Spirit, Soul and Body

INTRODUCTION
God began renewing my mind through His Word. Then I started experiencing that same divine reality as before—only this time it wasn’t just in a physical, emotional way. The Lord revealed truths that changed my thinking and released His power in me.

This understanding of spirit, soul, and body was one of the first revelations I received through studying the Bible. It not only alleviated the frustration and confusion I had but has served as a foundation for almost everything the Lord has shown me since. These important truths freed me from the bondage of much wrong thinking and enabled me to consistently experience God’s supernatural power. Personally, I cannot comprehend how anyone can truly prosper in their relationship with God apart from understanding this basic revelation!

I’ve seen the Lord set more people free through this one teaching than almost anything else I’ve ever ministered! What you now hold in your hands has the potential to revolutionize your entire Christian life!

CHAPTER 1 – GOD’S MIRROR
“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 Thess. 5:23). Even though God’s Word clearly teaches that we are three part beings, very few Christians practice a functional understanding of spirit, soul, and body in their everyday lives!

Most people actually believe that they’re only made up of body and soul. They confuse soul and spirit as being basically the same thing. Therefore, on a day-to-day level, they only acknowledge a physical part and an emotional, mental, inner part (commonly called “personality”).

Your spirit is your innermost part, not your “immortal soul.”

Your body is obvious. It’s the physical part of you that can be seen in a mirror. If you were talking to me face to face, you’d be seeing my body.

However, you’d be speaking to my soul, which is my mental, emotional part. Some people define “soul” as being your “mind, will, and emotions.” While that’s certainly true, it’s incomplete because your conscience should also be included. Your soul is what most people call their “personality.”

You can feel both your body and your soul. If I put my hand on your shoulder, you’d know that I touched you. By speaking to your soul, I can make you glad, sad, or mad. Through my words, I could even “hurt” you without physically touching your body.

Your spirit cannot be accessed in any natural way. Jesus declared, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). He meant that there’s no direct connection between the two. They are interrelated, as you’ll later see, but spirit is spirit and flesh is flesh. You simply cannot contact your spirit through your emotions or your physical body. Herein lies one of the great problems of the Christian life!

If you don’t understand that spiritual reality can’t be felt, then you’ll be confused when God’s Word declares that you have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Eph. 1:18-20). If you think truth can be discerned through your natural senses, then you’ll be baffled when the Bible says that you’re a brand-new creature who can do the same miraculous works that Jesus did (2 Cor. 5:17, John 14:12). Without understanding spirit, soul, and body, you’ll search your body and soul in bewilderment wondering, “Where is it? I don’t really have that kind of power in me. The Bible is so hard to understand!” If you can’t see, taste, hear, smell, or touch what the Word reveals about you, you’ll immediately be thrown into conflict. This apparent disparity between your experience and God’s Word will cause you to throw up your hands in frustration and conclude, “It must not be true!”

UNLOCKING THE SPIRIT REALM
Understanding spirit, soul, and body unlocks the spirit realm so you can experience who you are and what you have in Christ!

Since the spirit realm can’t be naturally seen or felt, the only way to accurately perceive spiritual truth is through the Bible. Simply take God’s Word and believe it!

Jesus said, “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). God’s Word reveals spiritual reality. If you want to know what your spirit is like, you must find out from the Word. You can’t just go by emotion or some other type of perception. God’s Word is spirit and life!

When you look into the Bible, you behold yourself in the spirit. “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: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty [God’s Word, specifically the New Testament], and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:23-25).

God’s Word is a spiritual mirror!

A PERFECT REFLECTION
God’s Word perfectly reflects who you are in the spirit. It’s the only way you can know. You can’t just assume, “If I had God’s power inside of me, I’d be aware of it” because that which is Spirit is spirit and that which is flesh is flesh! It would be like trying to feel if your makeup was on or your hair was combed. Those things just can’t be felt! You must look in God’s mirror and trust the spiritual reality you see!

CONFUSED
Every born-again believer has undergone a complete inner transformation. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17-18). Notice how it doesn’t say that “all things are becoming new” or “have the potential of being new.” This verse declares “old things have passed (past tense) away,” “all things have become (present tense—reality right now) new,” and “all things are of God.”

If you don’t understand spirit, soul, and body, you’re instantly set up for confusion, frustration, and ultimately unbelief when you see a verse like this. After reading about a total change and all things being of God, you look at your body and immediately start wondering because it hasn’t passed away or become brand new. If you were overweight before receiving the Lord, that didn’t change the moment you got saved!

A time will come when you’ll receive a glorified body, but that hasn’t happened yet. “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53). Although Christ’s atonement provided for you physically, your body has not yet been saved. It’s been purchased, but not yet redeemed.

(Example of S&H green stamps…) Although the stamps were purchased, they weren’t redeemed until I turned them in. It wasn’t the stamps themselves I wanted but what I could redeem them for! Jesus purchased your glorified body through His death, burial, and resurrection. Although full payment has been made, you still have a corrupted body while you wait to receive your immortal, incorruptible one. At this moment, you don’t yet have the redemption of the purchased possession (Eph. 1:14).

Your soul wasn’t saved either! This sounds strange to many people because they use terminology like “I’m a soul winner!” and “I came to see a soul saved” to describe an evangelist and evangelism. In reality, the New Testament only mentions “soul salvation” a few times—and none of them, in context, are talking about the born-again experience (Heb. 10:39; James 1:21, 5:20; 1 Pet. 1:9). Soul salvation happens when an emotionally discouraged and mentally defeated Christian starts believing God’s Word and then experiences victory, peace, and joy again. However, when it comes to being born again, your soul wasn’t the part of you that completely changed!

If you were stupid before being saved, you’ll still be stupid after being saved. If you didn’t know math before being born again, you won’t instantly know math afterwards either. In fact, if you were depressed before you got saved, you’ll stay depressed until you change the way your soul thinks by believing God’s Word.

Your soul can be transformed now to the degree you renew your mind, change your attitudes, and conform your values to the Word of God. This should happen, and it’s in the process of happening, but it didn’t automatically happen. In your soul, old things didn’t pass away, and all things haven’t yet become new. The transformation of your soul won’t be completed until you go to be with Jesus!

WHERE THE CHANGE IS COMPLETE!
When you receive your glorified body, you’ll also receive your glorified soul. First Corinthians 13:9-12 reveals how, when that which is perfect is come (your glorified body), your current partial knowledge will give way to full revelation. You won’t know in part anymore, but you’ll know all things even as also you are known. That’s the coming future fulfillment of transformation and completed change in your body and soul!

But 2 Corinthians 5:17 clearly states that any person who is in Christ is right now a brand-new creature! Old things have passed away. All things have become new. This total transformation isn’t just in process; it’s describing a change that’s already been done—an accomplished fact.

Where did this complete change occur? According to God’s mirror—not in your body and not in your soul, but in your born-again spirit!

CHAPTER 2 – RELEASE WHAT YOU’VE ALREADY GOT!
Your spirit totally changed at salvation! Upon making Jesus Christ your Lord, your spirit underwent aninstant and complete transformation. Typically, your body and soul are both impacted by what happened, but it’s not total, nor complete.

People who don’t understand that the change took place in their spirits and has to work its way out into their souls and bodies are usually quite disappointed. “I thought I’d become a brand-new person. Jesus was going to change everything!” Then unbelief takes hold. “But things didn’t change, and I’m still the same!”

The truth is—your spirit has totally changed! You aren’t in the process of trying to get anything from God. Everything you’ll ever need in the Christian life is already present in its entirety in your spirit! At this very moment, your born-again spirit is as perfect and complete as it’ll ever be throughout all eternity. You won’t get a new one when you arrive in heaven, and neither will it need to be matured, completed, or cleaned up from any defilement down here on earth.

Your spirit is—right now—as perfect, mature, and complete as Jesus Himself!

THE PIVOT POINT
After being born again, the rest of your Christian life consists simply of renewing and releasing! As you do, your soul will agree with what’s already transpired in your spirit. When your soul comes into alignment with what it sees in God’s spiritual mirror, what’s already in your spirit releases into your soul and body. That’s how you experience the benefits of your salvation!

If your spirit and soul agree, you experience the life of God. Your born-again spirit is always for God because it’s already been completely changed into His likeness and image. When your soul agrees with your spirit, that’s two parts of your being against one. Since the majority always rules, your soul and body will experience the life, victory, and power that is in your spirit.

On the other hand, the supernatural flow of life from your spirit to the physical realm stops when your soul agrees with your body (majority rules again) and is dominated by the natural realm. You cut yourself off from experiencing God’s life in you when you align your soul with what you can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel instead of what you perceive in the Word. What’s in your spirit must flow through your soul in order to get out to your body and the physical world around it!

(ILLUSTRATION ON PAGE 11 – 3 circles, spirit in the middle, then soul, then body on the outside circle)

The outer circle is your body. It’s the part you can see and feel. Then you have an inner part that can’t be seen but can be felt. That’s your soul. Notice how your soul touches both your body and spirit. Your spirit is a second inner part. Although it’s the center of who you are, it can’t be seen or felt.

Most people don’t recognize the fact that their spirits are the core of their beings. They function primarily out of their soulish realm, believing what they think and feel is reality. They may perceive their souls to be the core of who they are, but God’s Word says differently.

Your spirit is the real you! “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also”  (James 2:26).

Your spirit is your life-giving part!

Since your life comes from your spirit, it’s the innermost circle of the three. Notice also how your spirit is completely surrounded by your soul. It has no direct access to your physical body. The diagram of three rings also illustrates this lack of a direct link. That’s why everything that comes out from your spirit to your body must go through your mental, emotional part!

(ILLUSTRATION ON PAGE 12 – 3 olympic rings, spirit on the left, soul in the middle, then body on the right)

(2nd ILLUSTRATION ON PAGE 12 – a cylinder, body on the left side of the cylinder, spirit on the right side of the cylinder, the mind/soul is in the middle and is controlled by a valve)

When you open the valve, what’s in your spirit can flow through to your body. Depending upon how open it is, the flow of life could be just a trickle, a small stream, or rivers (John 7:38). When the valve is closed, the flow from spirit to body shuts off. That’s a great illustration of how a born again believer functions!

In your spirit, you’ve got the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Eph. 1:18-20). However, it’s possible to have this power and never manifest it. If your soul, like a valve, stays closed to this truth, you won’t experience it. Without opening the valve by renewing your mind to God’s Word, the eternal reality in your spirit won’t be able to impact the temporal “reality” of your physical realm. All that resurrection life and power just stays locked up inside until you look into the spiritual mirror long enough to see the real you and release it!

If you’re dominated by what you feel, your soul is agreeing with the natural realm. Even though you have the resurrection life of God in your spirit, your soul can keep it shut off so that not one drop of life-giving power ever touches your physical body.

You can experience depression, anger, and bitterness all the while possessing God’s love, joy, and peace in your spirit (Gal. 5:22). Since this applies to every area of your life, can you see how pivotal your soul is?

Your body doesn’t really control anything. It just goes with the flow of what it sees, tastes, hears, smells, and feels unless otherwise influenced by the soul. It’s amoral—neither good nor bad. Left to itself, your body just reacts to and goes along with what’s happening in the physical realm.

When your soul agrees with your spirit, the life of God in you will manifest itself in your physical body. You’ll experience healing, deliverance, anointing, victory, power, joy, prosperity— on and on it goes!

NUGGET – VICTORY BEGINS
Since most Christians don’t have a working knowledge of spirit, soul, and body, they’re dominated by what they can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel instead of God’s Word. The flow of life within stays turned off because they don’t believe anything they can’t see. Neither do they understand the change that happened in their born-again spirits, nor are they fully aware of who they are in Christ. To them, something’s just not real if it can’t be perceived though their five natural senses. Attempting to be “honest,” they search their physical, emotional, and mental realms for God’s power. If they can’t perceive it, then they must not have it.

However, the truth is that old things passed away, and all things became new in your spirit the moment you were born again. Now, everything you’ll ever need in your Christian life is already there.  Just renew your mind and release it!

This truth revolutionized my life! I had experienced God’s power and reality, but when the emotion of it wore off, I thought they were gone. I knew God and everything He promised was real, but I thought I had to try to get Him to give me things. Due to my wrong thinking, I went through a period of discouragement, frustration, and desperation—not from sin but from a sincere desire to live for Him and experience His best. I felt like no matter how hard I tried, I could never get there. Then I started to see that God had already given me everything in my born-again spirit. As this revelation dawned on me, I realized that I just needed to release it. This simple understanding changed everything!

Since then, I’ve recognized that the Christian life isn’t a process of “getting from God.” Instead, it’s a process of renewing my mind and learning to release what I’ve already received. It’s much easier to release something I’ve already got than to go get something I don’t yet have!

This erroneous concept of trying to get something you don’t yet have carries within it an element of doubt. You see a promise in the Word concerning healing, joy, victory, power, provision, or whatever, and since you know God loves His children and keeps His promises, you start heading toward that, “believing God.” You know it’s possible—even promised—but since you can’t perceive it yet in your mental, emotional, or physical realms, you don’t believe it’s already been done.  In your mind, God’s promise isn’t a “reality” until you physically have it.

(Story of overcoming financial problems) ……you already had it. Why would you doubt something you’ve already got?” My point exactly! God placed everything you’ll ever need inside your born-again spirit. Once you believe you’ve already got it, doubt is eliminated!

When you confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, your spirit instantly changed. In your spirit, you are brand new and complete. God has already given you everything you need. The rest of your Christian life isn’t learning how to get from Him but rather discovering how to release what He’s already placed within!

CHAPTER 3 – RENEW, ACKNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE
Paul prayed for his friend “that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus” (Philem. 1:6). “Communicate” means to “release” or “transfer.” For instance, I’m communicating, releasing, transferring to you what God has spoken and made a reality in my life.

“Effectual” means it begins to “work” or “produce.” How does your faith work and produce? “By the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”

Old Testament principles don’t necessarily apply to New Testament faith. That’s why concepts like “getting more faith,” “receiving a new anointing,” “getting more of God,” and “receiving a double portion” don’t work.

John 1:16 reveals, “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” Under the New Covenant, we have all received (past tense) His fullness!

As a believer, God gave you everything when you were born again. Old things passed away, and all things became new. In your spirit, you received the same measure of faith, the same power, the same wisdom, and the same ability as every other Christian. Our spirits are all identical to the Lord Jesus Christ in every way. Your spirit isn’t in the process of growing and maturing because it’s already complete; you’ve already got everything!

The rest of your Christian life is learning how to manifest in the physical realm what’s already in your born-again spirit. The way your faith becomes effective, productive, operative is by acknowledging every good thing in you (your spirit) in Christ. Since you can only acknowledge things that already exist, you can’t acknowledge something that’s not a reality. Therefore, in order for your faith to work, you must recognize, believe, and acknowledge the good things in you in Christ!

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