Spirit, Soul and Body
by Andrew Wommack
One of the very first revelations that the Lord ever gave me, and probably the most basic revelation I have ever received, is about how all of us were created as a spirit, soul, and body. This totally revolutionized my thinking.
The biggest conflict I had in the early days of my walk with the Lord was the disparity between what I felt in my heart and what I saw in my life. I knew that there was a wonderful life in Christ available, but I didn't know how to experience it. It was like trying to open a door with no handle or driving a car with no steering wheel. It seemed as victory was there, but totally out of my control. I spent a lot of time begging God to do something instead of believing what He had already done.
I was totally confused by scriptures that said we are already complete in Christ (Col. 2:10); we were already healed (1 Pet. 2:24); and that we are already blessed (Eph. 1:3). I wanted to believe them; I had a stirring in my heart that bore witness with those truths, but how could it be? I had spent my entire life evaluating what I had by what I could see or feel, and I was having a hard time moving into the realm of believing what I couldn't see. The thing that made the difference was the revelation of spirit, soul, and body.
I discovered that when we get born again, our physical bodies don't get saved nor do our souls. You will often hear people speak about being a soul winner or desiring to see a soul saved, but that's technically incorrect. Our souls aren't the part of us that gets born again. It's our spirits.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "...if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Paul was stressing total and complete change at salvation. Simple reasoning will reveal that it has to be our spirits that Paul was speaking about being in Christ. It certainly isn't talking about our bodies. If you were fat before you got saved, you will still be fat after you get saved, unless you go on a diet. Your body does not get totally changed at salvation.
Don't get me wrong, your body's salvation has been purchased by the death and resurrection of Jesus; there will come a day when we will receive that glorified body, but that hasn't happened yet. Paul made it very clear that "this corruptible must put on incorruption and mortal must put on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:53). We are waiting for "...the redemption of the purchased possession" (Eph. 1:14). Therefore, 2 Corinthians 5:17 is not referring to your body being changed.
Also, you can see that your soul isn't in Christ as Paul described in 2 Corinthians 5:17, because it wasn't instantly changed either. If you weren't very smart before you got saved, you won't automatically become smarter after you get saved. You can renew your mind and affect your intellect, but it isn't accurate to describe your mind as, "Old things pass away and all things become new." You can prove that by your last test score. You still are capable of evil thoughts.
The Bible teaches that there is another part of us beyond our physical bodies and our inner personalities or what the Bible calls the soul. We each have a spirit. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, "... and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." There it is. The Bible clearly teaches that each of us has three parts. If your soul or body is not the part that was changed through salvation, then by the process of elimination, that only leaves your spirit.
Our spirits are the parts of us that are already saved and completely changed. That is very significant because we can't perceive our spirits through any of our five senses. Jesus told Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (Jn. 3:6). Another way of saying this is, "Flesh is flesh and spirit is spirit"-they are not the same. They exist in two different realms. We can't perceive spiritual reality by physical means.
Therefore, the things we have received in Christ are all in our new, born again spirits, which are in a realm that our five senses can't perceive. That's a revelation! That means that when the Bible speaks of us being exactly as Jesus is, now in this world (1 Jn. 4:17), it means exactly what it says. It isn't a reality in our bodies or souls yet; we may not see it or feel it, but it is absolutely true in our spirits. Our born again spirits are identical to Jesus in every way. WOW!
Someone might say, "I can't believe that. If I was like Jesus, I would know it. I could feel it and see it and so could others: not necessarily. You are like Jesus in your spirit, but you can't feel or see your spirit and neither can anyone else. You can and should, let the change that has taken place in your new spirit affect you so that it is felt in your soul and can be seen in your body, but that doesn't happen automatically. That's a process and it all begins by first acknowledging what you already have in your spirit.
Philemon 1:6 says, "... the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus." Your faith doesn't begin to work until you acknowledge what you already have in Christ (in your spirit).
Most Christians believe in some measure of victorious living, but very few believe that victory is already in them. They think God has the power to deliver them, but they envision that power as being way out "there" somewhere. They pray and ask God to come down, touch them and release His power, and then they wait on God to move.
This wrong attitude is reflected in many of our unscriptural prayers. I've often heard people ask the Lord to come and be with them or to go with them through the week. God's Word says He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5), so praying for Him to be with you is unnecessary and shows that we don't really believe His Word. The scriptures also clearly teach that God lives within each true Christian, so why would we say things like, "My prayer didn't get above the ceiling"? You don't need your prayer to get above your nose. You are praying to the Almighty God who lives in you. That's why you bow your head when you pray: so you can look at where God lives.
True victory comes when we believe that God has already moved and given us everything that we need in our new born-again spirits. The Lord doesn't have to come and place His mighty hand on us for us to get healed. He has already placed the same power on the inside of us that raised Jesus from the dead (Eph. 1:19-20). That's more than enough power to accomplish anything we need. It's already present. Therefore, asking God to give it to us is actually an expression of unbelief. That unbelief stops the power that is already in us from flowing out into our physical bodies.
We don't have to ask God to heal us. We need to believe that, "by his stripes we WERE healed" (1 Pet. 2:24). It's already been done. We don't need to be healed. We need to release the healing we already have.
Someone might say, "Well, how do we do that?" There are many things involved in releasing God's power. The first and most essential thing is to believe that we already have it. That can only be done if we have an understanding of our new born again spirits and what they possess.
Imagine that the relationship between your spirit, soul, and body is like a pipe. In one end of the pipe is your spirit, which is totally new and possesses everything that Jesus possesses. In the other end of the pipe is your physical body.
This is the part of you that needs the healing power of God to manifest. In between your spirit and body is your soul, which is the mental, emotional part of you.
The soul is like a valve or tap in the pipe. The born again spirit has everything in it that we need, but it will not flow into the body unless the valve (mind) is opened or renewed. Just as a faucet can be plumbed into a water line, but never release that water if the valve isn't opened, so we can be full of the life of God in our born again spirits, but never experience it in our physical lives if we don't change the way we think.
This is the point that Romans 12:2 is making. That verse says, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." The way we receive transformation in our souls and bodies is by the renewing of our minds. The Greek word that was translated "transformed" is "METAMORPHOO" and is the word we get our English word "metamorphosis" from. That's the process whereby a caterpillar spins a cocoon and later emerges as a butterfly. If we want that type of transformation in our lives, we have to change the way we think. Our mind is the valve.
We change the way we think through meditating in the Word of God. Jesus said, "...the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life." God's words are spirit. They reveal to us spiritual truths just as a mirror reveals to us physical truths.
If you want to know if your hair is combed, you don't just go by the way you feel. You can't feel what your hair looks like. You look in a mirror and trust what you see. You aren't actually seeing your hair. You are seeing a reflection of your hair. Yet, you trust what you see and act accordingly. You can do the same thing with the Word of God (Jam. 1:23-25).
You don't just go by the way you feel. You may not feel like you are healed, but the mirror, God's Word, says, "by whose stripes you WERE healed" (1 Pet. 2:24). As you renew your mind to believe what the Word of God says more than what you feel, then it's like turning on the tap. The life of God that is already in your spirit begins to flow through your renewed mind and into your body. The result is that whatever sickness is in your body has to flee in the presence of the healing power of God's life, which is already present in your spirit.
Every born-again believer in Christ has this life-giving power of God in his spirit. Not every believer renews his mind and can release that power into his physical body. In that case, he has to have someone else who can release God's power, come and lay hands on him. When that happens, the believer by-passes the blockage that is in his own mind, and the power of God flows to his body through someone else's renewed mind. The Lord does this because He loves us, and doesn't want us to suffer just because our plumbing is stopped up. So, He gives us others to help us get past the blockage of our own unrenewed minds.
It's not God's will for
us always to receive in this way. It is a temporary method at best. We can't
always count on someone else, who can flow in the supernatural power of God, to
be around. The superior way is to open up the flow through us by the renewing of
our own minds. We will not only receive, but then we can become channels for the
Lord to flow His power through to others.
AWM