We have been talking the last few weeks about how Jesus came to build His Temple. We learned in Zechariah 6 and I Peter that He will not only come to build His physical Temple in His Millennial Reign, but He came to build His spiritual Temple with us, His living stones. As believers we are shaped by His loving hand and placed to fit in His spiritual Temple. Last week we discussed how to care for our bodies because they serve as His Holy Temple while we are on earth. His Holy Spirit lives in us and through us.

We are to live healthy physical and spiritual lives as His Holy Temple.

Our bodies were the first spiritual sacrifice we elaborated on from I Peter 2:5. Today, we are going to examine the next spiritual sacrifice on our list…our souls. First, let’s talk about what our soul is. Sometimes there is confusion between “soul” and “spirit”.

Our soul is what makes us a person. It is our mind/personality, emotions and will.

Our spirit is the spiritual side of us.

Our spirit has been defined as “that inner force which animates a person in one direction or another. It is a dynamic force, a mover.” (gotquestions.org)

Let’s read an important verse about the soul and spirit in Hebrews 4:12.

In this verse we see the distinction being emphasized between the soul and spirit. This points to the fact that they are two different things. Sometimes people have used the words interchangeably. Will talk some more about this verse in a minute. First look at what Jesus told us in Matthew 26:41.

Our soul (flesh) is focused on our individuality and our present and it battles with our spirit that is focused on the spiritual and our future.

1800’s Theologian Adam Clarke had this to say about soul and spirit…
“When the soul is thus distinguished from the spirit, by the former is meant that inferior faculty by which we think of and desire what concerns our present being and welfare. By spirit is meant a superior power by which we prefer future things to present.”

With this difference in mind let’s now re-read Hebrews 4:12.

God works through His Word to diagnose our spiritual health to bring us the cure that heals us.

With His Word, God is moving our spirit to bring change in our souls (mind, emotion and will) to be more like Him.

Look at what Paul taught us about this in Galatians 5: 16 – 25.

Paul gives us two lists. One list that displays evil and worldly sins. The other list displays God’s ways. If we live by the flesh, the desires of our human soul, defined as our mind, emotions and will, we will only bring harm to God’s Temple, slow down the building of it, etc. We will not be effectively reaching others for Him, as we have discussed in the previous messages in this series. We will be harming ourselves, as well, His Holy Spiritual Temple.

If we walk or live with our spirit in union with His Holy Spirit, spiritually sacrificing our fleshly soul’s desires, we will build His Temple and glorify His name in this world.

In young Mary, Mother of Jesus, we see her soul and spirit working in sync. First she responded without hesitation to the mission God placed on her life. She accepted the blessing of being the mother of Jesus. Then look at what she said in Luke 1: 46 – 47.

Mary magnified and rejoiced in God by her soul and spirit, because she responded to the Spirit of God.

To have her world turned upside down as she did, when the angel delivered that message to her about carrying the Son of God, she had to have her spirit in sync with God’s Spirit and her soul. Instead of letting her emotions, a part of her soul, cry out in woe because her marriage plans might be ruined, she emotionally magnified God in her soul.

To live by the Spirit, we must not only be in His Word, we must ask God for His wisdom and understanding.

James 1: 5 – 6 teaches us this important point.

When we ask in faith in God, God will generously give us wisdom.

We have a God who loves us and wants the best for us. He will not deny us when we ask for help to live in the Spirit with His wisdom. After all His goal is to build His Temple in us and the world. So we can have complete faith in the fact that God will give us what we need to live in the Spirit and not our flesh. To help build His Temple with us and this world, we like Mary, need to get our soul in sync with our Spirit.

Starting today, let each of us seek God’s wisdom in prayer and through the study of His Word so, we can build His Temple by our soul and spirit