Spirit, Soul and Body

The Bible affirms that man is not a dual being of soul and body, but tripartite.

Eliseo Apablaza

The common idea about the constitution of the human being is dualist, that is to say, it recognizes the existence of body and soul. Philosophy, in its lengthy development through the centuries, has countersigned this opinion. However, the Word of God doesn't divide man in two parts, but in three, spirit, soul and body (1st Thessalonians 5:23). Recognizing this difference is of great importance for the spiritual life of a believer, specifically in what relates to their maturity and their service. Confusing spiritual things with psychic things (of the soul) can cause the spiritual things, which are those that have value in the work of God, to never be touched. It is necessary to know and to experience the division of the soul and the spirit to be able to serve God in the spirit so as to be useful to God (Hebrews 4:12).

Indeed, the human being has three parts (the same as the temple of God): the body, through which we are aware of the world (the atrium); the soul, with which we are aware of ourselves (the Holy Place); and the spirit, with which we are aware of God (the Holy Place).

The spirit

The man's spirit is the place in which we establish all communication with God. (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 14:14). The spirit (of he/she who has been regenerated) has three main functions: conscience, which discerns the good things and the bad things (1 Cor. 5:3; 2 Cor. 2:13), intuition, with which one knows and feels the movements of the Holy Spirit (Mark 2:8; John. 11:33), and communion, through which one worships God (John. 4:23; Rom. 1:9). These three functions are deeply connected and they operate together.

Before the fall, man's spirit was the noblest part in all his being, and as such, the soul and the body were subject to it. By the spirit, Adam perceived God, and he had communion with him. But with the fall, his spirit died, it lost control and communion with God, and he began to live by the soul. Man's spirit was under the power and the oppression of the soul, until becoming fused with it.

With the miracle of regeneration, God begins to recover its place in man, because He comes to dwell in a man's, now revived, spirit. (John. 1:13; Titus 3:5; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17). The purpose of God is for the spirit to recover the government of the soul, and through this, of the body as well.

The life of the Christian needs to be governed by the spirit. A fight arises here between the soul and the spirit, and like in all fights, the one that is strongest will conquer. If the spirit is stronger, and has control over the soul and the body, he/she will be a spiritual Christian; if, on the contrary, the soul (allied with the appetites of the body) is in control, he/she will be a carnal Christian.

In order for the Christian to achieve the victory, it will be necessary to completely separate the soul from the spirit. Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God produces this necessary division. So, by means of the operation of the cross, the soul decreases, and by the operation of the power of the Spirit of God, the spirit is strengthened.

If the division between the soul and the spirit doesn't take place, the believer continues to be strongly influenced by the soul, and as a result, mingled objectives always follow: sometimes walking in agreement with the life of the spirit, and in others in agreement with the natural life.

But if this separation takes place, the believer will immediately be able to detect any intent of the soul to take control, and will be able to reject it. Thus the spirit will be able to develop its intuitive power in a sharper way. Only after having experienced this separation can the Christian enter into possession of a genuine sense of purity.

Believers have to see that anything which comes from the soul is of no use (it is flesh) and that the spirit is the only thing that gives life. (John 6:63). Only when a man lives by the spirit can he become spiritual. As God is spirit, all work of God is spiritual; and whoever serves in it must do it by the spirit. The effectiveness of the Christian will depend on whether or not he/she has had the experience of being submerged in the Holy Spirit, just as he/she was submerged in the baptism of water.

After this baptism, the believer can be introduced into spiritual work, into spiritual battle, into spiritual prayer. Their spiritual senses have been wakened up and can now experience the power of the Holy Spirit.

The inner man is also strengthened in the fight against Satan. And it is necessary to conquer him permanently in every area. Before he assaults the Christian in the inner man to oppress or to block him, it is necessary to go out and attack him. The best form of defence is attack. Also, all his deceitful works, oppression, and breaking should be undone in all areas so as to see the glory of God.

The believer's spirit must always remain active, collaborating with God, receiving revelation, praying in the spirit, examining the Scriptures, meditating on the works of God.

A servant of God has to be exercised in recognizing the voice of the spirit and to distinguish it from the voices of the soul or of evil spirits. Just as one must know one's self (the soul), so too one must know how the spirit works and by what laws. He/she would thus understand that the life of the spirit is not occasional, nor changeable (like the tides of the sea), but stable, gentle and abundant (like a river).

The soul

The soul, located between the spirit and the body, is the headquarters of man's personality ("God created him a living soul"). The soul is an inalienable haven, which even God cannot violate. There in the soul, man has all the power of decision.

When God created man, He wanted his spirit to be like a master, the soul like a steward and the body like a servant. The master charges matters to the steward who in turn orders the servant who carries them out. However, with the fall, the soul was erected as master, and the spirit was displaced. It broke up communion with God. A man without God, usually, only has the soul and the body functioning. On the other hand, one who has been born again can return to the original design of God: spirit, soul and body.

The soul has to stop being the master and become a steward again, because there is the danger that the spirit be oppressed (as is the case of those who are "babes in Christ"). The soul can also go back to being a slave to the body, in filthiness, lasciviousness, etc., or be influenced by the power of darkness, by earthly wisdom, or with visions and supernatural sensations that stimulate it.

Functions of the soul

a) Emotions. This environment holds the affections, desires and feelings.

Affections. When the Christian is consecrated it is relatively easy to give his time, money, energies etc., but offering his affections is very difficult. But if he/she doesn't offer his/her affections he/she has not offered anything. God demands His children's absolute love, that is to say, with the whole heart, soul and mind. The love toward oneself is the biggest rival to the love of God in the believer's heart. The Lord doesn't just expect the Christian to work for him, but, above all else, that he/she love Him.

Desires. The desires of the soul are centred on the self, for its own delight and exaltation. These are removed by the operation of the cross. And then there is no longer any anxiety to reach them; there is rest. There is no frustration, because nothing but God is longed after any longer. The desires only cause restlessness and busyness, and they will never be entirely satisfied. When the Christian is satisfied with what God gives him, he/she has rest. The spiritual life is a life satisfied in God.

Feelings are a road with many ups and downs. When they are at their peak, the believer thinks that he/she is in a good spiritual state; and when, on the contrary, he/she feels cold and dry, he/she thinks that he/she is carnal. This is not the way: in both cases, he/she is a psychic Christian and walks by feelings.

Why does God grant feelings of happiness and then withdraw them? So that the believer knows all his/her fragility and uncertainty, and so that, by dominating his/her feelings, he/she can dominate the surroundings. He wants the believer to serve Him, whether he/she is happy or sad. He also withdraws those feelings so that the believer trains his/her will. The life of faith can be called the life of the will, since faith is not affected by what one feels.

An emotional believer is useless in the hands of God. Only attached to the will of God is there perfect rest.

b) The mind. The mind is the instrument of our thoughts. By means of the mind the man knows, thinks, imagines, remembers and understands.

The man's mind is a great strength; it is a motive of pride and it is the cause of the progress of civilization; however, spiritually it is a great danger, because it is especially susceptible ground for the action of Satan. Understanding is easily blinded, and arguments and thoughts arise against the knowledge of God. By means of the mind, man cannot know God, rather, mental strength has taken him away from God and even to challenge God. A mind reduced by Satan is like a stronghold that needs to be demolished. In the moment of regeneration, the mind is brought to the obedience of Christ, because "repent" means a change of mentality.

However, even in the believer, the mind is the most vulnerable point for the action of Satan. The new believer has a new heart, but still drags an old mind around. Many times the mind is filled by thoughts, imaginations, memories, or confused ideas in an uncontrollable way. The mind has been so manipulated by Satan in the past that he/she cannot leave those thoughts behind unless his/her mind is renovated.

That's why, newly converted, the Christian needs a deep renovation of his mind. It must be enlarged and strengthened. God wants to restore the mind so that it may be useful in the hands of God. The Christian requires his mind for spiritual things, but a mind restored to the place that God gave him in the beginning, that is to say, subject to the spirit. The Christian life is not, as it may be thought, a life of pure heart, without understanding. To fall in that end is dangerous fanaticism, because it can cause the most serious excesses and sustain the most absurd heresies.

The devil can put thoughts in the mind (like in Judas) or to remove thoughts; in fact, the devil removes the word sowed in the heart so that people don't believe and be saved (Mat. 13:19). All in all, he doesn't have sovereignty over it, unless the Christian, conscious or unconsciously allows it to him, giving him ground.

How is ground given to Satan in the mind? First, with a mind that caresses sin. Second, with an incorrect understanding of the truth of God. Third, looking for predictions (horoscopes). If a believer looks to know the future, that which he/she believes in will come to him/her, because demons will find ground to provoke it. Finally, maintaining the mind empty or passive. The devil wants a mind to put its thoughts to nothing. God doesn't want robots, He wants man to cooperate with him, in full use of his abilities. If the Christian doesn't occupy his/her mind, neither will God, but Satan will.

How do we conquer in this battle? The mind has to be renovated, by means of the putting off the old man (Eph. 4:17-24). A renovated mind is an effective collaborator in the work of God. Besides its abilities waking up and speeding up, it is in condition to follow the Holy Spirit in His revelation work in the spirit (Eph. 1:17-18). Then the spirit of the Christian receives light from God, by means of the intuitive capacity, the mind is able to retain that light and to interpret it. Here the mind collaborates with the spirit, although the spirit always takes the lead.

A renovated mind is also an open mind, free of prejudices that will be in conditions to receive the Word of God through other Christians, or by means of edifying readings. A renovated mind, in short, is a controlled mind and purified by the Spirit and full of the Word of God.

c) The will. The will is the capacity that man has to make decisions. It is the true self which has the greatest influence on a person. Therefore, the full salvation has to reach the will.

God created man with a sovereign will, able to decide for himself. When man decided for himself, independently of God, he fell. Salvation is obtained when the will is placed in obedience to God. Now he/she has a new direction.

Man's will has to unite perfectly to the will of God so that salvation is complete. To make this possible, because of man's obstinacy, God uses many means to bring us into obedience. One of them is discipline. What God wants is not only the Christian to do His will, but rather to make it his/her delight. That His will and that the Christian be one and the same. How is this possible? Taking the soul to the cross so that it loses its strength and energy.

There is a danger with the will. The wrong use or disuse of it can give place to the operation of evil spirits. In general, all sin gives place to the devil so that it operates in the Christian. But not only sins in fact, but also omission (James 4:17).

The most frequent sin of omission is passivity. The Lord endows the Christian with all kinds of capacities and talents, none of which should be used badly nor go without being used. When a believer is not using his/her talents, he/she has fallen in passivity.

Evil spirits take advantage of this inactivity, because, without the believer knowing it, he/she is giving ground to them and is completing the fundamental requirement so that they can operate.

While God requires man's cooperation in the use of his talents, Satan demands the ceasing of the exercise of the will and man's actions to be able to act for him. Through ignorance, the believer believes that passivity is a sign of obedience and consecration, and gives ground to the devil.

The Christian who has given way to passivity must decide to recover the exercise of his will and other abilities, to put them to active service for God. To recover ground he will have to firmly resist and recover what has been lost. The believer must recover his/her sovereignty, his/her own domain. He/she must experience liberation in many areas in which he/she was tied and immobilized by Satan.

The obedience of the Christian to God should be unconditional. Nevertheless, this doesn't imply that he/she doesn't have his/her own will any longer. God doesn't want blind obedience, but rather His will to be done voluntarily, in full consciousness. By means of a renovated will, the believer has to reach self control, and to control his/her spirit, soul and even body. He/she will only thus be able to always walk in the spirit.

The body

For the salvation of God to be complete it must reach down to the body. Although the work of God begins in the spirit, and it continues with the soul, it must also be expressed in the body.

The importance of the body is evident since God was manifested in flesh. The Word was made man, that which brought man's salvation and the defeat of Satan (that's why worldly spirits cannot confess this truth).

The Lord Jesus' body on the earth was the temple of God (John. 2:21); today the body of the Christian is the same (1 Cor. 6:19). One of the greatest sins (fornication) is associated with the body, because it means taking Christ's members and making them a harlot's (1 Cor. 6:15).

The body has necessities, which should be met; nevertheless, this doesn't mean gratifying the body. If the body is pleased every time, it will become a master with more and more demands, and it will cease to be a servant. The soul will also be wrapped in its appetites and will fall into hedonism (the search for pleasure).

The consecration of the Christian must begin with the body, which is presented as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasant to God. Then, understanding, the soul, is renovated, and the will of God can be proved in the spirit (Roman 12).

As the spirit was made alive when receiving justification, the body is made alive by His Spirit (Rom. 8:10-11). In 1 Corinthians 6:13 it says "The body is for the Lord… and the Lord for the body." This first means that it is not for satisfaction and delight; it is for the Lord. The body must serve as an instrument of righteousness.

"The Lord is for the body" means that the Lord doesn't only save the spirit and the soul, but also the body from illnesses and diseases. If the Christian accepts that the body is for the Lord, and it is consecrated to Him, the Lord will grant life and power to the body. He Himself will take care of it and preserve it. He will restore it if it is sick, and will preserve it from sickness.

The introduction of sin in man brought not only death, but also illness (illness is found between sin and death). The Lord didn't only forgive sins, but rather he also healed our infirmities. He came to undo the works of the devil, and these have to do with illness and death.

A healthy body is not for the carnal desires, but for God.

"Now the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly: and your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23).