The Care And Feeding Of The Human Spirit Series

But there’s something to this so amazing, so incredible, that it adds all the flavor and all the dimension to this whole thing. Because as we are looking at spiritual reality and realize that Jesus came to introduce us to a spiritual realm called The Kingdom of God (Heaven), and as we see that the Kingdom of God is simply the range of His effective will, Jesus adds an incredible twist. Let’s look at it.

Luke 17:20-21 (NIV)

20 Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21 nor will people say, ’Here it is,’ or ’There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you."

Do you get how huge that is? The Kingdom of God is within you. In other words, your physical body can be the place where God’s will is done. Your mouth can contain words that would please God. Your feet can take you to places that will bring glory to God. Your arms can embrace causes that will please God. Your physical body can be the place where God’s will is done, where God has the final say, where his priorities and values are lived out, where his acts of service and love are performed.

This brings us right into our next point which is the interconnectedness of body and spirit. If your body is to be the place where God’s will is done, if the Kingdom of God and all its potential beauty and splendor and goodness is within you, then your body is a place of supernatural intersection of body and spirit. Now don’t think I’m getting heavy on you because I’m not. You know what supernatural means – it means over and above the merely physical things of our world. If the Kingdom of Heaven is within you, then your body – your physical body – is a place of supernatural intersection of body and spirit. Let’s look at how that can be. There are five human realms, five separate spheres that make up every human being.

First is the realm of your body. If you’re here today, you have one – no exceptions! You have a physical body that must be fed and cared for in certain ways or it will die.

Second is your mind. You have one of these too, although some of you often feel you have lost yours. Your mind is the location of both your thoughts and your feelings. They both originate there.

Third is your will. Your will is the part of you that determines to do things. It is the seat of action.

Fourth is your spirit. Your spirit is that part of you that will live on forever and ever after your physical body calls it quits. Your spirit is either being strengthened and enlarged by the things you allow yourself to think about, dwell on emotionally, decide, and do, or your spirit is being weakened and shrunk down by those things. Your spirit is being made better or worse by the things you think, feel, decide, and do.

Fifth is what the Bible calls your soul. Your soul could best be understood as your personality – as the part of you that coordinates all these others parts. Do you know what your soul primarily is? A set of predictable patterns. Your soul takes the shape of the things you frequently do and say and decide and think about.