Recently, we have been discussing spirit, soul, and body. That is the idea that we, as humans, are made up of three completely different and distinct parts. We have talked about the spirit, which you can read about here: Spirit, Soul, and Body: All About the Spirit – Lighthouse Teaching. Here, we established that we are completely renewed in our spirit and that the Holy Spirit, once we are saved, now lives in us.
We also discussed the soul, which you can read about here: (link to the soul). Our souls are pretty complicated, but they are definitely something we need to take care of. They consist of our mind, will, and emotions.
It’s also important to take note of the relationship the three of these have together, as they all intertwine. Together, they form who we are as people and without any one of these, we wouldn’t be complete.
Now to complete the trifecta, it’s time to discuss the body.
What is the Body?
The body is much simpler than the other two and much easier to understand. That is because we can all see our bodies and the bodies of those all around us. Our bodies are the physical part of us. This includes all of our muscles, bones, organs and all.
God made our bodies masterfully. It’s incredible to think that our body is made up of a bunch of smaller parts that, similar to spirit, soul, and body, all work together to sustain us. Many sicknesses and wounds can actually heal themselves with our bodies. That’s awesome!
The body can be a tough topic for some, as people tend to be pretty insecure about how we look and such. However, just like our souls, our bodies are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Which means, that we are all beautiful, as there is not even a hint of ugly in the image of God. How wonderful that we don’t have to worry about being attractive! If we’re all made in the image of God, then we’re all attractive in his eyes!
I believe that there is a big misconception about the body. Many would assume that it is just the vessel that the soul inhabits and there’s no relationship or anything. That is assumed about the spirit and body as well. However, the three are so woven together that almost anything done to any of the three affect each other.
Healing
Perhaps the most pivotal and pressing matter when talking about the body, is the discussion on healing. Healing is a super controversial topic in the Christian community and can be highly misunderstood. Most correlate the word “healing” with the evangelists that go out and pray on the street corners, and while that is a very popular occurrence, it is not the only way to receive healing.
The Spirit and Body Relationship
The focal point of spirit, soul, and body is understanding who you are in the spirit and knowing the Holy Spirit. Once we began to understand the Holy Spirit, knowing who we are in the spirit is easy. That is, because our spirit is the Holy Spirit. As we touched on in the post about the soul, believing who we are in the spirit and placing our identity in that is important. This allows us to live out who we are in the spirit, in our soul and body as well.
So, what does the Bible say about us, in relation to our body? Let’s look at some scripture and find out.
- “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
- “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
- “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
The Bible is very clear. In Christ, we are made new. Our spirit is made interchangeable with the Holy Spirit. This completely changes the game, because now, we don’t have to identify our bodies with a sickly man or a healed one, but we can identify our bodies with the Holy Spirit. The last I checked, the Holy Spirit didn’t even have a common cold, he’s healed, and so are we. This is also confirmed in the other two scriptures, because we are told that we “have been healed”.
How Do We Receive Healing?
As we have established in other posts, the Bible is truth. We know this as John 17:17 says that the “word is truth”. I think that oftentimes we can overlook what the Bible says and take our own word for it. It’s so easy to do because we see ourselves and wonder how anything else could be the truth. However, knowing about the spirit, we have a way to see the truth in our spirit, before it becomes real in our body.
In order to receive healing, there are a few steps that we need to do first.
- We need to look at the cross
- We need to live out of the truth
What Does the Cross Say About You?
I believe that we all know what I am referencing when I say the cross. Jesus’ crucifixion was one of the most tragic moments in history. A sinless man died for nothing he did. Jesus made the biggest sacrifice possible and gave away his life for the countless sins of his people.
Many know that aspect of the cross. They know that Jesus died for all of our sins and is the one reason that we can receive salvation. However, many of us don’t really know what else we received on the cross.
If we look again at Isaiah 53:5, we can see a line that stands out.
“With his stripes, we are healed.”
Jesus didn’t just take the weight of our sins while on the cross, he also took our wounds. He had an extremely painful death. The list of harm that occurred to Jesus on the cross included having to wear a crown of thorns, nails driven through his hands, and hours spent nailed to the cross. Not to mention the trouble he had breathing or the humiliation and shame he had to bear on the cross. He was also beaten before the crucifixion even causing the death to be quicker because of how much pain he was in. In fact, according to Beliefnet, Jesus was only on the cross for 6 hours, when a normal crucifixion lasted “12 to 48 hours” (Jesus on the Cross: 5 Historical Facts We Know About the Crucifixion – Beliefnet).
All the harm that Jesus dealt with, took away the harm that we would have. In other words, Jesus took our pain and sin, so that we could have health and salvation. Praise Jesus for that.
Receive Truth, Receive Healing
Well now you may be asking, if Jesus took all my wounds, why am I still hurting?
The body is not alone, as it has a soul and a spirit, so while you may be hurting in your body, you aren’t in your spirit. A lot of what the Bible says, it says about your spirit, which is the innermost, eternal part of you. You’re healed in your spirit and that needs get drawn out into your body.
I once heard one of my favorite ministers, Andrew Wommack, say that when you can get your mind to agree with your spirit, there is a two vs one situation, your spirit and soul against your body. Your body has no choice but to conform to who you are in the spirit! That shows an awesome visualization of what really happens and the power that your spirit, soul, and body connection really has.
When I first started to get healing teachings in my heart, I started to notice a shift. Prior to this, when I would get sick, I would tend to just take medicine, wait a week, and let it pass naturally. However, I decided to exercise what I had learned. I didn’t identify as a sick person, or act like one, I just decided that if my spirit says I’m healed, then I’m going to completely ignore this sickness and reject it. While it was only a cold or something similar, I never had it for more than a day really.
Although many people deal with sickness on a much broader scale than I did, Jesus didn’t just heal a cold or a cut, he healed it all. We need to go back to where our identity is placed and start to agree with who the Bible says we are.
Practical Application
I hope that from this series on spirit, soul, and body, you were able to take some practical knowledge. Healing is such a huge part of who we are, and it will really help our Christian journeys to apply it to our lives. So here are some practical, easy steps you can take to apply it to your lives.
- Anytime you get sick, try your best to ignore it. Imagine you’re going to ask out your crush, you recite a whole speech, and they completely ignore you. Now that’s awfully sad but imagine the rejection feeling. Give that feeling to your sickness, let it know that you’re not sick or interesting in being sick at all.
- Continually remind yourself of your identity. A marathon runner doesn’t wait until it’s time to run the marathon to become one. They continually prepare and train, making themselves one by the preparation, before they set foot on stage. Remind yourself of your healed self, believe it, so that when you are faced with sickness, you have a response prepared.
- Go easy on yourself. It can be a difficult thing to believe you’re healed. I have had this teaching for a while now, and still struggle to believe it at times. I know that I tend to be hard on myself, but God created medicines and such for a reason. The most important thing is to believe in and know Jesus, not to perform or receive something. This step can go along with everything in the Christian faith.
Final Thoughts
We have covered a lot in this series on spirit, soul, and body. Once again, if you haven’t gotten the chance to check the other two posts out, the links are at the top of the post!
To give a brief rundown on everything we covered,
- We are filled with the Holy Spirit (if you’ve been saved), and there is a ton of blessing to go along with it. Pursue knowing and having a relationship with Jesus, and you can grow to understand your spirit-man better!
- It’s very important to live through the identity we have in Christ. This can be very beneficial for your physical and mental health and it’s just the best thing for us! Read some scripture and come to understand who you really are!
- While I didn’t cover all the ways to receive healing, I did cover what I believe is really going to help us know Jesus more. When one understands the sacrifice Jesus made and the day-to-day impacts it has on our lives, it gives us a greater love and knowledge of the Savior!
As I’m sure you have noticed, the general theme is to really get to know the Holy Spirit. That should be one of our greatest pursuits in the Christian faith. I strongly encourage you to find your identity in him. Not only because it is the “Christian” way, but also because I believe it’ll have an awesome effect on your life.
