Spirit, soul, body

May you be preserved complete

when Jesus returns.

-1 Thessalonians 5:23

Invisible things are as real as those we can't see. Have you ever seen oxygen or hydrogen - not a textbook illustration, but the actual element? Have you ever seen a quark? Has anyone? We know they exist not because we see them, but because we see and feel their effects. We see the effects of wind - blowing leaves, moving clouds - yet no one has seen the wind. The same is true of our soul and spirit. We can't see them, but we see the evidence they exist.

Soul and spirit are closely connected, but not the same. One of my favorite scriptures, Hebrews 4:12, compares soul and spirit to joint and marrow. It says, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Joints connect things in our body. Marrow is the safely hidden core of the bone. Our soul connects us with other people. Our spirit is our core, our deepest part. No one can know our depths unless we share them through the means of our soul - the mind and emotions.

Our bodies are like a glove for our invisible parts. It is something we have, not something we are. We constantly receive information about the physical world around us through our physical senses - taste, touch, see, smell, hear. This information bombards us every moment, even while we sleep. Our challenge is to see beyond that to the invisible realities God reveals to our spirit by His Spirit. We need to press past the physical and even the mental understanding of what we are and begin to absorb the spiritual realities that surround us.

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

-John 4:24


Read on! 1 Samuel 1:15