What is the difference between your soul and your spirit? When you understand the difference, it makes a huge impact on your spiritual growth. The Bible is very clear that you have a soul and a spirit.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12
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The Word of God cuts right between our soul and our spirit.
“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:23
From these verses, it is very clear that you have a body, a soul, and a spirit. But you need to know that your spirit only becomes alive the moment when you are spiritually reborn, that means, when you become a real, reborn Christian.
God is three in one as the Holy Trinity. We are made in His image, and we are also, three in one consisting of the body, soul and spirit. The spirit is called, ‘Pneuma’. The Bible also explains this as the ‘inner man’. The soul, ‘Psyche’ is the ‘outer man’. The body, the, ‘Soma’, is the ‘outermost man’.
The body is understandable. That’s what you see it when you look in the mirror; It’s how you interact with the world through your five physical senses – smell, taste, touch, hearing, and sight. And your body also wants physical desires, like food, shelter, sex, clothing and so forth.
The soul or the Psyche is basically who you are. It consists of yourself, meaning, your identity, your personality, your character, your emotions, your intellect, your will, and it is also a dwelling place for evil, meaning your sinful nature and evil spirits. If somebody hits you or pokes you in your physical body, you feel pain. When somebody use abusive words, you also feel pain, in your soul. From the moment you’re born, you only ever operated through your body and your soul, that’s all you ever knew.
You were missing one part; your spirit, because you were born spiritually dead. Your spirit is totally different from your soul. The spirit is the part where we get spiritual discernment, peace and revelation. It is the part where we communicate with God Himself. Our spirit has a deeper discernment between right and wrong.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” – 1 Corinthians 2:14
“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” – Romans 8:6
And our spirit also receives revelation which is insight and understanding from the Spirit of God.
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” – Ephesians 1:17
Our spirit is also the part where we have communion with God, where we can have that deep relationship between us and our Father.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” – Ezekiel 36:26
The spirit is also the part where true ministry happens, where we share the gospel to other people. You know when you hear a preacher that preaches full of the power of the Spirit of God, it has power and it changes people. But then, when you have a preacher who just preaches the Bible, right, but from his soul level, without the spirit, it has no power at all.
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” – Acts 1:8
The Bible also talks about this in the Old Testament.
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28
Some people don’t understand Christians because it is spiritual, not physical. Also remember, that your spirit, is also the home of the Holy Spirit, who comes and live inside of you. When does this happen? It happens the moment when God justifies you. The moment you become a reborn Christian. Remember, your body is a temple of God, His home.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? – 1 Corinthians 6:19
All right, so now that you know the difference between the body, the soul and the spirit, you need to know how to walk through the spirit, how to live through this new spiritual nature. Your spirit communicates between you and God. That’s how you communicate and worship God. But now, this spirit needs to lead and guide your soul and body, to act and operate within the will of God. In other words, your own will, your emotions, your intellect – needs to be guided by your spirit and how it lives in the world.
Most Christians today, because of all the false preaching, want to feel the Spirit in a natural, physical way. But you can’t. Especially young Christians, they want to feel it, but you can’t feel it in a natural, physical way and that’s where most of the problems of young Christians come from.
6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:6-8
You can’t feel it in a natural, physical way that you are used to, but you can feel it in a different kind of way of knowing. It’s part of the peace feeling deep inside of your ‘inner man’. You will start to understand this as you grow more spiritually. But the Spirit is the part where you communicate with God and where He communicates to you.
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” – James 2:26
When God opens our spiritual eyes, itis the moment when we really start to live for the first time because the Spirit gives life to us and God Almighty speaks to us in our spirit, and our spirit, then leads our soul and our body, in that faith.
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” – John 6:63
This is very important, if you want to understand your spirit more. You need to understand that you can’t understand it, you can’t grasp it really with your soul level because your soul is full of imperfect emotions and thoughts. Instead, you understand it through studying the Word of God. The Bible is the mirror for us to see the real truth of our soul and our spirit.
23 “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” – James 1:23-25
The Bible is compared to a perfect mirror. It shows us the truth of God and of ourselves. If you style your hair in the morning, you might feel it looks okay or feel that it doesn’t, but you cannot trust your feelings, you must go and look in the mirror and then you will always see some areas that needs fixing. Trust the mirror over your own feelings and in the same way, you need to trust God’s Word, the truth of life itself to show you the truth of you, of God, and your purpose in this life.