Let us take a look at the war between our spirit and our soul. The war within ourselves.

First of all let me give you a quick tour on how we are put together. We have a spirit (this is Not Holy Spirit), a soul and a body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

BODY – Our body is that which we can see in a mirror.

SOUL – Is our mind, will and emotions. This is the place that needs deliverance. This is where the strongholds of the enemy are built. The war rages in our minds.

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. 2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

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Therefore, our body and soul are areas that we are in touch with. This is called our flesh.

SPIRIT – We can’t see our spirit.

John 3:6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Our spirit cannot be accessed in any natural way. God communicates with our spirit. The spirit is the place where all of the life and power of God flows through. The only way to discern spiritual truth is through the Word of God. The Word of God is the mirror to show you what your spirit is like. You cannot go by your body or soul (will, mind and emotions) to know what your spirit is like.

We constantly have this battle going on between our spirit and soul (the flesh). Holy Spirit ministers to, or guides our spirit in truth and life. Therefore our spirit wants to do that which is from God, but our soul (which carries the lies of the enemy) wars against our spirit and tries to take the wheel.

Galations 5:16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another…

Here we can see the problem. Our spirit (which is influenced by Holy Spirit) and flesh (body and soul) are constantly at war with one another.

The soul responds to outward things (that which we literally see and experience) like people’s words, their behaviour towards us, violence, pain, trauma etc. We tend to get caught up in all the negativity that surrounds us and we become, hopeless, fearful, angry, sad and the list goes on and on.

2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We take captive every thought (soul) that is in contradiction with the word of God. The times when our thoughts are packed with negativity and evil desires, this is when we need to resist and choose to live by the spirit (which carries Holy Spirit’s influence).

Our spirit (this is not Holy Spirit, it is your spirit), carries that which is of God, that which the word of God speaks of. That which looks completely different than what the world looks like through our souls eyes.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

Our spirit hooks into that which is lifegiving, as this scripture above reads.

The problem is that our spirit is often overridden by our soul. Our soul overrides our spirit and we end up in a lot of misery and dissappointment because we live by what is seen through the souls eyes and not by what is unseen, which is looking through the spirit’s eyes. Our soul responds to the bad and ugly. We have to get to a place where we live by the spirit and not by the soul. It is going to require us to make a decision and to engage our will to follow it through in everything we do: to behave and respond to things in the way that word of God directs us to: To live our lives according to the word of the Lord and not according to our selfish, rebellious nature. For example, it is easy to get angry and respond in an unneccessary manner (this is when we operate through our soul dictating to us), but it is much more difficult to choose to be a peacemaker as the word of God directs (which is our spirit). We chose to follow Jesus and we love Him, therefore we want to do things His way. We cannot live double lives where we do a bit of evil and a bit of good. We don’t love Jesus half-half, we love Him completely!

This is how we war against ourselves, to force into submission that which our soul is dictating to us (that which is in contradiction to God’s word) by reverting to the word of God. Don’t agree with the negative report of the devil, immediately respond in positivity and that which God’s word says. If you don’t know what the word says about a situation you face, find all scriptures you can on that topic and start proclaiming it over your situation. Our souls receive many negative messages from the enemy and we often come into agreement with the devil. This is when we have to violently come against death that wants to creep in by proclaiming God’s word and feeding ourselves with life, so that our spirit can rise up and take charge over our soul.

Therefore we have to start getting fit in the spirit by getting to know God’s word better so that life can flow through us.

Let’s summarize:

Our spirit that carries the very essence of God, is supposed to override that which the soul dictates to us; that which is negative and evil. We have to allow our spirit to immediately override our soul when negativity comes. Instead of being bitter, we choose to forgive and we choose to love. That is how God’s word directs us. The soul is packed with lies of the devil and the soul needs deliverance, by the washing of the word. A brainwashing or reprogramming with that which is life, the word (Bible) of the Lord. The way to get to that place is to will the soul into submission to the spirit. I always say, ‘I have to push against myself”. This is exactly what is needed. It is not a once off thing. It is daily choosing to bend our soul into submission to that which is life and not death. That which is Holy and acceptable to God. That which is true!

This is how we die to self! Die to wanting to swear when we are angry, die to running to alcohol when there is too much pain, die to shouting at your children when you are under pressure, die to stubborness, rebellion and wanting to do things my way etc.

Beloved, choose today to die to self! Die to what your soul’s selfish desires are whispering to you. Let’s allow only life to flow from and through us.

Let’s pray – Father, my soul is too much in the way, I have allowed the enemy to use my soul to dictate to me. I ask forgiveness for not spending time in Your word and pondering on that which is lifegiving. Forgive me for entertaining that which is negative and miserable and agreeing with it. I want to be lifegiving to others and I want life to dwell within me. Forgive me for allowing death to dwell within me because I ponder on that which brings death. Please wash me with Your blood and cleanse me from death. I welcome You Holy Spirit, come in and breathe new life into my being and please help me to catch myself when I come in agreement with the enemy of my soul. I choose to feed my spirit with that which is Christ. Help me to make my spirit so strong in the word of God so that when trouble comes I will be able to resist and stand against the enemy. In Jesus name I pray. Amen and amen.