Peter Snyman�

Let me just add to that (Peter)…As God is calling us into His household that we focus. God is calling us to a greater focus as to what He is doing as He is calling us into the House of God. How do we engage, focused on what God is doing. I’m going to get into the message this morning.

Maybe some of you have already received a message this morning. We are starting a new series today. It’s called “Elementary Doctrines.”

1 Corinthians 2:1-2  (NIV)

1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Some people will thank, that is, “Wow. He is noble.” When a preacher comes and says, “v2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him cruficifed…” some think, “Wow that guy is true to the Word because that’s what Paul said as well.” I have bad news for you. That is not an ideal condition. That’s not what we want a minister to be able to say to us. The reason why Paul was saying this, their level of maturity such that they could to handle it.

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 (NIV)

3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?

Can you see the condition in which Paul says, “I could only speak to you of Christ and him crucified…” We go back to the previous chapter.

Transcribed by:

Peter Snyman�

1 Corinthians 2:6-7

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. I want to read the text that will introduce this series….

There is a message of wisdom for those that come to maturity. I want to read the text that will introduce this series in Hebrews…. Hebrews 5:12-14 (NIV) 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.Remember when I’m speaking to this as a gathering, I recognize as I said in my repentance speech earlier, that I recognize that not everyone is in the same place in terms of their walk with the Lord. Some of you, are just babes in the Lord and have just come to the Lord recently and some of you are seeking and maybe one or two slipped in here to see what’s Peter going to say after this week… Wherever you find yourself, this will apply to you to the degree of your level of maturity. But, if you are young in Christ and are still immature, this is not a condemnation it’s just stating where you find yourself and where we need to journey from here. Is that okay?

Hebrews 6:1-3 (NIV)

6 Therefore let us move beyond  the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[a]  and of faith in God,  2  instruction about cleansing rites,[b]  the laying on of hands,  the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.

Transcribed by:

Peter Snyman�

It’s actually, doctrines of baptisms is a better translation (verse 6). Continues to read the above Scripture…

God permitting, we will do so. We are going to lay again the foundations for some of us, concerning these elementary doctrines. Elementary doesnot mean unnecessary. Elementary are the foundations upon which youhave to build. Anyone who is a builder knows that the most elementary parts of building is to lay a proper foundation. We are saying, elementary of that needs to be there and which must be a part of your foundation.

If you have just come to the Lord or you have been sitting in the House and you are still immature. Let’s make sure that you get these elementary doctrines down; so that you can mature. How do you know if you are stil about the milk; if you are still carnal and immature? All you know is Christ and Him crucified. All you know is that Jesus died for me so I can go to Heaven. We will all go to heaven then you need to understand these things. For those who are mature and I will be speaking to our overseers this evening, you need to be able to train others. Some of you did not know that there are six elementary doctrines. Maybe for the first time today you are thinking, “Oh, There are elementary doctrines that I did not even know that existed.”

If you did not go to Grade 1, that is now Grade R, if you did not get those elementary stuff in Grade R, you are in trouble. Maybe some of you are too clever for you own good then what do you know? Some of you are so clever but you don’t want to know the elementary basics of the Kingdom of God. David can I use you as an example? He doesn’t mind.

He was too clever for his own good. When he was in grade 1. In reading maths, etc., David was so clever. Every time that the teacher read the story, that they had to go home and read. She would put the story up and they would go through it. She would read through the story. They had to go home and read it to their parents. Any of you have grade 1 students? He was so clever that he memorized the story word for word. Every day he came home and “read”. He never got a word wrong. He memorized the story word for word. We were well through the entire year before one day, we realized that

Transcribed by:

Peter Snyman�

David couldn’t read. I covered the picture and David couldn’t read. I asked, “What is wrong? You’ve been reading perfectly all these months and then I realized that he had memorized the story that went with that picture word for word. What didn’t he have? He didn’t have the basics of reading. You can’t go to Grade 2 because there were elementary things that you have to have. It’s not about being clever. Its about being able to read. It’s about being able to sound out “c - a - t.” Sound it out. Sound it out. We learn by seeing that letters form words then you come into maturity to recognize words. You have to come through the elementary things. It’s not that elementary things are not necessary. He had to learn the elementary things, now his cleverness helps him. Do you understand? Without the elementary things…like math, if you don’t understand maths. Any math teachers here? David you are off the hook. Now it’s about me. I never did homework. I was the worst student. I couldn’t see the purpose of going to school and doing those subjects that I’d never do again. I was right by the way. I never used math again. For my children, if you know what God’s purposes are in your lives, and it doesn’t include these things then you don’t have to it. But in any case, I didn’t do my homework. How many of you know what happens to you in maths if you don’t do your homework? You don’t understand the problem. You don’t know how to apply the right formulas and the right equations. If you don’t get it in grade 8 & 9 and 10…how do you do it in grade 11 & 12? It’s impossible to flourish in grade 10 if you don’t understand the elementary doctrines of maths taught to you in grade 8 & 9. If don’t do your homework, learn from Pastor Peter, you will fail math because you didn’t get a grasp of the basics that you have build on in grade 10, 11 and 12. If you don’t get it then you have to go to extra maths classes to go get those elementary things down because there’s nothing to build on.

I’m introducing the reason we need Elementary Doctrines. If we don’t get it, we don’t have anything to build on. These six elementary doctrines that Scriptures speak about are: (1) The repentance from dead works, (2) faith towards God, (3) Doctrines of baptisms, (4) the laying on of hands, (5) the resurrection of the dead and (6) eternal judgements; these six (6) We will make sure that you have an understanding of these 6 doctrines. I might not

Transcribed by:

Peter Snyman�

go into detail but in Word School, we are going to go into more depth. Imagine if we have 500 people in Word School. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

But today, we are going to do “Repentance from Dead Works.” That’s easy. Repent means, “Yeah, it means to turn around but it’s not that it’s to turn around the way you think.” Its change the way you think; a mindset towards something. I walk this way and I change my mind about where this way is taking me, because of my change of thinking; I am thinking about this direction then I now choose a different direction. That is repentance. Dead works are all activities which have no life in them. Anything you do, the activities of which has no life in them - dead works. Maybe its quite fitting that I too, have to repent today from dead works. When the Lord shows you that these things that you are doing has no life in them then you have to repent from them.

Now, a few more scriptures in Proverbs will show the same thing….

Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)

12  There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

The soul is the defining element of what mankind is about in your own strength. Being human is being defined with you have a soul. You have a mind, a will and emotions; unique from any other being not he earth.What defines mankind as human beings? Interesting things…humanity, your mind your will and emotions. But, the soul, the reasoning of the soul, the reasoning of the mind cannot produce life. This is the crux of everything I want to say about the repentance from dead works. Your soul, your reasoning…what is your soul - your mind, your will and your emotions. Your soul and your reasoning of human intellect and the ways of men cannot produce life. In fact, there is a way that you think is right according to your soul and it will produce death.

Romans 8:5-14 (NKJV)

Transcribed by:

Peter Snyman�

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those  who live  according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  7 Because the carnal [carnal means immature] mind  is  enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body  is dead because of sin, but the Spirit  is  life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.I didn’t say that….(verse 9)… If you are soulish and you live by the soul and live by the flesh and not by the Spirit then you are not His even if you said the sinner’s prayer, This is why this is not abracadabra…You need to be born of the Spirit and not say, “I’m sorry for my sins so I can go to heaven. It’s repent. It’s about being born of the Spirit and living by it. If you live by the soul, it produces death. Do you see that? Say to yourself, “O my soul, I will not live by you. You will not rule. Mind, will, emotions, you will not rule me.” It’s very Biblical to speak to your soul. David did. It’s easier for us men to say about emotions. Women, still so. You are emotional blessings, God bless you, God made you that way but it will not rule us. We are led by the Spirit which produces life. That other stuff will produce death. You know that, even in your marriage. When the emotions come in, the world comes in, thinking as the world…death. But, God prepared works for us to walk in. We repent from dead works. What are dead works?

Works according to the soul. There are works that God has prepared. Ephesians 2:10 for us to walk in.

Transcribed by:

Peter Snyman�

Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Dead works are often religious activities. Very often, dead works are religious in nature but they have no purpose. Dead works have no purpose in God. They have no purpose in Christ. They have no purpose in the Kingdom. They are religious in nature; your works are religious in nature, but are not connected to the Kingdom and to the purposes of God…dead works. The enemy wants to entrap us there where we are doing religious works, trying to earn His favor and how I strive for God’s approval. How I do things that God can love more. He tries to tell you that if you can do better than God can accept you. You know, the enemy says, “You are not good enough. You must clean up your acts. Dead works. You first have to produce in yourself a form of righteousness, good works. Stop drinking, and smoking and cursing then God can now say, “Well done, I accept you. RUBBISH! Dead works!!

What you did in your soul to become worthy. We spoke about this before of how the soul being affected by words of a father have spoken over to us to say you are not accepted, not good enough, should we keep this one or abort them. This affects your soul and you try to produce something to show that you are worthy. It can affect you even in the womb. I also deserve my place in the sun…. The enemy wants to keep you in that entrapment that you producing out of your soul to be accepted. Every time that you failed, before you were in Christ; what did you do - when you failed or messed up or felt insecure or felt unworthy….what did you do? You reacted out of your soul,; you might have been angry, or gone to find someone to sleep with. You might have done several different things to feel accepted.

Now, when the enemy wants to entrap you, when you feel unworthy or you feel that provocation, now that you are in Christ, he wants to take you back to how you dealt with it when you were in the soul. Get angry, let them have a piece of you and go now, to pornography. He will take you back to where you were when you lived by the soul without the Spirit of God, when you tried to

Transcribed by:

Peter Snyman�

do it in your own strength. The enemy will try to keep you to try to earn God’s behavior and you try to fix it the way you used to by your soul. I want to raise the issue here which some don’t like.

When the enemy takes you back to that entrapment to operate, to react out of your own soul…do you understand what I’m talking about? Does this make sense to you, the works of the flesh or what you produce in your own strength by your soul? When you go back to that and keep operating in that; the enemy establishes in you a stronghold and demons come and occupy you. NO Peter! Christians can’t have demons. Can a Christian have a demon? You can have whatever you want. Peter, the Holy Spirit and the evil spirits cannot dwell in the same place. It is true but not with accurate understanding. It is true that the Holy Spirit and a evil spirit cannot occupy the same space. Where does the Holy Spirit reside? The Holy Spirit resides in your spirit. Where does an evil spirit occupy? The evil spirit occupies your soul. It is true that they do not occupy the same space. But, if you allow the enemy to establish a stronghold in your soul…do you know what it is? Do you know what a fort is? In war time, you might be in an enemies’ territory but you go and take a small territory. You build a fort, a fortress, a fort. You barricade and reinforce it. So, every time that you allow the enemy to entrap you in operating out of your soul, in that way, in your own strength or your own gratification (lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, pride of life) whenever you allow the enemy to get to act that way in that situation, in that area of your emotions within your soul; he fortifies that position until such time that he has a fortress that is well fortified and that is called a stronghold and it is in that position that he will come in and attack your life. Yes, everything else might belong to the Lord but that area of your soul, that area of your emotions, that area; you’ve allowed him to entrap you establish a stronghold there and that’s where that demon occupies, that stronghold. The Holy Spirit lives in your spirit. When you discover that there are areas in your soul that are occupied by evil spirits, then you need to repent. Have you go it?

When you recognize that there are areas in my soul, my emotions, my mind, in my way of thinking that is not conformed to the thinking of God, not conformed by the things of the Spirit, I am thinking just like the world. I’m

Transcribed by:

Peter Snyman�

operating by my own strength. I am reacting in this whether it be in anger outbursts or pornography, that’s just two examples that I use but there can be many ways but I am recognizing that he has a fortress there. He has a stronghold in there and that’s when I need to repent, that’s I’m doing it out of my soul. That is when you need to cast him out. You don’t need yelling, screaming. All you need to do, this should be common place.

There’s nothing embarrassing, shameful about a Christian having a demon. What is shameful is if you don’t want to deal with it and get rid of it! When you recognize it, REPENT! When you recognize in your soul a stronghold of the enemy and you are operating by your soul, out of your own emotions, out of your own strength, repent and expel that demon. How you do it is then you bring your soul under the rulership of the Spirit!

While we were worshiping, Charlotte had this picture of those tuning forks. This is when you say, this is the pitch. Tune, tune. It was tuning, to come in line; this is how we learn to align our lives with God’s frequency of the Spirit. There might be some areas needed of tuning because your soul has distorted. Its like a piano that has water damage or whatever. Its like your soul has been pulling this thing and you are out of tune and you play false. God says, recognize the tune, recognize the frequency of the Spirit and tune that soul. Tune those things and not by spit and yelling. No! It goes by repentance and by being ruled by the Spirit; allow Him to produce His works in you by His Spirit.

Hallelujah! This is basic doctrines that God wants us to have a firm grasp of. Give the enemy no room…that he can’t establish in us strongholds whereby we live and act and react out of soul. What does it produce? It produces death, chaos and every time we have a relationship it’s been because we acted out of our soul. It’s is so. It can’t produce life. When we act by the Spirit, not act by the Spirit…when we do the works He’s prepared us to do by allowing Him to produce the works in us by His Spirit….LIFE! It produces life and peace.x

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