11/15/17 GOD WANTS YOUR WHOLE SELF

11/15/17 GOD WANTS YOUR WHOLE SELF

God created us as Psycho/Physical Totalities. Some would say that we are "body and soul," or "the inner man and the outer man." The Bible refers to us as being "body, soul and spirit."

The BODY is our "other consciousness" of the material world through our five senses (seeing, hearing smelling, tasting and touching).
The SOUL is our "self consciousness" through our five soulish senses (reason, emotion, desire, conscience and will).
The SPIRIT (the human spirit, not the Holy Spirit) is our "God consciousness."

God made Adam from the dust of the earth (body), and breathed into his nostrils the Breath of life (spirit), and man became a living being (soul). God created Adam with soundness of body, soul and spirit. God gave Adam an environment that was conducive to his total well being. The only proper environment for man is the presence of God. When man is out of correspondence with his proper environment death is the end result. Adam's sin removed him from God's ordained environment, and subsequently all of mankind has become estranged from God and separated from our intended environment.

While man is body, soul and spirit, and the whole man is infected and affected by sin, the fact is that sin is the result of man's rejection of God's will. God endowed the human soul with the ability to make right and wrong decisions, and through the atonement of Christ, we are enabled to make right decisions. It is our soul that either accepts God's rule or rejects God's rule. Accordingly, we then yield our soul and body to God or we make them the slaves of sin and darkness. Sin does not reside in our body, but our body can be the servant of sin, just as our minds can be the servants of sin.

This is why it is important to bring our whole person into subjection to God. The way we live our lives physically and mentally impacts our relationship with God.

BODY
Romans 6:12-23
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

SOUL
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

BODY, SOUL AND SPIRIT
1 Thessalonians 5:23
23 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.