Spiritual Soul=Life
Animal Soul=Death
Does your behavior demonstrate animal or spiritual characteristics?
Jews believe that all living things, human and animal, have souls, but that not all souls are the same.
The Hebrew words for soul used in Genesis is “nefesh” and “neshama.”
- Nefesh is the animal soul, or the life force, instinctual, animalistic drives.
- Neshama is the spiritual component or the divine spark which places a man on a higher plane than animals.
This is why man yearns for spirituality and a closeness to God.
- Animals and humans have love, fear, loyalty, memory, intellect and the instinct to survive and procreate. These all come from the animal “nefesh” soul.
- When Adam was created, he was a spiritual soul with direct communion with God.
- When Adam sinned, his spiritual soul died, and he lost his direct communication with God.
Jesus suffered and died to pay the penalty for our sins. His resurrection enables us to receive salvation and have our “neshama” rebirthed.
As Born Again believers in Christ, we have everlasting life and we have direct access to the Throne of the Father via the Blood Atonement of our Lord.
The devil seeks to steal, kill and destroy the good in our lives. He desires us to be animalistic in our desires and behavior.
If you watch people in the bad sections of a city, you will see the hardness of their hearts reflected on their faces. Their daily habits of sin etch death into their countenances little by little each day. If they do not find deliverance from their harsh lifestyles, they will look like very ancient people in their caskets.
More and more people are forsaking their belief in God and choosing to obey their selfish desires. This is why there is so much evil in this world. Each generation that goes by turns people more and more into wild animals. The Days of Noah will manifest itself fully during the last seven years of the Book of Revelation.
Which soul do you choose to elevate?
- By choosing to do what is pleasing to God and in agreement with His Word, we enable the Holy Spirit to sanctify our higher “neshama.”
- As we do this day by day, Paul says we are being changed into His image from glory to glory. (II Corinthians 3:18)
- Hebrews 1:3 says Christ is the radiance of God’s Glory.
- The face of Moses radiated God’s Glory after spending 40 days on the mountain with Him. (Exodus 34:29-35)
- Stephen radiated the Glory of God as he forgave those who were stoning him to death. (Acts 6:15)
- David lifted up his soul to the Lord and enabled His soul to communicate spiritually with his God.
This world teaches us to set the soul on material things, which encourages greed, pride, lust, and violence to saturate our society. Spiritual good is stolen, killed and destroyed in the wages of sin.
As long as we spend the majority of our time filling our minds with the material, we will never discipline ourselves to set time aside to fill our minds with the spiritual.
- The material will always bring our soul down into the animal nature.
- The spiritual will always elevate our soul into the Glory of God.
Colossians 3:2 says we have to “set” our minds on the things above. God has done His part in giving us New Birth; we have to do our part by setting aside time to spend with Him in His Word and prayer. Only then does the written Word become the Living Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit to our “neshama.”
Romans 8:6, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
May we pray with David that God will restore us and cause His Face to shine upon us in salvation! (Psalm 80:7)