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BLESSING THE HUMAN SPIRIT RaJean Vawter
Blessing each other and ourselves is a subject about which much has been written and taught. This lesson presents a different way to bless each other and, in the process, give new language for doing so. Most of this teaching and many of the quotes therein were gleaned from the various teachings of Arthur Burk – his writings, CDs, DVDs, conferences, etc. I say this right up front because, there may be times when I quote him but don’t realize it since I’ve become so engrossed in this teaching. I highly encourage you to investigate the wealth of knowledge and experience this man has. His web site is www.plumbline.com.
When we bestow a blessing on someone, we do so in the Name of the Lord. Then we proceed to say good things about them. Things that are true. And we’ve learned that the more specific the blessing is, the more special the blessing feels and the greater results are gained. We bless each other with health and healing in our bodies. We bless our minds and our wills (our soul). But what about blessing our spirit? I don’t know about you, but I need ALL of me blessed. I need everything I can get! Yet the closest we usually get to blessing each other’s spirit is when we say something like, “Oh, bless your heart.” Why don’t we specifically bless our spirit? How do we bless our spirit? WHY should we bless our spirit?
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 lets us know that, like the triune Godhead, we are also triune beings: spirit, soul and body. Unfortunately, this verse is usually misquoted as body, soul and spirit which is sad because we know better. We know that when we are born again, Christ comes to dwell in our spirit. It is then up to us to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12 We know that we need to learn how to get what God planted in our spirit into our soul (mind, will and emotions). But I submit to you that the reason we often misquote this verse is because it is, in actuality, what we really believe - as our actions can attest. Most of our actions and how we discipline ourselves in Christian behavior is driven by our mind and our will when, in fact, God designed us to operate out of our spirit.
God, “our Creator wonderfully designed our spirits to be complex and to do for us what our souls and bodies can’t.” (Arthur Burk) In fact, it is reasonable to conclude that God made us able to distinguish what is spirit and what is soul just like we can tell the difference between our soul and our body. Hebrews 4:12 says, For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit. . . Notice that this verse doesn’t say that the word of God is so sharp that it COULD divide soul and spirit. It says that it DOES. Then goes on to say that it also divides joints and marrow, which, of course, we understand. In Matthew 26:41 Jesus contrasted the human spirit with the body and with our sinful nature when He said, “the spirit in deed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Because of this fact, we want to learn to operate out of our spirit rather than from our soul or from the impulses of the body for it is our spirit that differentiates us from all other living creatures. When God breathed His Spirit into man and man became a living being, our human spirit took on the very essence of the living God. We received a spiritual DNA from God that He intended us to draw from and live out of.
Job 32:8 – The spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, gives him understanding.” In other words, “We encounter God in our spirit. We are designed for communion with our Father spirit-to-Spirit.” (Arthur Burk) Because of this, our spirit needs to be acknowledged and encouraged to wake up and respond to the Lord fully by specifically speaking into each others spirit. Since we are so used to operating out of our soul, we could even go so far as to tell our soul to step aside and let our spirit come front and center to receive a blessing spoken directly to it.
Is this a new teaching? Absolutely not! “Paul signed four of his letters with a blessing for the spirit of his readers (Galatians 6:18, Philippians 4:23, 2 Timothy 4:22, Philemon 25).” (Arthur Burk) He also commended people for refreshing the spirit of others. In fact in 1 Corinthians 16:17-18, he “said such people deserve honor!”
2 Corinthians 7:13 – In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.”
I can remember more than 30 years ago when the church all across the nation received the "new" teaching on how to turn a passage of scripture into a prayer by inserting our names and the pronouns my, me, he, she, etc. into the verse. It was absolutely revolutionary. It is something that everyone does now and no one thinks a thing of it. But before the '70s, scripture was read but not "moved around" as a prayer.
In the '80s the church in America took up the "new" teaching about binding and loosing. Heretofore, we all bound evil and loosed the things of God. But during those years, we learned that we could bind the truth of the Word to ourselves and loose the things of darkness and get them off of us. A new teaching? Hardly. St. Patrick prayed and wrote this way in Ireland during the Dark Ages.
In the same way, learning to bless our spirits so that our spirit - which is where God dwells in us - can rule in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, over our soul (mind, will, emotion) and our body SEEMS like a new teaching. But it's really not.
Since we’re generally so unfamiliar with the differences between the soul and the spirit, let’s look at some of the spirit’s characteristics as given in Scripture.
MIND
HAS A MIND WITH THINKING ABILITY THAT NEEDS TO BE RENEWED Ephesians 4:23 – be renewed in the spirit of your mind. I Corinthians 2:11 – For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
CAN BE FILTHY AND NEED CLEANSING 2 Corinthians 7:1 – Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
IT SEARCHES THE HEART OF MAN Proverbs 20:27 – The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.
CAN BE HAUGHTY Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
How the mind of our human spirit differs or operates separately from the mind of our soul, I don’t know and have yet to find anyone who does know. Some might even argue that there is no difference, that the spirit and soul share the same mind. We know that the soul is dependent on the body – you shut the body down with anesthesia and the soul (mind will and emotions) is also shut down. But the spirit is independent of the body. Is there a portion of our physical mind that is soul and a portion that is spirit and never dies or what? How could the spirit talk, feel, communicate, etc. without a mind of its own? In my way of thinking, it doesn’t really matter because I just want them both – if there is a “both,” to be lined up with the mind of the Holy Spirit.
As Dr. David Yonggi Cho points out, Genesis 2:7 does not make mention of a spirit even being created by God. “However, we must remember that it is told in chapter 3 that man sinned and that the result of his sin would be death. If man died, then what died? Obviously he continued to live with a body and consciousness, so what died was his spirit.” The Fourth Dimension, 1983, p. 47 Dr. Cho failed in his book to point out that Zechariah 12:1 says, “The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him; God formed the spirit of man and it was the spirit that died in the Garden. That’s why we must now be “born again.” It is our spirit that is born again.
I’ve already quoted 1 Thessalonians 5:23 where Paul differentiates between the spirit, soul and body. In 1 Corinthians 15:45 Paul wrote, “The first man, Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” Here, we see again the separation being made between the spirit and the soul of man. Though we don’t understand fully how the mind of the soul and the mind of the spirit operate or differ one from the other, I agree with Dr. Cho who wrote, “I believe the issue does not warrant a charge of heresy in either camp. Perhaps, what Paul refers to as spirit is a heightened aspect of the redeemed soul. Yet what remains certain is that man becomes different after the new birth. His spirit is made alive by the Holy Spirit and he is brought into a new dimension of spiritual experience with which he must become familiar.” The Fourth Dimension, 1983, p. 48
This is a subject that has not been completely explored by our western church. But, just because we don’t understand something fully doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it or operate in it. I don’t care how many times it’s explained to me, I just don’t understand how airplanes fly. A lightweight bird perhaps but not a mass of steel, wood and plastic that weighs several tons! But that doesn’t stop me from flying! I’m not going to refuse to take advantage of flight just because I don’t understand the technicalities of aerodynamics. I just ask the Lord to let me see the angels that are holding it up and He does! So, let’s continue to look at some other scriptures about the human spirit that we’ve just passed by in the past.
WILL
CAN MAKE DECISIONS AND BE BOUND BY THEM Acts 19:21 – When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem. . ..” Acts 20:22 – And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there. In these two scriptures, is he talking about his human spirit or the Holy Spirit here? We don’t really know because the same Greek word is used for both.
CAN SEARCH FOR GOD AND SERVE HIM APART FROM THE SOUL Psalm 77:6 – I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search. Romans 1:9 – For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Romans 7:6 – But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Isaiah 26:9 – With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early. . .
CAN CHOOSE ITS BEHAVIOR Proverbs 16:32 – He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Proverbs 17:27 – He who has knowledge spares his words, and a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:20 – For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
CAN BE HOLY, REPENTANT AND COMMITTED Psalm 32:2 – Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Psalm 34:18 – The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Psalm 51:10 – Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
CAN BE FAITHFUL AS WELL AS UNFAITHFUL AND FAIL Proverbs 11:13 – A talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter. Psalm 78:8 – And may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God. Psalm 143:7 – Answer me speedily, O Lord; my spirit fails! Do not hide Your face from me, lest I be like those who go down into the pit.
CAN BE HUMBLE Proverbs 16:19 – Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. Proverbs 29:23 – A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.
MUST BE RULED Proverbs 25:28 – Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls. Proverbs 16:32 – He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
EMOTIONS
CAN BE PROVOKED Acts 17:16 – Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
CAN BE FERVENT Acts 18:25 – This man (Apollos) had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.
CAN BE REFRESHED 1 Corinthians 16:18 – For they refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge such men. 2 Corinthians 7:13 – Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort. And we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
CAN BE OVERWHELMED Psalm 77:3 – I remembered God, and was troubled; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah Psalm 143:4 – Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; My heart within me is distressed.
CAN SUSTAIN A PERSON Proverbs 18:14 – The spirit of a man will sustain him in sicknes, but who can bear a broken spirit.
MOVEMENT CAN JOIN WITH GOD’S SPIRIT 1 Corinthians 6:17 – But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
CAN BE UNITED WITH ANOTHER PERSON’S SPIRIT 2 Corinthians 12:18 – I urged Titus, and sent our brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps? Philippians 1:27 – Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Notice here that he makes a difference between being of one spirit and being of one mind. 1 Corinthians 5:3-5 – For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit. . . Colossians 2:5 – For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
OTHER QUALITIES
CAN BE SANCTIFIED AND PRESERVED 1 Thessalonians 5:23 - Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
CAN BE DIVIDED FROM THE SOUL AND THE BODY Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and powerful; and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
BEARS WITNESS WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT Romans 8:16 – The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
CAN BE BROKEN Proverbs 15:4 – A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. Proverbs 15:13 – A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. Proverbs 17:22 – A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. Proverbs 18:14 – The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit? Psalm 51:17 – The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart – These, O God, You will not despise.
CAN TALK 1 Corinthians 14:2 – For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. 1 Corinthians 14:15 – What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. (soul) These are verses where we can’t make a definitive case for whether Paul is referring to the human spirit or the Holy Spirit. However, as we can see from the verses we’ve already looked at, it’s obvious that somehow, our human spirit communicates with both our mind that is housed in our bodies as well as with the Holy Spirit. So we don’t want to get hung up on this.
There are three passages that show us David’s spirit addressing his soul. Psalm 42:11 – Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. Psalm 43:5 – Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God. Psalm 103:1, 2 – Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.
If you listen to very many of the well-known Christian teachers, you’ll hear them say things like, “tell your soul to sit down and shut up.” “Soul, back off.” People like Joyce Meyers, Marilyn Hickey, Jack Hayford. If we can talk to our soul, why not talk to our spirit? We certainly would not want to tell our spirit to sit down and shut up. Instead, we’d want to bless it. We’d want to encourage our spirit to come forward and rule over our soul and body.
My husband and I have discovered that blessing each another’s spirit enables us to more fully acknowledge the parts of each other that are unique and recognize specific traits that are from God. Speaking specifically to a person’s spirit not only gives validity to the essence of a person, the core of who they are. It gives legitimacy to them. This is a very critical thing to do as we help one another come to inner healing as well as to fulfill our specific destiny. In the process, you learn to distinguish between four voices. The voice of God; the voice of the Devil; the voice of our soul and the voice of our spirit – where He dwells.
Here is an example of a blessing for your spirit: “RaJean, I call your spirit to attention. Come to the front; soul step aside. ‘Spirit, your Father made you special. You are a very special person, created and crafted and designed by God your Father. He planned for you. You are no accident. Your Father made you beautiful and beloved. God invested an incredible amount of effort and concentration in designing you. You are unique, one of a kind. God has thought extensively about you. He smiled on the day He created you. He designed your spiritual heritage. There is a spiritual treasure chest of generational blessings with your name on it. I bless you in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’”
Arthur Burk and my friend, Sylvia Gunter, have written a book entitled, “Blessing Your Spirit” which you can order from either the web sites given above or from Sylvia’s web site, www.thefathersbusiness.com This book is a series of blessings for your spirit. Sylvia has condensed this book of blessings into a small booklet form entitled, “Daily Spirit Blessings.” The above blessing is taken from this booklet.
Notice what happened in this short blessing. (Steps identified by Arthur Burk) 1. I engaged my spirit when I called it to attention, inviting it to come to the front. This gave validation to the spirit because it acknowledged that the spirit is different and separate from the soul. This is necessary because in normal interactions between people, the soul carries on the dialogue. 2. I legitimized my spirit. This happened when I spoke directly to the spirit. Since the spirit is accustomed to benign neglect and to being lumped together with the soul, such acknowledgment is a huge thing. Arthur Burk likens it to the difference between two scenes. “In scene #1 you’re in a shopping mall and a close friend walks right by you, looks at you, and keeps on going without stopping to acknowledge you. Being ignored is hugely hurtful, and sends a message of lack of legitimacy. In scene #2 you are in a large group and the guest of honor whom you only know slightly goes out of his way to seek you out, greet you publicly, and affirm his friendship. You feel highly legitimized by the attention. This is what we do for the spirit when we speak directly to it instead of lumping it in with the soul. This is because your spirit is your essence. Your spirit was designed by God, breathed into your body and cannot be removed from you. No matter what you’ve gone through, what you’ve done or where you came from, the fingerprint of God is on your spirit and your spirit needs to hear this. It needs to be validated and legitimized. At times, we may want to speak to the issue of authority, explaining to the spirit that it was designed by God to have dominion over the soul. Even if this has not happened in the person’s life, it does not change God’s original design. As we’ve seen from the scriptures, the spirit was designed to lead and have dominion over the soul and the body and it needs to know that.” 3. Instructing the spirit. The primary purpose of instructing the spirit is for it to understand the breadth of its latent abilities. Since our culture is not good at validating people and we in the Christian community have not understood the importance of blessing each other’s spirit, our spirits are often like a pre-school child. A pre-schooler has the mental capacity to learn how to read but he doesn’t know it. Others read to him so he has no reason to believe it will ever be different. His genetic ability will be wasted until someone not only explains to him that he is capable of learning to read but they actually teach him to read. That’s the way it is with our human spirit. It was designed by God to heal and nurture the soul and bless the body. We’ve just put so much emphasis on counseling the soul to bring inner healing that we’ve neglected to engage the spirit. So this third step is to instruct the spirit of its capability. 4. Directing the spirit. Other than telling a person’s spirit to seek direction from the Holy Spirit, or to go to the Face of the Father and receive whatever He has for it, this is not something we want to do because we don’t know and can’t see the bigger picture that God has for timing and sequence of events. We don’t want to fall into witchcraft and mind control. However, we can tell the spirit something like, “God will help you grow and develop and in His time, He will tell you when and how to initiate changes to make things right.” In other words, we tell the spirit all about what it is capable of being and doing but leave it to God to tell it when and how to do it.
As we do this, we need to realize that speaking to the spirit, calling it forward and to attention, is probably a temporary thing to do. As you continue to do this, there will come a time when your spirit has grown so large that it automatically receives any blessing that comes your way, dishing it out to the soul and body when appropriate. But few people have such large spirits and we can tell this because we each have besetting sins that we struggle with. When are spirits are large enough to fully take control of our souls and bodies, we will experience the actuality of living without sin like Paul talked about. But until then, this is something we need to do for each other and experience ourselves.
FYI RESEARCH
In the OLD TESTAMENT, the same word, ruwach, is used for spirit and spirits whether it’s talking about the Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of man, evil spirits or an animal. (Strong’s 7307) – wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violentj) exhalation; fig. life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extens, a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions); - dir, anger, blast, breath, x cool, courage, mind, x quarter, x side, spirit ([-ual]), tempest, x vain, ([whirl-]).
OLD TESTAMENT EXCEPTIONS 1. When talking about familiar spirit(s) in Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:6,27; Deuteronomy 18:11; 1 Samuel 28:3,7,8,9; 2 Kings 21:6; 23:24; 1 Chronicles 10:13; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Isaiah 8:19; 19:3; 29:4 The Hebrew word used is obe. (Strong’s 178) from the same as 1(appar. Through the idea of prattling a father’s name); prop. A mumble, i.e. a water skin (from its hollow sound); hence a necromancer (ventriloquist, as from a jar); - bottle, a familiar spirit. 2. Proverbs 20:27 –(Strong’s 5397) – nesh-aw-maw; from 5395; a puff, i.e. wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration, intellect, or (concr.) an animal; - blast, (that) breath (-eth), inspiration, soul, spirit. 3. Daniel 4:9,18; 5:11,12,14; 6:3; 7:15 – (Strong’s 7308) – the Chaldean word, roo’-akh; corresp. To 7307: mind, spirit, wind.
In the NEW TESTAMENT, Strong’s 4151 is used every time whether talking about the Holy Spirit, the human spirit or a demon spirit. Pneuma, pnyoo’-mah’; from 4154; a current of air; i.e. breath (blast) or a breeze; by anal. Or fig. a spirit, i.e. (human) the rational soul, (by impl.) vital principle, mental disposition, etc., or (superhuman) an angel, demon, or (divine) God, Christ’s spirit, the Holy Spirit: - ghost, life, spirit (-ual, -ually), mind. 4154 – to breath hard, i.e. breeze
NEW TESTAMENT EXCEPTION: When the disciples were speaking of seeing Jesus walking on the water in Matthew 14:26 and Mark 6:49. Strong’s 5326 – phantasma, fan’-tas-mah: from 5324; (prop. Concr.) a (mere) show (“phantasm”), i.e. spectre: - spirit. 5324 – to make apparent, to appear, a spectacle.
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