I want to begin with this scripture, "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit" (2 Timothy 4:22). Here is an honest question. What is YOUR spirit? Do you know? Could you describe what it is to another person?
What about this scripture, "My SOUL magnifies the Lord, and my SPIRIT rejoices in GOD my Savior" (Luke 1:46.) Here is my second question. What is YOUR soul? Do you know? Could you describe what it is to another person?
Jesus said, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?" (Matthew 16:26). I'm asking, is there a difference between the soul and the spirit? Are they the same thing? The simple answer is no and please don't feel bad if you've always thought the soul and the spirit were the same things. I did for years.
Our bodies (shell of our physical flesh and organs) is clearly distinct from the soul (perception, memory, mind, intellect). In the same way, the soul is also distinct from the spirit (our only connection to God). “For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow (there's the 3- soul, spirit, body), and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). The joints and marrow in our physical body are closely related, yet they’re distinct and can be separated. In the same way, our soul and our spirit can be divided by the Word of God, showing that they’re also distinct from each other as shown in scripture. Let's look at our spirit (connection to God), and the soul (mind/consciousness) to realize their functions.
SPIRIT: The function of our spirit, the deepest part of our being, is related to the spiritual realm: it enables us to contact and receive God Himself. Our spirit was created by God so that we can contact and receive Him. Our body and our soul have their own specific functions; only our spirit has the ability to contact God. In order to contact or worship God, who is Spirit, we must use our spirit. "God is spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Here is a great illustration: The way radios can function is a good illustration of our spirit’s unique ability to contact and receive God. When a radio is turned on and properly tuned, it can receive the invisible radio waves in the air and interpret them. Our human spirit is like a radio, and God is like the radio waves. Our spirit is the part of our being that corresponds to what God is, so we have to use our spirit in order to contact Him. God being Spirit means His substance is Spirit. Our spirit is the part of our being that corresponds to God and has the ability to contact, fellowship with, and worship Him. John 3:6 shows us our spirit has the ability to receive God: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” When we were born again, we were born of the Spirit in our human spirit, not in our soul. We received the Lord, and He came to live in our spirit.
SOUL: Our soul is who we are, our personality, and is composed of our mind, emotion, will, reason, thought, and desire. God created us with these faculties so we can express Him. God’s purpose in creating human beings with a spirit and a soul was that they would receive Him in their spirit and express Him through their soul (mind/thoughts/emotions). God formed man’s physical body/flesh from the dust of the ground. Then God breathed into man's fleshy nostrils, and man became a living soul. This, of course, consists of the mind, emotion, and will. Now, where is the human spirit in this verse from Genesis 2:7? We don’t see the words human spirit, but what we do see is the breath of life. In Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, the word translated as breath is neshamah. This same Hebrew word is translated as spirit in Proverbs 20:27, which says: “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah.” The term "Spirit of God" is used in the Old Testament to signify "God's breath" (Job 33.4)-- the spirit of life! By this, we can see that when God breathed into man, man’s human spirit came into existence. Our human spirit is the deepest part of our being AND was made in the image of God. Our spirits were fashioned like God, but not God, in that, we too were given godly wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge, and we were sinless. **Note: This was before the fall. Our spirits were pure and righteous.
Luke 1:46-47 also shows the different functions of the soul and spirit in Mary’s praise of the Lord: “And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” She's expressing two different things. Soul and spirit. Remember, the function of our spirit is to contact God and RECEIVE God, and the function of our soul is to EXPRESS God. In short, Mary’s spirit rejoiced in God; then her soul (expressions through thought) magnified (glorified) the Lord as praise. Her praise and rejoicing overflowed and issued from her spirit and then was expressed through her soul. Her spirit was filled with joy in God her Savior, and her soul manifested that joy in magnification of the Lord. She lived and acted in her spirit, which directed her soul.”
We, believers, have divine life in our spirit. God wants us to live and act not by ourselves, that is, by our soul, but by His life in our spirit. But here’s the problem. From the time we’ve lived by our soul. How so? Our minds are educated in school and we actively live according to what we have been programmed to think. We also experience a wide range of human emotions in our time here on earth, and we often respond to situations and matters according to how we feel. Based on what we think or feel, we make decisions with our will. Living by our soul is what we’re used to. When we were saved, Christ came to live in our spirit. Now He’s The Word of Truth in us who has and is showing us His own thoughts, feelings, and intentions. He came to live in us so that He would be our life, and we would live by Him. But living by His life in our spirit isn’t something we’re used to. So throughout our day, we have to realize we can either live according to our natural human life filled with all kinds of emotions and free will in our soul or by the life of Christ in our spirit. Read that again. We can easily live and act apart from the Lord in our soul according to our own thoughts or feelings. When this happens, we express ourselves in various non-scriptural ways. Even if we do something "good," the source isn’t the Lord in our spirit, so God actually isn’t expressed. But when we live by the divine life in our spirit, Christ is the source of our living, and the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of our soul are directed by our spirit. Then in our words, actions, and living, we express God.
Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether we’re living and doing things in our soul or in our spirit. Spending time with the Lord in His Word helps us discern where we are. When we exercise our spirit by praying with the Word of God, the Word becomes living to us. It's really that simple. The living Word (described as sharper than any two-edged sword) is then able to divide our soul from our spirit and discern all the thoughts and intentions of our heart. Here is the exact verse from Hebrews 4:12, " “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Thessalonians 5:23 "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul is praying that all three things remain blameless at the appearance of Jesus at His return. When we are saved the Spirit of God breathes His breath of life into us and at that point, we are blameless of any sin. Paul was praying we remain that way until the Lord's return.
When we discover we’re living in and by our soul, we simply need to turn to the Lord in our spirit again. We can pray, “Lord Jesus, I turn away from living in my soul. I turn to You in my spirit. Lord, I want to live by You.” Or as King David pleaded, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10) ... notice Paul didn't use the word soul, but rather "create a new spirit within me." The more we contact the Lord and are filled with Him, the more He will be the source of our thoughts, our feelings, and our intentions. Then we can genuinely express God to the people around us.
Until He Comes,
-Pat-
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