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What the man is, depends upon what the soul is, or who is in charge. The soul expresses a person as a unique individual: his personality and the organ of his free will. If the soul should choose to obey God, it will allow the spirit to rule over the man. Mankind apart from obeying God is soulish; in juxtaposition, when obedient to God’s Word he is spiritual.
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If we think of ourselves as only living souls, we remain in the first man Adam, of the dust of the ground in whom we are sinners. On the other hand, if we abide in Christ and His Word, we cease to be soulish because the last man Adam is a life-giving Spirit, from heaven (not to be confused with The Holy Spirit).
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We are spiritual beings housed in physical bodies. That combination of clay (dust of the ground), and the breath of life (Spirit of God) created a living soul. Both spirit and soul are incorporeal-1: not corporeal: the spirit and soul have no material body or form; synonymous to- bodiless, ethereal, formless, immaterial,
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The soul wants to do its own thing. It is selfish (Matt. 16:24). This means that it wants the things of the world and acts out through the flesh; it relishes the things of the world.
First off, I want to apologize to all of my brothers and sisters for such an extended absence. There was a very good reason for that. I won’t go into a lot of detail but I will say this, I got my feelings hurt badly. You could even say I was traumatized. Therefore, it was important to me that The Holy Spirit heal those wounds before writing anymore post.
Our focus will be on the human soul. Let us distinguish the human soul from that of the soul of God. Most of us have never considered the possibility that God might have a soul. If He has the capacity to feel, think, and make decisions He has a soul. Always go back to the Book of Genesis or as some say “the book of beginnings”. He created us in His likeness and in His image. In other words, He didn’t exactly go to Kinkos, but He was out to make tiny copies of Himself so that mankind would rule over the earth (Gen. 1: 26-28). Think about it for a moment, He breathed the breath of life, His breath into Adam’s nostrils. Jesus said, “God is Spirit (John 4:24)”, therefore mankind, even though he is housed in a physical body would also have to be spirit. We have learned through previous studies that man became “a living soul (Gen. 2:7)”. What does this mean? The Godhead instilled in us the power of free will, just like Him. We have a mind of our own, and we are responsible for our choices, just like Him. We are also animated and full of emotions; the ability to love, to hate, to grieve, to desire, and to even be repulsed. These are the faculties of the human soul. Admittedly, I cannot find a verse that says, “God is a living soul”, but there are thousands that tell us about His will, His mind, His love, His hates (repulsion) of sinful behavior (Prov. 6:16-19). The Holy Spirit (the third person of the Godhead) can be grieved; God wants all men and women to receive salvation (John 3:16). The list can go on and on about how He experiences the same feelings we do. In fact, He gave us the capacity to experience emotions; He did not create us to be stoic and cold. However, there is one gigantic difference between God’s emotions and ours; Yes, you are correct. He can and has experienced the full range of human emotions through Christ, yet apart from having a sinful nature (Heb. 4:15). I recently heard a preacher say, “God made a mistake”. We all have a right to our opinion, however, my job as a teacher is to make sure people are well informed (Hos. 4:6). He said his theology is based on Genesis 6: 7, which says “And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them (KJV).” If you would go back and put that verse in context, you will find this is a reference to the deluge (the flood of Noah’s Ark). I think this preacher only looked at the word “repenteth” on the surface. Or maybe he applied it to God as it would apply to us. When we sin, we’ve sinned against God and or another person. It means we have wronged someone. Therefore, we need to repent. The Hebrew and Greek definitions of words are very important. When teaching or preaching you must take the time to look up the meaning of these words before expounding on them. When I repent of something, what I’m saying is I have made a mistake or sinned. We can’t apply that to God because He is perfect, and perfection cannot make a mistake. Now if you believe that God is not perfect, then you should take that up with Him.
As I said at the outset, God possesses a soul simply because He created Adam with a soul; feelings, free will, etc. The word “repenteth” in the New King James Bible translated the same word as “sorry”. He was sorrowful within Himself. When I say, I’m sorry’ or will you forgive me to someone, that means I have wronged him or her in some way, or I was mistaken. That is the reason I say them. Now let’s put on our thinking caps, who would God be apologizing to? Whom did He wrong? The survey says NO ONE. Now let’s take a quick look at the Hebrew word for “repenteth” in the KJV. If you do not have access to Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic dictionaries before you purchase another stitch of clothing…invest in them. That way you will not swallow everything you hear from the pulpit:
