In regards to the human spirit, soul, & body, I have picked up a few nuggets over the years which I thought I might share here. This is in part, how I've come to the conclusion that a person's soul is rooted in his or her kidneys — based on some Hebraic teachings I stumbled upon. There are other equally "random" things which I think about which seem to have a good possibility of being true. As an overview, I will just make the opinionated statements I have come to believe are valid and the reader can search it out to discover for him or herself whether these things are true.
In the image of our Triune God, humans are created as triune beings. Each person is comprised of three core components which are all facets of that one being. Similarly, we can consider the aspects of God to be like the sides of a diamond which reflect different frequencies of light. Just as God is Fatherly, He is healer, He is Messiah who came wrapped in the human flesh of Yeshua, He is the Holy Spirit who is our teacher and counselor, He is deliverer, shield and provider. He is so much more but you can begin to see how He can be "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" and still remain One. "Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God; The Lord is One." Jesus Himself referred to this as the greatest commandment when He quoted part of the Sh'ma. "And He said to him, “ ‘You Shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' (Matthew 22:27)."
We each are a spirit living in a body and the two are connected or woven together in our soul. The soul is the seat of our emotions which are a bodily felt experience, and our spirit is the part of us which is connected to God Himself. The spirit of the redeemed saint will have unending communion with the Holy Spirit and must submit her soul and body to the direction of her spirit which knows truth by this constant fellowship.
In Psalm 42 and 43, three times King David reminded his own hopeless soul:
"Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence."
This man who followed hard after God's own heart, knew that he couldn't trust his emotions, and that they needed direction from a higher place. A deeper anchor.
Our fleshly bodies were made by God out of the dust of the earth, and therefore come from created elements. The spirit comes directly from God who is not created; it is our very breath because it is made alive when God breathes a part of His living Spirit into each one of us at birth. The soul exists because of the joining of a spirit living in a body; this is where the two are knit together within our mothers womb, and this is how our body can feel our spirit. Have you ever felt butterflies in your stomach at the onset of joy? That is where your spirit and soul are united and woven into your body; in Jewish thought, it is situated in your kidneys.Each persons spirit is the breath of God which He breathed into that body when the person was born — through water and out of their mothers body. This is why we are all made in the image of God and why we are all born with a "conscience." Regardless of how much darkness a person has sunken into, no person can live without the breath of God sustaining his or her life.
If a person continually ignores the voice of God inside, drawing her back to Himself, eventually her conscience will be seared. Alternatively and hopefully, when a person responds softly to the whispering voice of his or her Creator, that person will be drawn closer to the heart of God — made more alive through spiritual awakening and attunement with our greater purpose in Christ's abundant life — according to the ancient truth of the Bible, this is the only way to find true security, peace, and fulfillment in this life and beyond it.
The human spirit that is in harmony with the Divine Spirit of God will remain at odds with our fleshly nature with which we are each born. However, we are each able to bring our bodies into submission and obedience to our Holy God. With meditation on the Word of God, we cleanse our minds by "the washing of water with the word (Ephesians 5:26)." Being born by the spirit, enables the rebirth that allows us to find renewal, and power to submit our skin, bones, and emotions to our Spirit which desires to live in unbroken harmony with our Father. The Father of Lights.
© Jena Rutan 2010. All rights reserved.
Scripture references are from the NASB.
