Dividing the Soul and Spirit

 

Scholars across the ages attempt to mingle the concept of spirit and soul as one entity. However, Bible truth differentiates between these two realms within our human essence.

Our spiritual union with Christ takes place in our spirit, which is Born Again at Salvation (John 3:5-6; Romans 8:9, 16; Acts 26:18). Then the Holy Spirit spends our lifetime sanctifying our soul - our thoughts, choices and emotions.

Paul makes this clear when he refers to the entire sanctification of body, soul and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). God’s Word will actually divide the soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12). The more we submit to His holiness, the more fully we partake in His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

Prior to salvation we lived for our self. After salvation, we are crucified with Christ and receive a whole new life with a new pliable heart (Romans 6:4, 6; Ezekiel 36:26; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

As we live in Christ, our humanity decreases and His life in us increases (Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9; John 3:30). God writes His laws on our heart (Hebrews 8:10). He sees us as perfect in Christ (Philippians 3:15; Hebrews 12:23).

God's Spirit renews us day by day (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23). We live in the righteousness of Christ within us, resisting by Jesus' strength, the devil's temptation to sin (Romans 6:11; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 2:1).

Christ in us changes us from sinner to Saint (Romans 5:19, 8:9; Ephesians 4:12). We are dead to sin, slaves to righteousness and Christ reigns as Lord and Savior in our life (Romans 6:2, 11, 17; 1 John 3:8).

Prayer:

Father God, we thank You for the fact that our authentic Christian identity is no longer rooted in our personality, but in Christ. Our fleshly desires have less and less control over our soul as we walk in our union with Christ in us (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:25-8:5).

Our desire is for Your divine character, power and authority to completely take over our body, soul and spirit. We thank You for redeeming us through Christ’s sacrifice and for filling us with Your Spirit, so we can walk in Your will each moment of the day.

Thought for the Day:

As God reveals a sin or negative leaning in our character or an idol in our life, we willingly submit it to His Lordship; then His Spirit cleanses us from these sins and replaces our defective human character with His fruit.

- 1 John 1:9; Romans 13:14; Galatians 5:22-23

 

Admiring Without Coveting

 

The greatest fallacy of our current world is covetousness. The "haves" and the "have nots" are polar opposites. Many of those who do not have, believe there is nothing wrong with taking from those who do have. Theft and murder, home invasions, are on the rise.

Thieves do not even wait until the cover of darkness, they will break into a home in the afternoon when everyone is at home. They tie people up, gag them, force one of them to go to the bank and empty their accounts and turn everything over to the thief.

Admiring a person's wife or personal possessions is not enough for them (Deuteronomy 5:21). They want, without working for it, what the other person has; and they want it now. At times, desperation will fuel a person to use desperate means to provide for their family; however, some people are just too lazy to work.

The Bible encourages us to rejoice when someone rejoices and to show empathy when someone suffers loss (Romans 12:15). Did someone buy a new home with unusual architecture and modern conveniences? Rejoice with them.

Did someone inherit a large sum of money and use it wisely to better their circumstances? Rejoice with them. Did someone find a great deal on a new car? Rejoice with them.

There is too much tragedy in our world to add to it by coveting what our neighbor or family member has. Weep with them; but we also rejoice when someone is blessed, even if it is a greater portion of blessing than we received.    

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that every good and perfect gift comes directly from You. You are the Father of Lights and You bless those who walk in your ways (James 1:17). You even bless the sinner, which causes grumbling among the ranks of those who faithfully serve You. Yet, through this You show us that You willing allow Your rain of blessings to fall on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45).

You show Your love to thousands of generations, which proceed from those who love You - blessing our children and their children throughout the years, even beyond our day of our death - which is our deliverance from the ties of this earth (Exodus 20:6). Your ways are perfect and we want to have more of the mind of Christ and less of the mindset of this world (Philippians 2:5), so that we can rejoice in another's good fortune.

Thought for the Day:

People who seek wealth often fall into a snare and their foolish, harmful desires plunge them into destructive behavior and its consequences, which causes them to fall away from their faith in God and to reap grief and sorrow for themselves. - 1 Timothy 6:9-10

A Reflection of God's Glory

 

God is always waiting with open arms to embrace us at any moment in which we care to cast our self on Him. He inhabits eternity and uses all of His power and authority to meet the needs of our body, soul and spirit.

As we walk as a fragrant gift in surrender to God’s will, we savor the sweet love, which Christ gives to us (Ephesians 5:1-2). He is our strong tower and our everlasting Father. Even if we fall, we are never utterly cast down, because He sustains us in His hand (Psalm 37:24; Song of Solomon 8:3).

God made a new covenant with us; different than the one He made with those who lived during the Old Testament times. He created this new covenant in Christ; and it gives us all of the rights and privileges of His spirit-filled, adopted heirs.

God's Spirit transforms us through the experiences we have each day. He teaches us through our participation in life to trust God, because of His faithfulness to us. As the Holy Spirit directs us, we learn to lay our life down for God as Christ did.

We learn of Jesus' character and divine nature through His inspired Words in the Bible (2 Peter 1:4). We read about Saints of old who actually experienced face-to-face encounters with Him. We learn to trust Him with our life, because they did (Exodus 24:15-17).

He satiates us through all of our being with all of His fullness and we grow in our intimacy with Him on a daily basis (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible). Our love relationship deepens as we focus on Him and totally surrender every aspect of our life to Him.

Prayer:

Father God, Jesus was in Your very form and equal to You even while He existed in this earthly realm (Philippians 2:6). This same glory abides within each Believer due to Christ abiding in us (Colossians 1:15). In Christ there is no fading of Your glory as was Moses' experience after his time with You on the mountain (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Remind us that our words and behavior are also a reflection to the world of Your character. If we walk in the flesh, we tarnish Your name and cause people to speak evil of You. Lead us in paths of righteousness for Your name's sake (Psalm 23:3). Help us to reflect Your glory so they will see Your power and majesty and come to believe in You as we do.

Thought for the Day:

God fellowshipped with man in the Garden of Eden during the cool of the day, from the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies, and now through Jesus as He dwells in the spirit of every authentic Believer. - Genesis 3:8; Exodus 2:21-22, 33:11

Walking in the Spirit

Does God actually talk to us? Is it an audible voice, an inner voice, an impression or feeling or thought in our mind? How can we hear God's voice?

We start by developing a physical "closet" in which to meet with God: Under the tree in the garden, a path where we are walking or jogging all alone, a chair in our home where we are uninterrupted, the spare bedroom, the attic or basement, or an actual closet space in our home. 

We go there with our journal and nothing else. No Bible, music, TV or radio. Just a chair and some breathing room without any distractions. We spend time here for thirty minutes to an hour any time during every day and we journal whatever comes to our mind.

At first, it may be lists of things we need to do. Go ahead and jot these ideas in the journal. When we write them down, we clear them from our mind and quiet those "voices" in our head.

Then we may think of Bible verses, a movie clip, a conversation or some event we had in the past; jot it down in the journal. Again it clears our mind of this inner clutter.

Write down concerns or problems as a prayer to the Lord. Then we spend some time praising God for who He is and what He already did in our life. We think of His goodness and grace, and we overflow with gratitude toward Him.

Next is the hard part, which gets easier with practice… LISTENING. With a cleared mind, we listen with our inner, spiritual ear in our spirit to any words the Holy Spirit may whisper to us (1 King 19:12).

We heed and obey His directives and enjoy His comfort and encouragement every moment of every day of our life (Galatians 5:25). We live with His praises on our lips and His peace in our heart, and we eventually learn to pray without ceasing throughout the day (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Prayer:

Father God, teach us to walk by Your Spirit step-by-step. We may falter as we mature from crawling to walking and then running, but we are soon sprinting through life by the direction of Your Spirit, in obedience to Your Word and under the guidance of Your peace.

Help us to yield our life to You, to walk away from the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:15-25) and to allow Your peace, which transcends human reasoning, to guide our hearts through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Fill us with Your fruit and wisdom; and teach us to do only Your will in every circumstance (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 2:10).

Thought for the Day:

We encourage others by offering to pray for them, showing them love even when they are unloving toward us and sharing a testimony of God's love - sometimes without even using words.