Spirit, Soul, and Body

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Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NLT).

If we study the entire Bible, we find that we have a spirit, soul, and body.  

Though the words spirit, soul, and body are found many times throughout the Bible, 1 Thessalonians 5:23 is the only passage where they are mentioned together. The Apostle Paul prays that our whole spirit, soul, and body will be kept blameless.  

I agree, but what is our spirit, our soul, and our body?  

Let’s consider that we are made in the image of God. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches that God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we were created tripartite with a spirit, soul, and body.

Just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work for our good while our spirit, soul, and body should—by our good stewardship of our created being—work for our blessing too.

The spirit, soul, and body are best understood by first defining the soul.

The soul is our mind, will, and emotions or the part of us that thinks, determines, and feels. Our soul works through the five senses of the body (sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch) to relate to the physical world. Also, the soul (mind, will, emotions) works through the three senses of the Holy Spirit to relate to God.

What most believers don’t understand is that our spirit has senses too. They are conscience, intuition, and presence. We understand our five physical senses; now, let’s define our spiritual senses.

• Conscience encourages right thoughts and actions while convicting us of fleshly thoughts and actions. The Apostle Paul says that his conscience, through the Holy Spirit, testifies concerning right and wrong (Romans 9:1).
• Intuition is direct communication to us from God. It can be through the Bible, dreams and visions, or another person. Paul describes believers as being led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14).
• Presence is awareness of God. It’s more than physical. It’s a sense of peace that comes from close proximity to God. Paul writes that the Lord directs our “hearts” into the love and steadfastness of Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

The body is in the middle of our spirit and soul. If our body is diminished, we can lose sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Likewise, if our spirit is quenched, we ruin our conscience, limit our ability to listen to God, and lose His presence.

How do we fine-tune our spirit so that our spiritual senses are alert in these latter days? I will answer this question in tomorrow’s Interruption #1188, which I’ve entitled Activating Our Spirit!

A final insight: I remember Conscience, Intuition, and Presence with the acronym:

CIP

Or, let’s continually CIP of His Spirit.