What are you made of? While there is an abundance of answers to this very open-ended question, I would like to direct you to a very simple answer: As humans, we can divide our make-up into three distinct parts: spirit, soul and body. There is not one person exempt from this trio, though there are many who do not understand their individual functions.
Here is the deal: first and foremost, you are a SPIRIT being, you have a SOUL and you live in a BODY. Most of the time, people get it backwards. They think, "I am a body, I live through my soul, and I have a spirit somewhere in there." If we begin to dissect our lives and re-evaluate our priorities we can get somewhere in knowing who we are in Christ and what our life looks like through His eyes.
Let's start with spirit - your spirit is the life of who you are. In Genesis [2:6-8], when God "breathed into Adam the breath of life", He gave Him life. It's kind of like He turned on the electricity. Without a spirit, you would be dead. It's your spirit that causes your body and your soul to function. You can't live without your spirit - just ask someone who is six feet under!
Moving on to the body - the body is your "earth suit", also known as your "birthday suit". It's the wardrobe you put on when you came into this world and when you leave [as in when you die], your spirit will slip out of it its "earth suit" in the similar manner that you take off a pair of jeans. Our body is the vehicle that transports our spirit and our soul while we hang out on this planet. When you really look at it, our body has the least to do with who we are as people, yet our society gives it excessive, obsessive emphasis.
Now your soul is made up three things as well: your mind, will and emotions. I like to think of it as the "remote control" of your life. Your mind, will and emotions dictate what you are going to get out of life based on which "buttons" are pressed. Your soul is controlled by your five senses - by what you see, hear, feel, taste and smell. However, it is up to you to choose what you allow your soul to have access to. If you allow your "remote" to have access to the X-rated channels, both figuratively and literally speaking, it's not going to go well with you. It is our CHOICE to disable certain harmful "features" in our life.
Now with that said, we live in a world in which our minds, wills and emotions (our souls) are constantly bombarded by pollutants sent to drag us down a very wrong path. These pollutants may come through bad relationships, offense, negative media, etc....the stuff of life that everyone goes through to some degree or another. Has anyone ever sat on your remote and changed the channel before? Hello! Things happen from time to time, but just because something happens outside of your control, does not mean that you must succumb to the victim mentality and allow it to derail you from your path of righteousness. Just because someone sits on my remote or presses my buttons and changes the channel from 'Joyce Meyer' to 'Days of Our Lives', it sure doesn't mean I am just going to sit there and watch that garbage! No way! I am ultimately in control of my mind, will, and emotions and I must choose to use them for righteousness. If someone came to rob your house of all its possessions, would you kindly let them in and offer them a cup of tea? No way! You would fight with everything within you to keep them out and to protect your home.
My friend, it is exactly the same with our soul. When pollutants come, when the desires of your flesh come, when bad thoughts come - and I assure you, they will - don't just lie down and play dead. That is no longer who you are. Tell them to GET OUT. The same way you would defend your home or your family from an abusive intruder - by all means, defend your soul from the daily evils that would attempt to intrude. 2 Corinthians 5:17 remind us: "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
So, how do these three - spirit, soul and body - work together? The only way we can live this life for Christ is to live it in Christ! We have to allow the Holy Spirit to have control of not only our spirit, but also our soul. How about you let Him "push your buttons"! However, giving Him control is a daily choice. Paul shows us what that looks like in the scripture below:
Paul urges us, "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]." (Romans 12:1).
Remember, you are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. When those three parts of your being are surrendered to God, there is not stopping His plan for your life!
