The Spirit, The Soul, And The Body: My Submission

DEFINITION?

The Spirit The Spirit is the breath of God that supplies life to every living being. It is invisible and cannot be seen. But it is there all the same like a generator plant or the engine of a car transmitting life to the body. The truth is that all living beings, humans, animals, and plants posses the life-giving force call ‘spirit’. For without the spirit, there is no life. Death occurs only when the spirit departs from the body. It is the spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63 (NKJV) …for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:6 Another truth about the spirit is that it is the means through which God accesses man; it is also the means through which man can relate to God. This is because God is Spirit, He cannot relate with the flesh and soul of man due to their sinful inclination, as God cannot behold sin. Therefore, the spirit is the means through which God monitors the activities of man and relates with him. The Bible is replete with passages that lend credence to this postulation. I will cite just two of them: The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Proverbs 20:27 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11 The Soul The Soul is the total sum of a person, comprising of his mind, his personality, his emotions, his habits (inborn and acquired), his experiences, his learning etc. It is a vast and complex bank of many things. But the three major components of the soul are the mind/mental faculty, the personality and the emotions of an individual. The soul is the total sum of man. It is who you really are, and it is “he” that influences most of the things you do at every point in time. It is a common knowledge that animals and plants don’t have soul. They only have the life-giving spirit that enables them to live, which when snuffed out, they cease to exist. Therefore, the reason man is superior to every other being is because of the soul he has, which affords him the privilege of reasoning and intelligent action. The Body The body, on its own part, is the container that houses both the spirit and the soul. The spirit is invisible and so cannot operate on the earth in its intangible state. That is why it must be housed in a body for it to be active. The soul, on the other hand, cannot express itself except through a body, because it is also invisible and intangible. Therefore, the body actually derives its life and importance from the power of the spirit and in the expression of the soul.

The Spirit, The Soul, And The Body: My Submission

INTRODUCTION

God is a tripartite Being. And man, by virtue of being created ‘in the likeness of God’, is a tripartite being as well; he is comprised of a spirit, a soul and a body. There is a simple illustration I usually cite to describe this threesome nature of man: the spirit of man is like the engine of a car, the soul is the driver, while the body of man is just like the body or panel of a car. By this token, I do not agree with the school of thoughts that posits that the soul is the same as the spirit. I believe that the spirit and the soul are different entities, they are not the same. The Bible also lends credence to this position in the following passages: 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. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Another Bible passage says: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

FORMULA FOR FAILURE AND SUCCESS (PART 3)

We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old. One of the exciting things about the formula for success - a few simple disciplines practiced every day - is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines. The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence - not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance! To Your Success, Jim Rohn This article was submitted by Jim Rohn, America's Foremost Business Philosopher. To subscribe to the Free Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine go to www.jimrohn.com or send a blank email to subscribe@jimrohn.com Copyright © 2007 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved worldwide.

FORMULA FOR FAILURE AND SUCCESS (PART 2)

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter. 
Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day. Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? 
The answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy. Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow. 
But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road?

FORMULA FOR FAILURE AND SUCCESS (PART 1)

The Formula for Failure and Success by Jim Rohn 

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day. Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters. On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds. If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters! Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices - choices that didn't seem to matter. Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat. But we must become better educated than that! If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated again. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.