Dual Sin Natures

July 5, 2004

Personal Narrations

Joel Akin

Calgary, Alberta

How many times have I heard over the years people wondering why we have to suffer. It is a question I've asked many times in my own pain or in the pain I see from my parents. How can a loving God allow suffering? Is it not His will and plan that we be free of pain? There are those in the world who brag about faith and the effects of faith and how their faith has healed them. Then they point you out and frankly you're left wondering where you failed God and what your problem is.

As I talked to God He began to share a deeper insight into this question. It may not be the answer everyone is looking for but perhaps it is the beginning of wisdom.

Once again we have to go back to the sin nature and the purpose of Christ's coming. To understand the sin nature we have to delve deeper into our nature. We are triune beings composed of Spirit, Soul and body. This is critical to the subject. Now the Spirit is sent by God when we are conceived. It is what gives us the spark of divinity yet it is not us. This is a mystery which I don't feel is essential to the subject we are dealing with. In addition there is our Soul. Now we have broached this subject before but again it is not the main issue. Still it is part of the issue so we might as well deal with it now.

When Adam took on the nature of his new master, Satan, he inherited dual sin natures. First is the Spiritual side of it which is the soul. The sin nature is still something I don't fully understand and perhaps never will but I can share what I do know. The Spiritual Sin nature simply means that we are sinners and serve our master Satan. We are born in sin and the only way to be free of that nature is to be spiritually born again. Christ understood this and it is through him that we are able to gain spiritual freedom from sins nature.

Yet we don't have complete freedom and that is the problem. One of the things God has been repeating to me over and over is "First in the Spiritual, then in the natural." As I grow in knowledge so I grow in understanding. To understand why we suffer physically we first have to understand why we suffering spiritually. Sometimes I get frustrated because I understand so clearly, by Gods grace, yet it is often hard to find the right words to convey that knowledge. I have been told that much of what I write is too deep. People want to close their eyes and fall asleep when I try to share these revelations. Yet I know also these teachings are essential for our understanding of 'why'. Why do these things happen to us. Why is their pain and suffering in the world and among Christians? Why are we suffering as much as others and it seems in some cases even more? How many close friends have I lost to death, accident and sickness. Is there not some relief? Even just a little to give us hope? And if there is how do we obtain it?

Now lets get back to the dual sin natures. Not only is our soul born in corruption but we also have the physical sin nature. Now this is where the Church has so much problem explaining these issues. First the Spiritual Sin nature is based on the choice Adam made to sin. Some claim we are essentially all good but we're not. Now a child may be born innocent in the sense they don't have the ability to sin. Yet even if you raised them in a perfect environment they would still sin because they have the dual sin natures. Now what Christ did is he provided us a way that we could be free of the spiritual sin nature. When we ask him to be Lord of our lives and to forgive us of our sins he cleanses us of that spiritual sin and provides a way for us to fellowship once again with God. Yet just because that way has been restored does not mean we are totally free of the power of sins nature. Now that is a chapter in itself especially in the area of the flesh and the power of the flesh. When I speak of the flesh I am not referring to the body but to the desires and lust of the mind. The desire to rebel against God and the truths of God. For what Christ did is he provided us the authority to overcome Satan.

Now lets get on with the crux of this message. The nature of sin in the body. The physical body. For it is the suffering we face physically which confuses us to no end. I speak from experience here as I have suffered for years with serious ailments. Why then have my prayers, my faith, my trust in God seemed to have so little effect?

Now I must speak from self as I have no one else to turn to for answers. By this I do not defer God but speak of what God has been teaching me. On August 27, 2003 I suffered what seemed to be a dystonic stroke. I created that term as the doctors seemed baffled. I won't go into the details as they are not important but the date is. God gave me a series of dreams and spoke to me that He was birthing me into a new life. For 9 months I lay there in bed basically helpless. I was in darkness emotionally, spiritually and physically as I lived in the basement. My voice was removed and in many ways I became as an infant and my family had to help care for me. Yet it was there in the darkness that God spoke to me and trained me. And exactly 9 months after this event, on May 27th, God began to take away the pain I was suffering.

At that time I did not understand what was happening. Now I can say that I have a deeper knowledge and can explain a great deal of what God was doing. If any of you have been reading the things I've been writing you can see a spiritual progression in understanding and in authority. Those two things will help you comprehend what I'm trying to show you.

Think of a tree that is planted in fertile ground. If that tree survives what nature throws against it then it will produce fruit. Spiritually we are like that tree. Christ provided the way for us to grow spiritually so we can produce fruit. But we must first produce spiritual fruit before we can produce natural fruit. So God is waiting for the first fruits to be revealed in us spiritually so then he can begin to reveal the first fruits in us naturally. In my case it took 9 months for me to begin to produce spiritual first fruits. Once that moment arrived God could then begin to reveal the natural fruits in my life and then show that to me.

 So what am I saying? Lets go back to the natures of sin. First is the spiritual sin nature. Christ came that we could have freedom from that nature but only in part. We have to overcome it daily. So here is a mystery for you. If Christ gave us the example of overcoming sin then why do Christians still die? Why did Paul and Timothy and John and Peter all pass on? Why did they suffer? Why did they get whipped and beaten and get thrown in jail? Because they, along with us, are all prone to the nature of sin. Now some might say today that we have authority over sin. There is truth to that but what they don't tell you is that sin also has authority over us. It is not something most like to talk about. For no matter how righteous a man and a woman are their children will be born with the dual sin natures. Those children will sin and they will carry the corruption that goes with it.

But here is a mystery that begins to unfold for you. Christ gave us the authority to overcome in the spiritual realm. Remember, first in the spiritual. It is through the Spiritual that the first fruits in us are revealed yet we still have to deal with the spiritual sin nature on a daily basis by putting the flesh to death daily. So it is also true that Christ came that we might have first fruits in the natural.

So why then do not more Christians have this pain of the sin nature removed? Why is it that sin continually beats us at every turn? It is because we have not first overcome in the Spiritual. We've covered this subject before in depth so I'll give an abbreviated version. God wants us to have authority over all sin, all doubt and fear, all spirits and hindering powers and principalities. He wants us to have authority over ourselves, our will our traditions and the effects of the law. He wants us to come to the place where we walk in grace and in full knowledge of Jesus Christ. Once we have died to self and come to this place, then we can state with confidence that we have overcome spiritually and are bearing the first fruits spiritually. When this happens then God wants us to begin to overcome in the natural.

 It is this natural overcoming that confuses us but again it is critical to understand. We can never overcome the sin nature in our bodies as long as we are on earth. But there is something wonderful that we can do so listen carefully. Though we cannot beat the sin nature in our bodies we can overcome the effects of the sin nature. Sickness, disease, pain, even fatigue. These are all effects of the sin nature. Yet it is also important for us to see that we are only given part of the inheritance here below. And it is a constant battle so that some are lost to sickness, to death, even to torture and martyrdom. We are in a war, a fight for our very lives.

 So is it possible for one to overcome so far in the Spiritual that they can literally conquer Sins Nature both in the Spiritual and then in the natural? Wow. What a wonderful, marvelous concept. Just imagine what such a person could accomplish if they would die so much to self that the power of this world no longer held them in bondage. Believe me I think about it and wonder what would be possible. I would make a prediction. If such a person could follow after God so closely the desires of this world no longer hold them back, then they could reveal that authority they are given through signs, wonders and miracles.

First in the spiritual and then in the natural. The First Fruits must begin to be revealed in our Spiritman before we can see them in our Natural man. I can tell you from experience that requires intense dedication to prayer. It is not something I can let slip even once. I think of it as an electrical lamp. You can try to shine some light on a subject or on a spirit but you'd better be plugged into the right power source. If your not that lamp is not going to shine.