) in Hell before the sins of the world could be forgiven, that the Lord wanted the Pastor to pray for during that awesome five (5) week adventure. In other words, they don’t believe the Perfectly Sinless Blood that Jesus shed on the Cross was enough... and that my friends is nothing less than a bold face lie straight from the pit of Hell!

So, having said all that, what do you say we venture on off for the rest of the story? Because you see it was way back in 1993 that I purchased a sixteen (16) tape series from Kenneth Copeland Ministries entitled Highlights Of Glory - The Best Of The 1993 Believers’ Conventions And Victory Campaigns. Well, when I first bought it I listened to it, and then it was somewhere around December of 2000 that the Lord told me to listen to it again. So I did! And it was right about when I got to the tape entitled The Foot On The Head Of The Serpent that I finally caught on to the reason why.

You see it was in that particular message that Kenneth Copeland told the very convincing story of how Jesus the Christ suffered an unimaginable amount of pain on the Cross, then died and went to Hell... just so Satan and his demonic demons could finish the Salvation Process by torturing His Spirit for three more days and nights. In other words what Kenneth Copeland preached was that Jesus’ Physical Sacrifice on the Cross was not enough to pay the sin debt of the world... because Kenneth Copeland believes Jesus’ Spirit had to die too.

So, after having listened to the tape several times, the Lord finally gave me the instructions for my next great adventure... which just so happened to be writing a letter to Kenneth Copeland. Now without getting into a whole lot of details, God’s intended purpose for my letter was to help Brother Copeland understand that his "Jesus died spiritually" doctrine just didn’t fit God’s "Perfect Design" of the human body. And just to clue you in on a few of the details, here’s a portion of my letter to him that was written on the 6th of January, 2001:

Dear Brother Copeland,

Well I don’t know how deep of an understanding you actually have of what you said when it comes to the human anatomy, but maybe you’re interested in reading what the Lord is giving to us. I mean He’s the One who told me to do this so I’m only following orders. I’ve enclosed the first sermonet of the series and if you’re interested in reading the rest please let me know. To God be all the Glory!

So, that was basically what I wrote Kenneth Copeland in January of 2001. And then it was something like a month later that I received one back from his Partner Services Department that went something like this: "We are honored that you have entrusted your work and heartfelt desires with Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Our Publications Department is designed specifically for the ministry needs of Kenneth and Gloria Copeland... For that reason, we do not review or publish material that we have not solicited. Please find your sermons enclosed."

Now you tell me, did I ever once mention a desire to have Kenneth Copeland publish our sermonets? No way; not even the first time! It was my "heartfelt desire" to do the will of God by getting out The Truth to a minister of the gospel who’s spreading the damnable lie that’s going to result in a whole bunch of Christians burning in the everlasting flames of Hell forever! That’s what I was trying to do, but it seems like no one was any too interested in listening.

OK, so that was my God-directed letter to Kenneth Copeland, and then during the month of April I attended the Jimmy Swaggart Easter Campmeeting in Baton Rouge, LA. Now would you even care to venture a guess as to what God’s chosen "very hot" campmeeting sermon topic was? Would you believe "the false doctrine of Jesus died spiritually" and it’s teachers Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, Fredrick Price, Paul and Jan Crouch, Benny Hinn, and the majority of the Word of Faith ministers?

Well it was! In fact for three days Brother Loren Larsen (president of the Jimmy Swaggart World Evangelism Bible College and Seminary) taught on this very important subject, only to be followed up by Brother Donnie Swaggart’s sermon on the same. I mean the Lord was really turning up the heat by letting The Truth be known... which even included calling a few names.

And of course from there we go to my great experience with Pastor Stephens And The Rejected Word From God in which the Lord tried repeatedly to get the Pastor to pray for these misdirected ministers of the gospel. Because you see this damnable doctrine is all a part of the last Great Apostasy of The Church, and God Almighty wants to save as many as possible from it’s resulting fiery death.

Now with all that in mind, what do you say we dig into the Scriptures and uncover the lies of "Jesus died spiritually"? Because starting things off with God’s requested Scripture for Pastor Stephens’ prayer meeting we find: "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron." (I Timothy 3:15-16 & 4:1-2)

So that was the Scripture the Lord gave me in order to disprove what the seducing spirits have produced in the doctrine of devils called "Jesus died spiritually". And the important part of His Scripture that we need to focus on today is that "God was manifested in the flesh" as Jesus the Christ, and then in that same body of flesh Jesus was "justified in the Spirit".

OK, seeing how we’re on the subject of God becoming flesh, what better opportunity than now to read a portion of John 1:1-14: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

Jesus was first of all the Word in Heaven, and He was then manifested in the flesh as a human on earth. Now the word "manifested" means to reveal or show in public. In other words when Jesus took on His human body everybody was finally able to see Him as a walking talking man. So "Jesus on earth" was actually "God in the flesh". And that brings us to this word "flesh". So what do you think it means?

Well seeing how we’ve already laid some pretty good ground-work in part VI of our sermonet series How Do You Want Your Fire... Now Or Later?, and seeing how this one’s going to be part VIII, what better time than now to do a quick review. Because you see it was in that sermonet Naturally Dead Until Spiritually Alive! that the Lord gave us I Corinthians 15:44-50 as our main Text. And reading just a small portion of it we find: "...There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit."

So how do you figure this thing about the "natural body" and "spiritual body" of the "human body" might fit in with the "flesh"? Well looking at the "natural and spiritual" side of things, it’s that one little old word "body" that was translated from the Greek word "soma" which is actually a very common word in the medical world of today. In fact the human body’s "master computer control" nervous system is actually divided-up into two separate systems. You’ve first of all got the "somatic" system which can be made to do whatever the human wants it to do (voluntary control), and then there’s the "autonomic" system which pretty much does whatever it want’s to do regardless of what the human might think (involuntary control). And to help you understand what this "involuntary control" is all about, God designed the autonomic system to be responsible for doing the repetitious critical functions such as keeping the heart pumping and the lungs breathing. So you see the autonomic nervous system does a whole bunch of very necessary things in our bodies involuntarily, without us ever having to think about doing them.

OK, so now that we’ve uncovered the fact that there are two different kinds of nervous systems in the human body, let’s get back to the one we’re going to focus on for today. Because it’s through the somatic nervous system of the body (soma) that the human has the ability to decide (voluntary control) what "motion" it’s going to produce next. And without getting all bogged down in the details (if the Lord’s willing we’ll do that later), it’s because of Satan’s bewitching ability to control us humans that all too often our "bodies" (soma) just give in and do whatever the "spirit of Satan" has suggested. And it’s this same weak link in the natural body (soma), that was produced as a result of Adam’s very first sin, that’s commonly referred to as "the flesh", that likewise continually tries to get us humans to commit Satan’s sins. Got it?

Well after going through that mini review on the somatic nervous system, do you understand what the Scripture "God was manifest in the flesh" is all about? Jesus was given a body (soma) with the same "fleshly capability" of being controlled by Satan’s seducing spirits as we are. And if Jesus’ body (soma) would have ever obeyed Satan’s "fleshly suggestions" on what He should do next, then He [Jesus] would have automatically become a sinner... but He didn’t... and thank God He didn’t. Because iffin Jesus would have committed even the tiniest little sin, we would all be destined for the burning fires of Hell (along with Satan and his sidekicks) forever and ever and ever.

Alright, so seeing how we’ve got a long way to go before documenting all the nitty gritty details of how Jesus destroyed sin in His "Perfect Human Body", and seeing how we want to expose the "Jesus died spiritually" lie right now, we’ll just have to do the best we can by kinda like hitting on the high spots. Because in I Peter 3:18 we find The Truth as spoken by the Word of God: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit."

Now in order to expose the lie of "Jesus died spiritually" you’ve got to first of all understand that there’s two ways in which a person can die; physically and spiritually. And if you really get into this thing about physical death you can break it down even further into two separate groups; one that’s not a complete shut-down of all body functions and one that is. In other words when you get down to the basics of just how the human body all works you’ll find that with each passing minute of life the human is also experiencing death. It’s called "metabolism", and it’s nothing more than the natural body’s tendency to kill-off body cells (death) as it recreates new ones (life). So you see as us humans physically continue to live we also physically continue to die until we reach that point in time when there is no more physical life left in our bodies... and we become totally and completely dead (physically).

And you see this is exactly how both of the Scriptures from I Corinthians 15:44 and I Peter 3:18 fit together so nicely: "There is a natural body [soma], and there is a spiritual body [soma]... For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit."

So the sixty-four (64) million (000,000) dollar ($) question (?) is "how do you turn a natural body into a spiritual one?" Well of course the very obvious answer to that one is that you first have to kill-off the body’s flesh (soma) so that you can bring it back to life through the Holy Spirit (quickened). Right? It’s what’s commonly known in today’s Christian terminology as becoming "born-again".

In fact this is probably as good a place as any to just go ahead and tie in Romans 8:1-13 with what we’ve already discussed: "There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

Now please believe me when I say that the preceding Scripture from Romans 8 is one more mouthful. I mean you could almost fill-up an entire library with books in order to accurately try and explain just what it all means when it comes to the "human body and sin". However, seeing how I’m trying my best to keep this message to a normal length today we won’t even attempt a book. But as to the meaning of "There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit", and how "the walking" part of it relates to the "human body and sin", I highly recommend part VII of this series entitled The Water In The Blood! Because you see this process of "dying to the flesh" actually takes place inside the "believer in Christ Jesus" as they "walk", in total and complete obedience, wherever the Spirit of God might lead them.

And of course in order to be led by the Holy Spirit so that flesh might die, the part about being a "believer in Jesus Christ" must include accepting the fact that Jesus Christ was God (The Word), who became a man with a sinless human body that could have very easily caused Jesus to sin, but He never allowed it to. In fact while Jesus was on The Cross Father God allowed His Body to be loaded down in It’s Flesh with every nasty dirty sin that had ever been invented. Jesus did not sin, but He took on all sin in His Flesh and then through His suffering destroyed it: "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."

That’s the way Jesus did it! Through His physical suffering, Jesus killed the sin in His Flesh and then replaced it with the Righteousness of His Holy Spirit. That’s how it happened with Jesus, and that’s the way it must happen with us: "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness."

And getting back to the discussion of physical and spiritual death, if a "believer in Jesus Christ" obeys the Holy Spirit by "walking" wherever He leads that person to go (step by step and irregardless of the suffering that might be encountered), thus dying to the flesh and being born-again in the Spirit, then at the time of their complete physical death they will go on to live with Jesus in Heaven, for ever and ever: "For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

So now that we’ve said all that, let’s get back to the Scripture that we started out with in I Timothy 3:16: "God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." Because you see now that we’ve got a better understanding of "manifested in the flesh", it’s the part about Jesus being "justified in the Spirit" that’s gonna shoot a whole lotta wholes right slap dab in the middle of that damnable doctrine that "Jesus died spiritually".

Are you ready for this one? Well when you take it on back to the Greek, the word "justified" means "to bring out the fact that a person is righteous"... and of course being righteous means that the person has no sin. Now the part about "bringing out the fact" does not mean that the person being justified has become righteous through his or her own punishment. In fact when it comes to the believer in Jesus Christ they are "justified" (seen as righteous in the Eyes of God), in spite of any previous sins, and only because of what Jesus did on The Cross. In other words it’s not what the Christian does that "justifies" them in the Eyes of God but what Jesus did. His Blood makes them righteous. And of course when you apply this same word (justified) to Jesus, it was impossible for Him to be "justified in the Spirit" if He had any sins. I mean there was absolutely nobody else that could give their spotless blood for Him!

So you see even though Jesus took on sin in His Flesh on The Cross, He totally wiped it out before His death. And due to the fact that He did not commit the sins that He took on in His Flesh, His Spirit was Righteous. At His death, Jesus was "justified in the Spirit" as the Righteous Son of God because both His Physical Body and His Spiritual Body were without sin. And seeing how Hell is only made for sinners, that’s why Jesus’ trip into Hell was not for the purpose of suffering in order to become righteous.

Now everything that we’ve just covered today will be minutely detailed very shortly in our future sermonets on the "human body and sin" (the Lord willing that is)... as to how it all happened in Jesus’ Perfect Human Body... which of course has everything to do with His Perfectly Sinless Blood. You see the Blood and Water that flowed from the side of Jesus proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that He was Perfectly Pure from sin at the time of His death. In fact that’s exactly what Colossians 1:20-22 is all about: "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight."

That’s the way it all happened in The Flesh of Jesus Christ, which even explains why the Scripture of II Corinthians 5:18-21 can’t be used by the Word of Faith ministers to prove that "Jesus died spiritually: "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

Jesus did take on the sins of the world in His Flesh but He did not commit any of the sins. And while we’re on the subject of all those sins, the Word of Faith ministers also use the Scripture of Isaiah 53:6-9 to prove that Jesus died both physically and spiritually: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death(s); because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth."

You see the word "death" could be translated "deaths", which is perfectly OK with what really happened on The Cross. Because what Jesus actually did through His suffering was to die "in The Flesh" to each and every individual sin of the world. Jesus died many times in His Flesh, as He destroyed the sins of the world, before finally dying completely in the physical. However, before His final death, and once the Salvation Process had been completed, Jesus announced to the world His Great Accomplishment for mankind by saying "It is finished!!!!"

Praise God!!! Glory be to Jesus!!! What a mighty God we can serve... if we walk the walk as commanded by the Holy Spirit. And having said that we can finish this one up with three last comments as directed by the Lord.

But before we go there I must share with you my experience in the Lord last night. You see I had already finished up this message when the Lord requested that I get on my face before Him in prayer. Well I did. And after giving Him the praise and honor for what He’s done in my life I asked Him if this sermonet was "all of him". When I received back His response of "yes" I immediately felt His presence. I thanked Him for it, and then He told me to put on a Benny Hinn praise and worship tape entitled Atmosphere for HEALING Volume 1.

Well that’s what I did, and it was only very shortly thereafter that the Spirit of God came all over me in such a way that my heart felt like it was breaking as great sobs of pain and sorrow came from within me. And as the Spirit of God continued to move on me I saw these great men and women of God, who’ve accepted this lie that Jesus died spiritually, caught-up in Satan’s trap. God loves these ministers very much and it’s His heart that’s actually breaking because of their entanglement with the enemy. Please pray that they will be able to stand up for The Truth and denounce the lie they’ve been spreading... regardless of the cost. Their everlasting lives depend on it!

- Another Gospel -
(Download MP3)

And now for the last three comments as directed by the Lord:

First of all, this message is directly linked to Pastor Stephens And The Rejected Word From God. Because you see the walk that the Holy Spirit had presented to him, concerning the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, was designed by God to clean-up some of his sinful flesh... but it just didn’t happen. I mean after all, being associated with Jimmy Swaggart in any type or fashion is a very painful thing to do. It could have very well resulted in the Pastor being severely mocked and ridiculed by the rest of his peers.

Secondly, the homosexual pastor that was greatly prophesied over in Pastor Stephens And The Rejected Word From God can be the one responsible for bringing many homosexuals to the Lord... if he will only "walk the walk" as directed by the Holy Spirit and die to his sinful flesh of homosexuality.

Thirdly, my oldest son Felix, who has been given "the walk" by the Holy Spirit to become the FMH Children’s Club International’s vice president, praise and worship leader, and Spanish translator, can die to his sinful flesh and help many others do the same through a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ... if he’ll only just do what he’s been told!

Salvation is not as easy as most Christians want to make it out to be. Jesus died on The Cross in order for the Holy Spirit to be able to become a part of each and every one of us. That’s step one of the Salvation Process. And once we’ve accepted Jesus Perfectly Sinless Blood as payment for our dirty rotten sins, and likewise confessed to Him our sins, then it’s the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to direct the fleshly "clean-up operation" in our bodies. He gives the orders, we obey, the flesh dies off, and the Holy Spirit replaces it with His Spirit of Righteousness.

That’s the way the Salvation Process is suppose to work... but it will only work if we obediently walk the path as directed by the Holy Spirit. And that, my friends, is why I continue pleading with you to Keep on keeping The Faith In Jesus!!!

(See "Dead Liver-less Frogs And The Word-Faith Movement" and "Testimony Of Deliverance From Word Of Faith Doctrine" for more on the subject.)

Love,

Dad (Bruce Hallman)