Body Soul Spirit

What is the Soul?

Dr. Tony Evans, of Dallas Theological Seminary, defines the Soul:

• Thought
• Feelings
• Will

What is the Spirit?

He defines Spirit as the divine influence of God implanted into each one of us, but lying dormant because of sin, the felt/sense/experience of being separate from the love, joy and peace that signals our presence in our Heavenly Father. 

We experience a lot of things woandering through this world that he often calls enemy territory, ruled by the evil one. He says that, hearing the Holy Word of God, which is God, feeds, quickens, enlivens God’s Holy Spirit at the core of our soul, growing a new set of thoughts, feeling and decisions and new soul, actually, which was emplanted within us at our acceptance the salvation of Christ Jesus, over the old dead soul.

As this happens, the Holy Spirit grows its fruit in the garden of the soul. The garden of the soul represents the soil of our lives the manure you go through on your way through salvation, justification and glorification. These challenges fertilize the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering (endurance), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. As you walk in the spirit, living the kind of life Jesus spoke about and demonstrated, this fruit manifests.

The Predicament

According to Dr. Evans and many other spiritual teachers, the soul is in a precarious position. The soul can identify itself with the ego, material world and the body, or it can identify itself with the Holy Spirit and the Creator of all, through Christ Jesus. Through Adam and Eve, we made the former choice from the beginning. In Christ Jesus, we make the latter.