Three Dimensional – Joshua

Introduction

THREE DIMENSIONAL

Have you ever noticed or wondered why we see so many matters in the Bible, come in THREE?

“THREE” is common in designating significant lengths of time. In all of this the conventional understanding of the number three need not be set aside.

First, It must be noted that a great many things were certainly said to have happened when the number three was utilized, whether it is three days, three months, three years, people, events, times or people. There are too many examples to say it is mere coincidence.

(Three days, three weeks, three months or three years (Gen. 40:12f., 18; Ex. 2:2; 10:22; 2 S. 24:13; Isa. 20:3; Jonah 1:17; Mt. 15:32; Lk. 2:46; 3:7; Acts 9:9; 2 Cor. 12:8).”)

And, within this mystery, lies a secret. A secret to living life as God purposes you to live.

Let’s start with a few, of the hundreds, examples of “THREE”

Next, we will move to the “secret within” and it application.

• There is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2), Jesus as God (Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:3–4).

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THREE DIMENSIONAL

Let’s start with a few of the hundreds of examples of THREE, then we will move to the “secret within” and it application.

• There is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2), Jesus as God (Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:3–4).

• Noah had three sons (Gen 6:10)

• Job had three daughters (Job 1:2; cf. 42:13);

• The Ark of the Covenant contained three sacred objects ‘The gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant” (Heb. 9:4).

• Solomon’s Palace of the Forest of Lebanon was designed with windows “placed high in sets of three facing each other. All the doorways had rectangular frames; they were in the front part in sets of three, facing each other” (1 Kgs 7:4-5).21

• John’s vision a triple entrance way marked all four sides of the city of the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:13).

• David “bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground” (1 Sam 20:41) and

• Daniel regularly prayed three times a day giving thanks to God (Dan 6:10, 13).

• Israelite men were required to appear before the Lord three times in a year: “Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles” (Deut 16:16).

• Jesus answered Satan’s threefold temptation by citing three scriptural passages Matt 4:1-11).

• Paul experienced three shipwrecks (2 Cor 11:28) and

• Paul prayed three times to the Lord for the removal of his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor 12:7-8).

The number three appears often in measurements of time as well. For example,

• Moses and Aaron petitioned Pharaoh, “Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God” (Exod 5:3; cf. Exod 3:18; 8:27).22

• The fleeing Hebrews went three days without finding water in the Desert of Shur (Exod 15:22).

• The Hebrews had traveled from Mount Sinai for three days, the people began to complain (Num 10:33-11:1).

• When the Hebrews neared the Jordan River they were informed, “three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own” (Josh 1:11; cf. 3:1-4).

• The men of Timnah were stumped by Samson’s riddle for three days (Judg 14:14) and King Rehoboam gave Jeroboam and the delegation of Israelites a three day waiting period as he considered their petition for less stringent royal demands (1 Kgs 12:5; cf. 12:12).23

• In the New Testament Jesus told the Jewish populace at the Temple, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:16), a fact that his disciples later recalled (v. 22).

A three-month period also figures in some matters.

• Moses’ mother was able to conceal her baby for three months (Exod 2:3; cf. Acts 7:20; Heb 11:23) and

• The ark remained at the house of Obed-Edom for three months (1 Chron 13:14).

In keeping with this the third month is often mentioned as one in which some significant action or event took place. Thus

• three months after Judah visited the supposed shrine prostitute, he learned that she was really his daughter-in-law Tamar who was pregnant with his child (Gen 38:24).

• Asa’s reforms were celebrated in Jerusalem in the third month of his fifteenth year of reign (2 Chron 15:10).

• Support for the priests of Hezekiah’s day was gained by means of a tithe which began “in the third month and finished in the seventh month” (2 Chron 31:7).

• Ezekiel received a message from the Lord concerning the fate of Egypt in the third month of the eleventh year of his exile (Ezek 31:1) and

• The Lord revealed through Amos, “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away” (Amos 4:7).

In the New Testament record

• Jesus’ mother Mary visited Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, and stayed for three months (Luke 1:56).

• Paul stayed in Ephesus for three months and “spoke boldly” in the synagogue there (Acts 19:8),

• and subsequently stayed three months in Greece (Acts 20:3).

• Still later after the ship that was carrying him to Rome to stand trial was wrecked in a storm, he and his captives stayed on the island of Malta for three months (Acts 28:11).

A period of three years can be noted in the accounts of several biblical texts. In fact, Beyse suggests that “three years … play a more important role” than a period of three months.

• A three year period figures in the instructions to the Hebrews concerning their conduct after they enter the Promised Land: “When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, regards its fruit as forbidden. For three years you are to consider it forbidden; it must not be eaten” (Lev 19:23).

• As part of the Levitical stipulations with regard to the year of Jubilee the Hebrews were forbidden to sow or reap, to plant, reap or harvest in the fiftieth year for it was to be a holy year for them. In compensation the Lord promises “I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years” (Lev 25:21).

• After the slaying of his brother, “Absalom fled and went to Geshur, he stayed there three years” (2 Sam 13:38).

• During David’s reign a three-year famine caused the king to seek “the face of the LORD” (2 Sam 21:1).

• David’s adversary Shimei (2 Sam 16:5-14) was spared by Solomon on condition that he was permanently confined to the city of Jerusalem (1 Kgs 2:36-38). Shimei obeyed this restriction for three years, but when two of his slaves fled from him, he left the city to retrieve them, an action that was to cost him his life (vv. 39-46).

• Every three years King Solomon’s trading fleet returned “carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons” (1 Kgs 10:22).

• Isaiah prophesied that “within three years … Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble” (Isa 16:14).

• Isaiah himself went “stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush” (Isa 20:3).

• Daniel and his three friends were schooled for three years with regard to the language and literature of the Babylonians (Dan 1:3-5).

A three-year period appears in some of the accounts of the New Testament as well.

• It figures in Jesus’ parable of the unproductive fig tree (Luke 13:7).

• The Apostle Paul spent three years in Arabia apparently to commune with the Lord and receive instruction from him before going to acquaint himself with Peter (Gal 1:18).

Appropriately, the third year is also singled out for special mention.

• The third year was special in that it was the “year of the tithe” (Deut 14:28; cf. Amos 4:4), which was to be collected for the needs of the Levites and the underprivileged members of society such as the alien, the widow, and the poor (Deut 26:12).25

• During the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah because “his heart was devoted to the ways of the LORD,” in his third year of reign he sent officials to “teach in the towns of Judah” (2 Chron 17:6-7).

• The third year was also the year that Jehoshaphat went to meet King Ahab of Israel with regard to their joining forces in an effort to regain Ramoth Gilead from the Arameans (1 Kgs 22:1-5).

• Still later, during the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem God gave to Hezekiah a sign of deliverance and renewed activity (2 Kgs 19:29; cf. Isa 37:30). “For the third year … there was a direct divine command: ‘Sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat fruit.’ Here was direct assurance that the people might resume normal agricultural activities with full expectation of eating the fruits of their labor.

• When in the harvest of the third year the people ate in abundance, they would know assuredly that God had been in the entire crisis.”26

And there are more examples of THREE. Many, many more.

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THREE DIMENSIONAL

“A Metaphor”

A child was watching his father get a glass of water from the faucet in the sink and he asked his father, “Where does that water come from?”

The father thought a second and replied, “First from the sky and then from deep within the earth.”

So it is with men and women. The things that are visible come from the things which are not visible and then, from deep within.

God created us in His image – “THREE”.

1. PNEUMA = SPIRIT (The heart or the core of one’s being)

2. PSUCHE = SOUL (The mind, will and emotions)

3. SOMA = BODY (The physical and observable)

Jesus often spoke in parables. The disciples even remarked on one occasion, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you.” John 16:29-30

Here is one of those examples which can fit this teaching: Jesus said, “So the last shall be first, and the first last.” Matthew20:16

The first things we see about a person, the manifestation or behaviors of a person, is ‘what is done in view’. Behavior is the result of how we think in our physical mind. The Bible tells us this is so.

How we think and act is taught and influenced by our psyche, our soul. That is, from our mind, will and emotions. Our mind, will and emotions are taught by our ‘core beliefs’, that is our heart or our spirit.

So, you see, all the issues of life, how we think, feel, what we determine to be right and how we act on these things, begin deep within us, in our spirit and wells upward, working its way through our soul and springs out through our mind and actions.

Our spirit is either dead to God or made alive by God which is why the Bible teaches us to, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

For those who choose a life with meaning and purpose are those who choose to know God, and then it is true, “First from above and then from deep within.”

Here are some Biblical examples on the next page.

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THREE DIMENSIONAL

INSIDE OUT – DEEP FROM WITHIN

Our spirit is either dead to God or made alive by God which is why the Bible teaches us to, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

For those who choose a life with meaning and purpose are those who choose to know God, and then it is true, “First from above and then from deep within.”

Here are some Biblical descriptions and examples of “As within – So it shall be with you”.

Our innermost part is our spirit – whether dead or alive to God. The Biblical Greek word is PNEUMA. Here are examples of the work of the Spirit of God on our spirit – made alive.

PNEUMA: 31And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

PNEUMA: 12  At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. 13But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. 14And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number, 15to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. 16Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.

WELLING UP INTO OUR SOUL

Our soul either learns from the spirit of man (death) or the Spirit of God (live). The Biblical Greek word for soul is PSUCHE. Here a some examples of the work of the Spirit on our spirit and soul.

PNEUMA / PSUCHE: 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

PSUCHE: : Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

FROM OUR SOUL – TO OUR MIND

Our cognitive mind is taught and must obey our soul which is our mind, will and emotions. Our outer experience is found in our natural body and our natural mind.

Here are a few examples of the demonstration or manifestation of the spirit on the soul and the soul on the mind and body. The Biblical Greek word for body is SOMA.

PSUCHE / SOMA: 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

PSUCHE / SOMA: 2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

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THREE DIMENSIONAL

WHOM WE SHALL BE

The SOMA (natural man) guided by the PSUCHE (the soul which is submitted to the Spirit of God) : James 1:9 “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

25 “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

26 “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

(This is the outcome of the natural man being lead and guided by a soul being guided by the Spirit of God.)

The SOMA (the natural man) Guided by the PNEUMA (Spirit of God): 23 ” Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

(This is the outcome of being lead and guided by The Spirit of God.)

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THREE DIMENSIONAL

THEREFORE, NOW WE GO

Jesus reveals the secrets of life through His parables. When Jesus spoke plainly and said to us:

“Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might Ephesians 1:18-19

THE ORACLE

54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on

the last day.

55 “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.

56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.

58 “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” John6:54-58

Of course, those who heard Him, missed the Truth of Jesus statement completely.  But, for those who are His disciples, He teaches and then He sends them to do His Works.

Since we are among those who have been sent, to help us understand His instructions to us, let’s look at one of the greatest and most profound Spiritual teachings in all the Bible, found in the Book of Joshua. This is the model and Truth of our Calling and it a language we can speak and understand, but we must see this with Spiritual eyes if we would understand the meaning of “Eating Jesus Flesh, and Drinking His Blood”.

Make no mistake, the very Power of God is hidden within these Words, waiting to be discovered, to release Its explosive and transformative power deep within you.

Again, remember, this not a “story written to a specific person at a specific time” – this is written to you, to save your life and to give you life beyond your wildest imaginations.

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THREE DIMENSIONAL

The Profound

NOW, it is your turn:

SOMA? Is this teaching only about what you see and read?

PSUCHE? Does this teaching touch your emotions which affect your mind and cause you to make a determination on how you will react – what you will do (SOMA?)

PNEUMA? Does this teaching completely change your heart about how you can deal with life? So much that your soul – your mind, will and emotions – is affected and your behavior model is changed. Your mind is now made up and you are determined to do it? 

Finally, a letter of instruction, from God, through Joshua, to YOU!

Joshua

1, 2 “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.

3 “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.

4 “From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory.

5 “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.

6 “Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

7 “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.

8 “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

My prayers go out for all of us, as we endeavor to “Be still and know that He is God”. It is not of ourselves, but of our God Who does all things well.

Yet God chooses to do His Work through His people, who are called by His name, who are yielded and still.

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

whitestonefellowship@earthlink.net