There is a second aspect for rightly dividing. I Corinthians 2:1-14 informs us that there is, on the one hand, the mind, will and emotions, activities of electro-chemical processes in the brain, resulting in living life according to learned behaviors, to man's principles, concepts, ideas and strategies, all products of the soulish / sinful nature that man was left with after Eden. On the other hand there is the Spiritual Nature (1 Corinthians 2:15-16), provided by God at the precise moment of the born-again experience (John 3:3, Romans 10:8-13), resulting in living life in accordance with the Word of God. One is instantly transformed by the indwelling Holy Spirit, empowering the new Believer, operating from the Spiritual Nature, to overcome that which is soulish / sin-filled.

I have spoken to persons in all walks of life who have experienced the Amazing Grace of God after confessing Jesus as Savior (Romans 10:8-13), who have eagerly sought out the Bible, eagerly searched the scriptures, joyfully attended church services, dropped sinful habits and behaviors, only a few months later to be joyless, floundering, confused, wondering "Where did God go?" Been there, done that. There is no better example of the battle between mind, will and emotions, and the newness of life in Jesus. There is no better example of rightly dividing the Word of God in teaching and explaining it to new Christians: Spiritual vs. sinful. Those seeking insight into becoming a Christian can profit from this initial input, as well. The latter are, of course, living only in the soulish nature.

Initially, the Presence of the Holy Spirit was an awesome experience for the babe in Christ. The Spiritual Nature was 100% present. The sinful nature had been boxed in, driven into a corner, silenced. Then the activities of the old life began to creep in. Perhaps family members questioned the new Christian, some family and friends even scoffed, others parted friendship. The new Christian could no longer associate with some of them ---- at least for a time. At some point someone said something like "What? You believe a talking snake crawled around in a garden?" And "What? You believe you can take up serpents and scorpions?" "Huh? A big ark with 8 people and two of every creature? Hey, were there two mosquitos on there? How did Noah figure out which ones were female, ha ha ha......". Perhaps the new Christian started out by "studying" the Hebrew Bible, opened it up to Song of Solomon or 1st and 2nd Kings. And so ridicule (That's in the Bible?) and doubt (I have to believe this?) take over.

"Rightly Dividing" in this sense simply refers to realizing that the old sinful nature never goes away, always ready to really mess things up for the new Christian, with lots of help from the sinful nature in others. Non-Spiritual input from non-Spiritual sources really stirs the pot, making it exceptionally difficult to identify the ingredients -- especially while boiling over. The mess has to be cleaned up.

The key, if you will, is understanding the intended audience right up front, then who, where, when, what and how. One thing for sure: NEVER ask "Why?" God said it, that settles it.

Audience, Genesis 12 through Matthew: Jews.
Audience, Acts 9 through Philemon: Everyone.

Hey I'm following what you are saying for the most part. I've struggled with distinguishing my soul and spirit also. The bible makes it clear that we are tripartite with a body, soul, and a spirit. However, the soul is not a "realm" or a source. The soul could not exist without the body or the spirit. The soul is either dictated by the body (flesh- chemical, neourons), or the spirit ( your inner spiritual man). People in the world with a spirit that is not illuminated by the Holy Spirit, perhaps an unclean spirit or no spiritual influence at all live in spiritual darkness ( no real guidance or light to see the truth and communicate with the Lord). They are dictated only by their flesh and blood ( blood that was cursed because of Adam) so by nature they will sin. So your soul is not sinful in itself it is sinful because of its influence. When you believe Jesus Christ you are born again by the Spirit you are a new creation right there. The old man is gone. The old man is not the flesh, the old man (or soul- you are a living soul- think of your soul as "you") is the man dominated by his sinful flesh. You are no longer that man you are now spiritual. Your human spirit is now a container for the Holy Spirit (aka the third person of God. God's seed or life is in you and "you"- your soul cannot continue to sin. Your flesh will continue to sin/fail/ miss the mark, but your heart has been changed. Or it may be better to say if you try to rely on your body/flesh/ will power for strength you will fail/ sin in pleasing God. All though we are a tripartite being the battle is only dualist. We do not have to let go of "who" we are, we have to stop behaving like the old man who depends on the flesh.
the dispensationalist Clarence Larkin has the following diagram


Imagine that this diagram represents your physical head.
The skin, eye ears etc represent what you can perceive with your senses. If you simply live by your senses like Esau (Genesis 25). And you live only to feed your stomach and disregard your spiritual birthright.

The soul represent how you process and respond to the stimuli you see/ feel/taste. ( you mentioned this as well; the physical brain intellect is different from the mind or soul - basically the brain is the container of the mind/ soul) It is clear everyone is not on equal fields as far as intelligence. However we are on the same ball field within the mind. You may never become a rocket scientist but you can shape your mind to where to God intended it. The soul/mind is the place of your individual imagination, conscience, memory,reason, and affections. It's you. It is end product of how you respond the physical and spiritual world. There are many religious groups that want you to rid yourself of "self". I do not believe this is what God intended. I believe God intended for us to rid ourselves of self "gratification", living only to feed and serve ourselves. We need to submit ourselves ( dreams/imagination, affections) to God for his glory. What you are passionate about shapes your gifts. The dreams that are only guided by earthly/ bodily ambitions are lesser to those that are guided by what you receive from the Spirit.

this leaves us with the human spirit. our spirit is our eyes, ears, and noise for the the spiritual realm. This is the place of spiritual insight. This is where we hear from God. Hence if the human spirit is dark without the new birth from the Holy spirit it is impossible to establish a relationship with God. The human spirit can also distinguish from spirits from God and spirits that follow the evil one. Some willingly and unwillingly allow unclean spirits to enter them. I do not believe a person become "possessed" if he/she has an unclean spirit. It is when multiple unclean spirits reside in you, it what cause a possessed like state. (Luke 8:30- in context). The spirit of a christian/ or a member of the body of Christ, will supply insight from God to the believer where he/she will receive that in the soul if he submits his "will". Which I believe is what you are getting at when you talk about dividing the spirit and the soul (Hebrews 4:12). Your will is like the barrier between your soul and spirit. It needs to be broken for God to get in. The word of God breaks that barrier. Your soul is not your will but they are connected. Ultimately when a person submits his will to Jesus he will be saved through the Holy Spirit, who enters through that barrier/door of the will.

You will is your say - your way- your rule. Your way or the highway= your will. Most people and even Christians do not submit their will to Christ. This is why Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily. It's like even when the Holy Spirit is in us, we still may try to block Him from the inside of our opposed to the outside ( take a look at the diagram) again. It is if we are impeding Him from reaching our souls although the Spirit already made that journey through us. .
So 70% of the teachings from Paul, John, and Peter can be sum up in this. Listen to the Holy Spirit who dwells in your human spirit instead of trusting your fleshly senses. And rely on power from the Spirit instead of the power of your human intellect, human systems, and physical strength.
I went through all that because I felt it was necessary. With that being said using terms like "soulish" should be used with caution. The soul is not the source of sin, it is what is influenced by sin. If a person does not have the Holy Spirit he is soulish or natural. But just to be clear it is impossible for a Christian to be soulish because he/she now has the Holy Spirit in them. The definition of soulish is defined in Jude.

These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded(soulish), devoid of the Spirit (Jude 1:19).

When you were not a Christian your soul was the problem. Now your soul still has corruption because of the influence of the body/flesh/blood- which will remain sinful until it is glorified. The physical blood in us, is what curses and causes us to sin. Your body is not evil, it is sinful/ failing. You can say your will or heart was wicked before you were born again.

Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? 18“But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20“These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”( Matthew 15:17-20)
So the old man had a sinful flesh(body), and possibly an evil or wicked will which would not submit to God.
Think of 5 shells- with the preceding within the shell
body-brain-mind-will/heart- spirit. Your brain and your will are the dividing part and your body, soul, and spirit are the substance within those boundaries.

Grace and peace.

(03-06-2013 06:06 PM)Damascus Road Wrote:  There is a second aspect for rightly dividing. I Corinthians 2:1-14 informs us that there is, on the one hand, the mind, will and emotions, activities of electro-chemical processes in the brain, resulting in living life according to learned behaviors, to man's principles, concepts, ideas and strategies, all products of the soulish / sinful nature that man was left with after Eden. On the other hand there is the Spiritual Nature (1 Corinthians 2:15-16), provided by God at the precise moment of the born-again experience (John 3:3, Romans 10:8-13), resulting in living life in accordance with the Word of God. One is instantly transformed by the indwelling Holy Spirit, empowering the new Believer, operating from the Spiritual Nature, to overcome that which is soulish / sin-filled.

I have spoken to persons in all walks of life who have experienced the Amazing Grace of God after confessing Jesus as Savior (Romans 10:8-13), who have eagerly sought out the Bible, eagerly searched the scriptures, joyfully attended church services, dropped sinful habits and behaviors, only a few months later to be joyless, floundering, confused, wondering "Where did God go?" Been there, done that. There is no better example of the battle between mind, will and emotions, and the newness of life in Jesus. There is no better example of rightly dividing the Word of God in teaching and explaining it to new Christians: Spiritual vs. sinful. Those seeking insight into becoming a Christian can profit from this initial input, as well. The latter are, of course, living only in the soulish nature.

Initially, the Presence of the Holy Spirit was an awesome experience for the babe in Christ. The Spiritual Nature was 100% present. The sinful nature had been boxed in, driven into a corner, silenced. Then the activities of the old life began to creep in. Perhaps family members questioned the new Christian, some family and friends even scoffed, others parted friendship. The new Christian could no longer associate with some of them ---- at least for a time. At some point someone said something like "What? You believe a talking snake crawled around in a garden?" And "What? You believe you can take up serpents and scorpions?" "Huh? A big ark with 8 people and two of every creature? Hey, were there two mosquitos on there? How did Noah figure out which ones were female, ha ha ha......". Perhaps the new Christian started out by "studying" the Hebrew Bible, opened it up to Song of Solomon or 1st and 2nd Kings. And so ridicule (That's in the Bible?) and doubt (I have to believe this?) take over.

"Rightly Dividing" in this sense simply refers to realizing that the old sinful nature never goes away, always ready to really mess things up for the new Christian, with lots of help from the sinful nature in others. Non-Spiritual input from non-Spiritual sources really stirs the pot, making it exceptionally difficult to identify the ingredients -- especially while boiling over. The mess has to be cleaned up.

The key, if you will, is understanding the intended audience right up front, then who, where, when, what and how. One thing for sure: NEVER ask "Why?" God said it, that settles it.

Audience, Genesis 12 through Matthew: Jews.
Audience, Acts 9 through Philemon: Everyone.

Hello!

Finally getting through, thanks to the site owner!

Awesome to hear from you and to view the drawing by Clarence Larkin.

I'm retired now but always ready to discuss scripture from the Classic Dispensational viewpoint.

:-)
Don

(I'm struggling to paste my .jpg version of Larkin's graphic.)

Thanks for responding. Let me know your thoughts. I run into very few people that share my viewpoints or even consider these things. Many people use the bible to push there agenda instead of reading it to see what God is trying to tell them. Feel free to respond to my other threads I posted recently.

grace and peace
Aaron

(05-20-2014 02:23 PM)Damascus Road Wrote:  Hello!

Finally getting through, thanks to the site owner!

Awesome to hear from you and to view the drawing by Clarence Larkin.

I'm retired now but always ready to discuss scripture from the Classic Dispensational viewpoint.

:-)
Don

(I'm struggling to paste my .jpg version of Larkin's graphic.)

Hi!

I still haven't figured out how to insert my concept, akin to Larkin. I've got a ton of questions & answers that I have shared over the years ---- i'll be happy to share them with you, perhaps one or two weekly. Whatever you decide. All are based upon the Classic Dispensational viewpoint, a viewpoint that Christian colleges and schools are abandoning. What a shame!

:-)
Don

(05-24-2014 04:54 PM)Damascus Road Wrote:  Hi!

I still haven't figured out how to insert my concept, akin to Larkin. I've got a ton of questions & answers that I have shared over the years ---- i'll be happy to share them with you, perhaps one or two weekly. Whatever you decide. All are based upon the Classic Dispensational viewpoint, a viewpoint that Christian colleges and schools are abandoning. What a shame!

:-)
Don

Sorry I've been "out of pocket" for a week or so.


One of the websites you may want to visit is a lengthy expose of soul vs. Spirit, where soul is strictly psychological. It describes the mind, mental, emotions, will, intellectual approach to living. It is the precise opposite of living the Spiritual life, dedicated to our Savior. The Holy Spirit empowers us with a Spiritual Nature that challenges and overcomes the psychlogical products of "brain" with the Holy Spirit. How we are to approach living is NOT upon the basis of "brain," but on the basis of our one-to-one relationship with Jesus as Savior. He is our Grand Instructor, not the mind-mental-intellectual approach to solving earth's problems.

Here is the site:

http://scofieldministries.blogspot.com/2...es-by.html

Be prepared to spend some time there (also review my attachment)

:-)
Don

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