1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NIV)

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole
spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are tri-part beings; we are a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body. Job 7:11 and
Isaiah 26:9 also speak of both the spirit and the soul. When we enter God's family his Spirit
quickens our spirit so we can experience true life and not just existence. Without this life is
experienced only at the soul level: emotions, reasoning and will. There should be a strong
contrast between those who live soulishly and those who live spiritually. However, the church
teaches people to act spirituallyto learn the right things to say and correct appearances.
The Bible indicates that there is a separating coming: sheep vs goats, tares vs wheat. It
warns against us evaluating by mere appearances, and make a right judgment" (John 7:24),
indicating the need to be led or informed by the Spirit.
Adam and Eve surrendered complete dependence on God when they relied on reasoning
(the soul) and ate the forbidden fruit. It was not thinking about it that was the problem but that
reasoning opened the way to actions. Once the action took place they were divided between
trusting their spirit and the soulthey no longer had complete trust in God.
Proverbs 3:5-7 (NIV)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all
your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in
your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.
Differentiating between the heart and the understanding as well as personal wisdom and
the fear of the Lord once again shows us the contrast between the soul and the spirit.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, surely had great capacity to depend on his soul but
had come to understand that there is a better way. In order to depend more on the spirit
requires help and the Spirit is our helper: he reminds, guides and teaches us. Walking in the
Spirit is not simply a decision but also results from a growing revelation of the one in whom
we trust.
The soul can mimic the spirit in that there are impressions given by God's Spirit that the
novice can confuse with feelings. This can entice one to seek feelings or develop a need for
confirmations. Hebrews 4:12 shows us the importance of God's word in this matter: For the
word of God is living 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. It
is God's desire to have a relationship with us and he has provided his word as a baseline for
this.