Not a subject I would choose to be dogmatic on, but I have come to understand us as having three parts... Body, Soul, and Spirit. Body being the physical aspect (obviously). The Soul I understand as the part of us that consists of our Mind, Will, and Emotions... it is our awareness of ourselves. "I am aware that I exist!"
The Spirit, on the other hand, is our awareness of God. Not an intellectual awareness for that comes from the soul, but rather an awareness that comes from deep within our being, our heart one might say. The best example I can give for this would be the experience of being in love. I can't see love. It does not have physical form like an object, although I can see the expression of love. I can't touch it, taste it, hear it, or smell it and if one chooses to deny the expression of love as being evidence for love.... I also can't prove it. But, if you have ever been in love, there is nothing that could convince you otherwise. It is just as real to you as is the existence of the person you are in love with. You could almost touch It, it is so real. This is what I mean by our awareness of God.
Before being saved, reborn as some would term it, we are spiritually dead. We may have an intellectual awareness of God, but we certainly do not have that awareness of God that comes with being reborn. Our Spirit is the part of us that is totally dependent on the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Without God in us our Spirit is dead. It's kind of like a light bulb... even without electricity a light bulb is still a light bulb, but it isn't doing what it was designed to do. Without God we are still a living being, but we are not complete, we are not doing what we were created to do/be.
Not a subject I would choose to be dogmatic on, but I have come to understand us as having three parts... Body, Soul, and Spirit. Body being the physical aspect (obviously). The Soul I understand as the part of us that consists of our Mind, Will, and Emotions... it is our awareness of ourselves. "I am aware that I exist!" The Spirit, on the other hand, is our awareness of God. Not an intellectual awareness for that comes from the soul, but rather an awareness that comes from deep within our being, our heart one might say. The best example I can give for this would be the experience of being in love. I can't see love. It does not have physical form like an object, although I can see the expression of love. I can't touch it, taste it, hear it, or smell it and if one chooses to deny the expression of love as being evidence for love.... I also can't prove it. But, if you have ever been in love, there is nothing that could convince you otherwise. It is just as real to you as is the existence of the person you are in love with. You could almost touch It, it is so real. This is what I mean by our awareness of God. Before being saved, reborn as some would term it, we are spiritually dead. We may have an intellectual awareness of God, but we certainly do not have that awareness of God that comes with being reborn. Our Spirit is the part of us that is totally dependent on the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Without God in us our Spirit is dead. It's kind of like a light bulb... even without electricity a light bulb is still a light bulb, but it isn't doing what it was designed to do. Without God we are still a living being, but we are not complete, we are not doing what we were created to do/be.