ok, let me reword.
For anyone who would like to answer:
What is the difference between the soul and the spirit?
Your soul is what makes you human or perverse. It's your mind, will, emotions, and desires.
Your spirit is what makes you divine or demonic. It's your:
archive and your autopilot,
your generator of the words you choose on a moment by moment basis that'll have the supremacy over your life,
according to Jesus and John it's the part that'll house the eonian life which is the knowledge of God and of His Son Jesus Christ,
it's where you grow the Galatians 5 "fruit" with the Written Word of God that correspond to the 1Corinthians 12 manifestations of the Holy Spirit -- your spirit can do everything His can do, but you just don't know enough about how to use that LIFE and the words you're cultivating in your heart to operate as proficiently, and obviously gradual spiritual growth is as much a law as gradual physical growth as all of the principles involved in it are abided by.
So, your spirit is your archive, autopilot, ground to sow in, and store house.
Your spirit additionally hears and processes God in the way that your soul hears and processes anyone and anything operating in this natural realm.
So, your soul is your mind, will, emotions, and desires that are to be brought captive, line upon line, precept upon precept by the Written Word and the hope that grows out of that in your spirit until your soul is "anchored" and "renewed" and "saved/delivered/peaceful/one"
So, in summation, your spirit is your archive, autopilot, ground to grow words in, store house, and image of God.
Your spirit anchors your soul in God's purposes through hope/expectation from the Gospel that's basically, when you study it all out, your imagination filled with the fruit of the spirit of Galatians 5 that you've grown in there via treasuring the promises of God's Word in your heart. Walking in the spirit according to Colossians 2:6-7 is to walk in thanksgiving until Colossians 3:16-17 is a reality in your life that everything you say and everything you do is in [or as] the person of Christ Jesus. It's hard to stay unloving if you protect, maintain, and develop your thanksgiving until it heals and possesses all of you with the redemptive promises of the New Testament.
Hi!
To fully comprehend the concepts of spirit/soul one must first have a proper understanding of what it means to be 'born anew' aka: "begotten of the Spirit" --- what it means when it says that we are "new creatures" (better translated:
new species). These common terms so easily spill from our lips and we can oftentimes have preconceived ideas about them which might seem sufficient for a time ... so, we would do well to re-examine them and obtain a more certain and mature understanding.
Natural man is physically composed of 'dust (matter) of the earth'. But man became a 'living being', because the Creator 'breathed into his nostrils the breath of life' (Gen 2:7). This breath of life is more than biological life. It concerns both soul and spirit, which together make up the inner man. The inner man is the spiritual body of a man. Just as the earthly body is composed of elements of the earth, so too the spiritual body is composed of elements of heaven (1Cor 15:44 ).
Simply put:
The spirit and soul are the substance of our resurrected life; they form the "inner man" ... they are the substance of what Paul named as the "spiritual body". It is the spiritual body (soul/spirit) which forms the "spiritual house"; this is also called a "building (dwelling) from God". This spiritual body relates to the earthly body as a house does to a tent (read II Corinthians 4:16 - 5:10). In this scripture (but also in others) we find the following distinction between: the earthly body and the heavenly body, the outward man and the inner man, visible and invisible, temporary and eternal, earthly tent and a heavenly building of God, mortal and immortal, abroad and at home. Example: For each one receives, what is due to him/her for the things done while in his/her (earthly) body, whether good or bad (2Cor 5:10).
From the beginning God created man to live, grow and develop in His entire creation, which is heaven and earth. Every man lives in two worlds at the same time from the earliest beginning. The spiritual body, with which a man can function in the spiritual world, does not come into being when he is born again; it is built up together with the natural body from the embryonic stage, together with the natural body. In all stages of development there is an influence from the spiritual world, that is especially directed against the spiritual body. Every sin begins in the spiritual world; the resulting situation, death, is first and foremost felt spiritually.
Just as we are visible in the physical world through a physical body, we also are visible in the invisible world through the invisible/spiritual body. Just as the physical body has the ability to see and hear and speak in this visible world, the spiritual body also has these same attributes/abilities in the invisible world. That is why we recognize ourselves as 'new creatures' ... because we live and have our being in a new atmosphere ... in the Kingdom of God / the Kingdom of Light. The spiritual body of man is the 'dwelling' which God from the beginning has wanted to live in.
It is oftentimes said that Man is a body which has a spirit and a soul. The reality is quite different: man is foremost a spiritual being which also has a (natural) body.
The natural body of the first Adam and his descendants is composed of 'dust (matter) of the earth'. The Creator 'breathed the breath of life' into it. Blowing the breath of life indicates the formation of the inner man; built from the elements of heaven to enable the functioning of man in the spiritual world. This human spirit jealously longs for the Creator (James 4,5). It also is the essence of the inner man, who by 'rebirth' through the living and lasting Word of God is set free from the claim of Death (1Pet 1:23). The inner man is being made complete 'in concealment' with its relating spiritual body. At the end of the earthly life this inner man leaves the natural body (we call that: dying). The natural body then, is being decomposed and returns to the elements of the earth, from which it came (compare Eccl 3:19-21).
The terms 'life' and 'death' encompass the essence of the Bible message. Both are foremost relevant for the inner man. For instance, the dying of the natural body is oftentimes incorrectly called: 'passing on into eternal life'. Also, at a grave this mistaken expression is commonly heard: "We entrust this body to the earth and expect it to rise at the resurrection day". When the first man had sinned one thing said to him was: "You are dust and to dust you will return", (Gen 3:19).
The terms 'life' and 'death' refer to this spiritual body of man. Life is development in relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ; death is futility in reference to the purpose of God. When Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, he died before God according to his inner man, even though his natural body lived on for hundreds of years. According to the inner man 'the eyes were opened' and Adam and Eve saw that they were 'naked', not just physically, but especially inwardly, (Gen 3:7). Their inner man was 'naked' before the powers of sin which could now impregnate them with iniquity (aka: 'seed of the serpent'). This is how sin entered the world. The term 'sin' refers to the impossibility for man to reach the original purpose of God. By the (act of) sin of man, he himself and the whole visible creation had come under the claim and dominion of Death, (Rom 5:12-14).
The terms 'life' and 'death' not only refer to the natural life, but first to the inner man. What illness is for the natural body, sin is for the inner man. It is a spiritual law: the soul who sins is the one who will die, (Ezekiel 18:4). Because of committed sin, from which no man escapes, the soul ends under the power of Death. Death has reigned as 'king' over all natural descendants of Adam (Romans 5:12-21).
Anyways, I began this all by saying that we have to seek after a better understanding of terms. For instance: our rebirth is the resurrection from the dead or, as the Greek phrasing states it, a resurrection from among the dead, (Eph 5:14 and Rom 6:4). In other words, our rebirth is the first resurrection!
The process of rebirth will be completed when man puts on his resurrection body of which Paul speaks in 1Cor 15). The natural body, which is still living or has already died, is to the 'resurrection body' as a seed is to a seed producing plant. Thus the first man, who has become a living soul becomes a life-giving spirit (1Cor 15:45). The seed dies, but from out of that kernel of life a new plant grows.
So it is that the 'resurrection body' which develops after rebirth, is a spiritual body sown in infirmity and weakness because of many oppressions, but it is resurrected in strength and glory, (1Cor 15:42, 43).
Every human being is born with a spirit and soul; which forms a spiritual body.
Thus, we can now better understand how occultism is the great counterpart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Occultism was brought into the world by the 'man of sin or lawlessness' which is the counterpart of the True Man, Jesus Christ. The 'offspring' of this 'son of perdition' are called the 'sons of perdition', (2Thess 2). This 'body' is a misleading form of the true 'body of Christ' and is called in Revelation the great 'whore' (Rev 17).
The 'gospel of life' on the other hand, is brought to the world by the True Man. This is the true Christ and His 'offspring'. They carry the name of 'sons of God'. Together they form the Head and members of the 'Body of Christ'. So, the mystery of this body of Christ is its oneness though it consists of various members who have each a resurrection body being formed in the process (washing) of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5b-7).
Finally some key points from 1Cor 15 regarding the resurrection body:
* verses 21 and 22: as death is the result of one man (Adam), so is the resurrection (Jesus);
* verses 35-38: the resurrection body is not the dead body;
* verses 40-42 :the splendour of the heavenly body differs from the earthly one;
* verse 42 and 43: the heavenly body is imperishable, splendorous, powerful and spiritual. The spiritual body is as real as the natural one
* verse 45-49: living soul versus life-giving spirit - natural versus spiritual - earthly versus heavenly the image of the earth versus the image of heaven
* verse 51: the mystery of transformation in a flash
* verse 52: the revival of the heavenly body and transformation of the earthly body
* verse 53: the process of the perishable to the imperishable and the process of mortality to immortality
* verse 54: the process of resurrection will swallow up death.
Something interesting to ponder:
We should refrain from thinking of eternity as an extension of time.
For us, eternity occurred at our re-birth.
In every sense, we are living NOW in/for eternity.
After all, this way of thinking is more in keeping with not knowing anyone (including ourselves) according to the 'flesh'; according to concepts derived from this visible world.
