Today we’re going to start a new series, and we will be talking about the human spirit. This is a subject that many Christians do not understand. I feel like I can say this with pretty good confidence, because I have talked to mature Christians just this week who don’t really understand their own human spirits.

Your Human Spirit

One of the most interesting (and completely crazy) things we’re learning this year is that the human spirit can be in need of healing and deliverance, similar but not exactly the same as the human soul. The human spirit has been through a ton of change and upheaval, likely experiencing trauma even from ancient times, from before Adam’s creation, in what’s called the Pre-Adamic period.

These statements may be a far stretch for many Christians, so I’m attempting to provide some theological framework to this belief system, grounding it out in the Word of God.

The First Hurdle – the Erroneous Concept of a Soul-Spirit

The human soul and human spirit are two very different and distinct entities. Erroneous teaching lumps the soul and spirit together into what could be called a soul-spirit. Paul gives us a great list of the three-part human system, created in the image of God:

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) 

I’ve written extensively on the human spirit in this post.

But, for the benefit of you all, let me run through some concepts and Scriptures to help you see how our spirits are different from our souls.

The Three-Part Tabernacle

Now let’s look at the structure of the tabernacle, the Old Testament tent of worship. The Lord instructed Moses how to build it, with an outer court, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. A curtain was hung in between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. The Ark of the Covenant, representing God’s presence was put in the room of the Most Holy Place. God would fill that room up with His glorious light. 

This tent of meeting, or tabernacle, is a representation of our three-part beings. The outer court that everyone could access and see corresponds to our bodies. The Holy Place that only a few priests could enter represents our souls. And behind the veil, the Most Holy Place, represents our spirits. God’s light and the Holy Spirit fill up the space inside our spirit. 

Three Sections of Mount Sinai 

Mount Sinai also represents our beings. When Moses was about to receive the law, we see the Israelites camped out at the base of the mountain. Moses and the leaders were invited up to the middle of the mountain to have a meal with God, and they could see God’s throne in Heaven (Exodus 24). 

But only Moses was invited to the top of the mountain, where he experienced Heaven. So the base of the mountain represents our bodies, the middle of the mountain corresponds to our souls, and the top represents our spirits. 

The Garden of Eden

A third analogy is the Garden of Eden, meaning “pleasure” or “paradise.” And, actually, it is better described as the Garden in Eden. The Lord created a place called Eden, and he planted a garden in the land called Eden (Genesis 2:8). In the middle of the garden appeared the Tree of Life. 

The land of Eden represents our bodies, the garden in Eden represents our souls, and the Tree of Life at the center represents our spirits. 

Third Heaven

The last analogy I’ll give is the heavens. There are three heavens. Third Heaven is God’s Heaven, just as Paul said he was caught up to the third Heaven (2 Cor 12:2). Third Heaven represents the spirit. We live and experience this physical world, which is the first heaven. The first heaven corresponds to the body. And, if there’s a first and a third, there must be a second heaven. This realm represents the soul realm. 

Spirit or Soul-Spirit?

Now, it has been taught that the soul and spirit are the same thing, or that we have a soul-spirit. This is not correct teaching. It is a misunderstanding of the Word. A big difference exists between soul and spirit. How can we tell the difference?

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) (emphasis added).

You can tell the difference between the soul and spirit realm by using God’s word. Remember, the soul consists of the mind, the will, and the emotions. Many people get confused with what pops into their minds, and they don’t realize their soul is receiving spiritual signals. Our souls help translate what is spiritual into something we can understand with our minds.

Spirit of Power, Love and Sound Mind

One of my favorite verses about our spirits is found in 2 Timothy 1:7.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)

The second part of this verse has an implied intro. God has not given us a spirit of fear. What kind of spirit has God given us? He gave us a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. We recognize that fear is an evil spirit, but our human spirits have been given power, love, and a sound mind to overcome fear.

Misunderstanding and Misinterpretation

Now, last year, some close friends of ours completely misunderstood and misinterpreted all of the above teaching (and more). 

Two of the points that were brought up were as follows: that 1) we believe the human spirit takes the place of the Holy Spirit, and that 2) human spirits have the power to decree or declare thus placing them above God’s sovereign will.

These points are a complete misunderstanding (at best) of the teaching of the human spirit. The human spirit doesn’t take the place of the Holy Spirit; in fact, the human spirit is filled up by the Holy Spirit, just like the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle or temple was filled up with God’s presence and God’s light.

One of the references to this is in Ephesians 3, in Paul’s famous prayer for the church.

“that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being [human spirit], … and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16, 19 (ESV) (words in brackets mine)

Regarding the second point, that human spirits somehow supercede the sovereign will of God, this requires an understanding of God’s will.

Can any being, spiritual or otherwise, supercede what God is going to do? Of course not! To think that we or our human spirits can overcome what God is doing is preposterous; it’s satanic; it’s antichrist thinking. 

But, the Lord has given us free will. We have the ability, whether in our bodies, souls or spirits, to do what we want to do, regardless of what the Lord commands or says to do. I mean, the Lord told Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and they ate of it. With their free will choice, they chose something God did not intend for them. And, of course, we do this all the time with our choices. We choose to lie even though God says, “Do not lie.” We choose to commit sexual immorality even though God says, “Do not commit adultery.”

On the contrary, we have the ability to pray and see things happen in heaven or in the spiritual realm as well as on the earth physically. This is very plainly laid out in Matthew 18:

“Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:18-20 (ESV)

Things of the Spirit are Spiritually Discerned

Remember one of the core verses of this entire series of Mysteries of the Bible applies to this topic of the human spirit:

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)

Remember, spiritual things are discerned through the Spirit. The word ‘discerned’ means a ‘forensic investigation,’ so we are to thoroughly investigate spiritual things by the power of the Holy Spirit within the guardrails of Jesus Christ, who is the Living Word.

We are going to pause this conversation here. If these concepts seem strange or bizarre to you, I encourage you to go to the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth regarding these teachings. I promise the Holy Spirit, the Helper, will help you to see the truth regarding what is being taught in this series.