Word of the Week - Triune 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

God created humanity in His image as a Triune being comprised of a Body, Soul, and Spirit.  This makes us eternal beings unlike animals and other living things.  God also gave us free will, which allows us to choose whether we want to walk with God in spirit and live in connection with Him or simply follow our soulful and fleshly instincts in the carnal ways of our world.  Left up to ourselves, without a connection to God through our spirit, we are destined toward flesh, which leads to death in the spirt.  “For there is a way that seems right to a man but in the end leads to death” Proverbs 14:12 So why did God create us with these 3 dimensions and what does that mean for us in our walk of faith?

Body/Flesh, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” Romans 8:5 God made us with a physical body that houses our soul and spirit man.  Our body is comprised of our 5 senses to include smell, touch, hearing, seeing, and tasting.  Our bodies are made by God to have natural needs, wants and desires very similar to animals.  In fact, our fleshly desires are very instinctual and animalistic and thus if not restrained by our soul and spirit can run ramped and create much chaos in our lives.  We have probably all experienced this at some level.  We all have many fleshly needs and desires. If we allow our flesh to dominate our being, our flesh will be calling the shots, which typically leads to a less than optimal outcome.  If allowed to go unchecked our fleshly desires will typically lead us to a place of self-destruction.  The enemy of our soul, the great deceiver, operates very effectively in the realm of the flesh and is characterized as the “god of the earth”.  Some godly practices in keeping our flesh in order include fasting, exercising, and spending time in healthy and life-giving environments that encourage healthy living.

Soul/Mind, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that is by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is the good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 Our soul is comprised of our mind, will and emotions. This gives us the ability to think and feel and have relationship.  This dimension of our being allows us to experience life and interact with the world, it goes beyond our bodily senses to our inner thoughts, desires, dreams, and emotions.  As we all have experienced, this is what drives most of us day to day and gets us out of bed to do whatever we do.  We don’t necessarily control our thoughts and emotions, but we surely have tremendous influence over these things and must recognize that what we feed our minds and emotions is directly correlated to what we think, feel, and do, who we really are as a person.  The principal of garbage in equals garbage out applies as does the principal of life and growth.  This is why it is most important to feed our minds and souls things that are good, healthy and life giving.  We should be very aware of what we are feeding our souls in terms of what consume through books and media along with the people we spend time with and the environments we spend time in.  Godly practices in keeping our soul/mind healthy include being intentional about how we choose our friends and community, who we spend our time with, the content we feed our mind and soul, and being intentional about our thought life.  “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about these things.” Philippians 4:8 We must be wise about what we feed our soul and guard our hearts and minds in Christ.

Spirit/God within us, “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not do whatever you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Galatians 5:17-18  Our Spirit man is the part of us that allows us to be in connection with God through the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).  This is the part of our being that is eternal either with God our away from Him.  This is the part of our being that is awakened when we are born of the Spirit in Christ and are saved through surrendering our hearts to God through salvation.  Interestingly, the process of being born of the Spirit typically involves us dying to our soul and flesh so that the Spirit can come alive in us and be regenerated in Christ.  Only after we are born of the Spirit do we truly begin to live as a complete being, which is why the experience is so powerful especially for people who have lived a large portion of their life without their Spirit being alive.  I know this to be true because I personally experienced this at the age of 33 and it was the most profound experience of my life to date.  When we are born of the Spirit, we then have the ability to tap into God’s supernatural power through the Holy Spirit.  This allows us to live as overcomers in Christ.  Godly disciplines for keeping our Spirit healthy and enlivened include prioritizing our relationship with God by staying connected to the vine of Christ Jesus through a daily abiding relationship.  Our dependance on God through abiding is key to living a fruitful life free from the bondage of the soul and flesh.  Jesus said “I am the vine and your are the branches, if you abide in me, I will abide in you, and you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”! John 15:5

Living in the Spirt from the Inside out, Our tendency and natural inclination is to live from the outside-in as we go through life day to day focused on our bodily senses, thoughts and feelings leaving little if any room for our Spirit to be fed and grow.  I believe the key to life in Christ, the abundant life that Jesus speaks about in John 10:10, is to live from the inside-out.  If we make it our daily pursuit and priority “First Fruit” to feed our Spirit by abiding/connecting with the Lord through praise, prayer, reading scripture, fellowship with believers and other spiritual disciplines, we will experience life and our Spirit will flourish allowing us to be Spirit led and have dominion over our soul and flesh.  The result/biproduct of living in the Spirit is that we will produce Spiritual fruit. This is the true goal of a believer and follower of Christ, that our lives would be fruitful.  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

I pray we will experience the fullness of life in Spirit, Soul, and Body as you live from the Inside-out in Christ…

Blessings,
Duane