Becoming Whole Again!

So, good to see you again! Its great you made it back!


I have been so excited about getting back with you this week and sharing more about our solid foundation in Christ. I mean I am pumped about sharing more about you, with you, so you can see more of Him!


O.K. What we've really done in the last three weeks is to begin to lay-out a true foundation by beginning to learn about our identity in Christ. Identity in Christ? Thats kind of a new term I really want to introduce. We will talk tons more about this in the future. That is something I really look forward to. But, in considering the impact of understanding it , I believe we are going to begin to toss it around, today.

What do you think.........? Well, of course I can't hear what you just said, so I am going to take it that you said "Sure!", and just go right ahead....

So, to refresh our psuchēs, specifically, our thinkers, I've got to ask you these questions.

• Up until now what have we done?
• Where have we seeked?
• What have we found?

Know the answers? Great!

Don't know the answers? That's cool, too! Here they are....


So far, we have talked about how God created us in His image... and what that really means.

• God is triune (three parts of one whole) - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• We are triune (three parts of one whole) - spirit, soul, and body

That defines our physical, spiritual, and even mental and emotional "identity" as far as design goes.....

• I am, you are, a triune being made up of three parts.

We have talked about each of the three parts of us and the "Greek" definitions:

First: the spirit (pneuma)

Second: the soul (psuchē)

Third: the flesh (sarx) - or body (soma)

We got started on explaining their differences and the more clinical use of each.

And, I promised that this week we would begin to talk more practically about how each part of these three parts function. We'll also talk some about how these very different pieces interact.

Wound up and ready? Good .... Cause I'm about to bust wanting to lay this out.

Today we are going to concentrate mostly on the spirit and soul, give a quick redefinition, and then move into how God intended for these to interact, and (watch this) how most of us actually allow them to interact.

We will "touch" on the flesh today, just to tickle your fancy (a little play on words.....) and get your mind a little whirly on what's been going on in you!

I like to lay out some goals, so here is one: Our goal from this point forward will be to begin to expose lies, and reveal the truth.

I want you and I to be able to know the lies that the people around you have been telling themselves and you. I want you and I to be able to know the lies that the enemy has set as traps for you (yes, we all have an enemy that is even realer than those people we see everyday). And, most importantly, I want you to begin to see the lies that we have been telling ourselves that have kept us from moving forward, individually, into "what God has next".

O.K. the spirit of man and the Holy Spirit of God. What correlation is there between these?

During the last two weeks we learned:

• We were made in God's image
• God has a Spirit part
• Man has a spirit part

Today, as we continue to talk about the spirit part of man, I want to nail down four things.

1. God communicates with man only through His Spirit to a man's spirit.

2. Man was made as a spiritual being so he could then communicate with God and live eternally with God.

3. A person's true "identity" as God intended it, and man could conceive it, is only understood by that person's spirit.

4. If a person's spirit remains dead, for all purposes, that man is dead - a "walking dead man"

Number 1: God made man with a spirit so He could communicate with him.

Huh? Well ,we talked about this some last week. I even showed you the description of this in the four paragraphs I shared from the Bible:

We need to share part of that again. You can also go back to last week's and review.

But, here, look:

"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. (remember this is taken from the second part of the first letter from Paul of Tarsus to the church in Corinth)

Paul is telling us two big things right here:

1. God communicates to us from His Spirit to our spirit.

2. You cannot communicate with God just through your mind.

Let's go further. Here is further information to add to this commentary on ourselves and our identity that we are discovering:

Check out these passages from the Bible. This is being reported to us by John, son of Zebedee, who traveled with and was taught by Jesus from somewhere between 30-33 AD or 28-31 AD.

Jesus is speaking to a woman at one of the wells in the region of Samaria. They have been speaking on God and how God is worshiped (adoration communicated to):

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Jesus himself is showing us this truth, as well.

God is spirit. Man may only worship Him, then, in spirit and truth.

****We will talk about the truth part later. Oh, and that is when our goal of exposing lies will begin to be realized! But the spirit of man and its correlation to God is what we are nailing down right now.****

Jesus says that a time is coming and is here, now (because He our messiah is now here), when true worshippers will begin to worship in spirit and in truth. When Adam disobeyed God (reference the last two weeks lessons) his spirit began to die. All of his descendants (you and I included) were born with a dead spirit..... But beginning "now" Jesus, the Son part of God, has come to be our savior and through belief in Him, his death (sacrifice for sin) and resurrection as our savior (new life), the spirit can become alive again and communication with God will be restored.

That takes care of point one: God made man with a spirit so He could communicate with him

And it introduces number two:

Man was actually made a spiritual being so he could communicate with God and live eternally with God.

We were born DOA - our spirit was Dead on Arrival

As we just discussed, when Adam disobeyed God his spirit began to die. You and I were actually born with a dead or dormant spirit . You may have heard that a Christian is "born again". When we believe on Jesus as our savior, it is the spirit part of us that is "born again".

So watch this again:

• We have just seen: God is spirit.
• We have studied: God made man in his image; with a spirit.

Here it is in a nutshell.

• God is a spiritual being
• We were made in His image
• He made you and I spiritual beings
• We were not made a human being with a spirit
• We were created by God as a spiritual being with a God-made human body

Number Three:

A persons true identity as God intended it, and as man could conceive it, is only understood by a person's spirit.

The true part of us, our true identity is revealed only in our spirit.

Let's look back at what God communicated to the church at Corinth through Paul of Tarsus:

For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?

So, let me say that again:

The true part of us, our true identity is revealed only in our spirit. (now, as a favor to me read the preceding three statements again to yourself)

Get that? Without salvation through accepting Jesus Christ, the Son part of God, we will not, forever and ever, I mean - can never - and will never, know who we really are.

• We will never know our true identity
• We will never know our real purpose
• We will never know God's plans for us
• We'll never be able to know or even comprehend His love for us as His child and creation

if we spend an entire earthly lifetime with our spirit remaining dead.

Number four:

If a person's spirit remains dead, for all purposes, that person is dead - a "walking dead man"

Without a savior in Jesus, as a spiritual being, I am for all purposes, a walking dead man.

With my spirit dead, I'm left functioning only on what information my mind, will, and emotions can collect as livable truth , in order to help my body survive its own slow walk to death.

Pretty gruesome to think about... being seperated from God, in this life, forever, all alone?

But how awesome to think about how God has got a plan to restore that communication (hint: If you're saved you've already "got it" - now its time to "get it")

That pretty much nails down the importance of our spirit and its need for communication through its correlation to the Spirit of God.

*****At this point, if you need to take a break and think about these things. That's cool. Do so. As a matter of fact, it may be eternally important for you to do so.......*****

I will continue right here, then, to get to a practical discussion of the next part of you and I - the next part of God's grand design for us - our soul.

Let's take a second to review again what we now know about our soul.

Each person's soul is made up of three sub-components - our intellect, our emotions, and our will. We may also say, thanks to Dr. Bill Gillham - our thinker, our feeler, and our chooser

And so with our intellect (mind) or thinker, we get:

• deductive reasoning
• data collection
• receiving of formal and informal learning and education
• processing of formal and informal learning and education
• survival instincts

with our emotions or feeler, we get:

• negative emotions - anger, fear, dread, depression, etc...
• positive emotions - happiness, excitement, passion, courage, etc...
• instinctive emotions - caution, intuitiveness, etc...
• response to physical senses- hunger, pain, amusement, etc...

with our will or chooser, we get:

• planned courses of action
• instinctive responses based on external stimuli
• "knee-jerk" reactions

Now that is information you and I will reference back to over and over today and the next few weeks. What is really neat, though, is to discover how these three pieces really work in our daily lives.

So I begin this discovery simply by saying to myself and you, "Choices, choices, choices! To do or not to do..... To say or not to say..... To be or not to be..... That is the question!"

Questions, really? "Questions" is the simplest answer to the question, "What is our soul really designed to handle?" Our soul is designed to provide answers to questions so that correct or at least informed decisions can be made in regards to everyday situations.

Here are some easy examples of day to day questions the soul may handle:

• To eat or not to eat?
• To sleep or not to sleep?
• Should I go or should I stay?
• Am I to be angry or be calm?
• Should I answer or simply be quiet?

Here are some more difficult day to day questions our soul is asked to field:

• Should I envy or should I be satisfied with what I have?
• Should I steal or should I remain hungry or poor?
• Should I have sex with my co-worker or should I be true to my mate?
• Should I lie to keep from losing favor with my boss or should I tell the truth?

There are questions to be answered, which call out to be answered. So many questions need to be answered. So much need for right answers. And for better or worse, there are so many people, and so many experiences, so much education, so many opinions, all screaming for attention in order to give you and I the answers we are needing.

God knew when He made you and I that there were going to be many many decisions each of us would have to make. And, he knew that anything from life and death, to instinctive decisions based on our senses, to complicated and complex work related decisions were going to consume us every day and night.

So, he created a processor (our brain - part (member) of the body) in order to house our soul and its components. He designed the soul, to be able to use the brain to store information, receive information from our senses and emotions, and then to make decisions that the brain could communicate to the body for needed action or patience.

Its really amazing how God integrated each of our souls components to accomplish the work He designed for us.

As the Psalmist wrote:

We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

How incredible! God made us into some extremely complex dudes - so complex, the design demands fearful respect; so amazing to look upon, all heaven and creation watch in wonder as life brings us into animation.

To add to the complexity, God didn't make us robot-like, either. As part of the wonder that he created in us, in our souls, He created each of us individually with individual traits and personalities. We can really see the wonder as we examine the complexity of the three parts of our soul.

Just look at our -

Thinker : some of us are analytical and some creative and some everything in-between

Feelings: with these complex responses to stimuli, we may experience life to its fullest - from joy to sorrow, from passion to pain

Chooser: we were given a "free will" - the ability to make decisions to answer all life's questions, on our own, with or without any information ever given.... Whoa!?!

Let's talk - Choosing .... with our Chooser

It was actually in this grand design of our soul not the spirit, that Adam and Eve found themselves with the ability to choose. Just as we can. This chooser component sets us apart from all other members of God's breathing creations.

We can choose to believe or not to believe. We can choose between what would harm others or what would benefit us. We can choose to obey or to rebel. We can choose to laugh or to cry. We can choose to stay or to go. We can choose right things or wrong, wrong things.

We can also choose to accept and deal with the consequences of our decisions. Or, we can choose to run and hide if things don't turn out like we planned. God gave us even that measure of freedom in our will.

How much freedom of will did God give us?

We can even choose to love God or to not love God

And, when we really get down to it, the choice to love God or not is the real reason "free will" was given. God made us in His image in this way, too.

Just like us, God wants to be loved for His love that is given and for the lover He is - God does not want us to love Him because He forced, programmed, or manipulated us into loving him. God is love and wants to be loved.

Think about that....

So.... Let's start bringing this all home.

We have determined that we have three components to our soul. And, we have established that they are constantly at work seeking answers in order to make decisions.

And, here, as promised, is how it all works. At least, this is how most of us do it:

Our Feeler tells the thinker how it feels - the thinker then checks the feeling against life learned truths (however they were gained) and present "identity" then passes the information on to the chooser as personal truth - having what appears to be good information, the chooser may then decide what course of action needs to be to taken. This information is passed on to the body through the brain and action is taken.

Feeler>Thinker>Chooser...... Body Reacts

OR

Feeler goes into such red alarm over a situation that the thinker bypasses all relevant data contained in its memory banks other than survival mode, comfort mode, or gratification mode, clicks to automatic-pilot, and the chooser will default to engrained or instinctive reaction and the brain passes the information to the body which will typically respond. (more explantion next week, here)

still: Feeler>Thinker>Chooser .... Body Reacts

You see, in love and for protection, God made us, made our soul, extremely adaptable. I truly believe, because He knew that we would choose wrongly, often, and He loved us so much, He wanted us to survive day-to-day, and not to die physically because we made a few bad decisions (you know - sometimes really bad decisions).

What? Even if we chose wrongly and hurt ourselves ... or, worse, hurt others? Shouldn't He just take over and make us do it right? Wouldn't a good God do this?

God made our soul adaptable with abilities that it should never have had to use on its on. Why? It makes no sense. I agree. It makes no sense except for one thing. Love.

God made our soul adaptable to this world so we may survive until He could "draw us to himself". Until we would choose to be saved (sounds like a "church-word" but I really mean it literally - we (you and I individually) need to be saved from this lonely deserted island we call "myself")

Now, this next thing is really big. This is going to blow your mind!

Want to know why we stay so mixed up and make such bad decisions?

Watch this....

This is how we have been taught and "life-learned" into how to "create" the information we use to make decisions:

• If we feel it>we act on it>we'll then believe it>it becomes our truth (ultimately our Identity)

This is bigger.....

This is how God intended for us to make decisions:

• We are given His Truth>we act on it>we then believe it 'cause it works>Real Truth changes the way we feel

In this world's present scenario, full of darkness and sin, if we don't have Christ, we only have the soul and body (body, flesh, and members) working together to sustain us. That is not what God intended. God did not intend for us to be held hostage to truth created by our feelings.

This is what God intended......

God intended for all three parts of us to be working together.

This is how the scripture from the Bible tells decision making should work, can work, if we are "in Christ" (see above scripture on the Spirit and Truth):

God's Spirit speaks Truth to our spirit -which communicates it to our soul -

our chooser receives God's will and perfect Truth and "renews" any of our thinkers wrong thinking. -

the "Renewed" Truth coming from our thinker changes our feeler's reactions ....

the brain (processor) passes this information to the Body which reacts correctly based on the Truth.....

God's Spirit..Truth....our spirit..Truth....>soul (renewed)> body = Truth revealed in actions

See, our soul was made to work with our spirit. But, daily, if the spirit of a man is dead in his life, or an alive spirit Christian is still making decisions without being in communion with God's Spirit - bad or uninformed decisions are most often made. Why? We only have our emotions, education, and our life-based truths to go on.

But, "in Christ", God's Spirit will reveal wisdom and mysteries that we do not have, information, and timeless Truth from the ages that overcomes and "renews" temporary truth from the world.

In Christ, by utilizing our newly created spirit in communion with God's Spirit, our self-created identity will begin to be replaced with our "identity in Christ".

Lets take a stab at this again from another angle.

If most of our decisions are made in the soul, based on emotions, then we are in definite trouble.

Remember, remember - Think about all of the times this has happened to you:

Your emotions lied to you. When you most needed it you couldn't see Truth......

How did we get into this "fix". I mean if our soul is so adaptible why can't it just fix itself? Well, it tries to fix itself.

See, our soul knows that something is missing. And it still searches for truth. St. Augustine said that we all have a "Christ shaped void in our lives". From our studies, we now know this hole comes from not being "whole". This hole comes from a dead spirit - a dead life without Christ..

So what does the soul do to compensate for this hole in our lives? How does it adapt to its need for communion with God? It searches....

• finding "comfort" elsewhere (drugs, alcohol, sex, etc...)
• finding "truth" elsewhere (opinions, life experiences, acceptance, rejections)
• finding "love" elsewhere (sex, lust that looks like love, conditional love)

Our soul will create for us an identity that came not from the Spirit but from - elsewhere. And it collects it as information to be used later to answer questions, to help make choices, to give us some sense of identity since we have no clue who we really are.

And what does the soul do with all of this information? Where is it collected?

Our soul stores up all of its truth....where? Elsewhere - in our FLESH........

You may not realize it, but now we are getting somewhere.

As part of the brain, we store up - actually in its circuitry - all of "our truth" and all of our "own identity".

And, that is where we will go next week. Next week we will visit the place where we've stored our life's truth, our auto-pilot, (or, better stated) we will visit the place that contains all of our individual engrained patterns of behavior.

Next time, you and I will study together one of the most frequently used and most intriguing parts of the body - our FLESH.

Until then .....

I know this has been a ton of information. And it may take you a week to begin to process it. But God can and will translate this back to you quickly if you are His in Christ.

Pray this prayer as I pray if for myself, won't you?

Dear Father,

Help me to begin to understand how I was made, how I have used what I was left with, and how you have made me new to prepare me for the life you have planned next.

Reveal to me in my spirit by your Spirit, what I need to know to trust you further.

Amen!

I love you and can't wait to talk again.....

~Doug out ......