The Triune Nature of Man- Part 2 (Spirit)

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. I Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV)

Yesterday, we began talking about the triune nature of man; the fact that mankind is made of three parts. Those three parts are spirit, soul, and body. Today, we’re going to zero in on the spirit.

The spirit is to rule over the other two parts of man. The spirit is to be king, the soul is the servant, and the body is the vehicle (or tool) used by the other two. Man’s spirit lost dominance when Adam fell. As a result, he was ruled by his soul and body. That is why unsaved people act the way they do, as well as Christians who have not allowed their spirits to rule.

We discovered that man is made of three parts, and it is interesting to see that each of those three parts have three parts. The spirit is made up of conscience, communion, and intuition. All three of these allow the spirit to connect with and receive from God.

Conscience

The conscience is the awareness of God and His will. It leads us and shows us right from wrong. Unsaved man does what is right in his own eyes, but born-again people are led by their God-connected conscience.

Communion

Communion is intimate fellowship with God, whereby we pray, love, and worship Him. It is by time spent in His presence and in His Word that we commune with Him.

Intuition

Intuition is a knowing. It is how we receive revelation or insight we would not naturally have. We often sense or have a knowing that we should or should not do something. It is the inner witness that can direct our steps.

These three make up the spirit of man and create a God-consciousness in us. When man fell, he lost his God-consciousness. As a result, he went from a God nature to a sin nature. Rather than God-conscious, he became sin-conscious. He lost his communion and fellowship with God in the garden. The garden, where he had met with and fellowshipped with God, we now off-limits to him. He had to learn to know God in a new way.

No longer could man connect with God spirit to Spirit, but God had to deal with man according to the soul and flesh. When we are born-again, We are brought back into fellowship with God and our God-consciousness is restored. As we spend time in the Word and with God, we accept and believe that we’ve been made right with God and we have a clear conscience.

Being conscious of God is practicing the presence of God. We are aware of Him and know He is in us and with us wherever we go. We can fellowship with our heavenly Father. We can be close to Jesus, the Lover of our soul. We can experience the Holy Spirit as our Close Companion. God is not off in the distance- He’s come to live inside us. Your heart is the home of God.

When we are God-conscious, we know that God loves us, cares about us, is for us, and that He’s good, faithful, able and just. God-consciousness allows us to be aware of sins and shortcomings, but we are more aware of the God who cleanses us and makes us pure. We are acutely aware of God’s redemption, grace, and forgiveness.

In our spirits, we know what God sees as right and wrong, we fellowship with Him, and we are led and directed in all our ways. Our connection with God is what differs us from unsaved people. It is what Adam lost and we’ve regained. Our spirit is our union with God.