#11 Spirit, Soul, and Flesh

Table of Contents

  • Watchman Nee Chapters & Book

  • Intro Session Overview Podcast (42 Min)

  • Leader’s Session Tips Video (2 Min)

  • Additional Resources

For further reading purchase the book: The Spiritual Man here

Podcast Session #11

What makes up your being? Is it just your body? Do you have a spirit? A soul? If we have all three how do they interact? God designed us with three parts: Spirit, Soul, and Body. Each has influence on ourselves and the world around us. Listen in today as we talk about each part’s importance. We share on how the spirit and body can influence the soul, which in turn influences how we act.

Listen on Spotify here

This session is about one of the most powerful tools we have as believers. In our last session we spoke of how we died on the cross with Jesus; death to sin allows us to have a new life—a rebirth. You may have heard of the phenomenon referred to as being “born again.” For most of my Christian life, I never quite knew why the heck we called it that when clearly I was still the same person physically as when I was born. Well, when sin died, it opened the door for us to have communion with God. This is not the bread-and-wine-or-grape-juice communion; this is the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings kind of communion—with God. Being “born again” means our spirits are reborn—re-birthed—and through our spirits we can now communicate with the Spirit of God.

Without rewriting the session, I’d like to just point out a few things: Many of us, including the men in your group, have—and are—struggling with sin issues. They attempt to combat sin with their bodies and souls. They try to change their behaviors. They will get tough, pull up their boot straps, and try to get past it, only to find this is a losing battle—a battle I lost for years.

From the new place of living in the spirit I realized my spirit could commune with the Spirit of God, my life began to be led by my spirit rather than by my soul. This revelation allowed for a heart change—true, lasting change—not a work of my will power, but a change of the heart caused by my spirit relating with the very Spirit of God.

So this leads me to the question of the sponge versus the water hose: What I am really asking is, are you allowing the world to influence your life by living in the soul and body, or are you influencing the world? When we live in the spirit, our souls and bodies are transformed; instead of the world influencing our lives, we now become a source of the Spirit into the world. Only then do our lives really impact the Kingdom of God!

Some of this week’s content may bring up feelings of failure in the lives of group participants. Be sure to remind them of our previous sessions on justification and sanctification.