Christianity Oasis Member Forum & Chat Room

My goodness....
For me there was so much to take in from this step and this study. I plan to review the whole thing again before I move forward. There many key concepts that I'm digesting:

The main one being that we are made up of Spirit, Soul, and Body, as the of Trinity of God is made up of Father, Holy Spirit and Son. The teaching says that the Holy Spirit obeys (responds to) the voice of the Father. The teaching also says that my spirit obeys the emotions, thoughts and will expressed that reside and are processed thru my soul. It goes onto say that both our spirit and our soul will go to heaven when we are done on earth. This is the first time I've heard that there are 2 eternal aspects to my being that will both go to heaven....I'm still trying to understand this. Also, the teaching was saying that our souls are analogous to blood based on Leviticus 17:11 ( physical blood as I understood this)...I didn't feel that concept to be supported by scripture necessarily but I'm still trying to understand. I even looked up Noah Webster's 1828 version of the dictionary and searched scripture to verify the definition of soul being made up of our blood. It wasn't there.

I'm sure someone out there will be able to help me understand this. I appreciate any input u may have...

There's lots of other stuff God is showing me as well. Including a wonderful with a small spider. I ended up writing a small little ode to The Spider as a result....

God GIIVES STRENGTH TO HIS PEOPLE; THE LORD BLESSES HIS PEOPLE WITH STRENGH - Psalm 29:11

Jamie

Hello Jamie

God bless you this day.

I'm so excited that you are thinking and pondering and meditating on all of the Truths shared within the study. I realize it's a lot to take in, and WOW sometimes it's a little overwhelming for us to take in all at once, huh? I can relate, completely.

You said:

The teaching also says that my spirit obeys the emotions, thoughts and will expressed that reside and are processed thru my soul.

I don't want to confuse you further, however, I don't think the study says that, per say. Our soul, which is what we believe (our mind), sets the tone, so to speak. Whatever we believe in our mind (soul), our spirit follows, and our emotions are "housed" (if you will) within our spirit, sooooooooooooo, if our soul (mind) believes something, then our spirit follows and our emotions react accordingly.

Our soul is us...our personality and our beliefs. Our spirit is a little more difficult to explain. I sometimes think of it as the conduit that God uses to communicate with me. When a Christian dies, our body will return to the dust from which it was made, and our soul (our personality by which we are known by others) will go to Paradise to be with The Lord, and our spirit will return to The Lord. Honestly, I'm not sure how to explain that any differently right now.

One of the difficulties, I find, is that there are different definitions of the same word. Let's take the word "life" it can mean the temporary life we are currently living here on earth, but it can also mean the eternal life. Two very different uses of the word, but yet, we use the same word to describe it.

Leviticus 17:11 speaks of life being in the blood. Well, the physical body is made up of blood, and without it, the body is dead. But, so too, the breathe of life. Oxygen!!! Yet, there is a spiritual component to all of this, too.

The non-Christian, while alive here on this earth, also has life, blood and breathe, a soul, a spirit and a body. When a non-Christian dies, their body returns to the dust, their spirit returns to God from Whom it was given, and their soul (mind and personality) will go to Hell for eternity.

Sidebar: FYI, I realize there is a Judgment yet to come, but, for the sake of this discussion, I'm sorta taking a shortcut by using the word eternity in regards to the non-Christian, because I'm not God, and only He can Judge as to where a soul ends up.

Anyway, the non-Christian will still exist, their soul will still exist for an eternity in Hell, yet, "life" or the words "living" or "alive" won't really apply, because they will be existing in death.

Oh Jamie, I sure hope I'm not adding more confusion here, but the things you are pondering on are the same things I ponder on too, so I'm sharing my own thoughts and wonderings. God is Good!!!

Ok, so let's go back to the Christian and blood and life being in the blood (Leviticus 17:11). Once this Christian body dies, we won't have blood, but we'll be very much alive, soooooooooooooo the life that is in blood must have a spiritual component to it, too. Not only does it carry oxygen...the breathe of life for the body, it also carries in it, the spiritual component of LIFE -- eternal life in the Born Again Christian, and the spiritual component of it moves on with the soul. Awwwwwwwww, I love that. Awwwwwwww, that gave me Holy Spirit chill bumps. Thank You Lord.



Ok, I'll stop there. I hope to hear from you, Jamie, and I hope to read more of your heart's ponderings in regards to the blessed The Spirit of Truth Study.

God bless and keep you and yours, Jamie.
In Christ Jesus' love,
Sister Mack

Sister Mack,
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment on my "wonderings". I'm still taking it all in....I've been on vacation in Arizona for my daughter's graduation so I haven't been able to ruminate as much on all these mysteries. I am SO grateful for the Holy Spirit for leading me to this site and for people like u to help us all. I'm coming home tomorrow nite (Wed) and look forward to resuming the journey of this study...

God Bless You
Jamie