“That the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!” 1 Thessalonians 5:23

This passage from the Holy Scriptures reveals to us that man is a tripartite being. This is not surprising, since man was created by God, in the image of God, and according to the likeness of God. The spirit of man is endowed with three faculties: consciousness, intuition, and communion. It is capable of having the consciousness of God, of entering into communion with the supernatural, of hearing or perceiving spiritual realities.

Intuition

Intuition is a faculty of the human spirit that allows it to understand and/or perceive spiritual realities. It is to the spirit what the ear is to the body. Since it is a faculty of the human spirit, it is open to all possible communications from the spiritual world, just as the ear can hear blasphemies, praises, and compliments from men.

Communion

Communion is a faculty of the human spirit that establishes a communication link with the supernatural world. We speak of a connection with the supernatural world, and not simply of a communication link with God; for it is advantageous to know that even Satanists and all murderers enjoy their faculty of communion. If a sinner receives Christ, his faculty of communion serves him to communicate with God. The expression “communion of spirits” refers to the spiritual link that unites the spirits of living human beings. In Corinthians 10:20, the Word of God speaks of communion with demons, to show that people who consume meats sacrificed to idols automatically come into contact with demons.

Conscience

Conscience is the faculty that enables man to discern what is right and what is wrong. It is a faculty that informs man of the moral value of his actions, words, and thoughts. A man can have a good conscience or a bad conscience, a weak conscience or a seared conscience, as the Bible says:

“Through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.” 1 Timothy 4:2.

The soul of man is composed of intelligence, will, and emotions. This justifies the assertion made by a commentator in the Scofield Bible (1967), on the passage of 1 Thessalonians 5:23, saying that the soul is the seat of affections, desires, emotions, and will.

Intelligence

Intelligence is a faculty of the soul that allows man to understand, reflect, decode, and analyze information. It enables him not to live exclusively in an instinctive, natural, and primitive way. Ignorance and hardening of hearts can plunge intelligence into darkness, to the point of making it insensitive to the life of God. This is the condition of all pagans:

“They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” Ephesians 4:18.

Will

Will is the faculty that allows one to want, to determine, to decide. It is therefore a very active decision-making organ. The will needs the light provided by the understanding for efficient functioning. Understanding is the faculty by which the spirit conceives. Understanding is capable of understanding moral values. The Apostle Paul lets us know that the law of sin which is in his members struggles against the law of his understanding. He thus highlights the preponderant role of understanding in the functioning of the will:

“But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” Romans 7:23.

Emotion

Emotion is a faculty that enables man to know, understand, appreciate, and directly feel certain things, without the aid of reason, observation, or experience. The Word of God speaks to us, in Ephesians 4:19, of people who have lost this faculty and engage in all kinds of vices:

“They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.“

Let the light within you not be darkness!

The inner health of man depends on his relationship with God. It is from this relationship that man receives the light to walk in the light, as the Psalmist testifies:

“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.” Psalms 36:10.

There must be a total and perfect reconciliation of man with God for the restoration of God’s light in him. If the light of the Holy Spirit does not shine in us, all the faculties that God has given us will remain paralyzed and confused in darkness. This is why the Lord Jesus exhorts every child of God to pay the price so that the light within him is not darkness:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23.

The absence of the Spirit of God in man exposes him to living daily under the oppressions of the powers of darkness that pursue one single objective: to control his will. Therefore, every man must abandon all sins that defile his soul. He must repent towards God and bear fruit worthy of repentance…

This text is an excerpt from the book “Deliverance From Depression” written by Pastor Boniface MENYE.

We invite you to read the following article “Perpetuating factors of depression“.

The Functioning of the Human Being.

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