HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 1, 2024 – Jesus was a man before he was a eunuch for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake, and a carpenter before he was the Messiah, and the brother of his siblings before he was our brother, and the son of Mary and Joseph before he was the Son of God. That’s not to say he wasn’t a man while he was a eunuch and a eunuch while he was a man; that’s just to say that before the signal was given and the switch was flicked, one took precedence over the other, though both realities co-existed in the one body and soul of Jesus throughout his time on Earth.

We, too, as born-again believers, were also men or women before becoming spiritual eunuchs, and labourers in some field before becoming ministers of God, and the brother or sister of our siblings before becoming Jesus’ brethren, and sons and daughters of our parents before becoming children of God. In these things, we are like Jesus; in these things, we follow our leader, as he said we would. And yet, underneath, we’re still men or women, labourers in some field, siblings of our siblings, and children of our parents. Those realities don’t change, though the other reality – the spiritual reality – takes precedence since our rebirth.

But in one thing we differ from Jesus, and that is that we were all born with the spirit of the world and were guided and informed by the spirit of the world before becoming born-again and receiving the Spirit of God. Jesus never had the spirit of the world in him; he had only God’s Holy Spirit from the get-go, from the moment of his conception. In this he differed from us, but in all the other things, he was the same.

The spirit of the world and the Spirit of God cannot co-exist in the same body and soul. When one goes in, the other goes out.

Scripture tells us that Jesus was tempted in all things, as we are. A temptation is exterior from us, body and soul. It is a lure and a bait, aiming to catch us, usually unawares; aiming to seduce us. Seductions can come from God or from the devil. When I was still a slave to sin, I was lured by God and seduced by God and that’s how I became born-again. It is the greatest of all seductions to say “Yes” to God for the very first time. If you’re genuinely born-again, you, too, were lured and seduced by God, so you know what I’m talking about.

Jesus was tempted in all things. We know of the temptations he had in the desert, but they didn’t stop there. He was tempted right up until the instant when his soul left his body, as we will be. He was tempted while he was awake and he was tempted in dreams.

God permits us to be tempted of the devil. This is a great comfort to me, knowing that God permits these temptations, because I also know that if God permits them, he’ll give me the strength and the means, through his Holy Spirit, to withstand the temptations, whether I’m awake or asleep. We should never fear temptation; we should never bring it on to us (or to others) or entertain it, but we shouldn’t fear it. Temptations are tests that, when successfully passed, take us up higher in the Kingdom.

Never having had the spirit of the world in him, Jesus had no sin, and he remained that way throughout his time on Earth. That is to say, he had no memory of sin because he never sinned. We, on the other hand, had to be purged of our sin at our rebirth, though we remember it still and at times it seemingly comes back to life to haunt us, that is to tempt us. Like a zombie sin, it reanimates and rises up, usually in dreams, borne of our memories. It is not real sin but the memory of sin, though it can still very much catch us and bite us and drag us down.

We need to be careful of the zombie sins because they are the most powerful of all the seductions, next to God’s. The rose-tinted memory of what we once had is stronger than the desire for what we never had, which is why God had to lure us to him in the way that only God can, as only God knows everything about us. We continue, even now, to be lured by God and tempted of the devil, being children of God while also still children of our parents.

This will continue until we arrive Home.