The Operation of the Soul within your Body & Spirit

(Gen 2:7 [KJV])

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 

Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

 

God treated man’s soul as something unique. As the angels were

created as spirits, so man was created predominantly as a living soul.

Man not only had a body, a body with the breath of life; he became a

living soul as well. Thus we find later in the Scriptures that God

often referred to men as “souls.” Why? Because what the man is

depends on how his soul is. His soul represents him and expresses his

individuality. It is the organ of man’s free will, the organ in which

spirit and body are completely merged. If man’s soul wills to obey

God, it will allow the spirit to rule over the man as ordered by God.

(Job 32:8 [KJV])

But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty

giveth them understanding.

“Man became a living soul” expresses not merely the fact that the

combination of spirit and body produced the soul; it also suggests

that spirit and body were completely merged in this soul. In other

words, soul and body were combined with the spirit, and spirit and

body were merged in the soul. Adam “in his unfallen state knew

nothing of these ceaseless strivings of spirit and flesh which are

matters of daily experience to us. There was a perfect blending of his

three natures into one and the soul as the uniting medium became the

cause of his individuality, of his existence as a distinct being.”

Perhaps we may use an imperfect illustration:

Drop some dye into a cup of water. The dye and water

will blend into a third substance called ink. In like manner the two

independent elements of spirit and body combine to become living

soul.

Psalms 143:10 (KJV)

Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good;

lead me into the land of uprightness.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV)

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly;

and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body

be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Of these three elements the spirit is the noblest for it joins with

God. The body is the lowest for it contacts with matter. The soul

lying between them joins the two together and also takes their

character to be its own. The soul makes it possible for the spirit and

the body to communicate and to cooperate. The work of the soul is to

keep these two in their proper order so that they may not lose their

right relationship—namely, that the lowest, the body, may be

subjected to the spirit, and that the highest, the spirit, may govern the

body through the soul. Man’s prime factor is definitely the soul. It

looks to the spirit to give what the latter has received from the Holy

Spirit in order that the soul, after it has been perfected, may transmit

what it has obtained to the body; then the body too may share in the

perfection of the Holy Spirit and so become a spiritual body.

Romans 8:10 (KJV)

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin;

but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.