We have seen clearly what the condition and the function of the spirit are. Now we must learn how to differentiate the spirit from the soul. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Joints are the bones, and marrow is within the bone. Just as we differentiate these two things, we have to differentiate the spirit and the soul.
It is difficult to differentiate the spirit from the soul. This is because we are fallen people. As we have seen, the spirit of fallen man was deadened, and it lost its function. This means that the human spirit within fallen man did not function. From our youth, even from the day of our birth, we did not exercise our spirit. If we do not exercise any organ of our being for a certain time, it becomes useless. An expert once told me that if we do not use our eyes for three months, they will lose the function of sight, and it will take a long time to recover our vision. As fallen people, our spirit was deadened, and for a long time we did not use it. However, we were very accustomed to using our body and our soul. Therefore, after the fall of man, the human mind became overdeveloped. Now the mind is always too active. Even after we are saved and our spirit is made alive and renewed, we still are not used to exercising the spirit.
Today’s psychology does not even recognize that there is a spirit in man. The science of psychology only recognizes the body and the psyche, that is, the soul. The Bible, however, reveals to us that we have a third part, not only a body and a soul but also a spirit. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Our soul comprises the mind as the leading part and the emotion and the will. Our spirit, which was deadened, is made alive, regenerated, and renewed. However, we are still not used to the exercise of the spirit.
More than twenty years ago we lived in a small town in northern China. Like other homes in that town, ours had no electricity, so we used an oil lamp for a long time. One day electricity was installed in our home. At that time I visited people almost every day beginning early in the morning, and I came back in the evening. Whenever I came back home, the first thing I did was to put away my bicycle and pick up a match to light the lamp, even after electric lights had been installed. When I did this, our children would laugh at me. When I saw them laughing, I said to myself, “Foolish man, throw the match away.” Then I went to the switch to turn on the lights. For many years I was used to picking up a match to light the lamp. Now electricity had been installed, but I was not used to it. Today the heavenly “electricity” has been installed in our spirit, but we are not used to exercising this part. We are still used to “picking up the match” in our soul.
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