In my most recent post, I spoke about the spirit and all that goes into that concept. I also spoke about how the spirit related to a concept called Spirit, Soul, and Body. You can read more about that subject here: (Spirit, Soul, and Body: All About the Spirit – Lighthouse Teaching)

Just in case you don’t get the chance to check that out, Spirit, Soul, and Body is the idea that we are all made up of three parts. That is, spirit, soul, and body. As I mentioned previously, the soul and the spirit oftentimes get very mixed up and sort of conjoined. That is simply because the spirit tends to be misunderstood and an odd topic to reference. Here, I hope to explain fully what the soul really is.

What is the soul?

In order to fully understand the difference between soul and the spirit, we first need to clearly define what the soul really is.

The soul can be defined as one’s mind, will, and emotions. That’s a pretty common answer, and I think a bit too complex at first glance. I would relate the soul to one’s personality. How we think, how we display emotions, decisions we make, they all correlate to our soul. Those all make up a part of who we are and how we show we really are on the inside.

The wonderful thing about the soul and personality is that it shows us part of who God really is. Genesis 1:27 tells us that “God created man in his own image”. Which means that we all display part of God’s personality in our own personality.

I imagine we all know someone that is particularly kind to us and to everyone they meet, quick to welcome in everyone around them. What about someone that is very trustworthy? Or strong and courageous? Now, think about how God carries all those traits and more. I like to think of people as some sort of pattern on a quilt. While we each contain different traits and personalities, we are all part of a masterpiece that the Lord has created. That is, the image of who God is.

We are typically very familiar with our souls, as we place our identities and decisions based on the soul majority of the time. We don’t often know how to differentiate it from the spirit, however.

Spirit vs Soul

If you didn’t get a chance to check out my previous post, a spirit can be defined as the life behind all of us. We can’t see it, we can’t hear it, but we can look at something to help us. I like to visualize my spirit how I visualize the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit lives inside all of us and it truly is the life inside us. It’s perfect and it brings many blessings. To better understand all that it means to have the Holy Spirit, it’s best to look at scripture and learn who the Holy Spirit really is.

The most vital aspect of the Holy Spirit is that we can identify with it. We can identify ourselves with all of the attributes of it, because it truly lives inside us. This is the big differentiating factor between soul and spirit, as we really should not place our identity in our soul’s attributes.

Our Identities

Far too often, I see people identifying with all of their physical, but more often, soul attributes and that is a very dangerous game.

Our mind and emotions are constantly changing. We are constantly maturing and growing, and we always have waves of new information coming in. On top of that, many activities can really easily and quickly change our brain and the way we think.

In fact, a study on neurology on BBVA OpenMind found that even poor sleep “is linked to rapid reductions in brain volume” (10 Things that Change your Brain | OpenMind (bbvaopenmind.com)). If something as simple as sleep can drastically affect our brain, then how can we expect to really place our identity on it.

According to Ambition & Balance by Doist, simply eating too much sugar can change your brain as it can “impair memory and learning skills” (10 Things You Can Do to Literally Change Your Brain (doist.com))

Getting a common condition such as Alzheimer’s or Dementia can drastically change one’s brain and even their personality.

All of these examples show just how quickly our brains and personalities can change. There are quite a few more examples that I could use such as video games, reading, and other common daily activities.

We simply cannot place our identities in our soul’s attributes, as our personalities fluctuate and change so much that it would be a bit too hard to get a grasp on who we are. I believe that this is a big contributing factor to how much today’s generations struggle with mental illnesses and anxiety. We are flooded with so many things that can completely change how our brains work. There is not a solid foundation for our soul to lay on to really find who we really are.

Taking Care of Our Minds

While I believe that we can grow massively by understanding who we are in the spirit, we should pursue having a healthier mind.

God gave us our minds and our ability to think and act for ourselves. He gave us the ability to have emotions and he gave us free will. It’s easy to think at times that after we become saved, our lives are ours to do whatever we want with. That we can think however we want to think, act however we want to act.

Now think about it. Let’s say you gave someone a car. It’s nice, clean, has the new car smell and everything. They drive it around the block and six months later it’s broke down, smells like old fast food, and the paint is scratched. I wouldn’t be very happy, none of us would.

God has given us this gift of having freedom in how we think, feel, and act, yet some of us treat our minds like a beat down old car with the bumper hanging off.

I speak from experience, as I used to, and still do this at times. When everything around you seem to be stripped of hope and positivity, it is often difficult to even imagine having a healthy mindset. It is possible though and I would love to show you the verse that helped me.

Renewing Your Mind

The verse that really helped me realize how to overcome my mindset is Romans 12:2.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

To confirm means to comply or agree with the standards that are set. We often find ourselves trying to live like everyone else. Spending hours on social media, being inactive, and just plain negative. There are many other examples of actual activities and such, but for the most part, I find the issue is in our thoughts. Thinking like the rest of the world is going to give us the result of the rest of the world.

Depression is a very common issue these days and it seems like the majority now struggles with it. Oftentimes we blame depression on stress, lack of sleep, work, or things of that matter. I’ve found though, that how someone thinks is often a determining factor is how great their mental health is.

When we allow ourselves to let go of the thinking of this world and let what the Bible says be what we think, we will be transformed.

But what does the Bible say?

What Does the Bible Say?

To further get a grasp on how we should be thinking, let’s look at Isaiah 55:8-9.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

The Lord clearly states that his ways are better than ours. He knows better. He knows us better, and we have a great opportunity in front of us as we are able to have direct insight on how God thinks.

The word of God is always there as a map. We can always look at the word and all of our paths be made known. However, without knowing how to read the map, we will have a lot of trouble. The Holy Spirit is our translator. He understands the word and he helps us to understand the word as well. I have definitely experienced this. I used to struggle greatly with the Bible, receiving nothing from it, but as i pursued a deeper relationship with Jesus, things started to make sense. Words seemed like they jumped off the page at times, I started to remember scripture, and it actually became a guide.

Let’s let the Lord guide our thinking and let him transform our thoughts. Let him be a guide in our journeys reading the Bible.

Practical Application

We should always be trying to apply what we are learning. So, here are just a few practical, easy steps you can take that can help you live out the concepts we have talked about.

• Find one negative thought you have and try to find something in the Bible that counters that thought.
• Take a habit or activity, like social media or screentime, and limit the time you give yourself. This allows you to do more healthy things with your time.
• Read a verse about who you are in Christ and mediate on it. Think about it. Remember it, then receive it.

New habits and new ways of thinking are not changed and grown overnight. It’s through consistent repetition that you start to change. Even doing one of the small steps above could have a major impact on one’s life when done consistently.

Final Thoughts

The soul is very important and without it, well, we wouldn’t have any emotions or thoughts at all. That is why it is very important for us to take care of our minds and have healthy thoughts and habits.

It is also very important to take great care of our spirits, continually trying to learn more about who we are in the spirit and forming our identities around who we are in the spirit.

At the end of the day, we are made up of three parts, and those three all affect the others. The all intertwine and connect, which leads us to the next part, the body. We’ve touched on spirit and soul, so I hope to cover the body next week.

Live out of your spirit, renew your mind, and have a great week!