The soul is not a substance. It is an issue of two substances coming together. When the breath of God came into the body of dust, an issue came out. This issue is our soul as our self in between our body and our spirit (Gen. 2:7c; Luke 9:23-25). The more that we experience the spiritual life and enjoy God, the more we realize this matter of our soul being between our body and our spirit. Whether we are for the body or for the spirit depends upon what we let our soul do.
Let us suppose you have a choice between two things. One thing would cause you to lose your temper, but the other thing would cause you to praise God. Which thing would you welcome? This is up to the decision of your soul. In the evening you may have the choice between two things. You can either go to the church meeting or stay home and watch television. Which would you choose? At that juncture it is very clear that going to the meeting is the spirit's intention, whereas staying home to watch television is the fleshly desire of your fallen body. This shows that the soul is between our body and our spirit.
Day by day we are confronted with things and situations in which we must decide whether to follow our fallen body or our regenerated spirit. Sometimes we may have a choice between making a telephone call or making a "call to the heavens" to pray. We may be addicted to gossiping with someone who is our friend. This kind of talk is in our soul with our body. The desire to make a call to the heavens, to talk to the Lord, is of the Spirit and in the spirit. Quite often, however, we may choose to make phone calls instead of calling to the heavens. When we make vain phone calls, our spirit will be deadened. When we do this, we should confess, "Lord, forgive me. Today I disobeyed You in making many calls that were not according to You. Lord, I realize that those telephone calls were of the flesh and selected by my soul." These illustrations show that the soul is between the spirit and the body.
Genesis 2:7, a short verse of the Bible, gives us three points. First, God made man with the dust. Second, God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. Third, a living soul, a human being, came out as an issue. The making of the body and the issue of the soul were not as important as the producing of the spirit. The most crucial thing was the producing of the spirit. If we had only a soul with a body, we would be like the beasts.
Most people live by the soul with the body. The newspapers always give reports of people who are involved in evil things such as robbery, stealing, fornication, divorce, and murder. These are people who are living by their soul with their body. We need to be different. We should endeavor to live by our spirit with the Spirit. We should deny our ugly, contaminated soul and reject our dirty, fallen body.
The Bible tells us to deny the soul because it has been corrupted (Matt. 16:24-26; Luke 9:23-25). One day when Peter was talking to the Lord, Satan came out of him, even through his loving of the Lord (Matt. 16:22-23). The soul is ugly, and we should hate it. The body is dirty, and we should reject it. We Christians who are under God's teaching should always endeavor to live by our spirit with the Spirit. It is in our spirit that we have the real rest. We are different than most people. While they live by their soul with their body, we live by our spirit with the Spirit.