- Spirit
- Soul
- Body - the part of man which deals with the spiritual realm
- the part of man which deals with the mental realm: his reasoning and intellectual powers
- the part of man which deals with the physical realm
…I pray God your whole SPIRIT and SOUL and BODY be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.Soul vs. Spirit: They Are Different
Some have mistakenly thought that man's spirit and soul are the same thing. However, the Bible says, "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…" (Heb. 4:12).
If the spirit and the soul were one and the same, they could not be divided.
Many find it difficult to differentiate between the spirit and the soul. It is easier to differentiate between the body and the other two dimensions of man than it is to distinguish between the spirit and the soul. The only authority you can go to in order to understand the difference is the Word of God; primarily the New Testament.
The Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew, and the word "spirit" has been translated as twelve different things: including: spirit, wind, whirlwind, blast, mildew, breath, etc.
Animals Have Souls
I once picked up a book distributed by one of the false cults. On the cover it said that when a man is dead, he is dead like a dog. As I read through the book, I found their argument was that the Old Testament speaks of the soul of animals, yet Christianity speaks of a soul that will live forever.
Both statements are correct, but they require an explanation.
It is true that in the original Hebrew the Bible does speak of the souls of animals. Animals do have souls, because they have limited reasoning faculties, and these faculties are part of the soul. Animals also display affection, and this, too, is part of the soul.
When the spirit of an animal is mentioned in the Old Testament, as in Ecclesiastes 3:21, the breath of an animal is meant. Animals are not spirits; they are merely soul and body, When animals die, that is the end.
A Different Creation
Man, however, is a spirit. He has a threefold nature: He is a spirit; he possesses a soul; and he lives in a body. Death is not the end for man, because he is an eternal spirit.
The book from the false cult also claimed that the spirit and the breath of man are the same thing. If this were true, when Paul said, "For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit…" (Rom. 1:9), then he was saying, "I serve God with my breath."
And when he said, "…if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth" (1 Cor. 14:14), he was saying, "I pray with my breath." This doesn't make much sense, does it?
Again Paul said, "But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God…to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb. 12:22-23). If "spirit" means "breath," then what Paul actually said was, "We are come unto the breath of just men made perfect."
This would mean that Jesus died to make our breaths perfect! This sounds ridiculous, but if we assume the two words mean the same thing, this is the logical pattern we would have to follow.
A Born Again Spirit
Sometimes we hear a preacher announce that "souls" were saved. However, it is not the soul of man that is saved at that moment; it is the spirit of man that is born again.
James discussed the soul in his epistle, which was not written to sinners, but to believers. Over and over again James says, "My beloved brethren…."
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. [Did James mean to say, "which is able to save your spirits"? No, he meant just what he said.] But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 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, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.James was telling believers if they want to get their soul (mind) saved, they must be a doer of the Word, not just a hearer only. Paul, also writing to believers, said,
James 1:21-25
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. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the RENEWING of your MIND, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.Paul was saying what James said. Paul said to be "transformed by the renewing of your mind," and James said to "receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." Both apostles were talking about renewing, restoring, and saving the mind, or soul.
(Rom. 12:1-2)
We also see this in Psalm 23:3, "He restoreth my soul…." This doesn't say, "He restores my spirit."
Born Again First, Then Saved
When something is restored, we take what is already there and redo it. The Hebrew word translated "restore" means identically the same thing as the Greek word for "renew." Today we use the words "restore" and "renew" interchangeably. For example, an old piece of furniture can be renewed or restored. It is saved by renewing or restoring it.
This is what James was saying: As believers who have become new creatures in Christ Jesus, we are spiritually saved, and we have received eternal life. We should then receive the engrafted Word, which will renew, restore, and save our mind, or soul. This is something believers must do for themselves.
How? Through the Word.
Why is it so essential that the mind be renewed?
Even if your spirit is born again and has the Holy Spirit abiding within, if your mind isn't renewed (or as James said, the soul saved) with the Word, then the mind (which has been educated through the body and the physical senses) will side in with the body against your spirit to keep you a baby Christian.
Immature Christians are carnal, or body-ruled, Christians. Paul told the Corinthians, "For ye are yet carnal…" (1 Cor. 3:3). One translation of this verse reads, "You are body-ruled." In other words, their bodies, through their unrenewed minds, were ruling their spirits - even though they were new creatures in Christ. They never had developed spiritually.
We Need To Walk By Faith, Not By Sight
Many Christians live and die as spiritual babies. The faith life always is obscure to them. They never understand faith. Yet we cannot fully live the Christian life unless we walk by faith, because the Bible says that we are to walk by faith, not by sight.
Those who are living in the flesh are living in unbelief, and always are engaged in warfare. Life is a battle for them. Their minds never have been renewed with the Word of God, and they don't know that Jesus already has won the battle. They don't know the devil is a defeated foe. They still are trying to fight him in their own power, and some have fought until they are totally exhausted and depleted.
But when the mind has been renewed with the Word of God, the spirit through the renewed mind can control the body. The soul (mind) will then take sides with the spirit, because it knows the Word. It is renewed with the Word. It will allow the spirit to dominate. Then God's Spirit will dominate through man's spirit.
Because we have been born again, we have the nature of God abiding within us; therefore, we can develop our spirit to higher levels of worship and service to God!
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications
Rev. Hagin served in Christian ministry for nearly 70 years and was known as the "father of the modern faith movement." His teachings and books are filled with vivid stories that show God's power and truth working in his life and the lives of others.
