Read 1 Thessalonians 5:23 & 1 Corinthians 2:11
Not everyone realises that at the deepest level, man is spirit. No, that does not mean he is God. It does reflect the truth that God made us in his image. We know that "God is Spirit" (John 4:24). So what does this mean for us now? The functions of the human spirit are not laid out in a nice neat list. We need to discern the scriptures and seek revelation from God. There is much said about the spirit of man in the Bible. To save space and time, I would refer those who want to know more of the Biblical basis to Watchman Nee's, "The Spiritual Man".
We need to back to the beginning for more understanding. Adam's fall is the place to start. We see both Adam and Eve standing before God as sinners. Yet God said that they would surely die on the very day that they ate of the forbidden fruit. We see Adam still thinking and still making decisions. He was still expressing emotion. So what died on that terrible day?
Adam died spiritually, not physically and not in the realm of the soul. We can see from this that death is fundamentally separation from God.
God is Spirit and those that worship God must worship in spirit and in truth. From this we can see that the spirit of man is where worship and fellowship takes place. The whole being is involved in worship, but the spirit is like the holy of holies in the temple. The temple, by the way, is a type of the temple of the believer. The body is like the outer court, which is open to the world, the holy place is like the soul and we've said about the spirit previously.
The spirit of man is also the place of the conscience. Why not the soul? I've yet to meet a person who does not believe that they are fundamentally good. Logic and reason are in the soul realm, as we shall see. But it takes only a word from the Holy Spirit to dispel the lies that keep unbelievers blind. People live with a burden of guilt. It is so much a part of them that they hardly notice it until they are convicted.
Intuition is also an aspect of the spirit. It is the place that God leads us and speaks to us. The word "intuition" does not appear in God's word. However, it is something that we can observe and experience. Children are intuitive by nature. Very often there is no reason for their like or dislike. My son, just 3, told me that he did not like a certain business. He had no knowledge of witchcraft, but that business was involved in the occult. There are countless examples of this.
Often, God's leading has no reason or logic attached to it. We often find out why God lead a certain way after the event. We may well find out that it would have been better to follow God's leading than to ignore i!
In the next post, we will look at the meaning of Hebrews 4:12. And if anyone believes that the spirit and the soul are inseparable, or the same thing (SDA teaching for example), this should convince them otherwise.
Not everyone realises that at the deepest level, man is spirit. No, that does not mean he is God. It does reflect the truth that God made us in his image. We know that "God is Spirit" (John 4:24). So what does this mean for us now? The functions of the human spirit are not laid out in a nice neat list. We need to discern the scriptures and seek revelation from God. There is much said about the spirit of man in the Bible. To save space and time, I would refer those who want to know more of the Biblical basis to Watchman Nee's, "The Spiritual Man".
We need to back to the beginning for more understanding. Adam's fall is the place to start. We see both Adam and Eve standing before God as sinners. Yet God said that they would surely die on the very day that they ate of the forbidden fruit. We see Adam still thinking and still making decisions. He was still expressing emotion. So what died on that terrible day?
Adam died spiritually, not physically and not in the realm of the soul. We can see from this that death is fundamentally separation from God.
God is Spirit and those that worship God must worship in spirit and in truth. From this we can see that the spirit of man is where worship and fellowship takes place. The whole being is involved in worship, but the spirit is like the holy of holies in the temple. The temple, by the way, is a type of the temple of the believer. The body is like the outer court, which is open to the world, the holy place is like the soul and we've said about the spirit previously.
The spirit of man is also the place of the conscience. Why not the soul? I've yet to meet a person who does not believe that they are fundamentally good. Logic and reason are in the soul realm, as we shall see. But it takes only a word from the Holy Spirit to dispel the lies that keep unbelievers blind. People live with a burden of guilt. It is so much a part of them that they hardly notice it until they are convicted.
Intuition is also an aspect of the spirit. It is the place that God leads us and speaks to us. The word "intuition" does not appear in God's word. However, it is something that we can observe and experience. Children are intuitive by nature. Very often there is no reason for their like or dislike. My son, just 3, told me that he did not like a certain business. He had no knowledge of witchcraft, but that business was involved in the occult. There are countless examples of this.
Often, God's leading has no reason or logic attached to it. We often find out why God lead a certain way after the event. We may well find out that it would have been better to follow God's leading than to ignore i!
In the next post, we will look at the meaning of Hebrews 4:12. And if anyone believes that the spirit and the soul are inseparable, or the same thing (SDA teaching for example), this should convince them otherwise.
