Feel free to discuss the devotional. Will be posting new ones prob every weekday. All will be about the Spiritual Life and Prophecy.

The 3 Parts of Man

1. Spirit – Communion with God / Conscience
2. Soul – Animal life / Personality / Will(Decisions) / Emotion(Feelings) / Mind(Thinking)
3. Body

I Thessalonians 5.23 reads: "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

This verse precisely shows that the whole
man is divided into three parts. The Apostle Paul refers here to the complete sanctification of believers, "sanctify you wholly." According to the Apostle, how is a person wholly sanctified? By his spirit and soul and body being kept. From this we can easily understand that the whole person comprises these three parts. This verse also makes a distinction between spirit and soul; otherwise, Paul would have said simply "your soul." Since God has distinguished the human spirit from the human soul, we conclude that man is composed of not two, but three, parts: spirit, soul and body.

Other portions of the Scriptures make this same differentiation between spirit and soul. "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb. 4.12). The writer in this verse divides man's non-corporal elements into two parts, 11 soul and spirit." The corporal part is mentioned here as including the joints and marroworgans of motion and sensation. When the priest uses the sword to cut and completely dissect the sacrifice, nothing inside can be hidden. Even joint and marrow are separated. In like manner the Lord Jesus uses the Word of God on His people to separate thoroughly, to pierce even to the division of the spiritual, the soulical, and the physical. And from this it follows that since soul and spirit can be divided, they must be different in nature. It is thus evident here that man is a composite of three parts.

Taken from The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee ( http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/nee/sprtmnv1/1968c1p1.htm)

PRAYER
God, may your Light teach us who we are. Lord open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, so we may know what you want to teach us. Help us to also understand in our minds, all that we know in the spirit.

THE CREATION OF MAN

"And Jehovah God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2.7 ASV). When God first created man He formed him of dust from the ground, and then breathed "the breath of life" into his nostrils. As soon as the breath of life, which became man's spirit, came into contact with man's body, the soul was produced. Hence the soul is the combination of man's body and spirit. The Scriptures therefore call man "a living soul." The breath of life became man's spirit; that is, the principle of life within him. The Lord Jesus tells us "it is the spirit that gives life" (John 6.63). This breath of life comes from the Lord of Creation. However, we must not confuse man's spirit with God's Holy Spirit. The latter differs from our human spirit. Romans 8.16 demonstrates their difference by declaring that "it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God." The original of the word "life" in "breath of life"
is chay and is in the plural. This may refer to the fact that the inbreathing of God produced a twofold life, soulical and spiritual. When the inbreathing of God entered man's body it became the spirit of man; but when the spirit reacted with the body the soul was produced. This explains the source of our spiritual and soulical lives. We must recognize, though, that this spirit is not God's Own life, for "the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (job 33.4). It is not the entrance of the uncreated life of God into man, neither is it that life of God which we receive at regeneration. What we receive at new birth is God's Own life as typified by the tree of life. But our human spirit, though permanently existing, is void of "eternal life."

"Formed man of dust from the ground" refers to man's body; "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" refers to man's spirit as it came from God; and "Man became a living soul" refers to man's soul when the body was quickened by the spirit and brought into being a living and self-conscious man. A complete man is a trinitythe composite of spirit, soul and body. According to Genesis 2.7, man was made up of only two independent elements, the corporeal and the spiritual; but when God placed the spirit within the casing of the earth, the soul was produced. The spirit of man touching the dead body produced the soul. The body apart from the spirit was dead, but with the spirit man was made alive. The organ thus animated was called the soul.

"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." (Pember's Earth's Earliest Age) Man was designated a

living soul, for it was there that the spirit and body met and through which his individuality was known. 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. (The analogy fails in that the soul produced by the combining of spirit and body becomes an independent, indissoluble element as much as the spirit and body.)

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. The soul, if it chooses, also can suppress the spirit and take some other delight as lord of the man. This trinity of spirit, soul and body may be partially illustrated by a light bulb. Within the bulb, which can represent the total man, there are electricity, light and wire. The spirit is like the electricity, the soul the light, and body the wire. Electricity is the cause of the light while light is the effect of electricity. Wire is the material substance for carrying the electricity as well as for manifesting the light. The combination of spirit and body produces soul, that which is unique to man. As electricity, carried by the wire, is expressed in light, so spirit acts upon the soul and the soul, in turn, expresses itself through the body.

However, we must remember well that whereas the soul is the meeting-point of the elements of our being in this present life, the spirit will be the ruling power in our resurrection state. For the Bible tells us that "it is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body" (I Cor. 15.44).

Yet hereis a vital point: we who have been joined to the resurrected Lord can even now have our spirit rule over the whole being. We are not united to the first Adam who was made a living soul but to the last Adam Who is a life-giving spirit (v.45).

Lord may we know where we come from. Out of your heart, out of your love. May we experience the joy and power of Jesus Christ, until we are united again and see You face to face. Amen

Taken from The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee

I have a lot of boxes to get out of my cubicle. Today. They're all in a stack with a notice on top:

"Please throw away boxes
Thanks"

The cleaners will throw them away tonight.

Sometimes, we must allow God to take away some stuff. Put it on a heap and say. God please take this. Then one day, we'll just suddenly realise, that God has changed us and all the things we kept piled up, doesn't matter ne more. The pile is still here when I leave tonight, but they will be on the rubbish heap tomorrow.

God thanks for cleaning our lives by your blood. Jesus thank you for your blood that washes away our sins. Let us put up a notice in our lives: God cleanse me. And let us know what new things you have in store for us, when we sacrifice the old, to receive the new. Amen

Ps 46:11 - Show Context
The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Ac 2:17 - Show Context
'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.


Times have changed and people have changed. No more does old methods pull a modern man. I am not saying that the traditional is bad or evil. I am definitely not saying that. It is just not efficient in spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom anymore. People think that the traditional church is under attack. I say no. Not the traditional church, just its methods and ways.

And if you identify yourself with the methods and they come under attack, it feels like you are being attacked. Everywhere, people see it is not working, but still they carry on. Ministries fall apart, but still they try the old way.

We must never built our lives on the past. Always on the future. God gives us a vision for our future and we must realize, that it should be our model today. The past has never been a model, only for those who choose to stay the same. The past has never been a model, it has only been an excuse, not to change.

“The fact that there will always be change, is the only thing that won’t change”

Am I saying that God is making a new model for the church? No, definitely not. We know that God is always the same, it is the church that changed and fell from her position of victory in Christ Jesus. God wants a generation that is prepared to walk, when there is no reason to walk, except the faith that we have in Him. To whom nothing else matters, except that God receive the glory. That has no other testimony, except the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Through the ages, the church fell, now she can rise to the glory God intended for her. She has been tried. She has been beaten down, but now God will pour out his redeeming Spirit. The nations will cry in anguish as we praise the living God.

Lord help us to stand and pray, for the time is little and must be redeemed. You have trusted us to live now. Make us a generation that follows hard after you. Oh God of Jacob, bring us into your house. That we may know your splendour and that all nations may stream to your house. May mount Zion rise, May it be a gem amongst the nations. Oh Jesus come. May we be one as you and Father are One. Teach us and equip us. May the glory of your house, fill the earth through us. May our hearts be broken with the things that break your heart. Amen