OUR BODY, OUR SOUL AND OUR SPIRIT – Part 3
Author: Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
In my previous two writings from the Word I shared with you about our bodies, or our tent house as it is called in the Word.
Afterwards I showed you that a person has a soul that has been created in the image of God, and therefore like our Lord it is immortal and that every person who has been born and whose body has returned to dust, has departed it, and at this moment is in one or two places.
Those who are in the one place live forever and those in the other place die forever the most terrible death, and yet they do not die. They lie forever on the most terrible death bed and wish to die, but they cannot because they – like the God who created them – are immortal.
Now I want to share with you about your and my spirit.
I did mention to you in a previous writing that there are people who believe that our soul and spirit are one in the same.
I want to mention here that I really understand that there are people who rationalize that way, because as I read the Word, there is a fine line between soul and spirit that should be noted. There are many grey areas.
Thus I share with you my understanding and really do not want to become involved in a debate about something like this. I actually do not have the time or energy to spend on reasoning.
I show you again why I understand through the Word that there is a difference between the soul and spirit:
HEB 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
I see it this way, and also remember I’m not trying to be smart (clever) and say I have all the answers. I certainly do not have all the answers. I only share with you what I am shown through the ‘light’ of the Word.
God created the first person, Adam and all the people thereafter in this way: God creates a person with a body that He formed from the dust of the earth.
Then He placed a soul that is created in the image of Himself in that body and this I have already shared with you.
Then, He breathes the breath of life into that person.
In Adam, the first person, we read that God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”, after He had created Adam:
GEN 2:7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
The human spirit as I understand it, is that part of our Lord Himself which He placed in man and man only, which gives us the ability to know the difference between good and evil and between right and wrong – But not only does our spirit give us the ability to distinguish between good and evil and right and wrong, the spirit that is in us also gives us the empowerment of our Lord to change evil to good and wrong to right in our lives.
Let’s read what the Word tells us about the spirit regarding this aspect of our lives:
1 COR 2:11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
JOB 32:8 But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding.
Take note: Adam and Eve were the first people that I know of that had a complete relationship with our Lord and then turned their backs to our Lord and walked towards hell.
Nowhere in the Bible have I read that Adam returned (restored his relationship) to God. On the contrary, all the testimonies in the Word at my disposal, tells me that he just moved further away from our Lord.
The last I know regarding Adam and Eve, is not of repentance. It is words of self-excuse[a] or as they say in English: “Passing the buck” and to put it that way, still a further increase in distance from our Lord:
GEN 3:12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
No regrets, just blameful accusation:
GEN 3:13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
No regrets, just blameful accusation.
The chasm became so great, that we read:
GEN 3:23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
GEN 3:24 After he drove the man out …
Do you see it? Adam and Eve moved even further away from our Lord through the choices they made in their spirits, until we read what I would call a very strong statement in the Word:
GEN 3:24 After he drove the man out …
Wow!
It is really bad if our Lord ‘chases you away’.
The next time I read about Adam in the Old Testament is where he is used as an example of a person who is opposed to our Lord:
HOSEA 6:7 As at Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to me there.
If Adam through his relationship with our Lord could be dragged into hell by satan because he was not on guard for satan, what chance do you and I have, if we are not on guard?
Therefore I leave you now with the following from the Word – to always bear in mind so that you are not like so many people, become blasé[b] in your view of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, just because you have accepted Jesus as your Redeemer and Saviour. Our Lord will never, from His side let you go, but through our own will, we can like Adam, Judas and so many others, follow satan into hell, in spite of the relationship that we now have with our Lord, if we are not on guard and continue accordingly right to the very end.
Jesus says:
MAT 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
We read further:
MAT 24:37-44
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;
39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.
41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
If we must be prepared for when He comes for us, be it through death or when He does it during the rapture, it also means that we may not be prepared at that time when He comes and collects us in whatever way. Read again:
MAT 24:44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Because you see, only those who persevere until the end, despite of what happen around them, even if that end is the day their souls leave their bodies before the rapture takes place – they will be saved:
MAT 10:22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Greetings,
Sakkie
Footnote:
a Self-excuse – Does not the man at times conceal himself to the God, by self-deception, self-excuse, by lying to his higher nature?.
b Blasé – unimpressed with or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before.