In this blog, we will continue the series – THE CALLING. We had looked into the first 2 parts of the tripartite and will see about the spirit in this one. The spirit is probably the most important part of the tripartite that we need to look into when it comes to our spiritual life and our calling.
WHAT IS IT?
To know what the spirit is, we need to go back to the garden of Eden, to the moment where God gives a very important detail about the effect of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
“except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Genesis 2:17
God says that when Man eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he will die. But then after the fall of man, we don’t see literal death. It seems as though God had lied to Adam. But indeed God is not a liar. He told a truth that is essential for us to understand about the spirit.
COMMUNICATION
In the actual Hebrew text, there are two deaths mentioned. The literal translation would be – ‘ dying you shall die ‘. So God is saying “your spirit will die leading to the death of the body“. what does this statement mean?
MAN’S PURPOSE
Once when I was coming home from college, I was looking out the window and was admiring nature and praising God. I heard the holy spirit ask me, “What is the purpose of man?”, I replied, “Each person has a different call over his/her life and it is to serve you the way you want them to”. He said, “you’re right about the purpose of a person in this fallen world. But, what if Man did not sin and live in a fallen world? What would the purpose of man then be? Would it still be prophesying or evangelizing or pastoring churches and so on?”. I didn’t have an answer, and it was at that moment I gave serious thought to it. The Holy Spirit went on to say “If we are to remove sin and darkness and all the oppression that you face today what would you be left with to do on earth?”. I then remembered that God would come every day in the cool of the day to adam in the Eden garden before sin entered mankind and said “In that case, the only purpose of mankind would be to be in relationship with you”. He replied, “that is the truth, the true and original purpose of mankind is to be in relationship with God. So even though you have a specific call in this fallen world to do the work of God, you mustn’t stop being in relationship and communion with God. Relationship with God is the primary call and purpose of every human”. The spirit is what enables us to fulfil this basic purpose of mankind.
So, to answer the question, when man sinned, his spirit died, resulting in losing his relationship with God. The death of man’s spirit meant that he lost his only means to communicate with God. failing to communicate with God is equal to losing the purpose for which he was created. This shows us that the spirit is the only means of communication with God and the spirit realm. Without the spirit, we would never be able to communicate with God and make meaning of our life. But, this changes the moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and saviour.
LIFE
I believe that God’s authentic idea towards man was to be immortal like Him. But, because of sin, we are now experiencing death in body and spirit. This state of the spirit is broken when a person believes in Jesus and experiences salvation. His spirit is renewed or regenerated, mending the relationship between God and man. It is the spirit that enables us to be alive in God and body just as what James says in James 2:26
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:26
Without the spirit, we would die. This is why the moment Jesus gave up His spirit or yielded His spirit when He died on the cross.
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Matthew 27:50
The spirit is the component in the human being that has life. We can say that it is physically in the blood. In the old testament, God asked the Israelites not to eat the blood because life is in the blood. when did this spirit enter us? When God breathed into Adam the breath of life. Although the English word used in that verse is ‘breath’, the Hebrew word is ‘spirit’. So contextually speaking, after creating man God breathed into adam’s nostrils the spirit that enabled him to live.
Do not take your spirit lightly as it is the only way of communication with God and life to your being.