Now some may want to know about how our personal, loving God behaves towards other kinds of spirits, since the way God behaves towards them is how we are to behave towards them. And it is quite obvious that God's Spirit and human spirits are not the only kinds of spirits existing. Countless other spirits exist on earth and in heaven, each with a mind and will of its own. For one thing, the Bible tells us that all “creatures” (κτίσις, which may include plants, animals and all living organisms) have eternal spirits, since all will be delivered into eternal heaven after life on earth, that is, into “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (e.g., Rom. 8:21). So human spirits must be able to have some kind of loving relationship with some of their spirits, especially with the “higher” kinds of animals. And some can clearly see that each animal has a very unique spirit. Now plants, single- celled organisms, insects and the like must possess some kind of a spirit of life too, but probably nothing like the spirits of “higher” forms of life. These simple organisms might each have a “little” individual spirit, or else one “large” spirit might collectively govern and give life to large groups or whole species of these kinds of living things, en masse. Who knows? Either way, God's Word does clearly teach that all living creations have eternal spirits. When we look out upon this life in nature, we are perceiving countless, interacting, living spirits with minds and wills of their own. And man is to wisely govern the lives of those spirits, and the deaths of their bodies, which releases their spirits.
In fact, the second thing God required of man, immediately after being created, was to “name” the animals (Gen. 2:18). This was not an act of inventing words to label each individual animal or to label each kind of animal. Rather, when God commanded mankind to “name” them, it was just an archaic way of commanding man to take responsibility for the welfare of the animals, to help them live well and fulfil their roles in life. In a similar way, when the ancients named their children, it was a sign that the parents took a lifelong responsibility for their children. Another example is how ancient kings would rename the most important men in their kingdom, their closest counsellors and highest officials. When a king gave such men new names, he indicated that he took responsibility for their lives and all their resulting actions, almost as though he adopted those men as his sons. Thus, Genesis 2:18 means that God told man to bear a similar relationship of responsibility for the animals. Then this command is also related to God's very first command to mankind, which was to “tend and keep” the “garden” (Gen. 2:15-17). That is, a man must care for and guard any environment in which he is granted the right to live, any place he bears any control over—for the sake of his God (the only real Owner of all creation), for the sake of all other human beings, and for the sake of the animals.
But, clearly, animal spirits are even more limited than our human spirits, and none are called God's children. All their spirits are simply created by God's spiritual power, not breathed from God Spirit like elect human spirits, although animals will share in the heavenly glory of God's elect. And, since animals all have spirits, God rules their hearts too. Thus, all animals are capable of some degree of love. But no animals can go to hell, because they cannot know good from evil, like man can. No animal can intentionally sin and deserve hell. Creatures just do whatever they need to do or are caused to do. And it certainly is impossible for any spirit, aside from the non-elect spirits, to sin the unforgivable sin Jesus spoke about (e.g., Mat. 12:31). For this sin is an intentional, malicious slander of God's Holy Spirit, and can only be performed through a spirit's permanent hatred of the essence of God and His light of truth. None but demonic spirits and human spirits born of Satan, who hate God's spiritual light, who love nothing but their spiritual darkness of delusions, can possibly sin in this way. And they do so daily, without ever feeling any remorse. So they can never repent from this sin, which makes this sin remain intentional and unforgivable. But, since elect human spirits are created in God's image, by God breathing His own breath into them (Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7), they cannot commit this sin. For their spirits cannot help but love God and desire all that God represents. Only the lust, greed or rage of an elect one's rebellious mind of flesh can and does actually slander Jesus' Spirit. But, if this happens, their elect spirits always, eventually will truly repent through much godly sorrow. And it is equally impossible for animals to commit this unforgivable sin too, since they cannot even sin in ordinary ways. Thus, God's Word never says anything about any animal's spirit sinning, only that they will all share heaven's glory together with God, with His elect children, and with the elect angels. No creatures born on earth, other than Satan's children, shall ever go to hell.
Then, of course, angels and demons are spirits too, each possessing its own mind and will, as we see in many Scriptures. But all angels and demons were also created by God's spiritual power, just like the animal spirits. None originated from God's personal Spirit like the spirits of God's children. So all angels simply do what they were created to do, what they are caused to do through the state of their created propensities that formed their wills and minds. However, non-elect angels (Satan and his demons) were created for hell, since they were created with the propensity to hate God and His light. So hell is the only place where they can wallow in their beloved hatred, and torture themselves with ungratified lusts. Hell is their beloved home. Since heaven exposes their lies, they hate heaven.
Still, both the elect angels and non-elect angels (demons) are all far more mature than elect human spirits, while the elect live on earth. For all angels were created whole, in a mature state, with their minds filled with all they needed to know. And both kinds of angels already have bodies made of a spiritual substance, which allows their spirits to do whatever they desire, without any conflict from an inferior body of flesh. Our human spirits, on earth, must contend with many limitations and much opposition from our temporary bodies of flesh. Therefore, both elect angels and demons are more powerful (and either wiser or more cunning) than any man's spirit (e.g., II Pet. 2:11), since their spiritual bodies let them carry out their spirits desires without any hindrance or interference. They are all able to easily manipulate, rule or bind a man's spirit, and all can easily destroy human flesh. All angels will possess this power over human beings until the spirits of men receive their spiritual bodies, which will only occur after the death of our flesh, on the judgement day. On earth, the infantile spirits of men possess no power over any heavenly angels, and no power to resist demons. Only if Jesus intercedes can man be spared from the wrath of holy angels against sin, or from the destroying power of demons. But, although all angels have been created with an extensive body of innate knowledge and power, they all seem to be capable of learning more. For God's Word tells us that angels in heaven “long to look into” the teachings granted to God's elect on earth (I Pet. 1:12). Any creature that is curious has the capacity to learn. So the angels’ curiosity means they can learn.
Nonetheless, all heaven's elect angels are called God's beloved servants, and none are called God's “children,” never in the same sense that elect human spirits are called God's children. There are many kinds of heavenly angels, each kind with a different purpose, and most have enough power to utterly destroy the whole earth. Also, God does indeed truly love all these elect angels, with warmth and compassion. Nevertheless, none of these angels, even the greatest, are as precious to God as the spirits of His human children. So, for now, almost all these heavenly angels are greater than the infantile spirits of God's children. But all His elect human spirits will soon mature to surpass the power and glory of all elect angels, although men are wretched and weak now, though we may say:
“What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [i.e., angels] and crowned him with glory and honour. You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet” (Ps. 8:4-6, ESV; cf., Heb. 2:6-8).
As for demons, “fallen angels,” they were created by God to be His enemies, created with a lack of ability to love in a God-like way. The innate knowledge placed in them was incomplete and leads to behaviour that opposes God. The demons and their human children all have a desire to be their own gods who create their own realities, but selfish and unjust realities, through contradicting precepts that cannot actually be brought into existence, that cannot become real in any stable and lasting way.
So all they want to create remains only in their minds and never comes to fruition, never becomes a reality. Therefore, their only purpose is to be the “dumbbells” our spirits must lift, to exercise our spirits, to make our spirits stronger and more loving as we deal with them while we live on earth.
They were created for the training ground of the elect children of God, for our time of education.
Now the difference between a beloved elect angel's spirit and a beloved elect human being's spirit greatly affects each one's relationship with God. We must realize that our spirits call God our Father, a Father who chooses to remain personally in charge of educating and training our infantile spirits, teaching us constantly, and informally. So we spend much personal time with Him. And He wants us to constantly go to Him. He never gets tired of us, but delights in us. Nor is our Father ever too busy for us. He grants our spirits immediate access to His personal presence at any time, and at all times, allowing us to ask Him any questions. But God simply placed all required knowledge and skill in the minds of elect angels. They were not born infantile, and do not need God to be a personal Father to them. Therefore, all elect angels must be called by God before being allowed to enter His presence.
Pagan Platonic doctrines taught about a kind of relationship with the gods they invented in their own minds. They imagined multiple levels of heaven, with a steep hierarchical system governing all.
Since their invented gods were made in the image of Greco-Roman despots, they were very limited, and had no power to speak with billions of souls all at the same time. And this prevented direct communication between man and their invented, impassive, impersonal, transcendent gods. But, at times, there did indeed seem to be some real communication between these evil idolaters and their gods. And, judging by the “fruits” (doctrines and deeds) produced by these communications with their gods, these wicked men definitely were not speaking to the real God. Therefore, their gods were actually Satan's demons. Occasionally, through God's grace, these humanists received a few nuggets of real truth, which they promptly corrupted and twisted. But they were mostly demonic.
Now demons were cast out of heaven and are now imprisoned in the vaporous, temporary, material universe for a time, until the appointed time comes for them to be cast into hell. But, since each demon is ambitious for power, and each wants to be a god, very steep hierarchical structures are formed among them, as the greater demons, with more power, beat down and rule over demons with less power. So the tall hierarchical organizational structure of the Greeks and Romans came from demonic influences. Demons caused the pagans to invent false gods in their own image. Thus, the Platonic model of the universe closely resembles the kingdom of demons imprisoned on earth, and so does Satan's world order on earth. But these human Platonists, like the demons, also like to delude themselves into thinking this is a desirable kind of existence, mostly because men get to be their own gods too. Then most churches cast out the real God and replaced Him with these pagan gods, Plato's ruthless pagan god in particular, and retained their demonic pagan doctrines too. Platonic churches set up steep hierarchical organizational structures, and some also said man cannot immediately and personally approach God, the Father of our spirits. Instead, they encouraged prayers to dead “saints,” whom they believed to be in possession of more merit points than common people, and thus were “promoted” to higher levels of authority. Then some believed they could pray to “angels,” to receive help from them. Some even began to think the angels were once human beings. But all this is utter nonsense, entirely contrary to biblical teachings, and usually originated through demonic influences.
God's Word says there is only one heaven where elect spirits dwell eternally. Once a human being dies, the Bible claims that, even before the end of the judgement day, the elect spirit of a dead person may remain “awake,” constantly praying for loved ones remaining on earth. But the human spirits born of Satan, the wicked and loveless spirits, are gathered and separated from God and men, and are thus silenced. Either way, a human spirit on earth can only communicate with the spirits of the dead through Jesus, our God. Absolutely no direct communication is possible between the spirits of the living and the spirits of the dead, except when and by what means our Lord and God, Jesus, allows.
Yet God seldom allows any such communication. We see how this is taught in many Scriptures, such as in the parable of Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). In that parable, the wicked spirit of the dead rich man was bound and silenced forever in hell, completely unable to speak to his brothers still living on earth. Nor did God allow the elect spirit of good Lazarus, or an angel, to go to them either. The rich man was immediately cast into hell, where he was cut off from all people living on earth. There was some ability of the spirits of the dead to communicate with each other, however. The “awake” spirits of God's elect children, Lazarus and Abraham, were allowed a little contact with the wicked rich man's spirit. Yet an impassible gulf existed between the elect and non-elect after they died. Then, in some Scriptures (e.g., Rev. 8:3-4), we see how spirits of many deceased elect are actively praying prayers before God, and these are reiterated by an angel. These prayers are not heard on earth, but they appear to be for their loved ones who still remain on earth, not for themselves. Thus, together with other Scriptures, we can conclude that many elect spirits, after their bodies die, remain fully “awake” and are able to see events occurring on earth. For they know what is happening to their loved ones who remain on the earth, and these elect still care for their loved ones upon the earth.
But look at how spiritual mediums, who try to contact the spirits of the dead, are considered to be abominations in God's eyes (e.g., Deut. 18:9-12). Clearly, this is because they attempt to bypass God, by trying to speak directly to spirits who are now solely under God's authority, to spirits that earthly souls have no authority and no ability to contact. All contact with the spirits of the deceased must be initiated by the will and the authority of Jesus alone. Of course, mediums are mostly charlatans, and are totally incapable of contacting any spirit of any dead person. But some seem to actually speak to spirits. But, if it is impossible for them to contact spirits of the dead in heaven or hell, then the spirits they contact must live on earth, and cannot good spirits, because those spirits are lying when they pretend to be the spirits of the deceased, and also because those spirits help the mediums break God’s law. Thus, we conclude that God actually hands some mediums over to demonic spirits that are familiar with the dead people they want to contact—that is, to demons who pretend to be certain dead human beings, and pretend to be harmless, but actually try to deceive the mediums and those who believe in the mediums, to confuse and take captive their lives, to ultimately destroy them.
Some call these demons “familiar spirits,” because they are familiar with the character and lives of certain spirits of the dead. On the other hand, God is able to allow living people speak to the spirits of deceased persons, although He will only allow it for very unique and necessary spiritual reasons.
Look at how Saul went to a medium, thinking he might be able to speak to the dead prophet, Samuel (I Sam. 28:7-20). Of course, on this occasion, God actually did let the real spirit of Samuel return from his rest in heaven to the earth, so Samuel could speak to Saul. Thus, the medium was utterly shocked, likely because she was indeed a charlatan, knowing she was totally incapable of contacting the dead. But Samuel, back from the dead, uttered a true prophecy, which means he spoke the very words God commanded him to utter. Thus, we conclude that God sent the real spirit of Samuel back to earth, and gave him a bodily form. But it certainly was not the medium who conjured him up from the dead. For a human medium has absolutely no power to do what actually happened at that time.
Thus we find: (1) God calls it an abomination to even attempt to speak to the spirits of deceased human beings, even to spirits of the canonized so-called “saints,” some of whom are now in hell; and (2) the heavenly angels definitely are not the spirits of dead human beings. Elect angels include many different kinds of spirits created by God's power (and none were ever represented by beautiful women in flowing gowns). Heaven's angels are all very strong spirits who directly serve God in mighty ways, thus are sometimes portrayed as masculine-like spirits, although none have any real gender, since none are able to reproduce (e.g., Mat. 22:30). Thus, when God allows elect angels to appear to man, they invariably appear as male-like figures. And, when elect angels are sent to us, it is always because God personally commands them to go to us with a message from Him, or to fulfil a mission which He commands them to perform. No man can call elect angels to come to him or serve him. All who call upon angels sin, since they are actually trying to usurp God’s authority over the angels. And all who pray to angels are making angels into gods, though angels are less than man.
Because the Father of our spirits is very personal and loving towards His elect children, He seldom sends His elect angels to us. Our God does not use His servants to minister to the needs of His children, but does this himself. Besides, our Father would never grant any elect angel any authority to make any kind of important decisions regarding His own children. For all decisions regarding His elect children must be made with a wisdom that is far too deep for any angel. If God does send us an angel, that angel acts by God’s commands according to God’s will, never through its own will. So, whenever elect angels do come among us, God usually does not allow us to see them, and they are never under our command. They remain strictly under God's command. The final word, concerning every matter affecting us, must come from our Father Himself, or from Jesus who is one with our Father. An angel may bring a message from God, or perform an action commanded by God, in a way that affects us. But those angels only do those works because God commanded them to do them, not because we asked them to do them. Therefore, those works are actually God working through His elect angels, as His agents. Our Father, in essence, does all that is done for our spirits eternal welfare. We control none of it. For He has chosen to personally take full responsibility for His own children, to educate and care for them, even to personally listen to them and to talk candidly with them. Our Father signified this responsibility by giving new names to all His elect children (e.g., Rev. 2:17).
Thus, our spirits speak directly to God our Father, or Jesus who is one with the Father, not to saints.
All non-human, elect spirits—all whom God created for eternal life in heaven—will certainly be with us in heaven in the end (i.e., the spirits of all elect angels and animals). And, because all these other spirits were created with attributes that make them able to exist in heaven for all eternity, all must have varying degrees of potential to comprehend the truths of God and to truly love. But only an elect human spirit born of God is able to grow to the point where his or her love is far more full and God-like. For only the human elect are called God's children and were created directly out of His Spirit in His image. So we must conclude that God, and all the human beings who were created to be His children, will “judge” these other spirits in heaven. And by the word “judge,” I refer to the biblical kind of judging which teaches, trains and governs them. God's children, together with God, will serve all of them for all eternity. And this is what it means when it says we shall judge the angels (I Cor. 6:3). A biblical kind of judging only involves condemning and sentencing if a sinner cannot be turned away from evil through repentance into a knowledge of the truth. And, since literally all the elect angels and animals will always be able to be corrected, none will ever be sent to hell. Thus, the “judging” of all elect angels will only involve acts of teaching, training, correcting and guiding.
In conclusion, an elect human spirit is different from all other kinds of spirits. And there is only one Spirit who can directly and adequately teach a human spirit all the essential truths required for a just and loving life in the eternal home of heaven. That Spirit is the Spirit of God. For God is a Spirit.
The human spirit of every child of God must bypass the mind of flesh and go directly to our God Jesus for His teaching and training. No other spirit can be one's trustworthy, authoritative teacher and trainer. Certainly, a person cannot go to the human spirits of dead “saints” for guidance and help. No aspect of salvation can possibly come through any human being, nor any angel, nor anything else.
This also means a child of God cannot become the disciple of any human being. And we can see for ourselves that the New Testament never indicates that any apostle or true Christian ever took a disciple for himself. On the contrary, it always says they made disciples of Jesus and were always called “brothers” (fellow disciples). Therefore, we must not take disciples, nor become disciples of other human beings. Rather, just as all disciples in the New Testament were disciple of the living and resurrected Jesus, so too must we all become His disciples. For only Jesus can correctly determine the truest truths and the most right ways, or deeply convict our hearts of every error that might cause failure, harm or death. Only Jesus, our one God, bears this kind of knowledge, wisdom and power.
And, as the Father of our spirits, God alone knows the aptitude and state of each individual child's spirit, all its inherent propensities and potentials, all it lacks and all it requires. For only He created their spirits, with their minds and wills, with their aptitudes and propensities. So only He can teach and train our spirits in a way that eventually causes us to spontaneously do His works, from the heart. Furthermore, none but our Father can draw the spirits of His children together in bonds of love, to work together with one mind and for one purpose, to become His very body of flesh living on earth. And Jesus is one with the Father. So only Jesus among us can be the Head Teacher of every elect man's spirit, to make us one with our Father in heaven. This deep and effective unity can never result from the works of man. Above all, it certainly can never result from a compromise of God's truths, or through a wilful ignorance of those truths, by refusing to teach anything that offends anyone's worldly preferences of the flesh, lest they stop attending church and stop tithing. God's koinonia or communion, having all things in common, can only be worked by Jesus, since it is the result of His inner works, the renewing and transforming of the spirits of His children, a work that must be maintained by Him each hour of each day. Only Jesus, who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, can adequately teach and train our spirits. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is our Lord.