The Soul Traders

Beloved, this message focuses on one area, which is not very clear to many people. Soul traders are those who buy and sell the souls of men. Ezekiel 13: 18 says, “And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?”

That scripture is telling us that people could use some powers to hunt for souls of men. The book of Micah 7:2 says, “The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.” Again we are here reminded of the practice of catching the souls of men with a net. As we can see in the book of Nahum 3:4, a nation could be enslaved in this evil trade: “Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.”

One of the wonderful characteristics of the kingdom of Babylon is portrayed in Revelation 18:10-13 thus: “Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble. And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.”

THE CREATION OF MAN

The creation of man in the Garden of Eden was a wonderful thing. It was so wonderful that the Bible says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. If you take a look at the brain of man with its complexity, you will agree with the Bible that God fearfully and wonderfully made man. The creation of man took place in three stages: Firstly, the Lord Himself made man with His own hands, which is not the case for any other creature. He formed man out of the dust of the ground. Then He breathed the breath of life into his nostrils and a spirit-filled being was created. That part of man called spirit is what makes man to become a living soul. With the soul, man became a distinct being. Without the soul, everybody will just be practically the same. It is the soul that distinguishes between individuals. God through His breath imparted His Spirit into man. The spirit inside you is your real self. It is that part of you that has the ability to know God intimately. It is what is called the God-conscious part of us because God is a Spirit. The spirit is the conscience and the policeman of the heart. The body is the container in which we live and it is world-conscious. It is only aware of what is happening in the physical. Without this physical body, you cannot be earth- bound. The difference between spirit beings and human beings is that men have bodies through which they can express themselves, while spirit beings are bodiless. The soul is the seat of intellect. It is the seat of the will that manifests your need through a determined faith; it is the seat of your emotions. Now, you can see that man is carefully and wonderfully made. The real you, whatever your name is, is your spirit, which is invisible to the physical eyes. It is amazing and yet true that other spirits can summon a specific spirit out of the body. Sometimes, what some people refer to as dreams are not. They are records of actions happening in the spirit world. But because the soul was there, the person could see what was going on. If the spirit that is called out is prevented from reentering the body, death occurs. God gave that spirit a soul. The soul is that part of you which makes you an individual. With the soul you can exercise your will. The personality of a person is a reflection of the soul through the physical body. That is why two people cannot be exactly of the same personality. It is the soul that makes the difference. That soul actually came in when the spirit entered the body of man. So, the soul belongs to the spirit not to the body.