One of the most important and basic questions we should ask ourselves as thinking beings is, 'what exactly are we or, what does my nature consist of, or what makes me a human being'? Many have believed the irrational concept that we are merely atoms, molecules, proteins, cells, etc. - in other words, physical things are all I consist of. That is as unreasonable as saying that the nature of a computer is merely its hardware...that no software is needed to account for the ability of the applications to do what they do. Instead of believing that which is unreasonable, why not listen instead to the one who defeated death to validate what he believed?
In this very important saying, the Light of the world communicates not only the most important thing we human's ought to be focused on, but also that their are three aspects to human nature that God created...our heart, soul and mind.
And in the following sayings, he teaches there is another aspect to our spiritual or metaphysical nature, our spirit:
So, to complete the picture of what the Light of the world teaches regarding human nature, he says people have a heart, soul, mind and spirit.
I encourage the reader to read Joshua's teachings themselves to come to conclusions about what he teaches about these things. What I am presenting here are my thoughts about these things based on what I know of Joshua's teachings, his use of these four terms, and deduction based on his use of those terms.
Our heart represents our will, the core of our being that controls the decisions we make regarding what we do with our both our life and the time we are given each day. Our heart determines what we value or consider important and thus it directs our will. So, for example, when a person says, "I am going to set my life to have a successful career as a 'businessman, artist, athlete, engineer, etc.', what they are saying is that following Joshua is NOT the will of their heart...that pursuing that which the world considers valuable is more important than what Joshua considers valuable, which is loving each other, which is behavior focused on giving more than on taking, sharing more than keeping. You could pursue those other things but only if they are less important than following Joshua. If they are primary and not secondary - if you spend most of your time pursuing those things and thinking about those things instead of Joshua, his teachings and doing what he says - then you forfeit eternal life. Why? Because the Light says that love is the most important concept that the Creator wants we his created beings, to order our lives by. When that is not the case, you get what you see, experience and for most, participate in each day in this world...lives guided by self-pride and fear and selfishness. Stated another way, we are either using our will to follow the Light of the world and live according to his Way, or we are using our will to follow the world and what they say is important. Our will is normally misguided and desperately needs proper guidance which only Joshua can provide.
Every human being has a will. The vast majority of human beings use their will to ignore the Light of the world.
Our soul represents both our emotional capabilities as well as our conscience.
Our emotions are what color our experiences and our thoughts. We experience emotions based on things that happen in our lives or thoughts we have about our lives, others or our experiences. All people have the capability to experience emotions, but sadly, most people today are allowing their emotions to make life and relationship decisions instead of using their mind and reason. That is about as smart as deciding which way to walk next to a cliff based on walking towards the cloud shapes I like the best instead of which direction the cliff is. Or, as another example, it is about as smart as a person dying of thirst in the desert to decide which way the water spring lies in the desert based on which color or shape of sands that he likes instead of deduced facts like plants live near water. You might think these examples are silly, but the truth is that more and more people each day - including probably you dear reader - are making decisions based on "I feel" instead of on "that is true". As people have turned away from the One who says, "I am the truth", and even away from the fact that truth exists, they are only left with the utter selfishness of "I feel, therefore I decide this". An existence of being led by our emotions is a life of deep darkness.
Every human being has a soul.
Our conscience is that which intuitively tells us what is right behavior from wrong behavior, or our ability to judge right from wrong on a non-intellectual basis. It is what sets us apart from animals. Animals don't behave based on a moral compass of, "this action is wrong and thus I will not do it", or, "this action is right and will help all animals in this area so I will do it". Rather, they are programmed with instincts that control their behavior. To deny that humans have a conscience is to say that a child who lies has no idea that what they are doing is wrong...even the child who was never told that lying is wrong. Go, test what I say - find a child and ask them to tell a person that the blue car is a red car. Humans were given the innate ability - through our metaphysical conscience - to know right from wrong. I obviously am not saying that human's live by their conscience, because in general and for many, they obviously do not. Our will can easily overcome our conscience, especially when we perceive we will gain or lose something valuable to us based on some decision. We can also dull our conscience by going against it so many times that it loses its sensitivity.
Our conscience is why no human being will stand before our Life Judge and successfully plead, "I am innocent" or "I plead ignorance".
Every human being has a conscience, but many dull or destroy their conscience through drugs (dull) or practicing wrong behavior (destroy).
Our mind represents our intellect - our ability to reason, use logic and thus to know truth from falsehood.
Our mind is distinct from our brain. To use a computer analogy, the brain is the physical hardware or 'cpu, memory and storage' while the mind is the metaphysical 'software' or operating system. Our mind is affected by our will and soul. In other words, our mind might successfully determine that something is true instead of false, but our will may take our conclusion and wash it away into non-action if we perceive we will lose something we want if we act upon the truth/conclusion. If there is one thing that is needed today, it is for people to use reason well to arrive at truth. Tragically, most people do not because they have believed many false things about this realm called 'the world'. They believe these false things because they are not willing to put truth above the comfort of their own existence in this world. Stated another way, they love this world more than they love Joshua and his Father - thus, they avoid the truth and only use lesser truths to serve their desires in this world.
Every human being has a mind.
Our will interacts with our mind as our mind informs our will about the realm in which we exist and interact with. Our will interacts with our soul as our soul provides 'data' on what is right and wrong.
Our spirit is that part of us that enables us to connect with our Creator. Through our spirit we can connect or communicate with outside entities or beings, including our Creator....being to Being without words or language communication.
Not all human beings have a fully functioning spirit, meaning their spirit can connect or communicate with their Creator - in fact, most adults do not.
All people (except severely disabled people) are born with all three metaphysical components (heart, soul and mind) and their spirit. Those components develop over time as we grow. Children are known for their innocence and their willingness to accept what is told them as true. Innocence is defined as "freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil", or, 'not knowing what wrong is, accepting things at face value, and having an intuitive predisposition to do right, trusting people'. As children, we know that we exist do to something outside ourselves, even though we cannot understand that Source...we have an innate trust in that which Created us, even if we were told the falsehood that our parent's created us. (The truth is, our parents just brought together the raw materials of sperm and egg and the Creator's miracle of genetics took over to create our bodies (the 'hardware') while the Creator Himself continues to be the Source of existence of our spiritual or metaphysical components (the 'software'). See the video, Am I More Than Molecules? or the video's transcript here.)
However, something happens as we human beings start reaching adulthood...as we enter into our teen age years. We transition from the innocence of childhood and its basic outlook and relational dynamic of trusting others - to the non-innocence of understanding what is wrong and wanting what is wrong to some degree, and to not trusting others because of the wrong-ness we experience with ourselves and the people we encounter or have relationships with. This lack of trust extends to all beings, including the One who designed and created us...we impugn human characteristics on the Creator or wrong attributes to Him and thus decide He is not worthy of our trust/faith or worse that He does not exist.
When we leave innocence and a simple trust/faith in our Source, our spirit 'dies' in a sense, or we become spiritually blind, deaf and dumb...stated another way, we fall into darkness. This happens when we turn away from a simple faith/trust in our Creator to trusting only in ourselves or to a limited extent in others we deem worthy.
So, there we are, 'walking dead' as teenagers. We have our hearts, souls and minds, but our spirit dies as we walk away from innocence and start living some version of, 'everyone has to do it to survive in this world' or 'everyone does it, so so will I'. We enter into the darkness of a life now guided by fear, self-pride and selfishness. We live to preserve our life in this world, often at any cost. We reject faith in anything we cannot prove by physical means or validate with our senses. We reject sound reason and objective evaluation when it points to 'places where we don't want to go'. We start building walls of fear and self-pride, and justifying all our selfish decisions, caring primarily about ourselves and usually only a limited number for others and usually only if we get something out of them. We put ourselves in a prison of our own making.
This is the reason the Creator sent His Life...to bring us back alive and to set us free! This is why the Creator, our Father, sent his Light...to bring us out of the darkness. This is why the Life and Light said this...
This necessary experience/event that Joshua speaks of above is required to bring our dead spirit back to life - he does not want us to "remain in darkness"...he does not want us to remain bound in our prison...he does not want our spirit to remain dead. If a person has not been born from above, then they cannot see - nor enter - the kingdom of God. Sadly, when many people get a slight understanding of what the Light is saying here, they will immediately claim they have been 'born again' even when they have not. These are the religious crowd.
How can a person know if they have been born from above? That is like asking a man who has been in a prison and tortured for years if he knew when his rescuer got him out of that prison! You will know!
Or it is like a woman caught in a fantasy world, pretending she is living a real life, but she knows at some deep level that what she is living is somehow false, and one day, a real person extends a hand to her and pulls her out of the fog/delusion/fantasy.
Many will claim that they love the Lord our God with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength...but claiming something does not necessarily make it true. We can only love a Person if we truly believe they exist...and in respect to Joshua and God, if we have truly transferred our faith/trust/confidence to those Persons.
How can a person know if they have truly been born from above? How can a person know if they truly love their heavenly Father with all that is in them? That is like asking a child who loves her parents - and those parents are taken away when she is 10 years old - if she will know when she is reunited with them after 2 years! You will know!
Here are some objective signs of that new birth...if we have changed significantly from a person who was primarily guided by self-pride and fear and selfishness, to a person who lives and fights for what is true, for what is right, and who desires to love Joshua, our Father and others above all things.
What about you dear reader? Do you just have some religious/bible knowledge and a few rituals that mark your life 'for God'? Do you have some past event at a religious organization - like raising your hand or walking down an aisle or an emotional event - as a substitute for a truly new life? Or are you a truly changed person who lives to tell other's of our Father, our Master, and the Life they bring? Do we truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength?
Please, enter into his Life and come, join the peaceful revolution!