EFFULGENCE the Glory Carriers

For the believer, right thinking is a vital necessity. A vital necessity is something that is so important
that one simply cannot live without it, like a heart beat is vital, or blood pressure is vital, so is the state of our Thoughts. Our Minds Needs a great Transformation because that is the pointer to what we would achieve in Life.

THE RENEWAL OF THE MIND
Do not be conformed to this world (this age), fashioned after and adapted to its external,
superficial customs, but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. Romans 12:2(Amplified Version)

In this passage the Apostle Paul is saying that if we want to see God’s good and perfect will proven
out in our lives, if we have to ou renew our Mind. Renewed to God’s way
of thinking.

By this process of new thinking we will be changed or transformed into what God intends for us to
become. Jesus made this transformation possible by His death and resurrection. It becomes a reality in
our lives by this process of the renewal of the mind.

Salvation is based solely on the blood of Jesus, His death on the cross and His resurrection. Many Christians will be in heaven because they truly accepted Jesus as their Savior, but many of these same
people will never have walked in victory or enjoyed the God’s Plan for their Lives because their Mind Is Not Transformed.
Our minds are not born again with the New Birth experience, they have to be renewed. (Romans 12:2.) The renewal of the mind is a process that requires time, you do not have to be
devastated but determination.

“While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”” (John‬ ‭9:5‬ ‭WEB‬‬)

Jesus gave a timeframe for Him to be “the light of the world”. While He was in the world, walking on earth, He was the light of the world.

But what about after He resurrected and ascended to Heaven? He passed on this title to us. Now we are the light of the world.

“You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew‬ ‭5:14-16‬ ‭WEB‬‬)

We are the light of the world not because we are so good in and of ourselves, but because Christ lives in us through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is a glorious light that shines out from within us.

Notice how Jesus gave the illustration of a city on a hill. A city is fixed and cannot be moved, and it is on a hill—an elevated position. This is a picture of us being seated with Christ in Heaven, shining gloriously. It is from the posture that we can be light to this dark world.

You cannot be hidden—the Holy Spirit in you is too glorious. Wherever you go, you shine forth God’s light. However, you may block that light when you put a “measuring basket” over it by letting worldliness from the flesh take over in the way you conduct yourself. In that way, the light that others see is dimmed, even though the light within you is always shining.

How do we practically let our light light shine before men? Jesus said it is through good works. Our good works will cause people to glorify God in Heaven.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians‬ ‭2:20‬ ‭KJV‬‬)

Christ lives in you, and that makes you the light of the world. It is no longer you (the old crucified self) who live, but Christ who lives in you (you are joined to Him to become one spirit).

We can be truly alive (with eternal life) because of the faith of the Son of God. He had perfect faith in the Father, submitted to the Father’s will, and gave Himself up on the cross so that we may live.

“Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who perish; in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake; seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:3-6‬ ‭WEB‬‬)

You have light to illuminate this dark world that has been blinded by the veils of Satan’s lies. When you shine forth Christ in your words and actions, you reveal the truth of the Gospel to people, and they will want to get saved. After seeing the beauty of Jesus, there is no going back. Let your light shine!

Psalm 51:16–17
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

What is David the psalmist telling us there? Surely he’s telling us that first and foremost God is not interested in externals. Sacrifice and offerings are not necessarily things that God does not want, but they are things that He does not want first and foremost. And if that’s all there is in our lives – the external practices of religion – then God takes no pleasure in them. He looks below the surface; He looks to the heart; He looks to the motives; He looks to the attitude.

And it says that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Those are strange words to our ears today. What does it mean that God desires a broken spirit? Does He want to crush us? Does He want to beat us down? Does He want to humiliate us? No, that’s not it. What is a broken spirit? it’s a spirit that has come totally to the end of itself. All independence, all self-will and all self-righteousness have been purged out. We’ve come to the place where we have no hope but in God; we’ve come to the end of our own resources. We have no claims upon God, we simply turn to Him for His mercy and His faithfulness, not trusting our own merits, but clinging only to God.

The mind and the spirit are the invisible parts of man. Most of the time it might be difficult to ascertain which is communicating per time
The Mind tends to have more effect on the spirit especially when you are a new born in Christ or immature Christian.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).
Carnal mindedness doesn’t necessarily mean “sinful” mindedness. Like we have said in our previous lessons, the carnality of your mind that depends on your 5 sense organs, makes it difficult for your spirit-man to tame the corrupted mind. Your thoughts center primarily on the physical realm which add weights on your spirit-man.
carnal mindedness shuts it off. Simply stated,
carnal mindedness = death, and
spiritual mindedness = life and peace (Rom. 8:6).
“Death” means “anything that’s a result of sin.” This is not limited only to the ultimate physical death of your body but includes all of death’s progressive
effects as well (i.e., sadness, loneliness, bitterness, illness, anger, poverty, etc.) Which is as a result of Spiritual deadness.
In this world, being dominated by your mind produces
death.
So the soul a way of ruling the spirit if a Christian is not well grounded in the Word of God. The mind is so corrupted and can easily be derailed, if the mind is not renewed it began to have effect on the spirit man’s growth or several times you hear the mind speaks to you thinking it is your spirit man. This situation makes it difficult for the Holy Spirit to actually penetrate into you as a Christian.
You experience weight on your spirits overtime because your spirit is being ruled by your mind .

What made up of the Mindset?
What makes us act the way we do i.e What made us Think the way we think?

These are Factors that over the Time Project our mind the way it is.

BIOLOGICAL FACTOR

This has to do with what you inherit from your BIOLOGICAL parents. The pattern of their thoughts, how they trained you to perceive your Immediate Environment.
Thus includes the Family values, which has to do with what your family Believes in.
What you grew seeing your parents doing
How your parents trained you and made you see the outside world.
Some children grew into an abusive Marriages.
All these made up the way the child sees life and what comes into the child’s mind.
These factors has greater impact in the individual’s which lingers for so long.
Some individuals couldn’t recover from such Family impact either positive or negative but mostly negative.

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR.
This has to do with the Environment you grew as a child, places you live even as an adult. Unconsciously, these Environments actively shape your mind, either positively or negatively. What you see daily, hear frequently and the behaviour of people around you, their responses to life issues subconsciously affects the state of your mind. Which later controls how you think and respond to life daily, people around you and even the way you see yourself.

EDUCATIONAL FACTOR
Your level of Education either formal, informal or Non-formal Education.

Formal education or formal learning usually takes place in the premises of the school, where a person may learn basic, academic, or trade skills. Small children often attend a nursery or kindergarten but often formal education begins in elementary school and continues with secondary school and up to the tertiary.

Informal education may be a parent teaching a child how to prepare a meal or ride a bicycle.
People can also get an informal education by reading many books from a library or educational websites.

Informal education is when you are not studying in a school and do not use any particular learning method.

Non-formal education includes adult basic education, adult literacy education or school equivalency preparation.

In nonformal education, someone (who is not in school) can learn literacy, other basic skills or job skills.
Home education, individualized instruction (such as programmed learning), distance learning and computer-assisted instruction are other possibilities.

At the end of the day, whichever Education you are expose to, the courses undergo, the philosophy learnt and way of approach to daily lives also frame the state of your Mind. Which controls how you see life in certain issues and how you respond to Daily living.

ASSOCIATIONS
2Cor6:14
Psalms 1:1-3
The people and events you are associated with do influence your mind. Your actions and associations effect your mind. In certain company your mind behaves in one way and with others in a different way.
Those you would call your Associates, those you spend time with, those you confide in daily, has great impact on your Mind.

LIFE EXPERIENCES:
Isaiah 43:18 -19 says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!….”

The Experience life had taught individual has a great impact on how the person thinks or how the mind is controlled.
So many people had disappointments, experience betrayals, abuses which made them become we they are presently. The issues of life Suddenly made them fearful, depressed, hateful, untrust, unbelieving, insecure etc.
Life Experiences have a great impact on so many people’s mindset and this tends to affects their daily.
The Experience life had taught individual has a great impact on how the person thinks or how the mind is controlled.
So many people had disappointments, experience betrayals, abuses which made them become we they are presently. The issues of life Suddenly made them fearful, depressed, hateful, untrust, unbelieving, insecure etc.
Life Experiences have a great impact on so many people’s mindset and this tends to affects their daily living even their relationship with God.

The past is something that should be forgotten, unfortunately, a lot of people let it define them.

They become miserable, cunning, selfish, greedy, and blame it on the past or people in their past, saying, “I am this way because of how that person mistreated me or what so, so and so did to me.”

• For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh
• Rom 8:5a

The Body is the physical part of us as we have learnt, now what becomes of how we use our body is a result of the state of our Soul
The Apostle Paul Charged us to present our bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your Reasonable service.” Romans 12:1
You can only accept to present your body if the state of your Soul accepts to.
Since the Soul has three major components namely our mind, will and emotions. Our mind has a conscious part and a subconscious part.

The conscious mind is where we do our thinking and reasoning. The sub-conscious mind is where we hold our Faith and our attitudes. It’s also where we have our feeling, our emotions and retain our memories. Our will is what gives us the ability to make choices and decisions.
The function of your mind, will and emotions and how you respond to them will determine how your mind controls your lifestyle, how your decision determines your life and the effects of your emotions on daily living.
At the end of the day, the state of your soul is simply what determines your lifestyle as a Christian. It determines how you yield to the works of the flesh, if you allow your mind which is how you think, your will that is desire and your emotions which is how you feels to control your daily living.
The devil is a liar. Jesus called him … the father of lies and of all that is false (John 8:44.) He lies to
you and me. He tells us things about ourselves, about other people and about circumstances that are
just not true. He does not, however, tell us the entire lie all at one time.
He begins by bombarding our mind with a cleverly devised pattern of little nagging thoughts,suspicions, doubts, fears, wonderings, reasonings and theories. He moves slowly and cautiously. Remember, he has a strategy for his warfare. He has studied us for a long time.
He knows what we like and what we don’t like. He knows our insecurities, our weaknesses and our
fears. He knows what bothers us most. He is willing to invest any amount of time it takes to defeat us.
It starts with to being carnal.
Carnal mindedness doesn’t necessarily mean”sinful” mindedness. All sin is carnal, but not all carnality is sin. Carnal mindedness is allowing your mind, will and emotions to be dominated by what you can see, taste,hear, smell,and feel. You are carnally minded when your thoughts center primarily on the physical realm.
Through a very complex way, our mind, our will and our emotions are connected to the body through our endocrine, nervous and immune systems.
Health wise, if the state of your mind is not stable it sends a wrong signal to these system in your body.
Remember the scripture
Prov 23:7a “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
Which determines the state of your health.
Let’s look at these systems in the body.

THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM

The endocrine system is a network of glands in your body that make the hormones that help cells talk to each other. They’re responsible for almost every cell, organ, and function in your body.

If your endocrine system isn’t healthy, you might have problems developing during puberty, getting pregnant, or managing stress. You also might gain weight easily, have weak bones, or lack energy because too much sugar stays in your blood instead of moving into your cells where it’s needed for energy.

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

The Nervous System is a complex network of nerves and cells that carry messages to and from the brain and spinal cord to various parts of the body
The nervous system is involved in receiving information about the environment around us and generating responses to that information and coordinating the two.

Immune System
A complex network of cells, tissues, organs, and the substances they make that helps the body fight infections and other diseases. The immune system includes white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system, such as the thymus, spleen, tonsils, lymph nodes, lymph vessels, and bone marrow.

With the above mentioned, you can relate with how your mind, will and emotions have Effects on your health.
Which determines how healthy, fit and active we become in your daily living.

From the Above we could understand that the states of our soul have effects on our thoughts, lifestyle and health either positive or negative.

The Dimension of man which deals with the
mental realm. Man’s intellect. The sensibilities and will. The part that reasons and thinks. With the body we contact the physical realm
and with the spirit we contact the spiritual realm, that left only
the soul to locate. Since the body deals with the physical realm
and the spirit deals with the spiritual realm, that left only one
other realm that man is involved in which is the mental realm. So with
the Soul we contact the intellectual realm.
The Soul is very important with the state of the body and also the spirit in the mental realm. The Soul which is the Mind helps to determine the actual state of the body and spirit based on your response to it.
Romans 12:1 we see in Paul’s teachings that we are to do
something with our bodies. “. . . Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” In the very next verse Paul goes on to say something
about the mind, which is man’s intellect, or his soul. He said that we are to do something with our mind also. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Verse 2).
Paul was writing here to believers. He was not writing to the
heathen. He was not writing to people of the world. He was
writing to born-again, Spirit-filled Christians. Yet their Christian
experience had not affected their bodies or their minds. He told
them that if they were going to have to do something with their
bodies; they were going to have to do something with their
minds.
The Soul is simply your mind.
Your mind plays a very vital role in your life as a Christian. It is your will, intellect, how you feel and your response to situations.

Your Soul Is Very Important To Your Walk With God And Your Success In Life

BRING YOUR THOUGHTS UNDER CONTROL
It is said that every battle is won or lost in the mind. Well this applies too to the battle against the flesh. Let the Spirit govern your thoughts. Before you dwell too much on any thought, ask yourself if that is going to lead you to sin. If it is, dismiss it before it goes beyond being a simple thought to becoming a sinful act.

Philippians 4:8 “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”

EMBRACE QUITE TIME DAILY

This is a Time you are alone with The Holy Spirit. It is usually a Time of intercourse with the Holy Spirit. A moment of INTIMACY.

The fellowship with the Spirit is so important because we are united to Christ in the bonds of the Holy Spirit. We communicate with Him and He with us. He is our teacher and guide. He leads us. He is our advocate within who interprets the desires of our heart and the will of God. He gives us the power to do the will of God. He convicts us of sin and exhorts us to go to the cleansing fountain.
Set A Consistent Time With The Holy Spirit And Just Fellowship with Him.
Make a deep Worship and wait let Him speaks.
It is always an awesome Moments In His Presence.

MEDITATE ON THE WORD OF GOD EVERYDAY

Reading and Meditating the word daily gives you a daily reminder of the standards by which you should live. It refreshes your mind and Spirit and keeps you focused.

Life could get really busy and hectic at times and we could neglect studying the bible. You don’t have to read very long portions of the bible at a time; meditating on a few verses a day is alright. Just create the time and be committed to it. Just don’t skip a day!

Joshua 1:8 “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

MAKE PRAYER A HABIT
Let prayer be a habit. Fall in love with prayer! Pray at every moment, at any place and at all times! Practice saying quick prayers in your mind or out loud when faced with a temptation; ask the Holy Spirit for help.

Remember the battle against the flesh is not a physical battle; it is a spiritual battle so you have to use the right weapons to fight.

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.

Don’t overestimate yourself;
You might think you would not give into any temptation because you are strong and have overcome the flesh through Jesus – which indeed you have – but as long as you live in the corruptible body, you are prone to the sinful desires of the flesh. So it’s better to avoid anything that will lead you into sin. Watch what you look at, the places you go to, the people you hang out with or anything that will bring temptation your way.

Psalm 1:1-2 “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

BE ACCOUNTABLE TO SOMEBODY

You could find someone or a small group of people who are strong in the faith and are committed to spiritual growth to be accountable to. Make sure these people are able to hold you accountable.

Creating accountability for yourself makes you more careful not to sin and keeps you alert. God uses others to rebuke and discipline you when you are wrong because he loves you.

Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another”.

1Cor 9:27
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

What does it mean to Subdue?
To Subdue means to put under control. Looking at our text for Today, Apostle Paul puts his body under subjection meaning that he recognised the works of Flesh and choose to subdue it.
We are called to walk in the Spirit for the bible says we are Spirit. However since the Spirit has a home in this tent, the flesh, we have a tendency of ending up walking in the flesh. So, in order for us to subdue this flesh and bring under the subjection of the Spirit, certain things have to happen and a lot of shifts of a divine nature have to occur. By subduing the flesh means it will be under the control of the Spirit not the flesh Reigning.

Jesus in Mark 14: 38 said that “the spirit indeed is ready, but the flesh is weak”.

The principle here is that the spirit is the driving force behind anything we do.

However, the weak flesh can impede the desires of the spirit man and that is why we must bring the flesh under subjection. When you get to a stage of purification (there are glory to glories of purification), your fellowship with God and His heavenly sons will intensify. This is when we begin to see what eye hath not seen and hear what ear hath not heard.

While we are sons of God, we were born in sin and shaped in iniquity according to Ps 51: 5. The imagery is that of a mold (for example jello). If you put the liquid in the mold, the solid product takes on the exact shape of the mold that it was placed in. In other words, we were born in a mold of sin and took on the shape of sin. We acquired this mold because Adam abandoned the mold God had created for him.
Galatians 5:17
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

The Son of God becomes Son of Man so that you can be born as a son of God (John 1; Hebrews 2; 1 John 3). So, you change places. He takes your place in death, freeing you to take a place with Him in life.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says He takes our sins so completely that we “become the righteousness of God.”

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:10,14)

Are you at the center of your religion? Do you depend on yourself, and trust your own works to please God? If so, step away from such and depends only on the grace of Christ. Let Him into the center. He has already received the full blast of God’s judgement for you. Let Him now give you “rebirth” and a new life.
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit… (Titus 3:4-5).

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God… (1 Peter 1:22-23).

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7).

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:20-21).
Our relationship with God is one of faith. We cannot see Him, but we believe in Him. We cannot touch God, or hug Him, as children do to show love for their parents. But God gives us a way to express love for Him by caring for His family members.

We show respect for the Father by respecting His children. We give priority to God by giving priority to His spiritual family. We smile at God by smiling at His children. We hug our Father by treating His children with warmth and kindness.

A little kindness goes a long way, some people only needs word of encouragement (soul lifting words). Love can be shown in divers ways;

If you see anyone around hungry or needy in one area or the other don’t just ignore because the person is not your blood relation- because some people can only help their family members which is not supposed to be so, always remember that the blood of Jesus was shed for all mankind(John 3:16) Is it written in the Bible passage that for God so loved some set of people NO! It says “For God so loved the world”. Show kindness to people around you either big or small just try to bless the lives around you.

The story of five loaves of bread🍞 and two fishes 🐟 just popped into my mind (Matthew 14:15-21) Jesus didn’t say because it was 5 loaves and 2 fishes let me discharge the multitudes and eat with my disciples alone, No! Jesus multiplied the food and it was more than enough for five thousand men aside from women and children, they were all fed. Jesus should be our example we can’t be proclaiming that we are Christians when our lifestyles are different from that of Jesus. God is love and every children of His should reflect the love of God.

To look at Christ dying for our sins is to look into the face of perfect love. Nails do not hold Him to that wood. He can come down. He can call heaven’s armies. Instead He drinks every bitter drop of suffering. Only the deepest love for you and me holds Him on that cross. Listen to the kindness uttered from the depths of His agony. We might expect Him to care for His mother (John 19:26-27). But what about His enemies? Even as nails are tearing, bleeding His life away, He says,

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1John 3:16-17).

A NEW KIND OF LOVE
That phrase, “just as Christ loved us” (Ephesians 5:2), reveals the key to what Jesus meant by His “new command.”
“A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
“Love” itself is not new, for the Old Testament emphasized it. But John 13 records “a new command” in its greater measure, in its deeper level of sacrifice, in its sheer intensity! Love as Jesus loves! Imitate the sacrificed Son so closely that the world can recognize your family likeness.

Bible Text:
1 Thessalonians 5:23
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”

The human being consists of three parts – body, soul, and spirit.

In other words, Man is a spirit who have a soul and dwells in a body.
The body is that physical part of us referred to in the Bible as “the flesh” (Galatians 5:16) and our “earthly tent”
(II Corinthians 5:1). It is our temporary home, and is not the real “us” – it is only the place in which the real person lives while on earth.
At death it will return to the dust and rot in the ground.

The soul is the “living” part of us. It is the soul which sees, feels, hears, and thinks – forever!

The soul includes the mind, will, and emotions. Therefore, we contact the intellectual and emotional realms with the soul.

Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body (see Acts 2:27). Though the body is dead – though the eyes no longer see, for example – the soul continues to see in Hades (the temporary resting place for the souls of the dead). In Luke 16:23 the rich man is described as “in Hades he lifted up his eyes”- a figure of speech meaning that he continued to see.

The soul is the life of the human being. When the soul leaves, the eyes no longer see and the ears no longer hear. The eyes and ears were merely physical means through which the soul operated while on earth.

The spirit is the deep inner part of a person. When God made man in His image (Genesis 1:26), He made him a spirit being. Since God is Spirit (John 4:24), neither the physical part of man, nor his soul, is in the image of God. It is in being a spirit that man is made in God’s image.
In being a spirit, man is a moral being. He is not to operate by instinct (see II Peter 2:12), but he has a choice of doing right or wrong.

It’s easy to define what our body is, because it’s the part of us that’s visible. It contacts the physical realm—the realm we can touch and observe.

It’s more difficult to distinguish between our soul and spirit. We can’t see or touch either of them physically. But it’s important to understand the difference between them. If we don’t, we won’t be led by the Holy Spirit. Instead, we’ll be led by our soul in the situations of life.

We see that the soul and spirit can be separated by God’s Word: “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow” (Heb. 4:12 NLT).

The Word of God can “cut between,” or separate, the soul and spirit of man because they are different.
It is the spirit that God uses to communicate to our soul.