Hundredfold Ministries, Int'l

In my denominational upbringing, spirit and soul were treated as being synonymous. At least no one ever tried to explain the difference to me. Yet, when I read and studied the Bible as a young adult, I noticed again and again that the Scripture speaks at times of the spirit and at times of the soul. For example, in Mary's Magnifica, her song of praise to the Lord, she said, "My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior." (Lk 1:46 NIV) Although that is poetic language, it is also much more. I believe that little teenaged Jewish girl had more understanding regarding the spirit and soul than the average Christian does today. Let's look at two more Scriptures.

"The Word of God is living 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." (Heb 4:12 NIV)

The fact that the Word of God divides the soul and the spirit means they have to be two different things. 40 There are times when the Scripture seems to address the human spirit and there are times when it speaks to the soul. For example, David the Psalmist wrote, "Why art thou cast down, O my Soul?" (Ps 42:5 KJV) And in the closing of the Apostle Paul's letter to Galatia he wrote, "Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." (Gal 6:18 KJV)

In Paul's farewell section of his first letter to the Thessalonians he adds a third dimension, the body, to our being.

"May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thes 5:23 NIV)

Thus we must conclude that we are triune beings, comprised of spirit, soul and body. When I began to teach this subject I taught it as body, soul and spirit, because when we look at someone we see the body first. As we get to know them, we come to recognize their soul. Finally, deeper still lies their spirit.

However, one time I was listening to a mature Bible teacher on this subject. He said that he used to teach the subject as body, soul and spirit, but he learned that God sees us in the opposite way. God sees us as a spirit being first who has a soul and lives in a body. That made great sense to me so I too have reversed the subject around to God's viewpoint, now calling it spirit, soul and body.

I am a spirit being. I have a soul. I live in a body. In Figure 27-1, the inward circle represents the spirit, the next circle represents the soul, and the outside circle represents the body. Contained in each circle are the senses or faculties of each. I will briefly explain them as we progress. For the moment, suffice to say that with the body man is aware of the physical world, with his soul he has self-awareness, and with his spirit he has an awareness of and contact with the spiritual world.

There are four New Testament Greek words we need to know to understand these principles. They are pneuma, psyche, soma and sarks. In the original Greek text, the word for spirit is pneuma. Pneuma is commonly used as the root of several English words such as pneumonia, pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit), pneumatic (air driven tools), etc. Hence, words beginning with pneuma have to do with spirit, breath or air.

The Greek word for soul is another word with which we are very familiar, psyche from which we get the whole array of "psyches" in the English language. From psyche we get the words psychology, psychogenesis, psychotic, etc. So words beginning with psyche relate to the human mind.

For body or flesh two Greek words are frequently used in Scripture. The Greek word for the body is soma. Soma is used to describe the body apart from its moral attributes. The second Greek word frequently used to describe the moral or the base nature of man is sarks. Unfortunately, I don't believe there is quite an equivalent word in English for the Greek concept of sarks. Sarks is used widely in the New Testament to describe the base, unchecked desires and nature of the flesh. Soma describes flesh or the body more in a physical sense while sarks describes its immoral propensities and desires. At times the Scripture speaks of the pneuma, at times of the psyche, at times of the soma and sarks, that is spirit, soul, body. 41

There is also a differentiation between spirit and soul in the original Hebrew texts. The Hebrew word for soul is nephesh which corresponds with the New Testament psyche. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach which corresponds to the New Testament pneuma. 42

Gods Creation

Let's look at Figure 27-1 again for a moment from God's viewpoint. God created Adam as spirit, soul and body. He breathed into him and gave him his spirit or the breath of life. We see God placing Adam in the Garden and giving him these three realms, spirit, soul and body. It was God's intention to supply his every need by placing him in a plenteous garden.

Yet, that wasn't enough for God. In the cool of the day God would come and commune with Adam and have intelligent conversation with him. (Gen 3:8) In other words, God would fellowship with Adam at Adam's level to develop and shape his soul and spirit also.

Looking again at Figure 27-1, we note the different faculties of the spirit, soul and body. First look briefly at the body. It is easy to understand its faculties which are to see, hear, feel, smell and taste. It is with the body we maintain contact with the physical world around us. The five senses are faculties of the body, and it is through them we have an awareness of the physical world. Our bodies are limited by laws of physics, such as gravity, inertia, and so on.

Looking at the soul, I believe that most would agree that there are generally three faculties of the human soul: the intellect, the emotion, and, standing as a sentry to the human spirit, the human will. Any one of these faculties may be over or under-developed. When that happens we have an improperly developed soul. There is an imbalance. For example, we have all experienced encountering someone who is very intellectual. They are generally well educated, very logical and believe that everything of significance value can be scientifically proven and/or intellectually discerned. We have also encountered people who are highly emotional. They're happy one moment and crying buckets of tears the next. They're very up or very down. They are emotionally driven by the circumstances that surround them. And, of course, all of us have encountered those who are quite willful -- they are easy to spot, just try to cross them! As you get to know someone, you can readily see the attributes of the soul in that person. Soon enough we can see which aspect of the soul is under developed or, too often, overdeveloped.

The spirit is a little harder to sense until you know the person better. Let's list the faculties of the spirit. The first faculty is fellowship. Have you ever noticed that you cannot really fellowship someone who's not born again? You can have a good, cordial, friendly relationship with him but as far as genuine fellowship including a spiritual bond, its just not there unless there is a rebirth experience in both parties.

Conscience is also a faculty of the human spirit. The purpose of the conscience is to provide proper moral guidance. The conscience is a very complex subject. Suffice to say, the conscience is no guarantee against infallibility. It is like a computer. If it is misprogrammed, it will produce the wrong results. If, on the other hand, the human conscience is properly taught, it performs well in providing proper moral guidance. Remember when God told the Jews that they were to teach their children when they were walking along the road? They were to talk about the Scripture, they were to recite the Scripture, they were to memorize Scriptures. They were even to put it in little boxes (frontlets) tied to their heads and to put it on their arms in phylacteries. (See Deu 6.)

Why did God command this? Because in so doing, He was programming the conscience, sharpening its ability as well as increasing the fellowship between Himself and His children. He was providing through natural channels a means to increase or nourish the spiritual man. That is why it is so important for us to teach the Scripture to our children. If we don't teach Scripture to our children, that is, program our children's minds, their consciences are going to be short-circuited. They are not going to be very old before they are exposed in their classrooms to the idea that 51% determines what is morally right or wrong. The majority says it's all right to do thus and so, so that means it's OK. No longer is it "thus saith the Lord." But if we do our job by teaching our children Scripture, then God will do His by guiding them through their consciences.

The third faculty is called discernment. Spiritual discernment is something that God gives every born again believer. But that discernment only grows and sharpens as the believer exposes himself to the Word, to Bible teaching, to prayer, and to God Himself. I have known people who were not critical in the negative sense of the word but were very keen in discernment. Someone may come along and say, "Well, God is saying to do this and God is saying to do that." On the surface what they are saying may sound good. But this dear wise sister with keen discernment will say, "Well, praise God for all that but something is just not right." Maybe we can't identify a problem or find anything wrong but this dear saint who has been developing discernment for 50 or 60 years is saying, "There's something not quite right." And sure enough, time proves her to be dead right. That's discernment at work.

Do you know what a check in your spirit is? Have you ever experienced an occasion when there was a "caution alert" in your spirit? You were going through your normal routine and everything was just fine, when suddenly there was something in your human spirit saying, "Slow down. Detour. Stop doing this." That is discernment coming alive inside of you.

These gifts are listed in I Corinthians 12:7-11. And finally, note also in Figure 27-1 that upon rebirth the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the human spirit.

God's Purpose for Mankind

We can now more clearly see how God made man. It is through these various faculties that God wants us to operate. Going back to Adam in the garden, he had two responsibilities, one was in the physical realm, the other was spiritual. God put Adam in the garden to dress and keep it - physical. Yet God wanted Adam to have a fully developed spirit, to be a mature, competent human being with whom He could fellowship - spiritual. Note, I said a fully mature and competent human being.

We have all seen Christians who seemed to pray about little or nothing. But have you ever seen Christians who wanted to pray about everything? "I'd better pray about this or that." I once knew a man who was one of the most gifted musicians I've ever seen in my life. Before he played and sometimes even between songs, he would stop, pray and ask God what He wanted him to play next! His whole life was governed by indecision. That is not what God wants for us. When Adam went out to dress the garden, do you suppose he prayed and asked, "Now God, which tree do you want me to trim today?" No, I believe he used his natural senses, looked with his eyes, drew logical conclusions, and said, "That limb is hanging down to the ground." And he would trim the tree. In other words, he would use what God gave him, his intelligence, skills, prior experience, etc.

Not only did God want Adam to be mature and competent, it was God's purpose for Adam to develop his inner man and become a very mature person spiritually. To what degree was he to develop spiritually? ". . . attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Eph 4:3 NIV) Adam was physically grown but he was not spiritually mature. God's intent and purpose was to leave him in the garden, fellowship with him and expose him to His wisdom and intelligence so he would grow to up to spiritual maturity.

Tree of Life

So, if God wanted Adam to grow up spiritually, how was God going to accomplish that? Looking again at Figure 27-1, God placed in the garden a tree called the Tree of Life. And in effect He said, "Adam, you may partake of this tree all you want. Anytime you want this fruit, come and get it. It's free. Take all you want."

God wants spiritual maturity for all His children. That was His purpose in Genesis and He revealed it again in Ephesians, 4. God is not fickle, and His eternal purposes never change, so it is still His purpose now. As with Adam, God also intended that mankind would grow up into spiritual maturity.

I believe the apostle Paul identified Jesus with the Tree of Life when he told the church at Philippi, "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Phi 4:19 NIV) The Tree of Life in Figure 27-1 symbolizes God's provision to Adam through Jesus. Adam had free access to it. But He also gave Adam a free will.

Tree of Death

God put another tree in the Garden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told Adam ". . . but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will surely die." (Gen 2:17 NIV) We all know the story. Eve was deceived by the serpent and eventually both Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden.

Notice when God comes speaking to man, He speaks to man's spirit. But when Satan comes, as he did in the garden to Eve, how does he approach mankind? He comes through the ears, through the eyes, through smell, through taste, through the touch. Satan appeals to man's carnal nature. He approached Eve through the faculties of her body and soul. Appealing to her intellect he said, "It's going to make you as gods. God is just jealous. He doesn't want you to be like him. Look at it. Feel it. Smell it. Taste it."

Remember, God had specifically already told Adam, ". . . when you eat from it you will surely die." Gen 2:17) Satan said, "You will not surely die." (Gen 3:4 KJV) On the surface it appears that Satan was correct. When Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden it had to be fairly early in Adam's life. If God says Adam died that day, we must believe God. Adam died. But, since Adam was still talking and walking around we must enlarge our definition of death. What God meant was spiritual death. Physical death is just the inevitable consequence of spiritual death. Obviously physical death occurred for Adam much later, but there was a spiritual death that occurred the moment he disobeyed God.

Adams / Mans Spiritual Death

If one is alienated from Life or separated from Life, it matters not if he walks, breathes, talks, and eats food. It doesn't matter what he does, he's dead. From the time of Adam's sin on, man's state has been that of being spiritually dead. But remember, man's soul and body are still very much alive and kicking. 43 So, we now have a horrible creature walking around on earth. You see, God's plan was to abide in man's spirit and provide guidance and moral government. Man's spirit was to govern his soul and his soul was in turn to govern his body.

Let's look at what God intended man to be with the Holy Spirit, human spirit, soul and body hierarchy in Figure 27-2 "A." Here we see a balance of spirit, soul and body in their proper order.

If we submit to this hierarchy of control, then we are walking in the spirit and God directs our human spirit. Our God-directed human spirit says, "You need to do this. You need to do that." and our soul falls in line. Then our body serves the needs of the soul and the spirit in that order.

Look at Figure 27-2 Here we see in "B," "C" and "D" the various forms that developed in man as a result of his spiritual death. Figure 27-2 "B" is pictured in Figure 27-3 as a person who is primarily concerned about his physical being. Figure 27-2 "C" is pictured in Figure 27-4 as a the person who is overly concerned with the body's demands (i.e., be they health, sensuality, overeating, etc.) Figure 27-2 "D" is pictured in Figure 27-5 as the (1) intellectual, (2) emotional, or (3) willful one who has little regard for the physical or spiritual.

Have you ever known people who live to eat? (Figure 27-4) Most likely they have a little wimpy soul following this big body around. And the human spirit is a very tiny little thing. Or have you ever known people who have a driving will, over indulged emotions, or a strong intellect? (Figure 27-5) In those cases you have a big powerful soul and a little wimpy body (though it might be muscular), but there is still the spirit down there, underdeveloped, underfed, deprived and subjugated.

Figure 27-2 "A" portrays a mature, balanced Christian, who is pictured in Figure 27-6.

Mans Rebirth

Looking at Figures 27-3 through 27-5 we have these horrible, distorted creatures running around doing all sorts of damage. Question: How can these people get back in fellowship with God? This brings us to good, sincere, chicken-hearted Nicodemus in John's Gospel (he came to Jesus in the dark),

"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, 'Rabbi,'" [pretend that you are Jesus and you have never heard this passage before. Listen very carefully to this statement]. "'Rabbi, we know you're a teacher who has come from God for no one could perform these miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.' [Now Jesus' answer], 'I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" (Jn 3:1-3 NIV)

What does Jesus' answer have to do with Nicodemus' statement? They appear totally unrelated, don't they? Was Jesus ignoring Nicodemus? Was He trying to put him down by not addressing or responding to his statement? No, Jesus went directly to the heart of the matter. Let's read on.

"'How can a man be born when he is old?' Nicodemus asked. 'Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born.' Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth. Unless a man is born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.'" (Jn 3:4,5 NIV)

Figure 27-3	Figure 27-4

Figure 27-5	Figure 27-6

What did Jesus mean? What was He telling Nicodemus? Simply this, being born of the water is natural birth and being born of the spirit is spiritual birth. 44 Flesh gives birth to flesh. Spirit gives birth to spirit.

For four thousand years God had to tolerate spiritually dead mankind. Then Jesus came. Nicodemus went to Jesus with an earnest heart. (We know he was earnest because he and Joseph of Arimathea were the only ones in the city who had enough courage to ask for Jesus' body after He was crucified.) Here is the answer for the seeming incongruity between Nicodemus' question and Jesus' answer. Nicodemus had natural questions, Jesus responded with spiritual answers. That's why the two were on different planes. Nicodemus said, "We know," (intellect, natural knowledge.) Jesus, by His response, was saying "I'm not going to respond to your mind, Nicodemus, because it's fruitless. But I'm going to plant a seed in your human spirit. And that seed will one day soon be watered by the Holy Spirit after I've been crucified, buried and resurrected. When that seed is watered, you're going to spring forth in spiritual rebirth to eternal life."

All Jesus did was plant a seed in Nicodemus' spirit. I'm certain Nicodemus left there that night just as perplexed and confused as when he came if not more so. He didn't know any more in his intellect when he left than before he talked to Jesus. I'm sure he was scratching his head as he walked out into the night. "What in the world is this all about? What does He mean 'be born again?' What does he mean 'born of the spirit'?" But we see that Nicodemus' spirit now had something planted in it. Jesus planted the seed and left it there to germinate until His resurrection.

Remember, chapter one of the Gospel of Matthew is not the beginning of the "New Testament." It is the beginning of the book or document we call the New Testament. New Testament means the new covenant. Our new covenant is in the blood of Jesus. So when did the new covenant actually come into force? It was after Jesus' blood was spilled. Therefore, somewhere around Matthew 28 the New Covenant truly came into force. Hence, in time, Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus was Old Testament. Even during Jesus' earthly ministry, the covenant between God and man was still that of Moses, Old Testament.

When Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he opened the door and made the way for fallen mankind to be born again. At that time the Holy Spirit came and watered the seed in Nicodemus' spirit, and he no doubt said something like this, "Oh! Now I understand what He meant when He said, 'you must be born again.'"

Let's look at John's Gospel, chapter 20. I believe that the ten disciples present in that room were the first men in history who were born again. The scene is the night of the resurrection when Jesus appeared behind closed doors to the disciples. Upon His appearance Jesus said,

"'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with that He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.'" (Jn 20:21 NIV)

What was the significance of His breathing on them? Remember pneuma, or spirit and breath? That event of breathing the Holy Spirit on them and saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit," caused those ten human beings to become the first recipients of "new birth."

Spirit Dominance

Now God really has a problem on His hands. He has given spiritual life to some human beings that still look like B, C and D of Figure 27-2. What have we at the moment of rebirth? We still have the old man, don't we? Peter: "Lord, though everyone forsake you, I'll die for you." When Peter said this he still had an overdeveloped soul with a powerful will, always outspoken and apparently quite emotional. But now Peter is born again. His spirit is alive and suddenly this sin/death line (Figure 27-1) has been jumped. Peter is now born again and his tiny new born spirit is saying for the first time, "Hey, I'm supposed to be the boss." And the big, powerful soul is saying, "What's that you're saying, boy?"

The picture in (Figure 27-2, "B," "C," and "D") is of a new Christian who is struggling with the "thou shalt nots" in the Word of God. His old soul still wants to reign supreme! Our new baby Christian trips, falls and may very well get involved in blatant sin because his soul is still dominant and doesn't want to yield to his spirit. The soul simply hasn't been conquered yet. It pushes the spirit back down on Monday morning and tries to rule all week. Then our new Christian comes to church on Sunday morning, prays, repents and his little undernourished spirit comes back up again until the next time the boys invite him out for an evening. Or Monday morning comes and the spirit is bullied down again and the same routine is repeated. This may go on for a period of time while God is beginning to work a doctrine called "sanctification" in his life--the process of restoring man back to God's order.

Doesn't this describes the Christian we often see and ask, "Is this person really saved?" Well, yes, they are but they have a flip-flop spirit, soul and body. The dominant force of their character is not yet the spirit. After rebirth it takes years, and I mean this literally, for the human spirit yielded to the Holy Spirit, to become the dominant force in a person's being.

But this process is part of God's plan too. The instant someone is born again we like to see them become perfectly sanctified. Such cases are rare, rare exceptions. I know a young man whose stated ambition was to die while high on drugs. Whatever he could get, he would shoot, snort, or stick in his arm. A friend took him to a Catholic Charismatic meeting and God sovereignly saved him, filled him with the Spirit, and delivered him from his habit all in one night! The next night he was out in the parks where he used to go to get high, preaching the gospel to his friends. He didn't know three Scripture verses but he was out there preaching. Yet he still had problems in many areas of his life. I didn't condemn him. I encouraged, taught and occasionally admonished him. God was doing His work in his human spirit all the while.

So this process is what we are seeing when we see some Christians struggling with old ways. The best way to pray for folks in this situation is that God's Spirit will dominate their spirit and that their spirit will dominate their soul and bodily desires. When you recognize what is happening pray that their human spirit will be strengthened.

Question: How does the spirit get strengthened? Answer: By nourishment. The process is not really much different than nourishing the body. The body must have certain foods in the right proportion and balance in order to grow. We all know that and take care to provide our bodies with what we need. I once heard a preacher say, "We will lay out a banquet for our natural man on a table from wall to wall with sweets, meat, and everything imaginable. Then we'll toss our spiritual man a small candy bar and forget about him." Translation: We may pray a few minutes each day or each week or read one or two Scripture verses and in so doing we're tossing our spiritual man a candy bar while our natural man is saying, "Hey, let's go get some real food!"

The spirit is strengthened through the Word, through prayer, through fellowship with other believers, through preaching, through teaching, through communion, and through worship. Then exercise, exercise, exercise in these practices. Eventually we strengthen our spirit to the point that allows Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to rule over the human spirit. Jesus said, "I came to do thy will, O God." (Heb 10:7 KJV) When we can say, "I came to do thy will, O God," and mean it, the placing of our soul in subjection to our spirit is becoming a reality.

Of course, a big part of this process is getting the will under control. It is very encouraging to know that even though someone has a strong will, God has a stronger will. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." (Phi 2:13 NIV) We have free will and I'm glad we do but God knows just how and when to tighten the screws. A half a turn every day and after two or three weeks, we're asking, "What was it you were saying, Lord? Where do we start? Only just take this thing off my head!" He doesn't force your will. He just makes you willing. I'm glad he does. I don't want to go my own way.

We all must try to cooperate with the Holy Spirit every day. The more we are exposed to the Word, preaching, fellowship, and worship, the more God is going to be in control and our soul, including our will, becomes subjugated.

One of the biggest mistakes in the church today is taking a new born-again person, generally a man, who is intellectually, physically, emotionally and/or psychologically mature in every worldly sense of the word, and who is prominent in the community, and quickly give him prominence in the church. This is a terrible mistake! His discernment, his judgment, and his spiritual maturity is that of an infant. We've all seen it done and we've all seen the results. To do this is to bring the world's standards into the church. The apostle Paul said not to even make anyone a deacon unless he or she has been tried and proven, proven through a lifestyle that evidences that the human spirit is in control of the soul and body and that the Holy Spirit is in control of all three.

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40. During my research I discovered writings by Jessie Penn-Lewis who wrote in the late 19th century. She opened a great vista of understanding for me wiwth her teaching on man's spirit, soul and body. Later writers such as DeVerne Fromke expanded my understanding of the subject.

41. Scripture referrences to Pneuma - Mat 4:1, Jn 4:23, 1 Cor 2:11. References to Psyche - Mat 10:28, Heb 6:19, Jas 5:20; References to Soma - Mat 26:12, Lk 11:34, Rom 6:6. References to Sarks - Mat 26:41, Rom 8:1, Gal 1:16.

42. In the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37:9 (KJV) the Lord said "Prophesy unto the wind," the Hebrew text says, "Prophesy unto the ruach," which could be translated as "spirit" or "wind." I believe the valley of dry bones Ezekiel saw was the church prior to the Reformation. As the Spirit of God began to prophesy to the spirits of this valley of dry bones, it began to come alive. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and otehrs of the Reformation era began to lead the rise to life of the Body of Christ.

43. Remember that even in its dead state, humanly speaking, man's spirit has a form of life. It may contact or communicate with the spirit world. It is through man's spirit that spiritist mediums receive their "mysterious" information from the spirit world. But our definition of death here is that the human spirit is severed from the true source of Life.

44. I believe that some have struggled over the meaning of the phrase "born of the water," trying somehow to tie the meaning of Jesus' statement to the doctrine of water baptism. Following one of the basic rules of biblical interpretation, that of allowing to context to interpret Scripture, Jesus' very next statement, "flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to the spirit"makes it quite plain that "born of the water" is referring here to the process of natural childbirth.