By now we have a clearer picture of the Spirit. How it gives life and how without it we are dead. We know that we have to walk in spirit or put differently we have to obey the Spirit in or by faith. We have seen that when we believe on the Son we receive of the Spirit of God and are reborn. Obedience then to the Spirit of God is how we walk in spirit or with God. That is how we serve God in spirit. But how exactly do we do that? To know how to obey we have to not only understand the spirit but also the soul, and what role the soul plays in walking with God in spirit. This is also where many false doctrines abound. Often doctrines confuse the two and even use the term spirit and soul interchangeably as if it is the same thing. How very sad that there are even churches and teachers of Christians that don’t know the difference between spirit and soul.
Let’s just recap what the soul is. The soul is the intellect, character and will of a person. It is who that person is. It is what makes them unique. So what role does the soul play in walking in the spirit, with God? It works like this. Our soul ever since birth had to follow one thing. This one thing was our natural state or nature, our primary motive for becoming who we are. What is that one thing? Our fleshly body, or fleshly nature that looks after itself and its own emotions and needs. We eat because we are hungry we drink because we are thirsty. We cry when we are sad and we fight when we are angry. It is all done with an instinct for self-preservation and looking after ourselves. The soul then receives input or motive from the flesh in forms like emotion or hormonal stimulation. We call that the flesh nature. Unfortunately that nature is a fallen nature and cannot please God.
Romans 8
8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
The Spirit reveals to us in the book of Romans that before we were born again or before we believed in Christ and received of God’s Spirit we all walked according to the fleshly nature. But once we believed, we received the Spirit once again, and had the ability to walk according to the spirit again. This is how Paul says it in
Romans 8
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be fleshly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the fleshly mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
So, our souls used to listen to flesh exclusively and then when we believed and received the Spirit again we had another input into our souls. A new nature, spiritual, God’s own divine nature. All we had to do is partake of it, obey it, or walk in it. Only problem is we still have the old nature. It’s not gone, it’s still there and screaming very loudly at us. More than that, it seems completely natural and comfortable. After all it is what we have been partaking of since birth, it is what we know. Also the new nature we have is the direct opposite of the old flesh nature and seems like nonsense to the old nature.
Galatians 5
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
1 Cor 2
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
So this is the situation. Who we are is our soul, and that soul is determined or made by the input it partakes of. That input or motive can either be the old man or fleshly nature or it can be the new and spiritual divine nature. Is it becoming clearer what the role of the soul is in walking in spirit? Next time we will look even closer at the soul and we will also look at an amazing analogy concerning this very point. Till then.
God bless
Recent Comments