The following is an amazing illustration I found in Major Ian Thomas’ book entitled, The Mystery of Godliness. WOW! Have you ever wondered why you do the bad or dumb things you do at times? Have you ever struggled with trying to understand what is “the flesh”? Why is “the flesh” even here for me to deal with? The following illustration, I hope, will help you to understand this with greater clarity.

Perhaps I can clarify the issues still further by the use of this simple illustration. Let the human spirit represent the Royal Residence, prepared by God for the Holy Spirit; the Royal Resident, imagine next that the soul represents the Music Room, and in it there is the Grand Plano of human personality – mind, emotion, and will. The body, as the amplifier, will communicate the music from the music room to the world around!

Do you get the picture? When God created Adam in his innocency, the Holy Spirit-as the Royal Resident imparting the life of God-was at home in Adam’s human spirit, the Royal Residence. He had unchallenged and exclusive access to Adam’s soul, the Music Room, and He alone had the right to sit, as it were, at the keyboard of human personality, the Grand Piano.

Instructing the mind, controlling the emotions, and directing the will, the Spirit of Truth struck every chord in perfect harmony with the heart of God in heaven, and a matchless melody rang out in evidence that God was reigning in the heart of man on earth!

God, however, had given to man the key to the Music Room–that is to say to his soul or heart-and this key was man’s right to choose out of a free will. He would not outstay His welcome! The presence of the Royal Resident in the Royal Residence was to be a matter for mutual consent, for there was to be a “faith-love” relationship between man and God. So long as the Music Room remained unlocked, offering to the Holy Spirit unchallenged and exclusive access to the keyboard of human personality, God promised that the Royal Resident would remain within the Royal Resi-dence-the Spirit of God within the human spirit–and man would share the very life of God Himself and would declare Him to the world in which he lived.

At the same time, God made it very clear to man, that should the door be locked and access to the Music Room be denied to the Royal Resident, He would not remain within the Royal Residence, and the human spirit would become destitute of the Holy Spirit. In that day, man would cease to share the life of God; spiritually, he would die!

Man continued to enjoy unbroken fellowship with God, until one day the Deceiver came–the Arch-Enemy of God and Destroyer of Man-soul, whose name was Lucifer, son of the morning (Isa. 14:12). He had rebelled against The Truth, and had become The Lie, and the Father of Lies–for there was no more Truth in him! More commonly he is known as the Devil, or Satan, but cannot always be readily identified, for often he masquerades as an Angel of Light.

This deceiver persuaded the first man Adam that man could play the Grand Plano of human personality without God–and just as well as God! He pointed out the great advantages of being free from the restrictive presence of the Holy Spirit, whose absence, far from detracting from human experience, would undoubtedly enhance it, for man would then be able to pick and choose his own tunes; tunes that needed only to be in harmony with himself and certainly not in harmony with God! Far from losing life by losing God, man would gain life in an entirely new dimension–enjoying things which tasted even better than they looked, and which would make him wise as wise as God! Indeed man would become his own god, and what could be better than that?

Suffice it to say that the first man Adam believed the lie and locked the door of the Music Room, and the Royal Resident left the Royal Residence, which became strangely cold and empty, and although he could not quite explain it, Adam had a new and queer sensation which he had never known before; for the want of a better name he called it fear, and it has never left man since, and it still has the same strange effect on him that it had on Adam then! It always makes man want to hide or run away! The funny thing is this–again and again he finds that what has made him run away from God has traveled with him! It is a bad conscience!

However, at least Adam was on his own now and could have a crack at that Grand Piano. What he did not know, however, was that while he was talking to the Lie (that Deceiver called Satan), one of the Lie’s sons (for he is the Father of Lies) had slipped into the Music Room!

Later, when Adam looked into the Music Room, there he was, sitting at the keyboard thumping away at the notes, and producing the most excruciating noises, all out of harmony with each other and with everyone else! His name was The Flesh-and man has never been able to get him away from the Grand Piano since! At least, not on his own!

It was still the same Grand Piano, that is to say, the same human personality, but having once produced harmony, it now only produced discord! Adam started quarreling with Eve, and said it was all her fault; but she blamed the Devil-and she wasn’t far wrong! Then it spread to the children, and Cain murdered Abel-and the whole miserable story has been going on ever since!

No! This is not an extract from Alice in Wonderland–I have been telling you the story of your heart and mine! The Holy Spirit at the keyboard is the source of all godliness; and the flesh at the keyboard is the source of all iniquity!

You do not need a new piano! You need a new planist! That Is what the gospel is all about- how to get the wrong man out, and the Right Man in- and to exchange The Lie for The Truth!

On your own you cannot do it! But I have good news for you!

You can’t!….But HE can!

THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN DIES TO SELF & LETS THE HOLY SPIRIT HAVE CONTROL OF THEIR “GRAND PIANO”!