What is a Human? Part 3 The Spirit
The Spirit is another one of those words used by Westerners to describe the immaterial part of a person. There are no scientific definitions of the Spirit. Nor any scientific evidence for its existence. However, if we use other forms of reason (the scientific method is not the only way to know the World), it is very clear spirits exist.
What is a Spirit?
A good example is where someone is employed by a corporation. During their working day, they adopt the ethos of the company, make decisions in line with its policies and will likely act and talk in ways which would be different to how they’d talk outside of work.
The reason they act like this is due to the ‘spirit of the organisation’. No person controls this spirit. But it seems to control the actions of the employees. Even the CEO comes under its control.
The spirit commands the culture of business and is seen in its language, values and goals.
We even have this concept in our English idioms, when we say ‘the Spirit of the People’ or the ‘Spirit of the Age’.
So a spirit is a principality over a group or a community. It controls it through guiding or shepherding. And can move the members of that group to act in particular ways. Even in ways which might be alien to that person when they are outside the community,
Angels and Demons
These are spiritual entities. They are unembodied, meaning they don’t have a body and therefore have no need for a soul. Angels and demons are soulless creatures.
They act in Creation through interacting with lower entities, by guiding and influencing them.
John alludes to this at the beginning of Revelation.
Revelation 2 v 1
“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
John is asked by Jesus to write to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus. This is the principality over that church.
Ephesians 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places.]
These Principalities are mentioned by Paul in the above verse. He also mentions other types, including powers, rulers and spiritual hosts. These are spiritual entities which seek to control and influence the Creation.
What is a Human Spirit?
Just as unembodied spirits act to influence and guide lower entities, so too does the human spirit. It is the organising principle of the whole human. Compared to angels and demons, the human spirit is embodied and is knitted to a physical body.
Soul and Spirit
The Greek word for spirit, pneuma, means to blow or breath. This is the same meaning of the Greek word for soul (psyche). If they both have the same meaning, what’s the distinction between the two?
Paul ends his epistle to the Thessalonians with:
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here, we can see Paul splits the spirit and soul. This suggests he believed there was a difference between the two. I would say that the soul is both the animating force and the seat of the passions and emotions. While the spirit is also an animating force too, but it is instead, the organising principle.
An Organising Spirit
As the organising principle of the person, it engages with the lower parts and acts to organise and guide them. Like how a principality acts upon a group, community or nation, the human spirit acts in a similar way when interacting with the rest of the person.
So if we placed our hand into a fire. Our natural reaction is to remove it, but we can also choose to hold it in the flames. This is where the spirit overrides the body’s desire to avoid being burnt.
Heart Soul Spirit Distinction
Hebrews 4 v 12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
We see from this verse that the soul and spirit are deeply connected, to the point where only the Word of God can separate them. But it also mentions the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
The heart of a person is where the thoughts reside, but also the attitudes and values. And like the spirit, it is involved in the organising principle for the person.
Both the spirit and the heart provide the values, attitudes and ideas which contribute to the overarching principles by which the person chooses to act in the World.
When we make a decision, we look to our values as a guide on to how to act. If our value is to lose weight, then we will resist the third biscuit. If our value is to offer kindness to strangers, then we would prioritise helping them over other things we may want to do.
The heart and spirit are integrated as the organising principle. Just like the soul and heart integrate to provide our passions and emotions. And how the spirit and soul provide the animating force of a person.
I’ve developed this model from my own reading of Scripture and it is therefore experimental. For me, it clarifies these terms, which helps when I read through Scriptures.
What I love about this model is it shows the immaterial centre of the person works in relationship. This reminds me of how the Trinity is in relationship as well.
The next post will look at what the mind is and how our Modern concept of the mind is far removed from what the Bible says.
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Beyond this point, I will discuss modern spiritual warfare, what it looks like and how to resist it. I have placed this behind a paywall, as I will be talking about the lockdowns we all experienced from 2020 onwards. I hope you can understand this is a sensitive subject and therefore I wouldn’t want to talk about it in a public forum.
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