THE SPIRIT

The spirit is the foundational element of the soul as the nature of a person’s spirit determines the outcome of their efforts for obedience to Christ. The spirit is like a USB drive. It is through the spirit that a person is able to connect to God’s Spirit and communicate with God. There are, however, two natures of a person’s spirit. When a person is born, they are spiritually dead, which means that their Spirit is not connected to God’s Spirit. When Christ is accepted as Lord and savior, a person becomes connected to God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and therefore become spiritually alive.

Collins calls the spirit, “the mechanism of operation and communication with God.”[1] The mind is then influenced by the Spirit in order to encourage you to act in accordance with God’s will, God’s desires. Therefore, the spirit plays a critical role in the ability to give the elements of the soul over to Christ. In fact, it is only by the power of God’s Spirit that man is able to do this. If a person does not give themselves over to the service of Christ, they do not receive the Spirit within them and are therefore unable to be truly obedient.