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Topic: spirit and soul and body
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Eden
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posted
Another good illustration to describe the proper relationship between the spirit, soul and body is that of master, steward, and servant.
The master gives the steward private instructions and then the steward openly tells the servant what to do.
The master is the spirit, and the steward is the soul, and the servant is the body.
Neither the steward nor the servant should ever do things that were not first instructed by the master.
What Adam and Eve did is similar to the steward taking over the household without ever consulting the master again, and leaving the master decisionless and unconsulted in his own home.
A faithful steward only does what the master has told him to do, and then the steward relays those instructions to the servant. Spirit, soul, body, that is the proper order.
love, Eden
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Eden
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Adapted from Watchman Nee, The Spiritual Man
THE HOLY TEMPLE AND MAN
"Do you not know", writes the Apostle Paul, "that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3.16)
Paul has received revelation in likening man to the temple. As God formerly dwelt in the temple, so the Holy Spirit indwells man today. By comparing him to the temple we can see how the tripartite elements of man are distinctly manifested.
We know the temple was divided into three parts. The first is the outer court, which is seen by all and visited by all. All external worship is offered here.
Going further inside is the Holy Place, into which only the priests entered and where they present oil, incense and bread to God. They are quite near to God, yet not the nearest, for they are still outside the veil and therefore unable to stand before His very presence.
God dwells deepest within, in the Holy of Holies, where darkness is overshadowed by brilliant light and into which no man can enter. Though the high priest does enter in once annually, it nonetheless indicates that before the veil is rent there can be no man in the Holy of Holies.
Man is God's temple also, and he too has three parts. The body is like the outer court, occupying an external position with its life visible to all. Here man ought to obey every commandment of God. Here God's Son serves as a substitute and dies for mankind. The outer court stands under the broad daylight.
Inside is man's soul which constitutes the inner life of man and which embraces man's emotion, volition (will) and mind. Such is the Holy Place of a regenerated person, for his love, will and thought are enlightened that he may serve God even as the priest of old did.
Innermost, behind the veil, lies the Holy of Holies into which no human light has ever penetrated and no naked eye has ever pierced. It is the secret place of the Most High, the dwelling place of God.
It cannot be reached by man unless God is willing to rend the veil through salvation. It is man's spirit. This spirit lies beyond man's self-consciousness and above his sensibility. Here in the spirit man unites and communes with God.
No light is provided for the Holy of Holies because God dwells there. There is light in the Holy Place supplied by the lampstand of seven branches, which are the seven spirits of God:
Revelation 4:5
... and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
Isaiah 11
2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
All these serve as images and shadows to a regenerated person. His spirit is like the Holy of Holies indwelt by God, where everything is carried on by faith, beyond the sight, sense or understanding of the believing one.
The soul resembles the Holy Place for it is amply enlightened with many rational thoughts and precepts, much knowledge and understanding concerning the things in the ideational and material world. The body is comparable to the outer court, clearly visible to all. The body's actions may be seen by everyone.
The order, which God presents to us, is unmistakable: your spirit and soul and body (1 Thess. 5.23). It is not soul and spirit and body, nor is it body and soul and spirit. The spirit is the pre-eminent part, hence it is mentioned first; the body is the lowest and therefore is last mentioned; the soul stands between, so is mentioned between.
Having now seen God's order, we can appreciate the wisdom of the Bible in likening man to a temple. We can recognize the perfect harmony, which exists between the temple and man in respect to both order and value.
Temple service moves according to the revelation in the Holy of Holies. All activities in the Holy Place and in the outer court are regulated by the presence of God in the Holiest Place. This is the most sacred spot, the place upon which the four corners of the temple converge and rest.
It may seem to us that nothing is done in the Holiest because it is pitch dark. All activities are in the Holy Place; even those activities of the outer court are controlled by the priests of the Holy Place.
Yet all the activities of the Holy Place actually are directed by the revelation in the utter quietness and peace of the Holy of Holies.
It is not difficult to perceive the spiritual application. The soul, the organ of our personality, is composed of mind, volition and emotion. It appears as though the soul is master of all actions, for the body follows its direction.
Before the fall of man, however, the soul, in spite of its many activities, was governed by the spirit. And this is the order God still wants: first the spirit, then the soul, and lastly the body.
love, Eden
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MentorsRiddle
Advanced Member
Member # 2108
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posted
quote:
When Adam and Eve decided to turn their own life from the soul level, the spirit of man was idle and ignored, until, over the generations, the descendants of Adam did not even know that they had a spirit, or where their spirit is located in the body and how to tell the difference between what is emanating from the soul and what is emanating from their spirit.
Where is the spirit located?
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With you I rise,
In you I sleep,
kneeling down I kiss your feet,
Grace abounds upon me now,
I once was lost
but now I'm found.
The gift of God dwells within,
To this love I now give in.
Posts: 1337 | From: Arkansas | Registered: Sep 2003
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Eden
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posted
Before the believer is born again his spirit becomes so sunken and surrounded by his soul that it is impossible for him to distinguish whether something is emanating from the soul or from the spirit. The functions of the latter have become mixed up with those of the former.
Furthermore, the spirit has lost its primary function--towards God; for it is dead to God. It thus would appear that it has become an accessory to the soul. And as the mind, emotion and volition (will) of the soul grow stronger, the functions of the spirit become so eclipsed as to render them almost unknown.
That is why there must be the work of dividing between soul and spirit after a believer is regenerated.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow [my note: i.e., the body], and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
When Adam and Eve decided to turn their own life from the soul level, the spirit of man was idle and ignored, until, over the generations, the descendants of Adam did not even know that they had a spirit, or where their spirit is located in the body and how to tell the difference between what is emanating from the soul and what is emanating from their spirit.
But when the soul began to read the Word of God, the words of the Word of God are spirit:
John 6:63
It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I [my note: Jesus] speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life.
When a sinner who has been operating his body from the soul life without input from the spirit, when that soul begins to read the Word of God, the spirit words of the Bible quicken or make alive the spirit inside this man's body for the first time since Adam sinned.
And also from the Bible, this man learns that he has a spirit of man which was ignored and which laid idle after Adam and Eve sinned.
Now, the spirit's function to communicate with God, and so when the soul realizes what has happened in the past with Adam and Eve, the soul repents of having taking over the function of the body, and the soul becomes willing to listen to his own spirit again.
At that point a sinner becomes saved, and receives the Holy Spirit, and then Jesus in heaven begins to relay His Counsel to the Holy Spirit inside the saved believer.
The Holy Spirit in turn conveys what the Spirit has learned from Jesus to the spirit of man, and then the spirit of man relays this Counsel to the soul, and the soul executes the body with the Counsel that it received from his spiriit:
Romans 8:16
The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
Romans 8:26
Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
As this point, God's original hierarchy is restored: God, the Spirit, the spirit of man, the soul, and the body. When everything flows smoothly, ideally the glory of the Spirit of God will light up the spirit of man with glory which lights up the soul with glory which lights up the body glory, even affecting the clothes:
Matthew 17
2 And [Jesus] was transfigured before them: and His face shone as the sun and His clothes were white as the light.
But first the soul and the spirit need to be separated from each other, because after all these generations, the unsaved sinner, accustomed to using only his soul and body, has no idea where his spirit is and how it functions.
This is the task of the written Word of God and also of the Word of God Jesus who, as the head of the church body, begins to talk to the spirit of man through the Holy Spirit, once the sinner is saved.
Be blessed, everyone.
Eden
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Brother Paul
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Amen brother Eden. This is something confusing to many...God's triparte signature is all throughout nauture...even the most basic aspects of our physical universe...
Brother Paul
Posts: 235 | From: Cambridge, MA | Registered: Dec 2009
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MentorsRiddle
Advanced Member
Member # 2108
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posted
My friend,
Such an excellent post and very well written.
I have been a fan of this subject for some time now, and I would like to inform you that the Soul is in the blood of a human being.
There is alot of data and information to consume in the link I will provide below, but please read it -- I think you will really enjoy it.
Peace
http://ad2004.com/prophecytruths/Articles/sinnature102006.pdf
--------------------
With you I rise,
In you I sleep,
kneeling down I kiss your feet,
Grace abounds upon me now,
I once was lost
but now I'm found.
The gift of God dwells within,
To this love I now give in.
Posts: 1337 | From: Arkansas | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
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Eden
unregistered
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posted
Adapted from Watchman Nee, The Spiritual Man
SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY
The ordinary concept of the constitution of human beings is dualistic-soul and body. According to this concept soul is the invisible inner spiritual part, while body is the visible outer corporal part.
Though there is some truth to this, it is nevertheless inaccurate. Such an opinion comes from fallen man, not from God; apart from God's revelation, no concept is dependable.
That the body is man's outward sheath is undoubtedly correct, but the Bible never confuses spirit and soul as though they are the same. Not only are they different in terms; their very natures differ from each other.
The Word of God does not divide man into the two parts of soul and body. It treats man, rather, as tripartite-spirit, soul and body. I Thessalonians 5.23 reads: "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
This verse precisely shows that the whole man is divided into three parts. The Apostle Paul refers here to the complete sanctification of believers, "sanctify you wholly. "According to the Apostle, how is a person wholly sanctified? By his spirit and soul and body being kept.
From this we can easily understand that the whole person comprises these three parts. This verse also makes a distinction between spirit and soul; otherwise, Paul would have said simply "your soul." Since God has distinguished the human spirit from the human soul, we conclude that man is composed of not two, but three, parts; spirit, soul and body.
Is it a matter of any consequence to divide spirit and soul? It is an issue of supreme importance for it affects tremendously the spiritual life of a believer. How can a believer understand spiritual life if he does not know what is the extent of the realm of the spirit?
Without such understanding how can he grow spiritually? To fail to distinguish between spirit and soul is fatal to spiritual maturity. Christians often account what is soulical. as spiritual, and thus they remain in a soulish state and seek not what is really spiritual. How can we escape loss if we fuse together what God has divided?
Spiritual knowledge is very important to spiritual life. Let us add, however, that it is equally as, if not more, important for a believer to be humble and willing to accept the teaching of the Holy Spirit. If so, the Holy Spirit will grant him the experience of the dividing of spirit and soul, although he may not have too much knowledge concerning this truth.
On the one hand, the most ignorant believer, without the slightest idea of the division of spirit and soul, may yet experience such a dividing in real life. On the other hand, the most informed believer, completely conversant with the truth concerning spirit and soul, may nonetheless have no experience of it. Far better is that person who may have both the knowledge and the experience.
The majority, however, lack such experience. Consequently, it is well initially to lead these to know the different functions of spirit and soul and then to encourage them to seek what is spiritual.
Other portions of the Scriptures make this same differentiation between spirit and soul. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4.12).
The writer in this verse divides man's non-corporal elements into two parts, soul and spirit. The corporal part is mentioned here as including the joints and marrow organs of motion and sensation.
When the priest uses the sword to cut and completely dissect the sacrifice, nothing inside can be hidden. Even joint and marrow are separated. In like manner the Lord Jesus uses the Word of God on His people to separate thoroughly, to pierce even to the division of the spiritual, the soulical, and the physical.
And from this it follows that since soul and spirit can be divided, they must be different in nature. It is thus evident here that man is a composite of three parts.
love, Eden the merchant of Chilmad
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