Who are you? What makes you respond to situations in certain ways some times, and different ways at other times? When you look in the mirror do you see yourself, or do you just see a reflection of yourself, the real you being hidden under a veil of flesh?

Who you are is what the Bible calls the "soul". Your soul is the real you, containing all of your personality, thought processes, reactions, habits, emotions and emotional patterns, your frame of reference, vocabulary; the thing that makes up you, that is your "soul". I can't rightly talk about "your soul" because you yourself are a living soul. You are alive on planet earth because your soul, which is you, still resides in it's earthly house, the human body. Physical death means no more than you, or your soul, leaving it's earthly temple, going to be with the Father in heaven or to the place of eternal torment if you haven't accepted Christ as your Savior.

A major part of maturity both for all humankind and specifically for Christians is to understand yourself. There have been many books on the market recently and in past years: "I'm OK, You're OK", "Transactional Analysis", "Dyanetics by L. Ron Hubbard"; many different kinds of self help books. But these books really don't help because they don't explain YOU. They don't explain how your soul, that is, how you work and behave and think and react. These books examine patterns around your soul- they examine the environment that the soul is in but never talk about the soul. Once you as a believer and as a human understand how your soul works then you will understand why you react in certain ways to certain situations. You will see why God commands that we as believers flood our souls with His Holy Word rather than with human viewpoint thinking and rationalism. You will come to understand that you can prepare yourself by preparing your soul for crisis before the crisis comes, and by this preparation you will be equipped to meet the tests of this world without going to pieces. You will becomes more attuned to the creation of God around you, and will come to a closer union with your heavenly Father.

Because it's so important for both believer and unbeliever to understand the operation of their souls, this study doesn't just deal with one or the other group. All, whether saved or unsaved, if they have life have a soul. And if we possess a soul then we should understand that soul and how it operates. To be sure the believer has a better chance of strengthening his soul in the devil's world than the unbeliever, and it's my hope that all who read this study will come to accept Christ as Savior through it's teachings. But the unbeliever should also have a knowledge as to how his soul operates so that he might grow into maturity as a human being. The central problem in America today is that we have so many people, both believer and non-believer, housing the soul of a child in an adult body. In our lifetimes we have seen childish souls in adult bodies cause America to get involved in, then lose the war in Vietnam: unable to see past their own petty wants and desires children in our government refused to let the military do it's job in halting the spread of Communism. The military was told where and if it could attack, and where it must stand and be senselessly killed while the forces of North Vietnam over ran our troops. We have seen an unbelieving President childishly condone spying on the Democratic National Convention in the scandal called "Watergate". We saw another childish President get in an illicit affair with his mistress, lie about it perjury himself in court, then "rationalize" himself out of it. It's time that all people, whether saved or unsaved, started tending to their souls.

We all have the false impression that our body is who we are. We think that when we look in the mirror we see ourselves, but all we actually see is the house we are in. The human body was and is an item made of base elements :

Genesis 2:7a  "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground... "

... created by God to house our lives. Once the container, the body, was created, God then breathed into the container the breath of LIVES:

Genesis 2:7b ".... and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (CHAY = lives); and man became a living soul."

Two lives were given to man at his creation; the human soul and the human spirit. The Jamieson, Fausset & Brown commentary says of this verse (pg 18) "lit., of lives, not only animal but spiritual life. If the body is so admirable, how much more the soul with all its varied faculties".  JFB seems to be referring to life of the body in relationship to life of the soul. Yet is this what the Scripture has in view here, that the body has a life of its own? When we did deeper into the Scripture, cross referencing Scripture with Scripture, we see that man is actually composed of three parts.

1 Thessalonians 5:23  "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit (PNEUMA = spirit) and soul (PSUCHE = soul, life) and body (SOMA = body, outside of the human, our frame) be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

It is obvious that Paul was addressing Christians, not unbelievers, in this writing. He would not pray that the unbeliever who rejected Christ be "be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ", as this is just not going to happen. Jesus said He was the only way to God, and without Him you are not "blameless" (John 3.16-18) but condemned. Further, the PNEUMA referred to here could not be a reference to the Holy Spirit of God. Paul would have no need to pray that the Holy Spirit "be preserved blameless" - the Holy Spirit, eternal God, IS blameless. Hence, Paul had to be referring to the three parts of redeemed man: spirit, soul, and body. What God breathed into man when He first created him, CHAY, lives, was soul and spirit. The soul of man is who we are, the spirit of man is that part of us that allows us to communicate with God. Once you understand this, other Scriptural texts become easier to understand:

1 Corinthians 2:14  "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Romans 5:12  "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned"

Ephesians 2:1  "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins"

John 3:3, 7  "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ... Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."

1 Peter 1:23  "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."

Adam, the day that he sinned, brought spiritual death on himself and on all mankind. His human spirit died, and that death took place immediately. God promised that:

Genesis 2:17b  "... for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

Adam ate, but kept his physical life, his soul. He lived beyond that infamous day to accuse God and Eve of "making me eat" that fruit, and lived to suffer God's punishment for his sin (Genesis 3.17-19). Man immediately died in his human spirit, but did not lose his physical life (his soul didn't depart his human body) until over nine hundred years had passed (GEN 5.5). Since the fall of man people have been born, having been granted the gift of life by God Almighty. All men, believer or unbeliever, if they have physical life, the essence of that physical life is their soul, and that soul is contained in their human body. But only the believer in Jesus Christ is "born again", regains his human spirit so he can sustain a relationship with the Godhead.

The Bible is very clear that the Holy Spirit from God is a totally separate Being from our human spirit:

Romans 8:14-16  "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.  The Spirit (PNEUMA = Spirit. In this context, refers to the Holy Spirit) itself (AUTOS = Himself, not 'itself') beareth witness with our spirit, (PNEUMA = spirit. In this context, 'our spirit, the spirit belonging to us', refers to the human spirit) that we are the children of God"

The Holy Spirit Who indwells the believer is not talking to Himself, but to our human spirit, witnessing to the believer the assurance that he has indeed been saved, that he is a child of God. In this way you can see that the human spirit, the part of us that is "born again" after salvation, is our line of communication with God Himself. Adam killed this part of himself by sinning. This is why, when the Lord came walking in the Garden after the Fall, He "lost contact" with Adam:

Genesis 3:8-9 "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?"

The Lord was used to walking in the Garden an having immediate, unrestricted discourse with Adam. The Fall killed Adams human spirit, put a barrier between himself and his Creator, and translated this spiritual death to all his progeny. Christ paid the penalty for this spiritual death, and, once we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, enables the Holy Spirit to enter our lives and regenerate or make alive our human spirit.

For the purpose of this study we're only going to be discussing the PSUCHE, the soul of man, though I wanted to make sure you understood the human spirit before we started. In order to discuss the soul I'm going to have to discuss it impersonally. But I want to make one thing clear before I discuss the operation of the soul: though we discuss the soul impersonally, never lose sight that what we're discussing is you. Many times in my classes I've tried to talk about the believer's soul. But often the whole point of the discussion is lost because people, though they may study the soul objectively while I'm teaching it (which is good), fail to apply the doctrines subjectively (which is bad) after the teaching is over.

When I talk about your soul I'm talking about YOU. I'm talking about what makes you live, breath, and think. This is your soul, the essence of your life. I want you to understand that. Even though I have to discuss the soul impersonally you must understand, before you go any farther in this study, that the soul is who you are. It's not a separate part of you, it's not a part contained within you that is a part of what you are, it is what you are and you must understand that. Because I am a living soul I have the ability to write, talk to you, to teach you. Because you are a living soul you have the ability to listen : to understand, or to disagree with whatever I might teach you. Our souls are in communication whenever you read this. My soul is writing it, while your soul is reading and processing the materiel. This is what your soul is: your soul is YOU.

Modern medicine has had a lot to do with confusing the Christian and the unbeliever with what the soul really is. In years not to long ago men were either healed by nature (with medicine's assistance), or else they were allowed to die gracefully, their pain numbed by medication. In the past thirty years medicine has come out with so many new, seemingly miraculous things; things which could be used to glorify God and aid all of mankind. Modern medicine has often taken these instruments of healing and abused them. In more recent years with the various life support systems doctors have used these things to keep a human body alive for years apart from the presence of the soul. But though the body still breathes, defecates, and requires intravenous nourishment, the body IS NOT ALIVE apart from the soul.

Modern medicine is slowly coming around to where they understand this. Many hospitals today now look for evidence of the soul remaining in the body by taking EKG readings, that is, they look for the electrical impulses that the soul naturally relays through the body when it's present. If the soul has departed then these electrical impulses will be absent, proving the person to be dead. The body might still be kept alive by life support systems, but the soul has gone to be with either the Father in heaven or to the place of eternal torment. But even today there are still court battles between certain hospitals and survivors because these hospitals will not release the body from the life support systems for proper burial. This is really sad because it has done so much to confuse our understanding of what death really is, and that our soul is what we really are. When you have departed your earthly house (your soul has departed your body), even though that body might be kept alive by heroic and egocentric methods by medicine, you have entered into physical death.

I want to give credit for much of this teaching to Dr. R. B. Thieme, Jr, Pastor of Berachah Church in Dallas Texas. Though I am a Southern Baptist by doctrinal decision, I have always felt that believers in Jesus (regardless of their denomination) are together parts of the Body of Christ. Many of the Biblical truths that I've discovered over the years have come through teaching ministries in other than Baptist denominations. I started out by listening to tapes from the Berachah ministry, and on several of these tapes Dr. Thieme dealt with the Doctrine of the Soul. Some of this materiel comes from Dr. Thieme's Biblical research, and some of the materiel comes from studies that I myself have made. But whether credit goes to Dr. Thieme or to myself, all credit ultimately belongs to God the Holy Spirit, who, through His leading, inspires poor vessels such as we are to teach the Word.

No one but God knows exactly what our souls look like. Artists like to portray the soul as some ethereal, translucent look-alike of our earthly bodies. But I doubt this to be true. When you put peas in a can the peas neither look nor taste like the can. The can is the container only; the peas are what you would enjoy, not the can. I could carry this parallel out to ridiculous extremes but I think you see the point. The body is the container of the soul, and there's no reason to believe that the container looks like the contents or that the contents look like the container.
 

I, along with other preachers of the Gospel have often used illustrations to differentiate between a "Head" belief and a "Heart" belief. We have illustrated salvation by saying  "The faith that's just head deep won't save, but"... (and here we open their coats and touch our chests) "..the heart belief in Jesus Christ is what truly saves you". This is an illustration that people can understand, though it is not technically nor Biblically correct. When we see the Bible referring to the part of the soul called the "Heart" people mistakenly think that part of man's soul is contained in his skull, and the other (most important) part is contained in his chest. Nothing could be further than the truth. ALL of man's soul is contained in his skull, in that fleshy interface that medical doctors refer to as the "Brain". It is from the brain that the soul controls all of the body's functions; it is from the bran that all electrical impulses (which are evidences of the soul) emanate. All of the soul is contained in the brain/interface, whether it be the "Heart" or the "Mind" portion of that soul. The Bible states:

Proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. "

In other words, "thinking" (Hebrew SHA'AR, to estimate, reason) or the ability to reason is in the NEPHESH, the soul of man. Also,

Proverbs 2:2 "So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; "

We apply the part of our soul called the "heart" (Hebrew LEB, heart, emotions) to TABUWN, or understanding, wisdom, or intelligence.

Proverbs 2:10-11 "When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: "

Wisdom enters into the LEB, the heart, and knowledge into the NEPHESH, the soul. If wisdom has the ability to enter into the LEB, then the LEB cannot be equated to that pump that resides in your chest. That pump circulates blood, but has no capacity to rationalize - only the soul has that capacity.

Put it this way: that portion of the soul called the Heart isn't located anywhere near that fleshly muscle in our chests; nor in our stomachs, nor in our feet. Our soulish heart is located, along with our soulish minds, within our heads. And all else that falls beneath this point is used as (1) A physical life support system for the body, so that the soul might continue to be housed in an appropriate container, and (2) An external interface for the soul, so that the soul may communicate with the outside world.

There are many other extra-Biblical evidences that the soul of man (heart and mind) is located in the brain. These evidences are seen when we look logically at the ultimate creation of God, the human body. The brain is the only body organ entirely encased in a sheath of very hard bone. This skullcap is not one solid bone, but is composed of interwoven sections or plates of bone that will give slightly under pressure. Because of all this armor plating the head is very heavy, and is the last body part that a young child learns how to lift and control after birth. The skullcap can take a great deal of striking force before it crushes or breaks (Every time I see my kids fall on their heads when they're playing I thank God for this miracle of creation). The cage of bones that covers the fleshly heart, though it does do a good job of supporting the lower body and protects the lungs and heart, can be broken a great deal easier than the skullcap can. God in His wisdom, knowing that the soul should be protected best within it's container, placed more protective bone over it than over any other body part. After looking at the evidence of Divine construction we can logically see that the soul must be in the brain, not in that fleshly pump commonly referred to as the "heart".

We can also point out that the brain must be where the soul is located because of it's delicacy. Men trapped underwater will, in three minutes or less, become brain dead. Once they become brain dead, they become physically dead (in God's eyes) because the soul has left the body. But on the other hand the physical heart of man can go over five minutes before it ceases it's beatings, and can continue beating an indefinite amount of time if placed on life support machinery before it is stilled. The brain, because of the immense power it must house (the soul) requires a great deal more oxygen to operate than does the physical heart (which only acts as a pump for the body's circulatory system).

Consider the evidence that medicine presents. Though I chastised modern medicine earlier for their abuse of life support systems (playing God), I must applaud the same group of professionals over their latest breakthrough in medical transplants. Several years ago several doctors created what they called "artificial hearts". Many traditional Christians ridiculed the idea, thinking it impossible because they thought that the soul was housed in the human heart. "Why, if they take out that old man's heart and put in one of those artificial hearts, then that person won't live! They'll be taking away the house of his soul and he'll die!". Well, needless to say, artificial heart transplants were done and recipients of these hearts were no different when they came out from under the anesthesia as they were when they first went under. No personality changes occurred, and several of these heart patients lived 6-8 months longer than they would have otherwise. This is absolute objective proof that no part of the human soul lives or resides in the pump of the body, the human heart. The human heart acts as circulatory life support for the human brain, which in turn houses the human soul. Everything below the chin supports the head, which in turn directly houses the soul. Damage the house and the soul immediately leaves the body. Damage the life support (the lower body) and the soul may or may not leave the body, depending on how the lower body damage effects the brain.

Now that we've discussed the human heart, and the human brain as the house of the soul, let's turn our attention strictly to that part of the soul the Bible calls the "Heart". (Hereafter when we refer to the "Heart" we are referring to the "Heart of the soul", not the "Heart, the pump of the body"). As I have said before, the heart is the thinking part of our souls (Proverbs 23.7; 2.2, 10). All external input that we receive through the five senses of our physical bodies passes through nerve endings, down through nerve pathways, through the physical interface we call the "brain", and through this interface enters that portion of our souls called the heart. The heart takes all external information and processes it for use or discards it as useless. When we study the Scripture the doctrines that we come across are processed in our hearts..

Proverbs 4:4 "He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. "

Romans 2:15 "Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)"

.. and after processing these same doctrines are stored in that portion of our souls called the "Mind" (which we'll refer to later). You can look at the heart as a microcomputer that takes information, converts it to a stage in which it can be used, then sends this information off to be stored for later use.

I've often heard it said that "You are what you eat". God is our Creator, whether we are saved or unsaved, and as our Creator He knows what the best nourishment for our life essence, our souls, is. God requires that we study His Word because this is the best nourishment possible for our souls. The heart as the processor of the soul, reflects what is fed into it back into the outside world. If you feed on human viewpoint thinking, the devilish pleasures of this world, and on the traps that Satan has laid out for the taking, then your heart processes and stores these harmful and erroneous signals in your soulish mind, where later it will dig these things back out to haunt you. Because people insist on inputting evil rather than God's Word into their hearts, because they direct their hearts to reject scriptural doctrine..

Proverbs 5:12-14 "And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

Zechariah 7:12 "Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. "

.. sin is stored in their souls for later feedback on those around them. The Bible recognizes this negative feedback when it states that the heart is:

1. The source of trouble making (PROV 6.14)
2. The source of bitterness and revenge tactics (PROV 14.10)
3. The source of pride and worry, jealousy and neurosis (PROV 21.4; ECCL 2.23)
4. The source of revolution against God and His properly constituted governments (JER 5.23)
5. The source of idolatry, which is worship of demons (EZEK 6.9)
6. The source of lying and hypocrisy (JOB 36.13)

Galatians 6:7-8 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

The most absurd thing that modern medicine has discovered in recent years is that alcoholism is a disease. Alcoholism is no more a disease than I'm a fish. The alcoholic is the person who started out drinking alcohol because he either liked the taste, or because he wanted the mind altering "buzz" that it gave. He then continued drinking this brewed or distilled potion (which God originally gave man for good, but man mis-used for evil) until he, operating under the influence of evil, taught his soul to become addicted to it's content. I don't condemn the alcoholic but I do want you to look at all things first Biblically then rationally. Don't tell me something is a "disease" when it's negative feedback from a soul saturated with evil.

God recognizes alcoholism...

Deuteronomy 21:20-21 "And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard (COBE' = drunkard, alcoholic). And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. "

Why would God have someone stoned because they couldn't help being an alcoholic? Our God is not so unjust! The alcoholic may be hooked on the drug, but he's hooked because he made a conscious decision to drink it until he was hooked. God does not recognize alcoholism as a "genetic disorder", and He ought to know - He made us.

Deuteronomy 29:19-21 "And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law: "

When you take "thirst" for alcohol and turn it into drunkenness, this is an action you bring on yourself. It is the feedback of a soul saturated with the wrong type of nourishment. Scripture categorizes alcoholism as a sin along with adultery, fornication, homosexuality, whorishness, demon worship, hatred, witchcraft, heresy, murder, and murderous jealousy:

Galatians 5:19-21 "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

Though I don't have enough time to teach alcoholism and the Christian use of alcohol in this study, I do want to make it plain that alcoholism, as well as other sinful repetitive abnormal behavior patterns, are all reflections of a heart fed nothing but a diet of evil. You can review a study reference on alcohol by clicking here .

We've just spent a great deal of time looking at negative feedback from the heart, so now let's look at something more positive. Those who apply doctrine to their hearts (if believers) or ideologies that are supported by the Word of God (if believers or unbelievers), actually nourish their souls. The Bible calls this process of growth in the soul the "enlarging of the heart":

Psalm 119:32-36 "I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. "

1 Kings 4:29-31 "And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about. "

Isaiah 60:4-6 "Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord. "

The believer who avoids feeding concepts of evil but rather feeds doctrine or doctrine related stimuli to his soul provides the nourishment. As a result of this nourishment God Himself causes the processor of the soul, the heart, to grow in strength and vitality. The process of enlargement just doesn't help you in your walk with God, but aids you in every facet of your life. When I was first saved I barely knew who the Holy Spirit was, much less how to live my life as a Christian. But over the years God has been faithful to me. I have consistently tried to feed God's precepts and doctrines into my soul, and as I have fed my soul, so God has given it's heart increase in power. Twenty-four years after my salvation I am now convinced that there's nothing a believer can't do if he puts his mind to it, if he'll do it through Christ while giving the glory to God. Because of the enlargement of my soul I am able to do things now that before I only dreamed of doing. I was never a mechanic, but through the enlargement of my heart I was able to learn how to rebuild the engine of my car. I was never a plumber, but I have been able to put in plumbing and repair/ replace faucets. I can lay electrical wiring correctly, without burning the house down. I can repair mechanical and electronic appliances. I am a computer programmer, and wrote a multi-faceted "finance" program that helps this household pay it's bills. I can garden and raise more than weeds. I am a writer, a Bible Teacher, and widely versed on many subjects related to the Scripture and the world around me. I know in my heart (not the pump in my chest, but the heart of my soul) that there's nothing closed to me anymore. I am free to do whatsoever I want to do as long as it glorifies God and is done through Christ Jesus. If you know me you know I'm not a genius, I'm wasn't even smart as a child. It was said that Albert Einstein, a great genius, even as smart as he was only used one tenth of one percent of his brain capacity. I am convinced that, as my heart keeps growing in strength through the study of God's Word, eventually there will be no stone left unturned for me. I am convinced that any Christian can reach and touch the moon, if they only continue to feed their souls with the Word of God. For it is not "I", but God's Word in me. It is not "I", but Christ in me.

The world has so confused love and lust that they can no longer tell the difference between the two. To go to bed with someone is no longer considered an act of love: instead, it's called love. But the Bible makes it clear that any true love, whether it be love for God or love for your mate, must come from the heart of the soul.

Deuteronomy 6:5 "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. "

If you're a believer who has had trouble I'm sure you have shared this with your Pastor. What were you told?  Probably what I'd tell you: "Take it to God, and lay your burden down. Trust in God and He'll see you through". Yet, believer, you cannot trust in God to any great degree if your soul is full of humanistic and worldly thinking, filled with Satan's policies of evil. The Bible teaches that all trust in God must originate from the heart.

Psalm 28:7 "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. "

Since the heart is the thinking part of the soul you must have Scriptural truths, the Word of God stored IN YOUR SOUL before you can trust in Him. The Bible never teaches that we are to have blind faith or trust in God. God gives us the facts which we feed to our souls so that when the crisis comes we will have a basis for trusting in Him. All service for and to God must originate from the heart ...

Joshua 22:5 "But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. "

... or else it has no meaning and brings God no glory. If you would serve God then feed your heart, your soul the Word of God. Once you have a basis for service then and only then you should serve Him; and then and only then will He be glorified in what you do. The Bible makes it clear that all true saving faith in Christ must come from the heart of the soul.

Romans 10:9-11 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."

You are saved by taking the facts of salvation into your heart (I am a sinner, I am lost in my present state, I am scheduled for hellfire and damnation, Jesus is my way out, He died for me as my substitution), and once you get these facts into your heart you must process them and accept them as true. You accept Jesus as Savior not blindly, but from the heart knowing full well what He did for you. This is what brings salvation; this is true salvation.

You cannot be stable as a believer, nor as an unbeliever for that matter, unless you have stability in your heart:

Psalm 112:7-8 "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies. "

And you will never be stable as believer or unbeliever unless you feed your soul doctrinal precepts from the Word of God. We spend so much time feeding our bodies (especially in this age of "good nutrition"), exercising right, trying to be healthy; but we fail in feeding the most important part of ourselves. God told us two thousand years ago:

1 Timothy 4:8 "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

Feed the heart first, then worry about the container of the soul, the body.

We talked a great deal about the first part of the soul, the heart; but I don't want to neglect the second equally important part, that which the Bible calls "the Mind". The mind of the soul is it's "filing cabinet". All external input that comes in through the heart is processed and either rejected or accepted. If accepted the heart amplifies this input and sends it into the storage area of the soul called the mind. Once this happens the signal becomes a part of the memory center that the heart can recall whenever it's needed. This input signal, now stored memory, will remain in memory until the heart of the soul decides it's no longer valid for storage. At that time the signal will be removed and rejected from the soul.

As I said before, you are what you eat. Whereas the heart is the processor and gateway of the soul, the mind is the "stomach" or storage area. What you allow into the gateway may or may not be passed on to your memory center for storage. The signals that you feed into your mind eventually become a frame of reference that your heart will use to react to life and the environment around you in this life. The Bible warns us that there is a Divine and a human viewpoint to life:

Isaiah 55:7-9 "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. "

The battle that believers fight in this life is not a battle with swords and spears, but a battle over what will inhabit our minds:

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"

Satan throws countless traps of humanistic viewpoint and evil policies toward us every day in an attempt to get us to accept these erroneous signals into our minds for storage. Once evil or human policies are stored in the mind this becomes a frame of reference that makes it easier for the heart to accept additional wrong inputs in the future.

In every account of murder I've ever read the murderer always said that the first time he killed was the hardest. But once he allowed the negative input of the old sin nature to dominate his heart, and once he committed the act of murder (storing this action/ policy of evil in his mind), the second time he committed murder was much easier. Each successive time stored more negative rationalisms and experiences in the murderer's mind until it became quite easy to take another human life. The mind was polluted the first time the heart allowed the action, and increased in pollution until the frame of reference was so warped that a heinous act became easily accepted by the heart.

Let me illustrate from my own past life. When I was about nine years old it became an accepted thing in the crowd I ran with to shoplift (a fancy word for stealing from a store). Up to this point in my life my parents were not big Church-goers; in fact, they were at best nominal Christians (today they are both committed to the Lord). The only thing of God that they taught me as a child was a "Now I lay me down to sleep", a prayer I said by rote without really knowing who I was saying it to. Neither they nor I had fed any of the statutes of God into my soul:

Proverbs 22:6  "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

The only frame of reference that was built up in my mind was selfishness, greed, and a desire to belong to the "crowd". So when it came time for me to shoplift to show that I "belonged", I quickly agreed. The first time I committed the act it really bothered me. You see, my conscience (located in the heart) revolted against committing the act. But since my heart had nothing to draw on in the frame of reference to strengthen the resolve in my conscience, it rationalized the action and stored it as acceptable in the mind. By storing an evil action as acceptable I further weakened the frame of reference from righteousness and strengthened it toward evil. Each time I stole it became easier and easier to do so because the increasing amount of pollution in the mind strengthened the signals to sin from the old sin nature while at the same time increasingly negated the effects of the conscience. I continued to steal until I was fourteen years old when I was caught and tossed in jail. The experience of jail was so frightening that when my heart stored this new signal in my mind, it was so powerful that my heart withdrew all of the rationalisms of shoplifting out of my frame of reference and rejected them. The pollution of shoplifting was removed from the mind so that since that time I haven't had the slightest urge to shoplift.

The overall point is this: what you allow your heart to process, be it good or evil, will be passed from the heart into the mind. Experiences stored in the mind become a part of the frame of reference that the heart will use to make future judgments as to whether an action is acceptable or not. You don't believe me? Fifty years ago it was a shame to be considered homosexual. People considered such things depraved, and hid their homosexual acts if they did them. In the past few years homosexuals have been "coming out of the closet" and revealing this depraved practice. Next "great medical minds" decided that, regardless as to what God's Word said, homosexuality was a genetic predisposition. Now these people had some ammunition, and television shows started showing people who were homosexual in a favorable light. Suddenly it wasn't a sin to be homosexual, but an "alternate lifestyle". Suddenly states are voting whether to allow homosexual marriages, and politicians that discourage this are seen as "homophobic", a word that homosexuals made up to attack a stink to Bible believers. Next, Churches began moving away from the Scripture and openly endorsed the homosexual lifestyle.  You see, the frame of reference (the mind) had been perverted, so became easier and easier to tell the lie.

If you allow the infiltration of evil into your heart then you give yourself the opportunity to process this evil into your mind so that it becomes a part of your frame of reference. If the negative signal is accepted by the heart, becoming a part of the frame of reference, then this polluted frame of reference makes it easier for you commit even greater acts of evil in the future. It becomes easier to steal, easier to murder, easier to commit adultery, easier to commit any act of evil once you have processed and accepted the first act. Worldliness is not what you do, but it's accepting human and evil doctrines into the mind over Divine doctrines:

Romans 12:2 "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

The believer is to strive within himself to build up a mental attitude like Christ's:

Philippians 2:1-5 "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"

Hebrews 12:1-2 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

You create within yourself the "mind of Christ" by feeding the heart of your soul the Word of God:

Philippians 4:6-8 "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

Such feeding results in the heart processing and storing Divine good in the mind, which strengthens the frame of reference of the soul toward good rather than evil:

1 Peter 1:13-16 "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."

The reason that mature believers reject evil more than they accept it is because their frame of reference is stronger in good than in evil, and this frame of reference will actually supplement the heart (through the conscience) in rejecting the input signals of evil. If you keep your mind on God..

Isaiah 26:3-4 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: "

Colossians 3:1-2 "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."

.. by constantly taking in doctrine from God's Word through the heart the mind will grow strong, and the believer will have the stability that befits an Ambassador of God:

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

2 Corinthians 5:1-4  "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."

Mark 8:36-37  "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Hebrews 10:39  "But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."

1 Peter 1:9  "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."

There is a cult called the "Christian Scientists" that believe that, after salvation through Christ, the believer is saved in both body and soul. Extending this doctrine forward the Scientists believe that if you are sick, this is just a "condition of the mind", and you can "will" this away by faith in God, since God provided salvation for both the body and soul:

"We hear a lot about spiritualizing the body through thought. This teaching regards body as physical or material and undertakes to change matter into Spirit through mental effort, Divine Science, from the basis of omnipresence, teaches that, since, there is but one substance and that substance is Spirit, there is no material body. The body is Spirit now. ''Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." Just so long as you are trying to spiritualize the body, or to heal the body through your own mental effort, just so long as you are trying to create, health, you are laboring in vain, for you are trying to do God's part, to do that which has already been done.

We live in a universe, of perfect form. Not only our body, but all that is formed is literally the body of God and is perfect now. To believe that the infinite substance has been malformed through the ignorant mental activity of the individual, and must be redeemed and perfected through the same activity, is to see not one power, but two. There is no condition in the body. There is nothing in the body to be rebuilt or straightened or healed. There is nothing to change. There is nothing needed but to see God. Stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord. Your spoken word is not needed to make wholeness manifest, for wholeness is the eternal state of the unseen and the seen, the unformed and the formed; but It is needed for your unfoldment, for the unfolding and broadening and deepening of the individual until he realizes this perfection. Stop trying to think God into manifestation. God is manifest now. God's glory and perfection are everywhere visible to him that hath eyes to see.  (Mary Baker Eddy)"

The only problem with this drivel is that it's something out of the deluded mind of Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science cult. The Scripture teaches that only the soul is saved when you accept Jesus Christ as Savior. Prior to the Fall Adam didn't know what death was. There was no death in Eden. When Cain murdered Abel this was the first time that man saw the death of man. When you look through the Book of Genesis you'll see that early man lived an extremely long life compared to today, but he still died. You see, sin introduced death, physical death, into the world.

When the believer accepts Jesus Christ as Savior his soul is saved, but his body is still tarnished with sin, impregnated with the effects of the Fall. This causes us all to die:

1 Corinthians 15:22-26  "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

Christ is the firstfruits, the first One resurrected from physical death. Physical death shall continue on in mankind until the end of time when Jesus defeats Satan and his followers for the final time, and all who are unbelievers are cast into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20.11-15). Death, physical death, will be defeated then. But at this time in God's history only the SOUL of man is saved via the provisions of the Cross. If you are a Christian you know that, though you may go through physical death (and I say "may" because we do not know when our Lord returns), you have eternal life. After death your soul goes to be with Jesus, though your body stays behind. Yes, believer, that body will be resurrected one day:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18  "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

and your soul, that previously departed your body will be reunited by our Creator Jesus:

2 Corinthians 5:8  "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

ever to be with the Lord. But at the present, believer, your body has not been saved, and you war against it with your very soul, striving in Jesus to serve God with all your being. If your soul has been saved by accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, the Scripture assures us that our bodies will be saved at a later date when Jesus returns for His Church. Our saved souls will be reunited with our glorified bodies, and we shall ever be with the Lord.