How Do You Believe?

There are three things which most people do not understand.

Firstly, they don’t know that Faith and Believing are two totally different things.

Secondly, they don’t know the difference between the human spirit before a person is born again, and the Spirit of the born-again person.

Thirdly, they don’t know that the Bible is solid TRUTH — not necessarily one’s version or interpretation of the Bible, but ALL of the Bible. Nothing to do with religion.

I don’t know which one of the three to discuss first, because all of them are so intertwined with one another, and all of them are equally important.

Faith and believing are not the same thing

The difference between Faith and believing is like the difference between heaven and earth.

To believe is a verb. “I believe.” Faith is a noun. I can believe, but I can’t faith.

Faith is the substance out of which God created the earth. (Hebrews 11:1)

Faith is the power of God in His Word.

Faith is what God has, and believing is what I can do.

Jesus says: “If one has faith as a grain of mustard seed, he shall say to this mountain, Remove hence yonder; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.” (Matthew 17:20) Not only faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, but faith AS a grain of mustard seed — faith has LIFE in it, as there is life in a grain of mustard seed.

For this simple reason, God can’t trust a human with faith, for he will abuse it. Faith is the substance which GOD has.

On some occasions God imparts His faith to a person for some specific reason, through a word from God, for something God then does for him — that is what we call miracles. But then that person does not have faith to do all the things he wishes, only for that specific occasion.

Only God can do miracles. Most people think — and say — they can exercise their faith to get something done, but that is not so; one can’t exercise his faith, because nobody has any faith to exercise.

God alone has faith; and He imparts it to a person through a Word.

“Now faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by a Word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

Whenever God imparts His faith to somebody for something, it is no longer BELIEVING, for then he KNOWS. Faith is revelation of Spiritual Law.

Faith belongs to God and is totally under God’s control.

God gave me the revelation about what faith IS some twenty years ago, and I wrote about it in some of my books. I know.

Believing is something I can DO. I do it automatically for twenty-four hours a day, whether I know about it or not. I believe with my MIND.

The Bible is truth whether you believe it or not

First we must be very sure that we do believe the Bible. I’m not talking about religion, I’m not talking about some church or someone’s beliefs.

Some may say: “But I don’t believe the Bible.” Whether you believe it or not, it’s the truth all the same. Someone’s believing does not make it truth. The Bible is Spiritual Law. Just as the natural laws — like the law of electricity — WORK whether you believe them or not, so Spiritual Laws WORK, whether you believe them or not.

Every person who ever lived on this earth will be accountable to God on what is written in this Bible. Every nation, every government, the whole human race. Whether you believe it or not. The fact that millions of them have never even heard about the Bible does not change the truth. (John 12:48)

When I believe the Bible, I have to believe there is only ONE God, and because there are “many so-called gods and many lords” I have to identify which God is the true one God, the true Creator of heaven and earth. (1 Corinthians 8:5–6)

People are so cautious not to “hurt” other people in other beliefs, that they don’t make sure for themselves which god is truly God. They are always apologising for “believing” the Bible! If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for everything.

Remember, one can’t kill a snake by caressing it!

It won’t help anybody to say: “But I believe this or that, and have all my life, so it is true.” People can believe something for thousands of years, but that does not necessarily make of that belief the truth.

Spirit, soul and body

God created man in His likeness and image, and God is Spirit, so man was also made of Spirit, the same “material” as God.

God created out of Himself a man and a woman and He told them what food to eat, as well as to multiply and fill the earth — but that was even before they had earthly bodies. (Genesis 1:27–30)

In Genesis 2:7 God made a body out of the dust of the earth, and He blew into it the Spirit-man with its soul, whom He already had created, and so man became a living soul. After that He also made a body for the Spirit-woman.

They did not become less Spirit when they came into the human body; they still were the image and likeness of God — Spirit with soul in a body.

Because the Spirit in them was the same substance as God, the Spirit ruled over the soul and the body. They were totally obedient to God, the Spirit.

Then they chose to disobey God. They chose to be ruled by their own KNOWLEDGE, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

With that, the spirit in them became a fallen spirit with its soul, ruled over by knowledge. The human MIND now ruled over the spirit as well as over the body.

Remember, the human spirit is very strong, able to do much more than one can ever imagine. It knows everything of man and mankind — but it is subjected to the mind.

Many people think the spirit is the same as the “soul”, but the soul of a person is the MIND, the reason, the emotions, human knowledge. Soul is the same as “life”. The Bible says an animal has a soul and a body. A human being is a spirit, he has a soul, and he lives in a body. (Leviticus 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Whatever the mind believes, the spirit does — good or evil, positive or negative. God did not choose for man to disobey Him; God gave free choice to man. Man chooses with his soul, his mind.

The spirit of man does not choose; the MIND — thoughts, will and emotions — chooses.

Whatever the mind chooses to believe, the spirit performs, for the human spirit, as well as any spirit or Spirit, reacts ONLY on BELIEVING.

The human spirit is like an acre of very fertile soil; every belief in the human mind is a seed planted in that soil. The soil does not choose what it will allow to grow or what it will refuse; everything the mind sows by believing grows in that soil — wheat or thistles, positive or negative, good or evil.

Through thousands of years many people of different religions or tribes exercised their minds, through positive thinking, to believe such things as walking on hot coals without getting burned, cutting their flesh without hurting, even transporting their bodies from one place to another in seconds and much more. The spirit obeys the BELIEVING unconditionally.

Some people exercise their belief through positive thinking to gain for themselves great riches, for this strong and mighty spirit can do for them anything on earth — providing they believe it.

The human spirit is called the subconscious mind.

Jesus says: “All things are possible to him that believes.” (Mark 9:23)

But although the human spirit can do anything on earth, the human spirit is NOT God. The human spirit is NOT the Creator. The subconscious mind is NOT “the universe” as many people think.

Although they call many things “spirituality”, it is only the fallen human spirit.

Through disobedience the human spirit died out of God, precisely as God told Adam would happen, and from that day the whole human race was “dead in sins”. (Ephesians 2:1)

Now the human spirit, or the subconscious mind, knows all about mankind, but it does not know all about God — only the Spirit of God knows all about God. (1 Corinthians 2:11)

The Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit — Almighty God. NOT the same as the human spirit.

A person who exercises his mind to gain for himself much riches and everything a man can desire is not necessarily a bad person. He can be a very good person, doing good and giving millions to charity, being a leader in society, even being a very good Christian, or of some other religion. He can live a good, fulfilled life. Still the human spirit is NOT, by any means, God.

But Jesus says: “What will a man gain by winning ALL things, but losing his soul?” It is possible, therefore, for somebody to have for himself ALL things. The “all things” are not sin; it is just not enough to save a person from hell.

What God did about it

There is only ONE God. After man disobeyed God and chose death for mankind, the Creator had to do something to save mankind — from hell.

Just remember — you need not believe this; it is not your believing it that makes the Bible truth. It IS truth, whether you believe it or not. It is Spiritual LAW.

The moment God says something, that thing is DONE. It might be thousands of years before it is manifested, but it can’t ever be changed, because it is already done.

Therefore Jesus says: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words will never pass away, until eternity.” Because it IS done as soon as He says it.

God creates with His faith IN His words. It can never be undone.

So God created hell for the devil and his angels — the Bible says.

God never intended for man to go to hell, but man had his own free choice, and he chose death and hell, by his disobedience. For ever after, every person on earth chooses for himself, good or evil.

Now God had to save mankind from hell, and in order to do that He needed a human body, but without sin, as a sacrifice.

So He fathered for Himself, by His Word, a human body in a Virgin, in order for Him to be able to live on earth, a human amongst humans, and to take on Himself the sin of all mankind, to die — just as He foretold by the feasts and sacrifices of the Old Testament — and to carry the penalty, to burn in hell, even as the sacrifices were burnt.

“God was revealed in the flesh…” (1 Timothy 3:16)

“The Word took on Himself flesh…” (John 1:14)

“In Him, Jesus, dwells ALL the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9) Not half of it, not one third of it, but ALL of it.

“In the beginning the Word was GOD, and all things were made by Him, and the Word became flesh.” (John 1:1–3, 14)

He did not become another God when He came in the flesh. He did not become a second God, or a lesser God. He was still the very same God, for God can never change — He IS.

God says: “I AM WHAT I AM.” He can never change.

So, there is only ONE God, His Name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is all GOOD. And Almighty.

I am truly not ashamed of Jesus!

Now, God came in the flesh, as the Lord Jesus Christ, to rectify all that went wrong with the fall of Adam.

He made it possible for a man to once again be ruled by the Spirit over his soul, his mind, as well as over his body; where a man could once again be totally obedient to God.

He made it possible for the Kingdom of God, the reign of God, to be once again IN men.

How can that be done? Through rebirth. The opposite of what happened with man’s disobedience, with the fall of Adam.

Any person who identifies with Jesus’ death on the cross, receives Jesus as Saviour and Lord, and again OBEYS Jesus through baptism, is then born of God into eternal life, born into the Kingdom of heaven, and thus becomes a child of God, and from that moment on the resurrected life of Jesus is the life IN him. (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16)

Somebody is not automatically born again because he “believes” the Bible.

He has to die from the kingdom of darkness, where every person born on earth is born into, and be reborn into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ — LIGHT. (Colossians 1:13) Two very different spiritual kingdoms.

From that moment on he not only enters the Kingdom, but then he can SEE the Kingdom. (John 3:3–5) “Seeing” is understanding.

Before rebirth, a man can be the best person, the brightest scholar, the most religious person, even a pastor, priest, minister, nun, pope — whatever — but he is unable to SEE or to enter the Kingdom.

He may know everything in the Bible, may know about the Kingdom, may believe that the Kingdom is within him, but Jesus says it is impossible for anyone to see or enter the Kingdom before rebirth. Jesus knows — of course!

So, what gain is it to be born again? Every person can achieve anything he desires by feeding his belief. What more is there?

Some call it “feeding the subconscious mind”, but the subconscious mind is the spirit of man; it does not react on your “feeding”. It only — and always — reacts and works on your believing. So you change your believing by positive thinking and positive words and deeds, and the spirit makes sure that you get what you believe. This is truly mind over matter.

But to be saved for eternal life, a person needs JESUS, the Living Word of God.

With rebirth, the Holy Spirit, Christ, comes to live IN that person, and his human spirit once again becomes ONE Spirit with Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17)

God compares His presence in the temple with a cloud in the Old Testament. With rebirth the “cloud” which is my human spirit — the same “material” as God — becomes once again ONE with the Cloud which is the Spirit of God, and henceforth it is only ONE Cloud.

“We are one Spirit with God.” (1 Corinthians 6:17)

“I have been crucified with Christ; and no longer I live, but Christ lives IN me.” (Galatians 2:20) Not Christ AND me. Only Christ.

I am a new creation; a human body with Christ, the Spirit of God, living IN me. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Just as it was before the fall of Adam.

Although the reborn man is now again as Adam was, the mind still lords it over the Spirit and the body, because with the fight between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the seed of the woman — Jesus — was bitten by the serpent, and so the body was poisoned. (Genesis 3:15; Hebrews 2:14) The poison is traditions and religious teachings in the minds of people.

All born-again people form the body of Christ, and the poison is in the body.

Now the Bible says that the MIND has to be renewed by the Word of God. (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23) The Word is TRUTH, the Bible. One has to choose to put away the old religious thoughts and beliefs, and replace them with the Word of God, the truth.

Our only weapon is TRUTH, the Bible. One has to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, the Word of God. (2 Corinthians 10:4–6)

Only by the administering of antidote can a snake’s venom leave a body; so can the serpent’s venom leave the body of Christ only by TRUTH. For every real truth entering into a man’s spirit through his mind, the same amount of untruth, or tradition, leaves the person.

Step by step man has to climb back out of the lies and religious traditions, to the place where the Spirit again rules over the soul — the mind — as well as the body of man; where man will again be totally obedient to God.

A place where it is no longer “mind over matter”, but where it is “God’s Word over ALL, be it mind or matter.” God’s Word is Spirit and Life. (John 6:63)

What are these truths? It is every promise of the Bible for the born-again people.

“They who believe in Me, these works that I do, they will do also — and they will do greater works.” (John 14:12)

“Holy Spirit will teach you ALL things. He will lead you into ALL truth. He will announce to you the things of the future. He will remind you of everything that I said; He will be power IN you. He will be streams of living waters flowing out of your belly.”

“Beloved, now WE are children of God and it is not yet manifested what we shall be. We know that, if He shall be manifested, WE will be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.” (1 John 3:2) One has to be born of somebody, to be his child.

“Because as HE is, even so are WE in this world.” (1 John 4:17)

“He who has the Son of God, Jesus, has eternal life.” (1 John 5:12)

“With Christ, God gave us ALL things.” (Romans 8:32) Nothing excluded!

What more is there that needs to be said? This is trillions more and better than the best of the person who is not yet born again, however able and strong his unregenerated spirit may be.

Why then do we live in lack?

Why do born-again people live in want and lack, although they have these precious promises — and many more — already done for them with the death of Christ? Jesus says: “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” (Luke 16:8) WHY?

Because they don’t know the secret of believing. They don’t know that the Spirit within them reacts ONLY — but always — on their believing.

Through thousands of years the unregenerated people of many different religions and tribes used their BELIEF to gain for themselves many profits and many riches and power, whereas born-again people were afraid to claim their heritage — afraid it will be “occult” or “New Age” or whatever.

These promises are for the born-again people, not for sinners.

What do we lack? Only to BELIEVE.

Day after day, for hundreds of years, born-again people TRY to do the things that Jesus promised in Mark 16:17–18, without heeding the words of Jesus: “For them that BELIEVE these signs will follow…” Not for them that TRY or scream, but for them that believe.

Immediately they say: “But of course I believe!” I know — I also “believed”, but I didn’t know what believing IS. And I was unaware that I did not know.

Until Jesus gave to me this precious revelation.

How do you believe?

For twenty-four hours a day you are busy with self-talk — without words, most of the time, but all the same. You see yourself in the mirror, and “say” to yourself: “You’re ugly, you’re fat. No wonder your husband has wandering eyes.”

THIS is what YOU BELIEVE. So THIS is what you GET.

Your all-powerful spirit works for twenty-four hours a day, to make sure THAT is what you get, for it reacts ALWAYS on everything you believe.

Whenever you say “I can’t afford it,” your spirit makes sure you surely CAN’T afford it. Your “thinking in your heart” is your believing.

Some parents tell their children through their whole childhood that they are useless, lazy, dumb, ugly, fat, naughty — whatever — and so the children BELIEVE it and therefore they ARE as they think or believe.

Girls who were abused believe themselves to be “bad” and they mix with other “bad” girls and guys, who are also “bad” only because they were so programmed by parents or teachers or abusers. So they ARE bad! But they don’t KNOW that it is only because they believe it.

There are no BAD people.

The thoughts you THINK day in and day out are the things you GET, for they are the things you believe. I didn’t know THIS is what BELIEVING is!

The Bible says: “As a man — a person — thinks in his heart, so IS he.” (Proverbs 23:7)

Look at how YOU are; look at your body, your finances, your family, your circumstances, everything. Look at HOW you and your circumstances are, and know: that is what YOU think, so that is what you believe, and that is the reason why you and your circumstances are what you are.

Although God says He gave you ALL things with Christ, you are living in lack and many a day you don’t know where your next meal will come from. You are praying God to help you, you are begging people for help, you do all you KNOW, but to no avail. You think God does not care.

We think we are waiting for God to do things for us, but God waits for US to claim and use the “all things” which He already has given us in Christ. (Romans 8:32)

All we ever need is to BELIEVE.

When you need health, you need to believe — for God already gave you ALL health and healing. “By Jesus’ stripes you ARE healed.” You only need to believe that Scripture. Not as everyone says: “I do believe the Bible.” But they are still sick.

I also do believe the Bible, but my real BELIEVING in me knew and believed I had a heart condition. The Spirit in me, “the inner man”, reacts twenty-four hours a day on my believing, to keep my heart condition in perfect working order! That was, of course, before Holy Spirit revealed to me what believing is, and how to change my negative believing into positive believing — the Word — and into health. (Ephesians 3:16)

Because the Bible IS truth, whether you believe it or not, every person has to receive these truths of the Bible for himself, by believing. It IS there for everyone.

How to change negative believing into positive believing

Firstly I have to admit: much of my believing is negative.

I must be willing to change my believing.

I have to identify which thoughts do not serve me.

Then I have to find out what God says in His Word in connection with the problem in my life, whether about sickness or lack of any kind.

Then I have to renew my MIND by believing the Word of God. I have to SEE myself as God sees me; that which He says about me in the Bible.

God never sees anybody sick, for He knows what He did in Christ — He healed all sickness and disease. That is why He says: “By Jesus’ stripes you ARE healed.” God does not tell a lie; He SEES everybody healthy, and that is why He says it.

Now I must start seeing myself healed. I must see myself, before the eyes of my spirit, in my imagination — whatever you like to call it — as God sees me: healed and healthy. Seeing is believing! You exercise yourself to “see” as God sees. If you need a picture to help you see, then get a picture of a healthy you.

At the same time, you confess with your mouth what God says in the Bible: healing and strength.

I read about a doctor who had a patient with terminal cancer. He could do nothing for her, so he prescribed that she go home, and three times a day sit down and say “I’m healed, I’m healed” for fifteen minutes at a time. Well, it took three months for her to be healed — but she was healed.

What happened? Her belief was changed by the positive words from her mouth, and faithfully the spirit within her performed health in her body — according to her believing. It happened in her MIND.

It is NOT witchcraft. It is Spiritual Law. You have to change your BELIEVING.

You have to change it by changing your thoughts, your thinking. The Spirit and body of a person obey the BELIEVING of the mind of the person, whether he knows it or not; always, in all things.

With the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, God provided ALL good things for ALL people who will ever be on earth: eternal life in heaven; utmost health for spirit, soul and body; life and health and wealth and happiness in abundance.

As each person chooses to make use of God’s abundance, he has to believe the Bible, receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord to be saved, and believe God’s Word for health and for wealth and happiness.

So many believe only in Jesus to be saved and “go to heaven”. That is very good — but they don’t know about the abundance God gave them in Christ for this life. They need not abundance in heaven. (John 10:10)

Some only believe for money and wealth — that does not go far enough. Some believe for healing only. Always ignorance. They don’t know their only lack is always lack of believing.

Jesus says: “What gain will it be for a person to win the whole world, but to lose his soul to hell?”

The circumstances do not need to be changed; the believing needs to be changed.

The moment you find yourself thinking negative thoughts — contrary to the Bible — say to yourself: “No, not those thoughts. Think the Bible, what God says about me.”

Drag your thoughts back to the Bible. Don’t allow negative thoughts.

The Bible is Spiritual Law. The Kingdom of God works on the Law of sowing and reaping. One need not believe it for it to work — it works in any case. Tithing is included here: giving and receiving.

Forgiving is a Spiritual Law, because it is in the Bible. Forgive always. There’s nothing like being unforgiving to shackle a person’s growth. There’s nothing like forgiveness to set a person free.

Forgiveness brings health to your body, soul and spirit. Read Matthew 18:15–35. It’s a much bigger issue for one’s spiritual life than is possible for me to say in these few pages. It’s an issue of life and death.

Like every other Law in the Bible, forgiving is also included in the Law of sowing and reaping.

Remember, although the Spirit does not choose for you, He teaches you daily from the Bible, He leads you in all truth, warning you with that still small voice in your heart — some people call it intuition. Still, it stays your choice whether you obey Him or not.

The more you heed His urging, the more you read the Bible, the clearer you hear His voice. The more you ignore it, the fainter becomes His voice.

But remember, He LEADS you, He does not push you. You choose for yourself whether you will follow His lead — twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

How can you be born again?

Firstly you believe the gospel, the good news that God in Jesus Christ took all your sins and poverty and unhappiness on Himself, died for it, and went to hell to pay the penalty for YOUR sins.

Then you say to Him, out loud enough for your own ears to hear: “Lord Jesus, I confess I am a sinner, and I can’t save myself. I give myself to you with all I have and all I am, unconditionally. I receive You as my Saviour and my Lord. Thank You, Jesus!”

Now you go to some disciple of Jesus and ask him to baptise you into the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to Acts 2:38. From then on you are IN the name of Jesus, clothed with Christ. (Galatians 3:27)

Because you BELIEVE and therefore DO the Bible, God — in His mercy and grace — provides His FAITH to save you, and enough faith to keep you saved, for as long as you choose to follow Christ. (Mark 16:16; Ephesians 2:8)

Now you also are a child of God, born again through His precious Word, with all the privileges which are the heritage of God’s children; not only on earth, but also in heaven.

Remember: to be born again is not religion, it is LIFE. Eternal LIFE.

Then you ask Jesus to baptise you in Holy Spirit, in order for you to have power to be a witness for Him. (Acts 1:8; Acts 2:1–8) Read your Bible, ask Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth. Talk to Him every moment.

Remember, He now lives within you!

Renew your MIND, your THOUGHTS, by believing the Word of God — ALL of it.

Celebrate and worship Jesus Christ!

God bless.

Letta Pretorius