This subject of discerning between the Soul, Spirit, and Body is an important one for us to understand as children of God. I know that many of us today think of the spirit and soul as one thing, interchangeable. They are actually different from one another.  1 Thessalonians 5:23 – 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 (KJV). Knowing this difference will allow us to know why we, even after accepting Christ and He comes into our life, that we still need to crucify the flesh and pick that cross up and follow Him. 

What the Bible says about the Soul (All verses from KJV)

• Deuteronomy 4:29 – But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
• Ezekiel 18:4 – Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
• Matthew 10:28 – And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
• Matthew 16:26 – For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
• Matthew 22:37 – Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
• 1 Corinthians 2:11 – For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
• Luke 9:56 – For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
• 3 John 1:2 – Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
• Hebrews 4:12 – 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 10:39 – But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
• James 1:21 – Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

Those are a few verses that speak about the soul and its role in our Christian lives. Now, the word soul in Hebrew is “Nephesh;” this word defines the self, heart, appetite, and the desire of your feelings. In Greek it is “psuche,” which is used to define affection, will, and force. In simple terms, your soul is the part of you that shows what you desire. When the word of God speaks about soul it speaks about you and me of what we like, what we want in life, and desire. This is the part of ourselves that pulls us to wanting something like a car or a specific type of car. The soul is what pulls us to the desires of the flesh, where jealously comes from, hatred, and selfishness.

In Deuteronomy, it states that “even my heart and soul will seek you,” and this is used with a double meaning; the soul and heart together to make you understand that you need to seek God with all your heart and your full desires, that you want to follow God, meaning you desire God, have appetite for God, and your feelings are how God feels in situations.

Matthew 16 speaks about what does it profit for you or me to gain the whole world and yet lose our soul. This verse refers to what happens once you have gained the whole world for yourself, but you live your life in hate, lies, cheating, and many other sins, and in the end, you are by yourself. This happened because you destroyed your soul with the world. The third book of John speaks how for our souls to prosper, we need to live in the way of God, in His statutes, in His commands, in His judgment and testimonies – if our souls have desires, they must desire God’s will.

Hebrews 4:12 says that the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, it will cut, and it will divide asunder the soul and spirit. This means that the soul and spirit are two different things. The spirit, which is life and truth of the consciousness (Holy Spirit) and what is true and pure in front of God, will be exposed and separated from the soul, which leads us many times away from what God wants. We will know the truth and we will not be able to deny it or justify it with our soul. We, many times, will try to figure out a way around what is wrong to make sure we feel good about what we are doing wrong.

In James 1, it tells us to let go of filthiness and naughtiness, disobedience, and what is evil and to receive with meekness the engrafted word which can save your soul. In the word of God, we will find out that by saving your soul you will save you spirit and will enter into the everlasting life, but if your soul is in evil in the world you will lose your life into everlasting hellfire.

Therefore, it is written that many will come and say,  “Lord, Lord did we not do this in Your name, healing, prophesy, wonders and casting out demons?” and the Lord will respond back by saying, “I have never known you leave, you evildoers.” This passage speaks about that they did works for the Lord, but then they destroyed their souls in what was wrong and evil in the sight of the Lord and because of this they lost their salvation (Ezekiel 18:4). We need to step up and control our will, our desires, and our appetites and replace them with God’s desires and will. We, as children of God, need to preserve and guard our souls and do what is pure in front of God.

What the Bible says about the Spirit

• Ecclesiastes 12:7 – Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
• James 2:26 – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
• Hebrews 4:12 – 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.
• Romans 9:1 – I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
• 1 Corinthians 2:14 – 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.

The Spirit is what lasts eternally. When God created man, He blew the breath of life in us. This breath of life is the spirit. Now, there are three types of spirit: the Antichrist spirit, which includes demons and Lucifer himself and his angels; the spirit of man; and the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit). In 1 Corinthians 2, it says that the natural man can receive what is of the Spirit of God, saying that the spirit of man can not understand what is of God and because of this it is foolishness. When someone receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and God, the spirit of man is removed and the Spirit of God will be put into them. What we need to understand is that neither of the spirits will ever die. In James 2:26, it is written that this body without the spirit is dead for the body cannot live without the spirit.

                The spirit has many functions, but I would like to speak about three of them here. The first is that the spirit has a consciousness. We find that this consciousness will even say what to do or how to do it. Do you ever wonder where morals came from or how we still have a set of morals even when we don’t have God in our life? This is because they came from the spirit that God gave you, the spirit of man, which has a set of morals as well. When we have our own laws and understand what is right from wrong, when we are about to commit what we should not be doing, our consciousness (the inner spirit) will convict us and say “don’t do it,” that is why people will say, “I knew it was wrong, I just did.” This is because, in the end, we were created in God’s image of His being. This image means we were created with a sense of right and wrong as well.

                When we accept Jesus Christ, the spirit of man gets replaced with the spirit of God. The Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) will have its own consciousness. In Romans 9:1 it says, “I lie not, but my conscience also bearing witness in the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Ghost is what convicts us when we do something wrong. It is what tells us, it is what testifies to us about Christ and what is truth. This is how a child of God has intuition/insight through the Holy Spirit. The second is a way of giving God worship. The only way of giving worship to God is in the Spirit. In John 4:24, it says that God is Spirit and we must worship Him in Spirit. This must mean there is no other way to worship; it must be in Spirit. The Holy Spirit which lives in us, gives us the ability to worship God in Spirit. It is the way of communion, communication, and fellowship with God the Father.

In Ecclesiastes 12:7 is says that in the end our body goes back to dirt (dust) and the spirit goes back to Him that gave it, God, and this refers to both types of spirits, spirit of man and the spirit of God. God gives so, in the end, it goes back to Him. Both of the spirits know that time will come, the time of Judgement, that we shall go before God in judgment for what we have done, either for Him which leads to everlasting life (is the third) with Him or for what we did living like the world in the Spirit of man which leads us to everlasting life in the lake of fire.

Jesus Christ, the son of God, said at the end of His crucifixion in Luke 23:46, “Father into your hand I commit my Spirit.” The spirit is life. We need to determine if we want the Spirit of Man or the Spirit of God in us. You get to choose who you want in you, you can accept the Spirit of the Lord or reject Him. Remember, since you are able to choose to let Him in, you can also accept to let Him go. Stay strong and persevere in Christ and keep what He has commanded us to do, to truly follow Him as His sheep follow Him.

What the Bible says about the Body

• 1 Corinthians 6:17-20 – But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 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? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
• Romans 12:1 – I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

I gave two passages here, these are two very important passages and I believe they are sufficient to cover the body. This body is flesh. This flesh, just as the word of God says, came from dirt (earth). This body is a vessel, a vessel for the Spirit of God or the Spirit of man or the evil spirits to dwell in you. In 1 Corinthians 6, this spirit that joined unto us is one spirit. It tells us to flee and to run away from fornication which is a sin committed against the body. Depending on how we live, we can commit sin against our Body. What we do and how we live with our body does matter. For us as children of God, our body is the dwelling place of the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it tells us that it was bought with a price and that we should glorify God in our body. Since this body is a vessel it is also only temporary.

In Romans 12 it tells us that we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. If you ever read the standards for the animal sacrifices that were given to God, you’ll know that these sacrifices were supposed to be strong, without blemish, and no broken legs. It is what we consider the first fruits, given unto God. The best, strongest, cleanest, and without blemish animal is what was considered holy in front of God and what was acceptable. Our bodies must then be without blemish,  holy, and we must remove what is fleshly from this body.

In Galatians 5, it says that the works of the flesh, what comes from the flesh, are sexual immoralities, impurity, lustful desires, witchcraft, idolatry, and hatred among many others. This means that we must remove these from our lives, and not do the work of the flesh and body. We must instead produce the fruits of the spirit, for He dwells in us.This body is a vessel that we must keep holy for if it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, we cannot defile our body for if we defile the body, we are defiling the Holy Spirit which is God and Christ in us and the rest of the congregation that is in the body.

          Let’s remember that we must live according to God’s standard, we must live holy and acceptable lives and we must follow God’s way. If we do this, we will live according to His will, according to what He has stated as holy, clean, and pure in front of God.