The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation
By The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.

 

Prayer is wonderful. I have been telling you, I do not know really what to say except that, sometimes, when the pressure is on, you are not the most pleasant person. That goes for all of us. And I guess there has been a lot of pressure on.

 

I was approached by a Jehovah's Witness in Pathmark Shopping Center, Saturday morning. I had an appointment with the chiropractor. This poor woman, she approached me with the sweetest spirit on her face.

 

See, the bottom line is that I am out of patience for the Church, and I am out of patience for the world. I do not know whether it is God that is out of patience or it is Sheila that is out of patience. But I feel like I do not want to baby anybody anymore.

 

This very nice lady approached me in the parking lot of Pathmark Shopping Center and tried to offer me a copy of a wake. And I do not believe I abused her. I just went after her with a very strong spirit, and I told her the truth. I said, I will take your literature if you take mine. How come you are not open? How come you do not want to hear what anybody else has to say?

 

And you know how I get; like I was shooting her with a machine gun. I do not believe it was ungodly; it was just very powerful. And I told her the truth. And this poor, sweet lady just looked at me. You know, they do not train her for people like me. And I told her right off that I was a Bible teacher, and I will talk to you if you will talk to me.

 

She just looked at me, and all she could say to me was what she had been indoctrinated to say because, to the best of my knowledge, Jehovah's Witnesses are not trained to think. They are not trained to think creatively. They are taught the Scriptures according to Jehovah's Witness doctrine, line upon line, precept upon precept, which means they are incapable of making changes. It means they are incapable of recognizing a thought from somebody else that might indicate there is just a need for a slight change. They do not believe in change. They accept their doctrine religiously. Brethren, this is dangerous. This is the stuff that mass suicide is made out of.

 

Now, you have to find the line between being a critical thinker; and what does that word mean? Does it mean you go around criticizing everybody? Brethren, there is a positive criticism, and there is a negative criticism. Negative criticism kills. It destroys. It means that your motive (here we are, back at motives again) for criticizing is to hurt that person.

 

Why would you want to hurt that person? Because there is something twisted in your brain that makes you feel good when you hurt that other person. Whether you are aware of it, or whether you are not aware of it, whether it happened to you because you were abused as a baby, or no matter what your sad story is, I will play the violin for you. When you criticize somebody because it gives you a release, when you criticize somebody because it builds your ego, it is criticism which is negative, and it is sin, and it is the sin of...

 

COMMENT: Pride.

 

PASTOR VITALE: ...pride. There is also a positive criticism. Sometimes it is called critique, which is really the French way of saying it. But for people that have a problem understanding there is both positive and negative criticism, some people might call it a critique.

 

A critique is positive. It points out something that you are doing that is either destructive to yourself or destructive to somebody else. The end of it is not the destruction of your soul but the building of your soul, the increase of your soul, the increase towards godliness of your soul. The fruit of it is an improvement in your relationships, an improvement in your self-image.

 

People in the professions know about critique. I am telling you, I worked for lawyers for years. I have worked for large law firms, which means there is the chief honcho lawyer who usually does not do anything except talk. What does that mean? He goes to trial. He goes to negotiation. He has a whole host of other lawyers underneath him, in varying degrees of maturity, that write his documents for him, that do the research.

 

Then all of this is brought to him, and he reads it. And he takes a big black marker, and he cuts up and marks off everything that these young lawyers have been working on for 50 hours, and he chops it up, and he marks it up, and he gives it back to them. And they look at it, and they want to cry. But it is a critique, and it is something that they can learn from. They did it; they practiced; they researched; they wrote. And the master said, you did a good job, but here is a goal. Here is an ideal. This is what you are going to be able to do if you stick it out and learn from me. It is great for the level that you are on, but here is the master saying this is what you should have done with it.

 

Does anybody not know what I am talking about? There is a positive criticism. It builds you. It builds you professionally. It builds your relationships. It builds your self-esteem. It teaches you what you are doing wrong so you can make some changes about your life, about your job, about the way that you look at life.

 

So when somebody criticizes you, it is to your own good to ask the Lord to show you the motive for their criticism. Are they trying to destroy you, or are they trying to help you? But I will tell you a secret, brethren. Even if the person's motive is to destroy you, if there is one shred of truth in what they are telling you, you can turn their spiritual attack upon you around for your good. If their motive is to destroy you, if the spirit that it is given to you in is a spirit of hate, you can refuse to retaliate. But you can say, if you choose to do it, Lord Jesus, is there any truth in what they said? Because, usually, cruel people who criticize you for ungodly motives will pick on something that just may be a legitimate problem in your person.

 

So you can take this attack upon you. You can take that which is negative and make it positive by saying, Lord, if there is anything true at all in what that person said; I do not care how cruel they were in saying it to me. If there is anything I can learn from it, let me learn from it. And when, if in fact, you learn from it, you can bless your enemy because God has truly worked all things for your good.

 

So I just turned on that woman like a hurricane. I believe it was a godly spirit, but I believe it was the whirlwind of God. And all that she could say to me was, oh, but this is just the truth of the Bible. This is just the Bible. And I said, That is not the Bible. The Bible was written in Greek and Hebrew. That is an English translation that some man wrote over 100 years ago. That is not the Bible.

 

I said, I am sorry, I am in a hurry, but I will make a deal with you. If you take my literature, I will take yours. She just looked at me. I said, You do not want it, do you? You do not want my literature, do you? The woman is just standing there, and I am telling you, it was a right spirit. I was just putting it right to her. You do not want it, do you?

 

The answer is no, because they are closed. They are blocked. They are sealed off. And I am not picking on the Jehovah's Witnesses. There are a lot of people that study the Scriptures that are in this condition. My pastor taught me; my mother taught me; my father taught me; Santa Claus taught me. Well, what did Jesus teach you? Have you listened to what you have been taught and prayed about it? Have you told the Lord that you want the truth, no matter what the cost?

 

Now, let me warn you. There is a price to pay for the truth. The devil does not want you to have the truth. He will first try to seduce you away from the truth by what technique?

 

COMMENT: Pleasure.

 

PASTOR VITALE: Pleasure. He will send you to a church where you feel good, where the doctrine makes you feel good, where the music makes you feel good, where all the people are patting you on the back and making you feel like you are one of them. But you are not really one of them, because you only see them once a week on Sunday, but they make you feel really good.

 

PASTOR VITALE: But you come to a church where the truth is coming out, and you are going to feel...

 

COMMENT: Pain.

 

PASTOR VITALE: Pain. Because people are not patting you on the back once a week, they are telling you the truth about yourself. And you have real relationships because you are not seeing them two hours a week on a Sunday. You are living together, in a sense, and you are hurting each other, and you are supposed to be forgiving each other and growing. And in a church like that, you are likely to get the truth.

 

And the truth hurts because you may have to admit that you believed a lie at one point. You may have to admit that you were wrong at one point. You actually may have to be in a relationship with somebody that you do not agree with. You actually may be challenged by the Lord to say, I completely disagree with your doctrine, but I love you enough to fellowship with you anyway.

 

And let me tell you something, brethren. If you have pride, that is not so easy to do. My Bible says do not eat with someone who has false doctrine. Well, how do you know their doctrine is the false doctrine?

 

That Scripture is not speaking about human dinners. That Scripture is saying, do not take into your mind a false doctrine. That Scripture means that, if you fellowship with a human being, another human being, and a scriptural discussion comes up, something that you know is wrong, do not be influenced by them because you want their approval, because you want their love, because you are lonely. But believe what you believe. Eat of the Son of God with your mind, brethren. Eat according to the Spirit of Truth.

 

But you do not hurt people. You do not throw people out on the street. You do not pass people and not talk to them because they are a Jehovah's Witness, or they are a Mormon. You do not treat human beings like that. You respect human beings.

 

And as the Lord makes you strong enough, I listen to everything everybody has to say, with one exception. If after listening to them for a couple of minutes, I realize that they are not just someone who I disagree with on a point here or on a point there, but if I were to make a judgment that this person is preaching an overall satanic doctrine, or if this person is trying to indoctrinate me, trying to force me, to take over my mind, they are not just disagreeing with me or having an exchange of ideas, but that this whole discussion is coming forth with a spirit of witchcraft, with one intent behind it to utterly bring my mind under their power, I will not continue with that discussion.

 

But I will tell them why. I will tell them everything I just said to you. I am not going to continue with this discussion because you are pressuring me. You are trying to possess my mind. You are trying to control me. Now, listen, brother, if you want to have an honest exchange of ideas with me, and you are skilled enough to convince me that you are right and I am wrong, well, that is acceptable to God. But you cannot lay hold of my mind and force me to have a different belief by brute mental force. Or if you do that, you are bypassing my thought process. You are bypassing my creativity. You are bypassing my individuality. You are bypassing. You are short-circuiting my whole functioning as a human being. And that is called witchcraft and mind control.

 

COMMENT: I really appreciate that explanation of "no man ever hates his own flesh" because I really never understood that in the past.

 

PASTOR VITALE: Well, praise God. I just thank you, Jesus, for blessing your people.

 

COMMENT: About Pentecost, you did not mention anything about the anointing on some of the ministry that might come forth is someone is ministering to a congregation. Why would [AUDIO SKIPS]

 

PASTOR VITALE: Well, you cannot do that, brethren, if you do not know what you believe. You cannot do that if you do not know what you believe. If what is coming out of your mouth is doctrine that has been burnt on your brain because someone wrote a book 100 years ago and said this is the way it is, you are now incapable of saying, Yes, I believe that, but maybe what you are saying makes a little sense.

 

And if it does, the Lord will allow me to integrate it into the revelation that is growing in my soul like a plant. And I will take something from you. I will take the truth from you and the truth from you and the truth from you. And by the grace of God, I will have a tree growing in me that will be the tree of truth. The Spirit of Truth will come forth in me. You cannot do this if you are a robot.

 

So the way you start to become a whole person, and not a robot, is that you start by reading this Bible. And you put the letter of the word into your heart. You do not have to be understanding it. Or if you choose to understand it as a parable at the beginning, that is fine. Adam and Eve fell in love and got married and had a baby. If that is what you need to have the word in your heart that there was an Adam, that there was an Eve, and that they had a child or children called Cain and Abel, that is great to start with. There is great truth in the Scripture. There is morality. There is ethics. There is a knowledge of human nature on the surface level that can bless everybody. So that is where you start. You start by learning this word on the surface.

 

But there is a deep, deep, deep depth beneath the surface of this word, that the Lord will open to you as He wills it. There is only one problem. Let me say this first. There is a Scripture that says, "The ages are in the hearts of men." You see, the depth of this word which is outside of you, or the reality of this word; this word that is on a printed page is a reflection, like a mirror image, of what is in the hearts of men. The true word, both true and false is in your mind. And it is buried deep underneath the surface.

 

Now, to get to the depth of the word, which is in the Spirit of Christ, the surface of the earth has to be pierced. If you are planting seeds, brethren, you go after the earth with a plough. And a plough has a big blade attached to it, and it cuts into the earth. And if the earth could feel, it would be screaming its head off the whole time. Well, behold, brethren, I show you a mystery. There is a portion of this earth that has had life imparted to it, or existence, anyway. It is called man. And when that plough goes into his heart, so that the depth of the richness of the earth which is buried within him can be revealed, we are all screaming like a bunch of stuck pigs.

 

So if you want the truth, there is going to be pain because the truth is buried deeply. But in the Spirit of Truth is life. There is no life on the surface of the earth. There is only existence on the surface of the earth. The true life is buried deep in the heart of the earth. And we have to dig it up like gold ore and bring it to the surface so that we can live out of it.

 

Do not be a robot, brethren. Do not go around talking about what your pastor says, or what Joe Blow says, or what Jane Smith says. And I hear that from a lot of you here. Well, so-and-so says, and not necessarily about scriptural things. I want to know what you think.

 

When you have a conversation with me, you have a fellowship with me. If it lasts one second or one minute or one hour, what I want from you is to know what you think. I do not want to know what your husband thinks, and I do not want to know what your son thinks, and I do not want to know what the [UNINTELLIGIBLE] thinks. I want to hear that you have been listening to what other people think, that you have taken this information into your mind, that you have mixed it up with your own ability to reason, and that now you have an opinion. I want to know what your opinion is. Do not come to me in the image of another human being because I am going to tell you I am not interested in what that other human being thinks. When I am talking to you, I want to know what you think.

 

I do not care if you are right. Well, there is no right or wrong. That is what you think. That is what you think. Let me correct that. There is a right and a wrong. You could have a wrong concept in your mind. But you are not wrong for thinking that way. That is what you think.

 

Now, if you have a wrong concept in your mind, and the Lord Jesus Christ influences it to change it and to mold it into something that will conform with His way of thinking, that is to your benefit. But simply the fact that you had a thought that might not be accurate does not make you wrong. Do you know what I am saying? Do you see the difference?

 

What you think is what you think. You should not be afraid to express what you think because, if you do not express what you think, any error in that thinking process will not be corrected. It cannot be corrected if you are not willing to expose yourself by saying, This is what I think. If you keep your thoughts to yourself, if you keep them a secret, and you put a false face up, you will never be corrected. You will never receive a critique. You will never receive a godly criticism that will build you and strengthen you and make you a worthwhile person, both to yourself and to the other people that you are in relationships with.

 

Brethren, you have got to be willing to be exposed, both the truth in you and the error in you. By the grace of God, we have got to begin to think enough of our ourselves, and to love ourselves enough, to expose ourselves to people that God tells us have a godly attitude towards us. You do not go out to Jack the Ripper and expose yourself. But you ask the Lord who He wants you to fellowship with.

 

Hopefully, the people here in your fellowship, you should be able to tell each other what you think without getting into a fight. It is OK if you think something differently than I do. It is not OK if you try to force me to change my mind. And it is not OK if I try to force you to change your mind. But it is OK if you think differently.

 

Even if I am absolutely convinced, and I am right in my thinking that what you think is wrong, you are entitled to your own creative thought. And if I come to you, and I try to convince you; not in a free exchange of ideas. It is OK for me to show it to you in the Scripture. I am not talking about that. If I try to convince you that you are wrong, in a godly spirit that will show you: Well, look at this. Consider this. Consider this. Consider this. That is OK. But if I am coming to you to change your mind in a manner that bypasses your own thought process, and I am trying to change your mind by eliminating the process by which you will listen to what I have to say and pray about it and find the truth arising up as a plant in your own soul; if I am trying to bypass that and just put my brand on your brain, and saying, Well, think this, and I am trying to do that, it is witchcraft, and it is a violation of your will.

 

And I know I was trying to make a point, and I just lost my whole point that I was trying to make. But you should be able to have this discussion. Oh, I know what I was saying. It is acceptable to God for you to not agree, until such time as you become unreasonable. That is what I am trying to say.

 

If God sends somebody to you, and you have a godly exchange of ideas where the two people are respecting one another, and you still disagree, that is all right because, if your heart is open and honest but you just do not agree, then the Lord will deal with you in due season. If it comes to the point that the Lord sends someone to you, and the Lord sends someone to you, and the Lord sends someone to you, and you do not agree because of rebellion or pride or stubbornness, then the Lord will have to deal with you. The Lord will have to deal with you.

 

We do not go to other people and try to imprint our doctrine on their mind in a manner that bypasses their thought life. And included in thought life is prayer life. Thought life, prayer life, communication with the Father. If the person fails to respond, not because they just do not understand, because we have to believe that the Lord will bring us into all truth. But if they fail to respond because of stubbornness, rebellion or pride, that is the Father's job to deal with them. That is not your job to beat them into submission. Our job is to disseminate information. Our job is to disseminate or to sow seed. We are to sow the seed. We are to be dropping ideas in people's minds. And then you have to leave that mind alone and see whether or not the Father causes the seed to sprout.

 

And if your pride cannot deal with your sowing a seed and not seeing that seed sprout or not being willing to wait for however long it is going to take for the Lord to bring it to sprout, you need to confess the sin of pride and repent and ask the Lord for deliverance because you are violating that person if you try to force yourself on them or on their mind in any way. And you cannot be a Son doing that.

 

Jesus said, A man went out to sow some seed. And that is a parable speaking about not only Jesus but about the Sons of God. We are in training to be Sons of God in this fellowship, brethren. The Sons of God sow seed. We do not beat men into submission.

 

What we do when it is Christ in us (if you cannot tell, do not do anything), we will address sin and expose it and rebuke it. And sometimes that can be a confrontation. Sometimes, if it is Christ, it can be forceful, telling the person that this sin is in them. But to the best of my knowledge, I cannot see our assignment to be in any way the forcing of doctrine on anybody. It is not true. The only force that Christ Jesus uses, when He decides to use it, is the exposure of sin.

 

The exposure of sin, the exposure of sin, the exposure of sin. You have got to get your focus in the right place, brethren. The focus of this entire move of God is not the doctrine. Now, most of the Church; I think, if we had a floating microphone, like some of these TV shows do, and we went out in the Church world and asked people what they thought the focus of this move of God was, most people would say doctrine. That is not true. And when I say focus, what do I mean? The most important aspect that we should be directing ourselves to, of this move of God, it is not doctrine. It is the exposure of sin.

 

You can have this doctrine, and you can have your sin too, and the doctrine will not save you. If you have your sins exposed, and you confess and repent and have your heart converted into Christ, then eventually you will have the doctrine too.

 

PASTOR VITALE: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." The kingdom of God is not doctrine. What is the kingdom of God, brethren? Does anybody remember? What? What is the kingdom of God?

 

COMMENT: [INAUDIBLE]

 

PASTOR VITALE: It is a mind. Yes, it is the mind of Christ. Yes, it is a mind. It is a mind. And in that mind is the potential to comprehend doctrine. But if you do not have the mind of Christ, and you are trying to comprehend doctrine, and you in fact do comprehend it or think you comprehend it, you are comprehending it with what?

 

COMMENT: The carnal mind.

 

PASTOR VITALE: The carnal mind. So therefore, brethren, seek ye first the kingdom of God. And how do we get the kingdom of God, brethren?

 

COMMENT: [INAUDIBLE]

 

PASTOR VITALE: And how is Christ formed in us?

 

COMMENT: [INAUDIBLE]

 

PASTOR VITALE: Your sins must be exposed. So seek ye first the kingdom of God. Have your sins exposed. Let us take care of first things first, and you will understand the doctrine.

 

And I tell everybody who comes here, do not be upset if you do not understand, and do not be upset if you sleep. But put your body here. Now, try to stay awake. Do not come and go to sleep because you had a rough day. But if the anointing puts you to sleep, do not be upset about it. But present yourself; expose yourself to the anointing. And Lord willing, the Spirit of Christ will penetrate your heart. Then you will conceive Christ Jesus. And when He begins to appear in you, you will understand all things. When His righteousness begins to appear in you, you will understand the doctrine.

 

This is supposed to be an exhortation. It sounds like it is turning into a whole message. I would just like to say one more thing. And unless the Lord keeps this going, I am going to end this exhortation.

 

I heard something that really excited me the other day. I do not know whether it will excite you or not, but it excited me. We have a message. It is a recent message. It is called "Bodily Manipulations in Christ Jesus." One of the realities of our existence is that this body is just a slave. If you look up the Greek word that is translated "body," it is soma. That Greek word is soma. It means "slave." This body only does what the spirit tells it to do.

 

This body, if you need an actual example to understand it, it is a robot. It is a robot. Now, I am told that the creative genius of the fallen minds of man in this hour are coming up with all kinds of robots, robots that will be household servants, robots that will cook, robots that will clean. You sit there with your little remote control, or with your microphone, or maybe it is even voice-activated, and you just tell the robot to turn on the TV, and it.. you heard about this, right? Someone is sitting here shaking her head. The robot goes and turns on the TV. The robot gets you a drink of water. The robot scrambles you some eggs. This is what is being developed in our society today. But when you look at the robot, it looks like a robot. He is metal. He is not soft like flesh; he is hard. He has no original thought. He just does what you command him to do.

 

Brethren, this is what our body is. We have trouble recognizing that because our mind and our emotions are completely integrated with this body because of our spiritual condition. But the truth is that we are spirit. We are this mind that is in us. And this body just does or acts out whatever this mind desires.

 

Brethren, if you had a problem this weekend with any kind of sin, in any form whatsoever; if your body was doing something this past week that is sin or that is destructive to you, you had this problem because the mind that dwells in this body commanded your body to do it. And the Christ which is in you was not strong enough to stop your body from doing it. I do not care what it was that you were doing. This body is a slave which is completely controlled by the carnal mind.

 

The degree to which Christ Jesus is appearing in any human being at this hour is lesser than the degree to which the carnal mind controls your body. How do I know that? Because anybody who would have a knife put in their heart right now will die. And if Christ Jesus was controlling your body, all of the blood in you could drain out, and you would not die.

 

So in this hour, we see Christ is the invading force. Christ is the invading force. He is taking this body and this soul away from the present possessor of it. What is the name of the present owner of this creation? The Devil, that woman whose god is the Serpent, who has incarnated in this world system. That spiritual woman, whose god and husband is the Serpent, who has incarnated in this world system as the Devil, the many-membered Devil... Jesus clearly said your daddy was the Devil.

 

This body is a slave. It is a robot. It is an android, if you will, except that that one which is controlling it is not outside of it, as we see in the world today, but that one which is controlling this body is inside of it, hidden underneath the earth. And the illusion is that we are this flesh, but we are not this flesh. There is a spiritual being in the earth whose name is death. Well, the name of the spiritual being is the Devil, but her presence gives death. And because she lives inside of these bodies, these bodies eventually waste away and die. That is why the creation is in a form whereby it procreates. We are continuously producing new bodies because our lord and master kills her own flesh.

 

PASTOR VITALE: But Jesus said, "No man has ever hated his own flesh." What does that mean? When it is the man dwelling inside of you, and the name of the man is...

 

COMMENT: [INAUDIBLE]

 

PASTOR VITALE: No. The name of the spiritual man is Christ Jesus. When it is the man dwelling inside of you, He does not hate His own flesh. He loves it. He gives it life. Therefore, when you take a look at your flesh and you see whether it is living or dying, you can determine who the lord and master is of your flesh because the Devil hates her flesh. So if you are getting sick, and you are aging and dying, you know that your lord and master is the Devil. And as you see yourself not aging or dying or have any affliction whatsoever, if the evidences of a preserved physical life are present, you know that the Man is the Lord and Master of your flesh because the Man gives you life, and the woman gives you death. And the name of the Man is Christ Jesus, and the name of the woman is the Devil, or the daughter of Babylon.

 

And the reason her name is the daughter of Babylon is because she is the product of a lesbian relationship, a high-level spiritual lesbian relationship. Does anybody know what Babylon means? Confusion. I have been listening to that word in the Scripture for years, and I just found out the full significance of scriptural confusion. The creation cannot tell the difference between a man and a woman. That is the confusion. And she made it with a lesbian, and they had a child on this high spiritual realm. Lesbians can produce children, but they produce an inferior child, which is the daughter of their confusion. And her name is the Devil.

 

But when the spiritual union that produces a creation is in correct order, when it is clear, when it is not confused, it is between a man and a woman, spirit and soul. And the product of the union is a son. And the name of the Son, or the name of the man, when he is the product of that union, is the man Christ Jesus.

 

So we see that the Lord formed a creation that can incarnate either as a man or as a woman, depending on who is in the male role. This creation got all messed up, could not tell the difference between the Father and the Serpent, and engaged in or found herself in a lesbian relationship with the serpent, who is female, and has produced a daughter, which is the product of that confusion. That is pretty sad. You cannot tell the difference between a man and a woman. And this is how we got here.

 

The Lord brought me right into my message, and I missed my whole point. What was I talking about when I started on that? I said that I wanted to make one more point. Yes, we were talking about body manipulations.

 

Brethren, this is exciting. That spirit that dwells in you manipulates your body. You know, when you first hear that word, manipulation, you might not like the sound of it. But it is the truth. It is the truth, you see. Now, think of a little baby. A little baby, newly born, is spirit. And that spirit, which has just come into the world in the form of a newborn child, must learn to manipulate that body that it was born into.

 

Now, the spirit is whole in a newborn child. Well, all spirits are Christ. The spirit is Christ. But He has appeared in this world in a blob of flesh, and He has to learn how to manipulate that flesh. He has to learn how to make the legs walk, how to make the hands hold a fork, how to get the fork with the food on it into His mouth. All these procedures that you think are adorable in your newborn child are very serious spiritual exercises by Christ, who has entered into the world in a form of flesh which He has not yet been able to manipulate. He has to learn how to form words with His mouth. It is His spirit. Christ is a spirit that has been joined to a soul and a body that He must manipulate in order to survive in this world.

 

Now, in most instances, the word "manipulation" has a very negative connotation to it. And I have not looked it up in the dictionary. I would imagine, in the dictionary, it does have positive definitions because it is a positive word.

 

If I were to read that book, I technically can say to you it is necessary for me to manipulate that book. I have to pick it up; I have to open the pages; I have to open it and find a page that I want for me to open that book. It is called manipulation. If I want to use these glasses, I have to manipulate them. I have to pick them up; I have to open the two legs of it, and I have to put it on my head. I have to manipulate these glasses before I can use them. I have to manipulate utensils at my dinner table.

 

There is a godly manipulation. It is a physical manipulation. Emotional manipulation has a very bad connotation to it. But I do not think that we hear this word "manipulation" used too much in our society here in the United States. Whether or not it is used in other circles, I do not know. Physical manipulation is not necessarily a bad word. Anything you do with your hands...

 

COMMENT: [INAUDIBLE]

 

PASTOR VITALE: Well, "maneuver" is just another way of saying manipulation. I do not know. We would have to look in the dictionary, which I do not want to stop to do now, to see the difference between "maneuver" and "manipulation." We could do it later, if you like. I would like to know the difference myself. I do not think it is the same thing. I just do not want to stop right now to go on with that.

 

So we see a society, or a group of people, called humanity, in whom most people succeed in manipulating their body. Now, some people cannot manipulate their bodies. [AUDIO CUTS OUT] legs, for example, where the spirit in that man is not strong enough to manipulate that man's legs. Well, you say there is something physically wrong with the body. Well, I say to you, the condition of the body is directed by the mind. If there is something wrong with that body, it would take raw mind power to manipulate those legs. And that man does not have it.

 

Have you ever heard of holistic healing? Have you heard of men healing themselves by their own carnal mind? Their mind has commanded those legs to work. Even though there was physically something wrong with them, that man had a mind which was strong enough to manipulate legs that were not functioning. His mind was stronger than his body, and the legs began to function.

 

This is our condition. The mind, and the spirits of the mind, manipulates this body. This body does whatever the mind tells it to do. Now, you may have a conscience in your mind because the mind that manipulates the body is criminal. It is the carnal mind. So hopefully, most people have a conscience in that mind, an element of Christ in them that is exercising some control over the criminal mind in us. So if we have an urge to do something ungodly, which comes out of our carnal mind, that element of spirit, that element of Christ in us, will be strong enough to control the carnal mind.

 

In the event that Christ in us fails to exercise control or fails to manipulate this body, and the criminal mind prevails, we then engage in some destructive activity. The carnal mind is telling this body, Do it! Go jump in the pool when you cannot swim. And Christ in you is saying, Do not jump in the pool. You cannot swim. And if this body winds up jumping in the pool, it means the carnal mind was stronger than Christ at this moment. We are talking about manipulation of the body. Can you hear this?

 

Now, listen, the secular world has done studies on people with multiple personalities. I have witnessed this myself on TV, people with multiple personalities. The body changes in direct response to the mind which is appearing in that body. Now, this is not in the Church. This is secular psychiatrists. I saw a video of it.

 

The man had one personality which had diabetes. They had a doctor on the screen. He tested him and found all the signs of diabetes. In another instance, the man had a deep wound on his skin.

 

The psychiatrist called up another personality, and what happened was the existing personality closed the eyes, manipulated the eyes of the body. The psychiatrist said, "Your name is John. I want to speak to Marty." So John closed his eyes. And the psychiatrist said, "Marty, I want to speak to Marty." And the eyes opened. Marty manipulated the eyes of that body and took over the robot or the android.

 

Now, this was seconds apart. The doctor looked at the man. The big gash in his arm was gone. And the doctor tested for diabetes, and there was no sign of diabetes at all.

 

These are secular experiments. They have nothing whatsoever to do with the Church. Is anybody not following me? Your body reflects the spirit which is controlling it or manipulating it at the moment.

 

Now, I told you all that to tell you this. Brethren, I do not know anybody today whose body is not being manipulated by the carnal mind. Sometimes Christ comes in. Sometimes I do things that I do not want to do. I have given you testimonies.

 

In particular, when I wrote our book, "Mind, Hell and Death," I worked on it two weeks without ceasing, from 7 in the morning until about 2 o'clock in the next morning. The whole time, my carnal mind was screaming that it wanted to be doing something else. And the Lord wanted to use my body. Christ Jesus used my body and my mind to write that book. And I could not do the other things that I would have desired to do. What? For example, bake a cake, go for a walk, go for a ride. I literally did not have the power within my mind to get up from behind that computer and do something else. The Lord Jesus Christ had hold of me. I have several testimonies like that, but it is not common.

 

And if I really wanted to, I probably could have stopped working at the computer and gone and done something else. It was just that I had an awareness in my mind that the Lord Jesus Christ was exerting an influence on me. And because my desire was to serve God, I stayed with it. But if I was in outright rebellion (I do not want you to think I was totally chained); if I decided to rebel, I could have gotten up from that computer and done something else.

 

But because my heart was toward serving God, when I perceived that pressure to stay at the computer, when I perceived that pressure which was opposing what I wanted to do in my emotions and in my mind, I prayed. And I said, Lord, if it is not you, release me from this project. And when I was not released, I agreed with what the Lord Jesus Christ was doing in my life. I do not want you to think that I was so controlled that I could not have done anything else. My own will was involved, and I perceived the will of the Lord as an opposing pressure to what I had desired to do.

 

But I do believe that the day is coming where we will be so possessed of the Lord that we will not be able to do anything else, because the Lord is taking all the kingdoms of this world. And we are the kingdoms of this world. He is going to possess us completely, and there will be no separation between what He wants us to do and what we desire to do.

 

You see, when we do something now, when we get up to go get a drink of water or we go out to talk a walk, we think that it is us deciding to do it because we are in complete agreement with our carnal mind. Unless Christ Jesus is putting a pressure on you to do something else, we are in complete agreement with our carnal mind. We just go and we do it, and we do not realize how our bodies are being manipulated by the carnal mind.

 

But the day is coming that our will will be so completely one with Christ Jesus' that we will do what he wants us to do automatically. It will be automatic, and we will not perceive any pressure whatsoever. There will not be any conflict because the carnal mind will be completely paralyzed.

 

Well, let me tell you what excited me. With all of this background in body manipulation, somebody told me just the other day that they know somebody who has multiple personalities, in the world (this has nothing to do with Christ) that this person goes to sleep at night, and when they go to sleep, another personality wakes up and uses their body. And they go out, and they play like a child. Then when the major host of the body, the person that we know, that I know, wakes up in the morning, he is as tired as can be because he has not slept, because another personality has awakened his body and was using it to play with.

 

So why would that excite me? I am going to tell you why it excites me. Because this is just a type of Christ awakening in our body. Now, when you go to sleep in a service like this (and I have told you this before, but I feel to tell it to you again) it is Christ in me that is putting you to sleep. It is Christ in me that is treading your carnal mind down. He is shutting your eyes. He is shutting the eyes of your body, which is ruled by your carnal mind. The next step is for Christ to arise in you and open your eyes as a whole new man, as a whole new personality.

 

So Christ in me is treading your carnal mind underfoot. The only reason you are sleeping, the only reason your eyes are closed, is that Christ Jesus in you is not yet mature enough to open your eyes and come out and play. Can you hear this?

 

Brethren, when Christ Jesus plays, He dabbles in the Word of God. So to me, that is just very exciting that many of you come to these meetings, and it is not infrequent that you cannot keep your eyes open. It says to me, Christ in me is treading your carnal mind underfoot.

 

Sometimes you completely pass out. You get as white as a ghost. You get white like chalk. Those are you who are white, you get white like chalk, and you completely passed out. I have never seen one of the black people white as chalk, but I see the white people white as chalk, completely passed out, sleeping with their mouths open, snoring sometimes. We have several people that snore here, completely passed out. I am waiting for the day that I see you in that condition, and then your eyes open, and you are a whole new man.

 

I have experienced it once. Very, very exciting. I experienced it once, for just a couple of minutes, that the Lord completely took over my body, closed my eyes, and when they opened up, a whole new man was in full control and fully manipulating my behavior. And that is what He wants to do.

 

And I want to tell you, brethren, when a whole new man has taken over your flesh and is manipulating your behavior, you are not going to be engaged in sinful activity. What will you be doing? You will be doing the will of God. You may be preaching. You may be teaching. You may be exposing sin. Or you may be outright confronting someone who is actively practicing witchcraft, which was what happened to me when God did it to me. He closed my eyes, and when He opened my eyes, I was eyeball to eyeball with, He told me, a practicing witch.

 

And I knew I was standing there challenging this man, and my mind was still active, although not in control. On a computer, the word they give you is "disabled" (I think that is the word they use in a computer). The program, which is Sheila Vitale, who has the ability to manipulate this body, was disabled. Someone else came in and took over the use of me. My mind was still there, but I had no power to change what was happening. What was happening? I was eyeball to eyeball with another man, obviously challenging him. And my mind was in the background, saying, If this is not Christ, I am out of my mind.

 

So the two of us were in there together. Now, the two of us are in here together now. And those of you who have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who hear His thoughts or who hear His words or who feel His feelings, you are saying, Well, the two of us are in here together now. Yes, the two of you are in there together now, but you are the one that is in charge. You can obey Him or disobey Him because you are the one that has the full control and manipulation over your body. But when He fully takes over your body, you are in there with Him. But you will be very aware that He has got full control.

 

It is the weirdest feeling. It was a weird feeling. It was weird, yet I felt very safe. I felt like I was being hidden behind this tremendously powerful giant. And as I said, all I could think of saying was, I sure hope this is the Lord, or I am out of my mind. But I did not seem to have anything to say about it.

 

Now, I have had several occasions where the Lord has taken me over, but this was the first time He closed my eyes. I am not sure what the significance of that is, that this one time, He closed my eyes. I did not even realize why everything went black until the next day. So He has not told me yet the significance of that. I have had several experiences where He has completely taken over. But only one time, He closed my eyes.

 

So we are talking about body manipulation here. The Lord wants to be your Lord and Master. He wants to have everything to say about everything you do. And when He has everything to say about everything you do, you will not be sinning anymore because He does not sin. When He is in full control of you, you will not sin anymore. You will be incapable of sin.

 

And this is the significance of the Scripture that says, "The love of God covers the multitude of sins." The multitude of your sins are in your carnal mind. And when the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, covers you over, you are incapable of sin. So everybody wants their sins covered, but nobody wants to give up control of their own life.

 

Well, brethren, the control of your own life is sin. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. So when you are willing to die to yourself, or even when you are not willing to do it, as Christ grows in you and as he matures in you, you will find yourself in a condition where you are incapable of sin.

 

Now, we see the external body as an expression of the spirit which rules in us. But do not be deceived if you see a sick body because most of us are in transition at this time. Christ Jesus may be appearing in us, but He has not yet. And maybe we are being healed slowly. But the fact that you have a sick body, or a body that is damaged in any way, does not mean that Christ is not appearing in you. It merely means that your carnal mind still has so much control over you that, based on family lines curses and sins of your fathers and your own sins, your body still is dying. Your body still gets sick and is dying.

 

Your body will not cease from getting sick or dying until Christ Jesus becomes the true Lord and Master of this body. And what does that mean? It means He possesses it 24 hours a day. He will then give life to your soul and preserve your body. The fact that Christ is present with you in a body which is possessed of the carnal mind is not enough of Christ to stop you from dying.

 

Oh, I hear the Pharisees screaming blasphemy. It is the truth. You give me a better explanation why you are the holiest person around: you prophesy; you speak in tongues; you read the Bible 20 hours a day; you pray for the sick; you cast out demons. How come you are still in trouble? How come your body is still sick? How come your mind is still sick? How come you are doing self-destructive behavior? How come? Huh, huh, huh? How come? Grow up.

 

Christ is not your Lord and Master. No man (not woman, now) has ever hated his own flesh. Only the woman hates her own flesh. When the Man is the Lord and Master of your house, He preserves your flesh. He keeps it, and that includes, your mind, your soul and your body.

 

So we see that the spiritual woman, when she is the ruler, she hates her flesh. And the result of her relationship with your flesh, which is her flesh, is that your get sick and you die. So if you are still sick or having problems with your flesh, that is because the true lord and master of your person is not the man but the woman.

 

So you may think you are pretty spiritual. I think I am pretty spiritual. Sometimes this doctrine that is coming forth here blows me away. Whatever it says to you, it certainly says to me that I do not care what I am in comparison to the other members of the body of Christ. In comparison to Jesus of Nazareth, I have not arrived yet because I do not like the condition of this body and, lots of times, I do not like the condition of my mind, and I do not have the power to change it at that moment. So I wait. I wait, and I lust for the moment when the man will take this house away from the woman, which woman is possessing this house illegally.

 

And I am locked in here with her, and I am paying the price of her sin, just like a wife and the children pay the price of a natural man's sin. Brother, you cannot be an alcoholic or a drug addict or an adulterer or any other form of sinner without it affecting your wife and your children. And if you think you can do your thing, and your wife and children will be fine, you are mistaken. I do not care how much of a woman of God your wife is. Your sin will affect her and will affect your children.

 

And that is just a fact of life. The sins of our leaders in Washington affect our lives. The sins of the leaders affect those people under them. It is just a natural law of our existence.

 

So I lust for the man to take over this house. In that hour, all my sins will be washed away, and all my troubles will dissolve, and all my tears will go away, and forever I will be with the Lord. And I will no longer be dependent on any form of external support, but all the support that I need in every area of my life will be internalized. That means nothing will be able to hurt me, and by no means shall anything hurt you, not a bear coming out of the woods, not a meteorite coming out of the sky, not a famine in this world, not a nuclear attack. Nothing outside of me will be able to hurt me when the man possesses my house.

 

I fully believe, if I were to lose a hand, another one would grow out, just like Jesus put the ear back on. If I could get hold of the hand, He would reseal it. Or just like He built the eye in the man who was born without an eye, I would not be lacking anything when the Man is Lord and Master of my house.

 

So we are talking here about body manipulation, brethren. Do not be all stressed out when you go to sleep, but please check it out. Do not sleep because you were running around all day. If the spirit puts you out, you are halfway there. And start praying that the Lord arise in these meetings and open your eyes and live through you. And on the other hand, if you are one of the people who do not sleep here, do not think that you are doing better than the people who sleep. If it is not Christ Jesus keeping your eyes open, but it is your carnal mind: if it is the woman, the Devil, who is keeping your eyes open, all that it means is that Christ Jesus in me has not put her out yet.

 

Now, is that not interesting? You thought you were doing well because you did not sleep, but it turns out that it is the other way around. Ha, ha, ha. How do you like that one? Is that not interesting? Never thought of that myself until this morning. I guess the Lord just brought that forth.

 

Now, if you are not sleeping, do not be upset because Christ Jesus has not put you out. And I do not know the answer to this. You go before the Lord. If there is any pride in you whatsoever that you are not sleeping, you had better take it before the Lord because it is not necessarily a good thing. Do you understand? If the Lord has not put you out yet, that is OK. If the Lord is putting you out, that is OK. But if you are taking any pride in either condition, it is sin. It is sin.

 

So let the Lord have His way with you, brethren. Let the Lord have his way with you. If you feel yourself getting sleepy, ask Him. Does He want you to keep your eyes open? Does He want you to get slain in the spirit? Ask what He is doing with you.

 

I am not in any way encouraging you to go to sleep in these meetings. Actually, it is difficult for me to preach when I am looking at a bunch of closed eyes. So I am not in any way suggesting that you go to sleep. And you should try to stay awake. I am just talking about your reactions to what is happening to you. If you cannot stay awake, if you cannot keep your eyes open, do not be condemned. If you can keep your eyes open, do not be lifted up with pride. So please hear what the spirit is saying today. Do not come in here planning on going to sleep. It makes my life difficult. And although you are still getting the message in your spirit, you need to hear the message coming forth.

 

So the Lord just brought forth some spiritual principles. I am not encouraging anyone to go to sleep. I am encouraging you to receive what the Lord has for you. Try to stay awake. Try to hear the message. Try to understand. But if you are overtaken, do not be condemned. That is what I am telling you. And you are where you are. Let the Lord control your experience in church. You should be doing your best to keep your eyes open. But he will have the ultimate decision, whether your eyes are open or whether your eyes are closed.

 

And as you all know, this anointing that has been in here (it has been going on for months now) has been putting me out, has been slaying me in the spirit. I have not figured that out yet how I am supposed to preach when I am going out in the spirit, like now. So I have not heard from the Lord about that yet. But I thank God for this anointing that He has been pouring out.

 

And just in closing, I will remind you that, in Pentecost, you usually have to go up to the front of the church and have the pastor lay hands on you to go out in the spirit. What we are experiencing here is that there is such a powerful outpouring of the spirit that some of us are getting slain without the laying on of hands. It is the spirit that is vibrating forth during the preaching (or, actually, the spirit that is doing the preaching), which is slaying you in the spirit without the laying on of hands.

 

And I remind you that, in Pentecost, the doctrine which is preached is not the Doctrine of Christ. This kind of power to slay in the spirit, this kind of power to cast out demons as the word comes forth, is in Christ. And in Pentecost, we find natural men preaching under the influence of the Holy Ghost. In Pentecost, we find natural men preaching under the influence of the Holy Ghost. And I cannot say it never does, because I do not know, but this anointing is not likely to slay you in your seat, nor is it likely to cast demons out of you. If you want that experience, usually, you have to draw near to the man who is preaching under the influence and have him lay hands on you. You have to get that close to the anointing to have a spiritual experience.

 

But when it is Christ preaching, when it is the man Christ Jesus who is being formed in that preacher, not the natural man under the influence of the Holy Ghost but the actual man Christ Jesus, in some measure of maturity, preaching through the preacher, in him is the ability to slay you in your seat from across the room. And in him...who? In Christ Jesus is the ability to cast demons out of you from across the room, by the power of the anointing that is coming forth from the man Christ Jesus.

 

The Scripture said Jesus healed everyone that came to hear Him preach without laying hands on them. When I was in a deliverance church for five years, we could not figure out how He did it. Well, the reason that He did it was that He was a different man than the man who was preaching in deliverance, who was a carnal man under the influence of the Holy Ghost. It is the spiritual man Christ Jesus, the very Son of God, who Has the power, when He preaches, to vibrate forth and touch anybody that He wants to, either with healing, with deliverance, being slain in the spirit, with any form of ministry that He wants to.

 

So we see that a carnal man ministering under the influence of the Holy Ghost is a good thing, but the spiritual man Christ Jesus ministering through a healed vessel is a better thing. So we will not criticize or condemn any ministry which comes from the Father. But the truth is there are some ministries, some spiritual ministries (I am not talking about churches out there). There is some form of spiritual ministry which is superior to other forms of spiritual ministry which are inferior. Now, in this sense, the word "inferior" is not a bad thing. It is saying that one is good, but the other is better.

 

COMMENT: I was asking you, to make it short, why did you not mention; in Pentecost, some of the ministry that comes forth, you did not say anything about the anointing, in some of those...

 

PASTOR VITALE: Yes. You mean the anointing...

 

COMMENT: Because I thought, you know, you need that. It is like a main ingredient. Was that just an obvious thing?

 

PASTOR VITALE: Well, you need what? I think I...

 

COMMENT: The anointing, to be able to minister. True ministry, not...

 

PASTOR VITALE: Right. OK. I am going to answer you, I think, according to what I think you are saying. If I do not answer you, you are going to have to ask me again. I think what you are saying to me is that there are some ministers out there that... for example, Baptists, who...No? That is not what you are saying?

 

COMMENT: Strictly in Pentecost.

 

PASTOR VITALE: Strictly in Pentecost, ministering without the anointing. Is that what you are saying?

 

COMMENT: [INAUDIBLE]

 

PASTOR VITALE: Yes. Well, I do not know what you mean. The term "Pentecost" means the presence of the Holy Ghost. Pentecost means ministry under the influence of the Holy Ghost. So I do not know what you mean.

 

Let me put this on the message, as long as I think this is what you mean. What I thought you were referring to were the ministry of people, such as Baptists, who have not received the Holy Ghost but... I believe that Baptists definitely minister the word of God, and they minister faith and a lot of good things.

 

But they do not usually, or at least the classic Baptist does not speak in tongues. Some of them do. But from the moment that a Baptist speaks in tongues, he enters into Pentecost. So I am speaking about people who are not in Pentecost but minister faith, the faith of God's word. They do not speak in tongues, and you do not have the outpouring that you usually see in Pentecost, the highly emotional outpouring.

 

And the answer is that these preachers minister under the influence of the Holy Ghost too. There are different measures of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is present if someone is ministering in faith, but His manifestation... whose manifestation? The manifestation of the Holy Ghost, which produces tongues and prophecy and interpretation of tongues, is a different administration of the Spirit of God, which is the name that is given to it is Pentecost.

 

The name of the administration that is given to preachers such as Baptists is faith. I believe that they have a measure of the Spirit of God, which has produced faith in God in them, and they can be a great blessing to people, like Charles Stanley, for example. He is a Baptist. He has faith in God, and I believe he ministers under some wisdom of God.

 

But there is another experience from the same spirit which ministers with signs and wonders, tongues, prophecy, casting out of demons, healing. Those are the signs and wonders that you are not likely to see in the Baptist church, which is ministering faith. Those signs and wonders are present in Pentecost. What is the difference? Two different expressions, or two different functions, of the same Spirit.

 

I am a woman. I have different functions. I function as a preacher, and then I function, when I used to do it, as someone who goes to the supermarket. I have two different functions of the same person.

 

We see the Spirit of God has different functions. And one function is to appear in men who preach faith. And then, in another place we see the Spirit of God functioning in something called Pentecost, whereby He is seen healing the sick and casting out demons and slaying people in the spirit and speaking in tongues. But both expressions of Him are genuine expressions of the Spirit of God, just different.

 

COMMENT: So then it is two measures of faith. For instance, Charles Stanley's faith and your faith would be of two different...

 

PASTOR VITALE: Two different functions of the same Spirit.

 

COMMENT: But you have the anointing, and et cetera. You said he did not have -- whatever.

 

PASTOR VITALE: The Scripture says, "one spirit, different administrations thereof." That is what the Bible says.

 

COMMENT: OK.

 

PASTOR VITALE: All valid expressions of the Spirit of God. Now, what is to say any one is better than the other? There are trillions of people in this world, most of which could not receive what I have to give. So we certainly need ministers under that other anointing. Everybody is important.

 

There is only one question I ask when I evaluate someone who claims to be preaching Christ. And that is, Is the spirit on them genuine? Is it truly the Lord? If it is truly the Lord, who am I to judge another man's servant? If the Spirit of God is with that man, who am I to say that what he is doing is wrong? How do I know what God told him to do? So I go away, and I mind my own business. And I minister the way God has shown me to minister, because there are trillions of people in the world. How do I know what that other guy needs?

 

COMMENT: I was going to ask you, how do you know, when people are of the world that have the Spirit of Christ in them to (that is how they control things morally). What is the difference between that and a person that has Christ formed in him?

 

PASTOR VITALE: Well, the term "to have Christ formed in you" is referring to the fact that the Holy Ghost, which is the glorified Spirit, the resurrected, glorified Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Father in this present world. Are you following me? OK, let me back up.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. He was raised from the dead. He was glorified, and He returned unto the Father. He returned unto pure spirit. And He entered into this world on the day of Pentecost. You see, He poured out of his spirit and pierced into this world system on the day of Pentecost.

 

And we find it a scriptural principle that, when a spirit transfers from one place to another, the Lord gives Him another name. So now that this glorified spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ has returned into this world, His name is the Holy Ghost. For the purposes of the work that He is doing in the Church today, He is the Holy Ghost.

 

And the term "Christ formed in you" refers to a man whom the Holy Ghost has penetrated, whose heart the Holy Ghost has penetrated and made contact with his human spirit. And that union between the Holy Ghost and the human spirit of a man results in an increase, just as a woman conceiving, the male seed joins with the female seed, and the first cell of a new child begins to be formed. That is what we are talking about when we say Christ is being formed in you.

 

And that is the beginning of the first cell of the man Christ Jesus, which is to come. But a person who does not know the Lord but who has some appearance of conscience in them, that is an appearance of the human spirit arising to a high place.

 

Let me say it another way. The man without Christ is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And the evil in the human being in whom Christ is not being formed is the Serpent. Everybody has some good in them, and that good is in the form of the human spirit, which we are born with.

 

Now, in some people in this world, the good is operating at a higher level than others. Paul says those people are a law unto themselves. If they are not Christians, if they do not know Christ, but you see the law, a moral law; you see a knowledge of right and wrong in them, developed to a high degree. Paul said they are a law unto themselves. And what that means is that the good in that person is just functioning on a very high level.

 

COMMENT: So that would be like someone that has one portion of Christ. But when you get Christ Jesus inside of you, it is like a double portion? Is that true?

 

PASTOR VITALE: That is the double portion. Yes.

 

COMMENT: OK.

 

PASTOR VITALE: That is the double portion that the Scripture talks about. Yes.

 

COMMENT: If there is a portion that is of Christ in a person that is not converted or has Christ formed in him, is there also a portion of evil, a double portion of evil, in a person who has that evil that comes from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Is there, like, a double portion of evil with the carnal mind?

 

PASTOR VITALE: That is a good question. That is what the carnal mind is. It is the double portion of evil because the double portion is the... that is a good question because it goes right along with the message that we are preaching here. Just let me see how I can answer it simply.

 

In order to exist, we must have a completed mind. A mind is made from a male seed and a female seed and then the increase that comes from it. In the mind of Christ, that increase is Christ Jesus. In the carnal mind, that increase is the Devil. The increase is the Devil. It is the personality that arises from the union of the male and female seed.

 

And that has already happened to humanity. The creation incarnated on the negative side of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Devil was born. The creation incarnated as the Devil. The mind, the immature mind which God was building at the beginning of time, was completed when Adam joined with the Serpent instead of the Father. And we incarnated as the Devil, and we died. That is what happened to us.

 

I want to say something else to answer your question. So we do already have the double portion of the devil. But what you may have been getting at is, if this is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, how come there is still some good present? And the answer to that is that we incarnated as the Devil, but we incarnated as a spiritual infant.

 

And natural spiritual infants are sexually neuter. An infant, if you do not look at the body, there is no way you could tell whether the infant is a male or a female. And even small children do not start showing secondary sexual characteristics for, I think, three or four years. You know, where you see boys rolling on the floor and choosing, most of the time, you know, more rougher games than the girls, usually, I think that is about 3 or 4 years old. So children up to that point are neuter. They are sexually neuter. The creation incarnated as the Devil but incarnated in a neuter condition, and we have been growing ever since.

 

So the spiritual sexuality of the creation is just beginning to be evident. And most people have both male and female in them. If you look at real small children, they are both male and female. A little boy could want to play with a doll. A little girl could want to play with a truck. They have sexual characteristics, but they are not really functioning as a man or a woman yet.

 

Well, this is the condition of the creation right now. We are both good and evil. And the best of us do a lot of wrong things and make a lot of mistakes. We are usually predominantly good or predominantly evil. Just as a little boy, for example, may be predominantly male, but every once in a while, he might like to play with his sister's doll.

 

But we are at the point in time where the spiritual creation is going into full adulthood. And, you know, you do not see a 35-year-old man playing with a doll anymore. You just do not do it, right? Sometimes you see 35-year-old women having a doll collection. But any man that would have a doll collection at 35 would be very suspect.

 

So we see the creation going into spiritual maturity. And each individual is at a point right now where they are either going to become fully good or fully evil. And that is where we are in the maturation of the creation. That is what is going on in the heavenlies right now. This is the big push of the Devil to get people in his corner because, when he gets them, he is going to mature them fully on the negative side, and there will be no turning back. And on the other hand will be the Sons of God, matured fully in righteousness, with no turning back.

 

PASTOR VITALE: Did that answer your question?

 

COMMENT: Yes.

 

PASTOR VITALE: OK. Praise the Lord.

 

Transcribed by VerbalFusion, 09/20/22

1st Edit, 09/22/22, rh