TD Jakes - Understanding the Consciousness of God
I want you to understand that God is Father in creation, Son in redemption, and Holy Spirit in regeneration. The whole triunity of who God is, and yet He is one, has been so perplexing that the Church has been arguing about it for hundreds of years. Some say He is one and not three, while others say He is three and not one. In truth, you can't numerically define a God who is omnipresent and omniscient. If He is omnipresent and in all places at all times, He is here and there; He is past, present, and future. He is God, and so it is mystical. Paul said our greatest mystery is godliness, but for the purpose of us understanding Him from the aspect of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
When God created man in His likeness and in His image, He created one man. Behold, the Lord thy God is one, and beside Him, there is no other. Yet, that man has three parts: he is a spirit, he has a soul, and he lives in a body. Those three elements grant us different awarenesses or levels of consciousness. I will slow down a little because I want to make sure you grasp this. In my spirit, I have God consciousness; in my spirit, I know God. God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The most likeness I have of God is in my spirit.
Ephesians 2:1 says, "And you hath He quickened," which means made alive, "who were dead in trespasses and sins." In other words, the day Adam partook of the fruit, God said, "The day you eat of that tree, you shall surely die." Adam kept walking; his body didn't die, and his soul didn't die, but his spirit died. That's why Ephesians 2 says, "And you hath He quickened," or made alive, "who were dead in trespasses and sins."
So, what does that mean for his spirit? I'll tell you exactly what it means. In the Scriptures, death does not mean cessation of life; it means separation. In other words, "The day you eat of the tree, you shall surely die"; you will be separated from Me. Sin separates man from God. In the same way, when we die physically, the spirit is separated from the body. The body is in a casket, but the spirit is not there. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:1, "For we know that if this earthly house, or tabernacle, shall be dissolved, we have another building." This body is just a house; it's merely a tabernacle that is fading away. It's my body that ages; it's my body that has a birthday; my spirit doesn't have a birthday. He told Jeremiah in chapter one, "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. I ordained thee and sanctified thee to be a prophet unto the nations." God said, "I knew you before I formed you." How did He know me? He knew me by my spirit because my body hadn't been formed yet.
In my spirit, I have God consciousness. In my soul, which is real, I house my memories, affections, emotions, and appetites—my pain; everything that goes on in my soul is real. In my soul, I have self-consciousness. God formed Adam's body in the book of Genesis and breathed into him the breath of lives, and he became a living soul. He breathed His spirit into him, and when the spirit and the body came together, it formed a soul: self-consciousness. In my soul, I have self-consciousness—my mind, memory, and emotions. That realm can be so complicated; that is the area where I have self-consciousness.
I am aware of myself; I don't want to be here and not be aware of myself. We have seen people who, while still alive, didn't know they were alive. The body was there; it was still working; they were still breathing, but they didn't know they were alive because it is in your soul that you have self-consciousness. That is the area where I must wrestle, the area that God must apprehend. It is the area I have to bring into subjection; that is the area that must be transformed, according to Romans 12:2, by the renewing of my mind. My spirit is new if I am saved—it's born again and made alive according to Ephesians 2—but my soul is being renewed. I am saved in my spirit; I am being saved in my soul; I shall be saved in my body. That is my blessed hope. In my soul, I have self-consciousness.
Now, moving forward to my body: in my body, I have world consciousness. The only reason I know what temperature it is, or approximately what temperature it is in the room, is that I have a body. Dead people don't get cold or hot because when the body is dead, I lose consciousness of the world. It doesn't matter that the wind is blowing because my body is dead. My body connects me with this world, and it is in the body that I have world consciousness. Let’s review that briefly because it's essential for setting groundwork. I am taking some time with certain points today, but this is Bible class. It is in my spirit that I have God consciousness; we offer a litany of Scriptures to discuss that. It is in my soul that I have self-consciousness, and it is in my body that I have world consciousness.
The Bible states in Acts 2 that they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter, "What must we do?" This means that the word had penetrated their spirit. They were pricked in their hearts—in their spirit. It doesn't mean they were pricked in the heart that pumps blood through their bodies; it’s not my biological heart. It is my spiritual heart; they were pricked in their hearts. If you pricked my real heart—my physical, biological heart—I would probably bleed to death. We know they weren't pricked in their organic hearts, but in their spirits. They were pricked in their spirits and became aware of God, and all of a sudden, submission came, and they asked, "What must we do?" Peter told them to repent, be baptized in the name of the Lord for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit—all of that is in Acts 2:38.
What I want you to understand is a better grasp of the three different parts of you because they don't always come into agreement easily. Sometimes we experience turmoil; we lie down at night, don’t rest well, and toss and turn because there is conflict. Paul said there is a war in my members. When I would do good, evil is present with me. Maybe my spirit wants to do a good thing, but my mind is so scarred, damaged, and wounded, and I'm holding so many issues in my mind that evil has the opportunity to attack me in my mind. There is a war going on for the mind, for it is with the mind that we serve the Lord. The enemy doesn't want you to have any peace in your mind. Unless you let the peace of God flow out of your spirit and calm your mind, sometimes it is difficult to get rest at night.
There are times when our bodies may be stressed, aching, or tired; perhaps we have knots and muscle contractions that prevent us from getting rest. So, you have three parts of you to contend with, and without any company, visitors, or companions, achieving agreement in yourself is hard enough because there are three different parts of you. Not to mention the fact that I am a spiritual being, an emotional being, a sexual being, and a biological being—all types of different parts of me exist. I am also an intellectual being, and all of those aspects must be managed. I can feed my body, but I may not have fed myself intellectually. I can be intellectually bright, but emotionally deficient. I've seen people who were excellent students but emotionally deficient. There are all these different parts of us to manage in order to understand who we are.