Day 4: Take A Look In The Mirror!

Yesterday, we’ve seen the Word of God is the only agent able to divide spirit and soul.

The Bible also presents itself as a kind of mirror which reveals our inner being. Not our outward physical appearance, but our inner being. This is what James says in his epistle, chapter 1, verse 23 and 24:

“Anyone who listens to the word [that’s the Word of God] but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

So, when we look in the Word of God it’s like looking in a mirror which reveals our inward spiritual constitual elements and our nature—not our outward appearance, but our inward appearance. So looking in the mirror of God’s Word in the light of those passages that we’ve looked at in 1 Thessalonians, Hebrews 4, and James chapter 1, we find this revelation that man’s triune being consists of three specific elements: his spirit, his soul, his body. Very briefly and simply, we may distinguish between them in this way: the spirit is Godconscious, the soul is selfconscious, the body is worldconscious. Through the senses, the body apprehends the physical world. Man’s spirit is the only way he can relate directly to God. Only man’s spirit can relate directly to God. In between them, as it were, like a kind of ball and socket or a joint or a gear lever, is the soul which makes a man selfconscious.

Here, we’re dealing particularly with the function of the soul. The soul, I would say, is the ego. The soul is the part of man which says, “I will,” or “I will not”; thus deciding man’s destiny. It makes the unique individual because two individuals can be in the same exact situation, one says, “I will do soandso,” the other one says, “I will not.” That’s what distinguishes them.

So I want you to see how important and how decisive the right exercise of the function of the soul is, which is the exercise of the will, not the emotions, but the will.

Many people kind of feel they are being carried along on a river which they can’t resist, they almost feel there’s no choice; their attitude is fatalistic. That’s not a biblical attitude. Fatalism is not part of the Bible. It’s a part of many cults that have invaded the world today. It’s a part of many Oriental philosophies. I myself at one time studied yoga. That teaches a kind of pacifism, but it’s not the pacifism of true peace. It’s an attitude that lets things happen. That is not the attitude of the born again Christian. There’s a tremendous need to free our minds from this passive attitude which is part of the product of many of these cults and philosophies that are invading the world today.

Our destiny in time and eternity is determined by our soul. Our soul can say “Yes” to God, or it can say “No” to God. Our soul can switch on to spiritual experience, or switch off to spiritual experience. But the kind of spiritual experience we have is not determined primarily by our emotions. Our emotions may influence the decision of our soul, but it’s determined by the way our soul responds.