The most tangible part of a human being is his body, but that is not the most important part of him.
The body is pivotal because that is what man can immediately relate to; most of his experience is body-led, body-focused, and body-centered.
Of course, the body is man’s access to the earth, and without the body, the human doesn’t have what it takes to function on this earth – even though the man doesn’t cease to exist.
Interestingly, the Spirit and Soul of the man are working and fighting hard for the perfect existence of the body of a man on earth.
Man doesn’t realise it and thinks all there is to him is just his body.
The body, being earthly, has its own desires which are mostly against the desires of the Spirit, because the Spirit knows things beyond the physical. The spirit has access to both physical and spiritual knowledge, while the body is limited to just sensory knowledge.
The Soul, which is a bridge between the Spirit and the body, consists of the mind, consciousness, and reason.
The mind is the intellectual part, and it is also limited to logical and reasonable knowledge.
In other words, man is 3 entities existing in 1 form –
- The Spirit
- The Soul [Mind, Consciousness + Reason]
- The Body
The Spirit and soul are loosely divided, but can be clearly divided only through the Word of God. (Heb. 4:12)
The 3 different entities have 3 different kinds of knowledge.
- The Body: Perceptory knowledge. Sensual in nature – what is seen is what is known as true & real. Seeing is believing.
- The Mind: Intellectual knowledge. What is logically valid is what is accepted as true. But logic and reason can be wrong because they can be manipulated.
- The Spirit: Divine knowledge. What is known is what is true and real beyond sensual and intellectual knowledge. This knowledge is superior to both physical and intellectual knowledge. It doesn’t deny those but has more information beyond them.
Divine knowledge doesn’t declare a truth based on evidence; it is the evidence itself.
It doesn’t need proof; other facts and circumstances will have to work together to prove its validity.
And whether they prove it or not, it remains true – it never changes.
In other words, Divine knowledge presents the truth in a state where the declared truth is the evidence of itself and every other opposing fact is false, all eventually conforming to the nature of the truth.
This is why the scripture says,
faith is the assurance (the confirmation, [a]the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].
Hebrews 11:1
Only through the Spirit can faith be lived by.
We saw an example of this through Jesus Christ.
In Mark 11:12 – 25, Jesus caused a tree.
And we saw this 3 levels of knowledge at play.
Physical knowledge
The disciples saw the tree looking as healthy as it was before Jesus cursed it.
Conclusion: Absolutely Nothing Happened.
Intellectual knowledge
If a tree has green leaves, no withering stem, the tree, therefore, is living and not dead.
Again, their conclusion was – nothing happened to the tree.
Divine knowledge
Jesus knew that since He cursed the tree, the tree was dead, whether the evidence lined up or not at that point.
The truth he spoke was the evidence of the death of the tree; every other piece of evidence will have to align with that evidence.
He didn’t need to look at the tree to verify whether what He said worked or not; if He did, he would have to step down to the level of Physical and Intellectual knowledge – that would be too low for Him.
Meanwhile, the tree actually died physically when He spoke – because there are physical processes needed for a tree to whither, it took time before that evidence showed physically.
The tree was dying from the roots.
If we are to live victoriously in this life, we must live like Jesus.
Understanding the difference between our Spirit, Soul, and Body.
Recognising the distinction, the role each part plays, and the authority they should assert.
Our Spirit must always call the shots in everything we do.
Yes, the mind is where instructions come from, where decisions are made, but we do have a mind in our Spirit (1 Cor. 2:16).
In the mind of the Spirit, we know all things (1John 2:20).
In that mind, nothing is missing – all things are clear – but to transport data from that mind into our human mind, we need to fill our minds with the Word of God.
That is why Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds.
That is how our Spirit gains ascendancy over our total existence.
This is a gentle reminder that the real you is your Spirit, not your body.
The body tries to act like everything revolves around it but no, your Spirit is where God lives – the more focused you are on your Spirit, the better your life will become, and even your body will enjoy a better life (3 John 1:2) – the access to living a Spirit-led life is becoming spiritually minded (Romans 8:6) through the agency of the Word of God (Romans 12:2).
Blessed be God Forever!