- personality (Photo credit: hang_in_there)
We’ve defined the soul and found that it is the personality. According to God, the personality lives forever. Amazing.
We’re not finished investigating all this, though, because, as the soul is made of three parts—mind, will, and emotions—so, also, the soul is one of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. And just as the will decides between facts and emotions, so also, the soul (personality) resides between the spirit and the body.
Deep. I know. But true.
Time for more definitions.
Body – The easy one, the part of us we can see, the flesh and bones, the blood, sweat, and tears. Easy.
But here is a new thought: All living things (plants, animals, and humans) have a body of some sort. And miraculous as the body may be in all its workings, it, at least, is visible. Handy for definitions.
Soul – Not too hard. We defined it last time, and although we cannot see the soul or personality, we can tell lots about it, identify it, label it, even anticipate it according to given patterns.
New thought: Plants do not have souls. Animals and humans do.
Spirit – The tough one. Can’t see it. Most people have to wait for it to manifest to know it is there. God’s Spirit is good and loving. All the others may fake goodness awhile, but will eventually show themselves to be imposters.
Plants and animals were not intended to be spiritual, although spirits can inhabit them, if briefly. Only people were intended to be spiritual, to contain God’s Holy Spirit. All the other spirits fight for a person to own and inhabit.
Not so many people want to know this. Not so many people want to give others some space to know this. Doesn’t make it untrue, though. Throughout the ages, truth never changes. Truth tellers may have to hide, but truth remains, no matter what the attacks.
So the soul is fighting on two fronts.
First, within itself is constant arbitration between thinking and feeling. Second, it becomes the rope in a tug-of-war between physical and spiritual.
Thoughts and feelings, body and spirit, all are nuances and facets that can color responses from person to person, or even within the same person from time to time.
For a small example, let’s take a box of candy. In your mind you know it is bad for your health. In your emotions you associate this type of candy with childhood Christmas favors. You must decide.
If your personality, or soul, is well-trained and healthy, you will forego eating the entire box, having maybe one piece, savoring it and remembering past fun, and stopping there.
If, however, your soul or personality is warped, you may skip it altogether and throw it away, or you may eat the entire thing, perhaps not even tasting much of it.
Still, if your body has an addiction to sweets, you might take over and eat an entire box every night, steal to get the money for it, and lie about it afterward.
If you are so entrapped, though, you might be so scared of the spirits inside yourself that you ask Jesus Christ to save you and put His Holy Spirit inside you, which would teach you to say no to all the things warring against your personality, and He would then have saved your soul.
Unpopular, but no less true for it.
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Image by dnnya17 via Flickr
Home's Cool! 
Hey … i feel touched. That candy … boxes and boxes have bit the dust and been flushed … along with alcohol (at times) …
I have to remember to “give it up” when i want to control things …
BTW …
Just want to say … for some reason we’re not hooked UPPP!!! I’m missing your posts …!! OK … i’m going to come back and LIKE you post … I hope this works. … I should be following … i thought i was …
http://iamnotshe.wordpress.com
Mel
Welcome back!
Wow. All this time, I thought you were reading and just not having time to comment or something. Too sad.
Do go back and get last week’s, at least. I think you will like them.
RATS! i thought you might think that. Nope, that is NOT the case. I am back … i think you’re hooked with me … aaaaaaaaaaaa 😉 mel
Wow. Fast! 🙂
I wasn’t worried. Much. 😀
It appears that you also are receiving the comment feedback on this post, right? What an amazing development. Ha.
In case of future glitches, always remember this: I try to post daily. Skipped Tuesday, but that’s another story. If I miss for days on end, according to your records, check up on me, okay?
Your address is easy enough. I will do, my friend. Checking in … now 😉 m
Hope you find something you can use. 🙂
Kathy—it seems the ‘lost follow/subscriptions’ was more than just you and me ‘losing’ each other. Thus—it was some kind of wordpress bug not anything any of us did! I loved this post. The first thing that came to mind is how lovely it is that we are comprised of 3 parts, our soul is comprised of 3 parts and God is the Trinity. Coincidence? Oh no, I think not!!! Our precious Savior provides us examples aplenty so that our silly human heads can get it and we can know and understand.
God’s Word says Adam was created in His image. Since He is triune, why shouldn’t we be three-part beings, too? So glad you brought this up, because it needs to be part of the next post. Thanks, Kate.
Not my words, just His through me. ❤
Love His words, wherever I can find them. 🙂
Reading everyone’s comments … to me … God is simple and pure. All things “right”. Humans are the nutbags … we look to God to give us peace? … at least that’s my feeling at the moment … not too complex … and yet subtly profound. Peace, comfort, goodness.
I wish we could all be more Godlike all the time … but since we aren’t God … we’ll do our best. Always.
melis
Yes.
God is simple.
God is pure.
God gives peace.
God is subtly profound.
He is peace.
He is the comforter.
He is good, all the time.
And I, too, wish I could be more like Him, aim at that every day.
Ok Kathy, What is your background? Did you go to Theology school? You know SO much about this stuff! It is like taking a class coming to ‘visit’!
Thank you for the Course Work. Any homework???
Peace Jen
My background. Hmm.
Outside of lotsa pain (and I am learning more, every day, how that is not really too amazing or exceptional, but is great preparatory for the university of life) I have studied lots of experts on Bible wisdom. Adams, Finney, Ravenhill, Yohannan, tenBoom, Nee, Hunt, Riardon, and my favorite, Guyon. I did not go to their classes, of course, as some of them are no longer living, but let’s just say I was distance learning when distance learning wasn’t cool. And cost a lot less. 🙂
As for your homework, if you are like me, it is a huge, on-going assignment: Give thanks in all circumstances.