WEEK 5
TOPIC: The Nature of Man – The Human Spirit
TEXT: Gen. 1:26-27
Man is an eternal being, he is created in God’s class. When God said to make man in His image, it means man will look like God, have all the attributes of God. In His likeness means man will function, operate like God in the earth. To put it succinctly, man was created by God to be “god” in this planet earth. We are therefore going to look at this creature called man and his nature. This will help us appreciate who we are, our composition and destiny so we can maximize our lives in the earth.
Man is a spirit, he (spirit) has a soul, and he lives in the physical body. Man is not a tripartite being as is being assumed by some theologians. He doesn’t have a spirit, He is a spirit. Many times when we say “my spirit”, it is just a way of appealing to the understanding of our senses. In reality, you don’t have a spirit, you are a spirit. You have a soul with which you relate and function in the mental realm, and you live in a mobile living house called your body. In this lesson, we will look at the human spirit and endeavor to understand him.
The human spirit is the core being. This is the real man. Although he is not visible to the optical eyes, he is the core of man. Apostle Paul called him the inward man (II Cor. 4:16). Peter called him the hidden man of the heart (1 Pet. 3:4). He called him the “hidden man” because God has forbidden him from the view of the optical eyes. If you cut a person’s physical body open in a theatre, you will not see the spirit even with a telescope, yet he is right there. God has hidden him from the view of the physical realm, but God sees him and relates with him. It is the human spirit that is created in the image of God. It is the human spirit that receives salvation and is born again, not the soul nor the body as these are just tools for the spirit to express himself.
The Source of The Human Spirit
In Gen. 1:27, the Bible says God created man. Where did He create him from? He created man with His word. Remember that man here is the human spirit. The man God created in Gen. 1:27 was not created from the dust, but from His word.
Man was not created from the dust, it is the body of man that was formed from the dust as seen in Gen. 2:7. God had created the human spirit which is the real man through His word before He formed his body from the dust in Chapter 2 of Genesis. The source of the human spirit is the word of God.
Note this: By the law of creation, everything must remain connected to its original source for it to keep surviving and attain its fullest potentials. That’s why a fish for example can’t survive outside water because it came from water. Animals can’t survive without food (remember that all foods, whether raw or processed, came from soil) because they came from the ground.
Your physical body can’t survive without food because it was formed from the dust of the earth. Therefore the human spirit cannot survive and attain his full potential without remaining connected to the word of God because that is his source. Now you understand why Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God (Matt.4:4).
Some facts about the Human Spirit
- The human spirit is eternal: This means that man does not die in the sense of physical cessation from life. He simply departs his physical body to heaven or hell. Physical death means that man (the human spirit) has departed the body thereby making the body become lifeless. That’s why we say the man is deceased, meaning he has ceased to live in the body. The human spirit lives forever after his walk on this earth. H e will either live eternally with Christ or with the devil, but will live eternally.
- The human spirit is the real place of human consciousness: This means that all your consciousness, memory, etc are in your spirit. Reports have it that everyone that died and came back to life testified that they weren’t aware they were dead until they saw their bodies lifeless on the earth. Outside of their bodies, they (the spirit) were still very much conscious of themselves as normal. That tells us your body is not really you, it is a physical mould where you (the spirit) have been living and operating from. So you don’t die, you simply depart your body to the beyond. That’s what we call physical death.
- The human spirit can be trained: Just as you can train your body and mind, you can also train your spirit. Even there are unbelievers that have trained their spirits in demonic consciousness that their spirit can control life demonically. As a Christian, your spirit can be educated in and through the word of God so much that it can be sure guide and a strong force in the affairs of life. Remember that the strength of your spirit determines the level to which you can exercise dominion in the earth.
- The human spirit has the capacity to contain God or Satan: The human spirit is limitless in its capacity. God in His fullness can dwell in him, likewise Satan. Remember how Jesus cast out over 2000 demons spirit from just a man. As many as 2000 spirits could dwell in a man’s spirit. If we have this understanding and walk in it by allowing the Holy Spirit to be all in all in us, we will actually live above the limitations of this earth.
Points to note
- Man is not 3-part creature. He is a spirit that has a soul and lives in the body.
- The source of the human spirit is the word of God, while the physical body came from the dust.
- The human spirit is eternal, he doesn’t die. It is the physical body that dies.
- The human spirit can be trained to be strong or left to be weak.
Prayer/Declaration
I declare that my life is for God’s glory. My spirit is growing to the fullness of its potentials in God. The word of God is building my spirit strong and I’m manifesting the dominion of Christ today in Jesus’ Name.
Questions for meditation
- The human spirit is eternal. Discuss.
- Man was not created from the dust. Discuss.
- In the light of the law of creation, why did Jesus say man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God?