Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Soul and Spirit

For the word of God [is] living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things [are] naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we [must give] account.

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast [our] confession.

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all [points] tempted as [we are], [yet] without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:12-16

The division of the soul and spirit.

The soul and spirit. Hmmm. Now, understand these are only my thoughts. I do not declare this is how it is. I make no such proclamations or announcements.

I once had an atheist ask me, “Do you think man has a ‘soul’?”

I knew he didn’t really care what my answer was. I’ve had many conversations with him and even though he and I are friends I’ve also come to understand he was only interested in giving me his point of view. So I said, “I don’t know. What do you think?”

He said, “He didn’t think man had a soul, therefore his ‘soul’ didn’t need to be saved, because he didn’t have a soul.”

What is the “soul?”

One definition according to dictionary.com is “the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.”

Although I agree that it is separate from the body, I disagree that it is “spiritual.” I believe that they are two separate entities, the soul and the spirit.

I believe everyone has a soul. To me, the soul is the personality of the person. People can have a soul and still be heartless. For I believe that the “spiritual” part of a person is that which is connected to God. People can be body and soul, but “have not the spirit.” (Romans 8:9)

I do believe that the ‘soul’ can be emotional. But, I believe that love, true love, is controlled by the spirit. This is why I believe that Bible states that “the word of God [is] living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…”

Emotions and feelings can cloud love.

When you accept Jesus into your life and heart you are tapping into God. You are giving life to the spiritual side of you. Learning to distinguish between love and feelings can be a foggy road to traverse, but the Word of God can help clear the clouds and be “… a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Bringing the soul into the obedience of the spirit can be a hard thing. But we have been given grace and mercy through Jesus Christ as we learn by God’s Word (Jesus) to yield to the spirit.

Before I close my thoughts on this allow me to give an example of what I mean. Some people have fun personalities and they like to joke around. Sometimes the jokes can be mean and hurtful. A soul yielding to the spirit of God now dwelling within them will discern when a joke will be hurtful and will surrender to the spirit and not say the joke. Although the joke may have made a lot of people laugh, it may hurt someone in particular, so it is not told. The enjoyment of the many that may make you popular is yielded to the love for the individual who will be hurt.

Do you sacrifice love for your own pride? That’s what the religious leaders did when they lied about Jesus and had put Him to death.

But, that was all part of God’s plan for us.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

Be blessed. Be a blessing.

Send all contributions to me…LOL…

Thank you brothers and sisters…

Send me cheesecake.

DJ GlenMC

4 comments:

Arlee Bird said...

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas season. I was gone for nearly a month and have been busy trying to get caught up.

This is an interesting thought that you are putting out there today. I've never really thought about it in this way, but it makes a whole lot of sense.

On the topic of spirit though, do you think that we all might have spirits, but it's a matter of whether they are tapped into God or not. I'm just thinking of that term "evil spirits".

You've presented a thoughtful topic here.

On another note, I don't know if you saw the announcement for Blogging from A to Z this week, but we are doing it again. I have a sign up Linky on my site. To get more info click on the link below.

Lee
Tossing It Out and the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge 2011

DJ GlenMC said...

Valid point...
Steve Camp once sang, "When you turn your back on Him/Then nothing but evil takes His place"

Turning from God does open us up to influence from that which isn't Godly.

As darkness is basically the absence of light. Evil is just the absence of God.

As always I just throw some thoughts out there.

Did you see my post prior to this one?

Have a great new year. I did sign up for the new A-Z challenge. Hopefully I won't get to busy.

Be blessed bro.
DJ GlenMC

DJ GlenMC said...

Thank you Deirdra. I haven't been doing much writing lately.
I will post the award proudly on my web site...
Be blessed. Be a blessing.
DJ GlenMC

baygirl32 said...

this is an intresting thought.

just popping in from the A to Z to say hello