God made us a trinity, like Himself, with a spirit, soul, and body. A lot of life is clear as a sunny day overlooking a whole valley or mountain range once we get a good grasp of this. It sure has for me.
Watchman Nee said, "God dwells in the spirit, self dwells in the soul, while senses dwell in the body." (The Spiritual Man, Part One, pp.26).
According to Genesis 2:7 Adam, the first human, was made of two separate parts, the visible, tangible body or flesh, the spirit which God breathed into him. As soon as the spirit entered the man, touching the lifeless body, an animated, living soul was produced.
Our spirits are the part of you amd me that connect us with God. If we hear from Him it is our spirit which registers that message. True worship happens in our spirit, as does intuitive knowledge.
Have you ever known something that you couldn't explain to others with words from your mind? Your spirit knew, but your mind hadn't understood it yet.
Conscience is another function of the spirit. Or God's way of tapping us, and saying, "Hold it; remember...?"
His plan is that we'll have our spirit tuned to His, then our spirit will instruct our mind, will, and emotions, (functions of our soul), what is best to do. But our will is a free agent, so whether we decide to respond, or how determines much of how our personality expresses itself. Permutations of our personalities are in the millions! It all hangs on how much we develop our self-will, our thinking, our use of words, visual arts, what kind of emotions we savour or camp in, and how much we involve our body.
We need bodies to carry out those decisions to express our ideas and thoughts so we can interact with other people. A person is still alive with a spirit and soul, but if the body is incapacitated, the person is really limited in ways to express the self.
If we were perfect, all three parts of us would be balanced, but sooner or later, usually in childhood already, we do as Eve did; we choose our own will over God's. We rebel and plunge ahead in life according to what we think is best, or most fun.
We end up experiencing so many sensory pleasures and woes that we (closing off God's spirit), think we know all we need to know, and can find answers by ourselves.
God's Spirit, being a perfect Gentleman, steps back lets us try.
This is where many become highly developed individuals with complex personalities. If you're a people-watcher you have noticed that most of the time such folks mess up their lives. Or if they are more sensually tuned, they throw themselves into sports activities, or hard physical work, and get totally focused on what their bodies can accomplish.
Studying and meditating on the spiritual side of us from God's perspective has been an eye-opener for me. I've concluded that the really smart thing to do is to live by His original plan, and get all three of me in harmony with His Spirit. When I do, I have astonishing insights and wisdom, amazing grace to appreciate and love others, plus awesome faith and power to accomplish marvelous things.
What do you think? Have you got all three of you in balance? But now you know which way to lean to correct any such imbalance, don't you?
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