The soul comprises of the intellect, will and emotion. Without it we would have no personality. Created from dust, we are nothing more than just that, a condition in which we will return after we die. What will happen to the soul of man after his death? Which is eternal, the spirit or the soul? Which one is life? Are they both eternal? One has to know that the spirit is not one with the soul as it has been taught. Man is spirit, soul and body. Each one has a specific function in the plan God had when He created man. The soul is sinful; the spirit is our conscience, which guide us to do what is right and convicts us when the soul does not listen to it. We communicate with God through the spirit; when the soul listens to the spirit, it does not sin. But when it doesn’t, the body or the flesh falls into soulish act, which means fleshly or carnal. When YAHSHUA died the redemptive death, it was to redeem the soul. A Christian, who follows the Lord’s teachings, he is guided by the Holy Spirit, Who lives in his spirit. That’s where we receive life eternal, for the spirit never dies. The two destinations presented to him, heaven and hell are two places where the spirit will end up at the end of his life, depending on what decision he has made while alive – to accept the gift of salvation or to reject it. The mind, the control center of the body, has much to do with our actions. The mind that is not renewed by the Holy Spirit, will lead the body to sin through the thoughts – she thought that it was good, then she desired to eat it. The flesh, in harmony with the soul, served as an instrument by which the sinful action took place. Eve, after being tempted, desired the prohibited fruit. Her emotion followed the path of her thought and will- it felt good to her even before trying it, just by looking at it- the lust of the eyes- flesh.
Her spirit accused her of wrong doing, when she told Satan that they were not allowed to eat that fruit. The soul, however, overcame the spirit and Eve sinned. The Bible says, “The soul that sins will die.” Man died the moment he ate the fruit. His death was physical and also spiritual. His spirit which is his life was then condemned to hell. When man dies, his soul ceases to act. The soul is motivated to act through the body’s functions of the heart, which works to circulate the blood through the body. The blood is the physical life of man. The functions of the body will work, even when the soul becomes inert, that is without power to move. So, it is that man is spirit, personality, and flesh. One cannot work independently, for man to act as God created him. The Bible says that as man thinks, so he is. Man thinks with the mind. The mind constitutes a battlefield for Satan to control man. When Adam and Eve sinned, their desires and emotions became dictated by their fallen mind, which influenced their behaviors.
Light from the Word 