Read Luke 1: 46 & 47
We saw before that the spirit and soul are not the same. We saw also that Adam could think, feel and choose, in spite of his fallen spiritual condition. The Bible tells us that we are dead in trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1).
After the fall of man, his decline began. It was not immediate. It took Adam nearly 1,000 years to die. But his son Cain killed Abel in a jealous rage. Humanity became so evil that God decided to destroy all but 8 by the flood.
Mary gives us the key to understanding the function of the soul. It is the organ of expression. Her soul magnified the Lord and her spirit rejoiced in God. To put it simply, the soul "magnifies" what it focuses on. In Mary's case, it was her spirit, which rejoiced in God. How much grief we would avoid if we followed her example.
The soul is drawn like a magnet to the things of the world. We are too often lured by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. This reflects Satan's temptation in Eden (Genesis 3:6). For example, what have you bought simply because it looked good, only to find it was useless? How many relationships are based on looks and not on character. And pride is at the root of a multitude of sins.
The soul is in a sense neutral, especially for the believer. The believer has a new, alive spirit - born again by the Spirit of God. We have the ability to choose what to look at. If we look at the things of the world alone, we will wither spiritually. If we look at the spirit, where God is active within us, we will be focusing on what God intends for us.
The key to experiencing this is the will. We must choose to follow the leading in the spirit man. What God is doing in the inner man must be worked out in the outer man. There is a constant battle going on. The world pulls us one way. We know that Satan is the god of this world. The pull of self and the flesh also works against us. Our will decides the issue.
We will examine these things more in another post.
We saw before that the spirit and soul are not the same. We saw also that Adam could think, feel and choose, in spite of his fallen spiritual condition. The Bible tells us that we are dead in trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1).
After the fall of man, his decline began. It was not immediate. It took Adam nearly 1,000 years to die. But his son Cain killed Abel in a jealous rage. Humanity became so evil that God decided to destroy all but 8 by the flood.
Mary gives us the key to understanding the function of the soul. It is the organ of expression. Her soul magnified the Lord and her spirit rejoiced in God. To put it simply, the soul "magnifies" what it focuses on. In Mary's case, it was her spirit, which rejoiced in God. How much grief we would avoid if we followed her example.
The soul is drawn like a magnet to the things of the world. We are too often lured by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. This reflects Satan's temptation in Eden (Genesis 3:6). For example, what have you bought simply because it looked good, only to find it was useless? How many relationships are based on looks and not on character. And pride is at the root of a multitude of sins.
The soul is in a sense neutral, especially for the believer. The believer has a new, alive spirit - born again by the Spirit of God. We have the ability to choose what to look at. If we look at the things of the world alone, we will wither spiritually. If we look at the spirit, where God is active within us, we will be focusing on what God intends for us.
The key to experiencing this is the will. We must choose to follow the leading in the spirit man. What God is doing in the inner man must be worked out in the outer man. There is a constant battle going on. The world pulls us one way. We know that Satan is the god of this world. The pull of self and the flesh also works against us. Our will decides the issue.
We will examine these things more in another post.