We need our soul divided from our spirit!

[Vine Abider]

Without the dividing of the Living Word of God, we may not have any idea that things we are doing actually has it's source in the soul.  Oftentimes we think good things/religious activities we're involved in are spiritual, when they are really sourced in the self-bound soul.  Praise God for the light from His living Word!

The Word Divides

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

A believer's greatest need is to get into the Word of God regularly and to go to the Lord day by day, especially in the mornings. Open up to the Lord and begin to pray over the verses. Reading the Bible must be more to us than a routine or academic pursuit. We need to actually contact God while we are in the Word. By getting into the Word in this way, we find it is "living and powerful." It begins to operate; it begins to speak. A word will stand out, a verse will stand out, or a phrase will stand out, and then you begin to pray with what touches you. That word entering into your heart clears you up inwardly. "The entrance of Your words gives light" (Psa. 119:130). You begin to see that you have been in your self--in your emotions, in your reactions, in your pride and hardness. You have been in your hurt feelings or in your reasoning mind about someone. You have chosen your own will. Light begins to dawn upon you, and you become inwardly clear about where you have been. You get divided. You begin to see how you have sinned, how you have lived in your soulish life, how you have lived out of your impulses, or how your motive for saying something was altogether impure. The word divides your soul and spirit, and discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart.

With this dividing and discerning, you begin to repent and confess to the Lord your lack of living out from Him. As you confess, your spirit rises to the surface of your being (cf. Eph. 5:18-19 with Col. 3:16), and everything becomes crystal clear. What originates from your soul is exposed to you, and what originates from your spirit is manifested. There is the realm of the soul and there is the realm of the spirit, and it is the living and active word of God that discovers for us which realm we are living in.

(from The Supplied Life by B. Freeman)

[Sower]

36 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

Oftentimes we think good things/religious activities we're involved in are spiritual, when they are really sourced in the self-bound soul.

Thus; Take EVERY thought captive. Examine. Download and meditate, or toss it.
Or, blow it off, chill out and just have a nice day that the Lord hath made...    (What I was told here instead of introspecting)

Thanks, VA...

[AdHoc]

This is a crucial concept.

Because man ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, his tendency is always to Laws. Adam and Eve made "garments" of Fig-leaves - a picture of Judah keeping the Law but bearing no fruit. So Christianity mostly tries to make a new set of Laws basd on those of Moses. But the New Testament economy is totally different to the Old. In John 4, our Lord Jesus, who had come from the Father, radically changed the PLACE of worship. In verse 24 He explained that the PLACE of worship has changed for BOTH Samaritan and Jew. It is in the human spirit.

Without drawing out this posting with long proofs, the majority of students who study the spirit and soul reach a 90% agreement that the soul of man, if he is to be a Temple of God, speaks of the Holy Place and the spirit of man is the Holy of Holies. Although the two closely interact, they are two different places. The Holy Place has the Bread of Life on the right as you enter, while the Lampstand with the seven lights to enlighten you is on the left. Straight ahead is the golden altar where Christ as the incense carries your prayers through the curtain, or Veil, to God Who dwells between the Cherubim.

Romans Chapter 8 tells us that the end goal and the road to maturity is found when we receive and obey instructions, not from the soul, but from the human spirit. The mind a part of the soul, a man's thinking organ, is bombarded by the flesh without and by the spirit within. The mind motivated and stimulated by the flesh is an everlasting enemy of God. But when the Christian passes through the veil (for he may do it now because Christ death caused God to rent it from top to bottom), he is immediately ushered into the dignity and glory of God. Far from the clanging demands of the flesh, we now receive the legal demands of a God Who, although He breathed out a trillion galaxies all with billions of monster nuclear stars, speaks in a still small voice (1st Kings 19:12).

A man needs his soul, and it is part of the journey. But the goal is just you and God in the human spirit getting instructions and having intimate, one-on-one fellowship with the Living God.

[Marilyn C]

7 hours ago, Vine Abider said:

Without the dividing of the Living Word of God, we may not have any idea that things we are doing actually has it's source in the soul.  Oftentimes we think good things/religious activities we're involved in are spiritual, when they are really sourced in the self-bound soul.  Praise God for the light from His living Word!

The Word Divides

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

A believer's greatest need is to get into the Word of God regularly and to go to the Lord day by day, especially in the mornings. Open up to the Lord and begin to pray over the verses. Reading the Bible must be more to us than a routine or academic pursuit. We need to actually contact God while we are in the Word. By getting into the Word in this way, we find it is "living and powerful." It begins to operate; it begins to speak. A word will stand out, a verse will stand out, or a phrase will stand out, and then you begin to pray with what touches you. That word entering into your heart clears you up inwardly. "The entrance of Your words gives light" (Psa. 119:130). You begin to see that you have been in your self--in your emotions, in your reactions, in your pride and hardness. You have been in your hurt feelings or in your reasoning mind about someone. You have chosen your own will. Light begins to dawn upon you, and you become inwardly clear about where you have been. You get divided. You begin to see how you have sinned, how you have lived in your soulish life, how you have lived out of your impulses, or how your motive for saying something was altogether impure. The word divides your soul and spirit, and discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart.

With this dividing and discerning, you begin to repent and confess to the Lord your lack of living out from Him. As you confess, your spirit rises to the surface of your being (cf. Eph. 5:18-19 with Col. 3:16), and everything becomes crystal clear. What originates from your soul is exposed to you, and what originates from your spirit is manifested. There is the realm of the soul and there is the realm of the spirit, and it is the living and active word of God that discovers for us which realm we are living in.

(from The Supplied Life by B. Freeman)

Hi VA,

I believe that in the natural man the soul & bodily desires rule. However, as we grow in the Lord it is from the inner man, the spirit that rulership must come and that intimately with the Holy Spirit.

 

 

[AnOrangeCat]

14 hours ago, Vine Abider said:

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

Cool to see this here because I just finished reading that chapter literally a few minutes ago as my morning Bible reading. I agree with you anyway. The division helps us, and this is especially true when we're looking inwards to evaluate ourselves.

[Vine Abider]

2 hours ago, AnOrangeCat said:

Cool to see this here because I just finished reading that chapter literally a few minutes ago as my morning Bible reading. I agree with you anyway. The division helps us, and this is especially true when we're looking inwards to evaluate ourselves.

And we do that a lot - look inwardly "to evaluate ourselves." (one brother calls this "morbid introspection")

The trouble is, our best evaluation is still mostly our own understanding.  God's understanding of us is so much deeper and clearer, therefore we need to be in communion with His Spirit, which is joined to our spirit, to see ourselves in an accurate light.  In other words, we a re not really qualified to examine ourselves, at least not with a high degree of accuracy - that's His job . . . the job of the indwelling Spirit!

[Neighbor]

33 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

The trouble is, our best evaluation is still mostly our own understanding.  God's understanding of us is so much deeper and clearer, therefore we need to be in communion with His Spirit, which is joined to our spirit, to see ourselves in an accurate light.  In other words, we a re not really qualified to examine ourselves, at least not with a high degree of accuracy - that's His job . . . the job of the indwelling Spirit!

Helps to ask of Yeshua, "Lord  is it good between you and me?". Like the tune lyric states, "have a little talk with Jesus."

[Neighbor]

However:  I do think the emphasis  of Hebrews 4:12 is on the great difficulty for man  to even recognize a difference  of/between spirit  and soul; and that God  does so in  extraordinary detail.

Man therefore comes naked to/before our piercing God (Yeshua) whom sees man's thought processes as well as  his motivation and or purposes, dividing in/by His sight even spirit from soul.

I do not think that is an encouragement for man to try to do what  God and perhaps in this context God alone has capacity to do, but instead is encouragement (as well as threat) to be prepared to come  boldly before God with dependence upon Him and His leading by way  of God the Holy Spirit. To rest in God.

The idea of Hebrews 4 is to come to rest  in Jesus who when one finally comes before him can and does separate even spirit from soul, and sees the reality of one's conviction in Him, that He is Lord God and personal savior. The context is one of execution/examination by God rather than a chore for man to master.

 Though the exposition by John MacArthur on these verses is lengthy and time consuming to read, I do think they  very accurately detail  Hebrews and especially Hebrews 4:12- in context. One will have to scroll down quite a ways to get to verse 12, but if at all interested hang in there it is worth it.  

See the exposition titled 

"Entering into God's Rest"

Sermons Hebrews 4:1–13

 1609

 Apr 23, 1972

 https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1609/entering-into-gods-rest

 

 

[Know Jah]

I fail to follow the thought of soul/spirt..entering into Gods rest? I need to see scriptural support of things

[Neighbor]

26 minutes ago, Know Jah said:

I fail to follow the thought of soul/spirt..entering into Gods rest? I need to see scriptural support of things

It is there (The scriptural  support verse by verse by verse) within the link to the sermon that helped me see it better that I shared reference to in my post above.

 Yes it is a lengthy presentation for it gives exposition of Hebrews 4  up through and past 4;12; but it is one excellent presentation to use to as backdrop from which to work out one's own  conclusions.