Introduction

As a born-again Christian since June 2, 1976, when my life was radically changed after I accepted Jesus Christ as my only savior, I can honestly say that trying to understand the complexity of the human soul is perhaps the most challenging area I’ve ever had to deal with, yet the most vital.

In every human endeavor reaching the goal determines the victory. Failing to reach the goal, though admirable if one tries very hard, it is still a failure. Bottom line is we lost; we failed to accomplish the desire objective.

However many Christians today settle for trying very hard and accept failure to reach their goal in Christ as an admirable endeavor. Even when in the end they have failed miserably to achieve the goal that Jesus Christ had set out for them in their lives.

My prayer is that in this book I will be able to shed some light into the inner workings of the human soul that will enable born-again Christians to achieve the goal of their faith which is the salvation, deliverance and restoration of their souls.

1 Peter 1:9 “Receiving the end of your faith — the salvation of your souls.”
 
The Difference between the Spirit and the Soul

This is an area that is not dealt with often enough from church pulpits. What is the difference between my soul and my spirit? And how does lack of knowledge on this subject affect my walk with Christ?

Knowing the difference between your soul and your spirit can mean the difference between walking in shame, guilt and condemnation or walking in total and complete freedom from guilt, shame and condemnation.

Let me begin by stressing that the Bible makes a clear distinction between the soul and the spirit, and if we understand that their interaction affects how our physical bodies respond to any given situation, it will teach us how to walk in self-control, which is the completion of spiritual fruit.

I Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Parenthesis, italics, bold added by me unless otherwise stated.)

Paul clearly segregates the two, spirit and soul as dwelling within our physical bodies. But by introducing God as the God of peace Himself, Paul implies that there is a relationship between spirit and soul that brings peace or the lack thereof, depending upon their interaction.

In order to know how the spirit and the soul interact within our bodies, and how their interaction affects our behavior, we need to understand their individual nomenclature. The Greek word used by Paul in the above passage for spirit is the word “Pnyoomah” Strong’s concordance # 4151 and it means Breath (blast).

The Greek word used for soul is the word “Psookhay” Strong’s concordance # 5590 and it also means Breath. We get a clearer picture from Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man (the body) of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (the spirit); and man became a living being (the soul).”

The words for breath and spirit are pretty much interchangeable in both the Hebrew and Greek languages. So when God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath (spirit) of life, Adam became a living soul.

From this and other scriptures I’ve concluded that the human soul is like a pneumatic
(Pnyoomah) tool, a tool designed to run on a blast or a current of air, originally intended by God to run or to be motivated by God’s breath/spirit (Pnyoomah);or let me put it another way, our soul is to be moved, inspired, influenced by the words that come out of the mouth of God.

When Adam and by implication us, disobeyed the word that came out of God’s mouth, our souls lost their motivator and hence the soul became self-motivated (self steam). Now in the soul we find the mind, will and emotions intricately connected to our five physical senses.

Genesis 3:6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (taste), that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise (mind), she took of its fruit and ate.”

Here we see the process; disobedience to the word of God disengages the governor of the soul: the Spirit of God. And now the human soul can be easily manipulated through the physical senses. Satan controls the environment we live in, the world; if we do not walk in self-control which is a fruit of the Spirit; then, the demonic environment of this world will control us also.
As born-again believers we cannot afford to be led by our physical senses, if we are lead by the sensuality (carnality) of this world, we will never achieve the goal of our faith, which is; the liberation of our souls from satanic influences and manipulative schemes.

1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father (breath) is not in him.”

This is why the soul is so vital: Whichever spirit (breath) motivates the soul, that spirit will control to a very large extent the actions of our physical bodies. When we walk in victory it is because the Spirit of God is driving our soul. When we walk in defeat it is because the Spirit of God has been disengaged from motivating our soul; and when our soul is motivated by our physical senses, which are manipulated by the circumstances surrounding us, we fail on our goal. John could not have said it any clearer, when we love the world or the things of the world (the devil’s environment), we’ve allowed our souls to be manipulated by the god of this world. Instead of the fruit of the Holy Spirit flowing through us, the fruit of carnality abounds.

Selfishness instead of self-control, hate instead of love, unhappiness instead of joy, impatience instead of patience, pride instead of meekness and no real peace.

Isaiah 57:21 “There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.”

Perhaps the best way to describe the difference between soul and spirit is like this: The spirit of a born-again Christian is like a good seed, within it lies dormant everything that pertains to a life of peace and abundance of the godliness that we have been promised.

1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

And just like a natural seed needs a place to germinate and release all the things that are encoded within it; the born-again spirit needs to be embedded within the soul in order to bear spiritual fruit.

Hosea 10:17 “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”

This is what makes the liberation of the soul so vital, without it there can be no harvest, no real victory. The preaching, teaching and learning from the word of God provide the watering that causes the seed (spirit) to bear fruit, however the fallow ground of the soul must be broken, tilled and cultivated. The weeds that choke the fruit of the spirit have to be uprooted.

Matthew 15:13 “...Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.”

As I conclude this chapter, my heart turns towards the many Christians that are struggling with sin in their lives. No matter how hard they try they are unable to overcome it, and like clockwork Satan is there to remind them of their misery and failure.

Romans 7:17-18 “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” Parenthesis are in the original text.

Romans 7:20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

The day that a born-again believer comes to the realization that the spirit within him/her has been made alive, and that there is now therefore no condemnation for that spirit; for indeed, it is that born-again spirit that desires to do good “for to will is present with me”, they will no longer look at sin in the same light anymore.

The sin that is in the soul that was self-motivated before we knew God should be like a warning light to us, a symptom of an unseen malady. Its manifestations are there for the purpose of reminding us that there is something wrong within us that we need to deal with.

When the check engine light flashes on the dash board of our vehicle, we do not feel guilt or shame about it; we simply become concern and see to it that the problem is dealt with as soon as possible. So it should be with us, when we keep doing that which we will not to do, it is time to come to God and allow Him to give us a spiritual diagnostic check-up of the soul.

Proverbs 11:9 “…But through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.”

Instead of hiding with guilt and shame by identifying ourselves with that sin, let us expose that sin for what it is, an unwanted trespasser that needs to be evicted from our soul, through knowledge.

Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

Let us become diligent in learning the intricacies of our own soul. Let us make the liberation of our souls our principle goal in life.